Plymouth memories of an octogenarian

At the beginning of the Revolution the cod fishery of Plymouth was active and successful, and during the previous ten years had employed an average of sixty vessels. During the war it was of course seriously depressed, but after the declaration of peace its recuperation was rapid. In 1802 it had reached its maximum of prosperity, before the embargo and the war of 1812 again crippled it. In that year there were thirty-seven vessels engaged in it, employing two hundred and sixty-six men, and landing twenty-six thousand, one hundred and seventy-five quintals of codfish, or an average of seven hundred and seven quintals for each vessel. All but six of these vessels made two trips. The following list of the vessels engaged that year with their tonnage, the names of the skippers and the fare of each may be interesting to some of my readers.

After the peace of 1815 the fishery entered upon a season of renewed activity, which continued with occasional periods of relaxation until its final extinction. The government having found during the revolution that fishermen made up a large share of naval enlistments, adopted the policy of aiding and encouraging the fishing industry, and in 1789 Congress passed an act granting a bounty of five cents per quintal on dried fish, and imposed a duty of fifty cents per quintal on imported fish. In 1790 the bounty of five cents was increased to ten, but on the 16th of February, 1792, the bounty of ten cents per quintal was discontinued, and an allowance was made to vessels employed in the cod fishery at sea for four months between the last day of February and the last day of November, according to the following rates: Vessels between twenty and thirty tons were to receive $1.50 per ton annually, and those of more than thirty tons, $2.50 per ton, but the allowance to any vessel was limited to $170. In 1797 the allowance was increased one-third; but in 1807 all bounties were abolished. In 1813 the bounty was revived and the allowance fixed as follows: To vessels from five to twenty tons, $1.60 per ton; to those from twenty to thirty, $2.40 per ton, and to those above thirty, $4, but no vessel was to receive more than $272. In 1819 an allowance was made to vessels from five to thirty tons of $3.50 per ton, and to those of more than thirty, $4 per ton, but vessels having a crew of ten men were to be allowed $3.50 per ton on a service of three months and a half. No vessel, however, was to receive more than $360. By an act passed in 1817, it was required in order to entitle a vessel to receive a bounty that the master and three quarters of the crew should be citizens of the United States, but in 1864 this requirement was limited to the masters. By an act passed July 28, 1866, bounties were abolished, and duties on salt used in curing fish were remitted.

The abolition of bounties was a blow to the fishing interests, which was destined to be followed by a more deadly one. It cannot, however, be said that it was wholly undeserved, for the requirement of four months’ service at sea had been often evaded. A very considerable number of the fishing fleet returned home before four months had expired, and anchoring in beach channel by night and cruising in the bay by day, spent the time in what was called bounty catching, until the expiration of the four months.

But a severer blow than the loss of bounty soon fell on the fishery. In 1871 the treaty of Washington between the United States and Great Britain provided that “fish oil and fish of all kinds, except fish of the inland lakes, and of the rivers falling into them, and except fish preserved in oil, being the produce of the fisheries of the United States, or of the Dominion of Canada, or of Prince Edward Island, shall be admitted into each country, respectively, free of duty.” This treaty went into operation July 1, 1873, to remain in force for ten years, and further until the expiration of two years after the United States or Great Britain shall have given notice to terminate it.

At the time of the repeal of the bounty law in 1866, the product of the Plymouth fishery taking the returns from the previous year as a basis of an estimate was as follows: Value of fish, $261,053; value of oil, $24,530; bounties, $14,249, and the number of men employed was 420. I am inclined to think that the largest number of vessels ever employed was in the year 1862, when sixty-seven were employed, but in 1873, the year the treaty of Washington went into operation, there were only twenty.

As nearly as I can judge the following is a correct list of vessels engaged in the fishery since 1828:

The following list of vessels employed in 1868 shows the gradual reduction of the fleet from sixty-seven in 1862 to twenty in 1873:

In 1869 there were fifty-four; in 1870, fifty-two; in 1871, forty; in 1872, twenty-six; in 1873, twenty; in 1874, twelve; in 1876, twelve; in 1878, eleven; in 1879, ten; in 1880, eight; in 1881, seven; in 1882, two; in 1883, two; in 1884, eight; in 1885, three; in 1886, one; in 1888, one, the Hannah Coomer, Capt. Nickerson, the last vessel to go to the Banks from Plymouth. In 1882 Prince Manter bought the Sabine, and Capt. James S. Kelley made seven trips in her in four summers, the last vessel to go to the Grand Banks, while the Hannah Coomer was the last to go to Quereau Bank.

The following is a list of fishing vessels lost since 1828, as complete as I am able to make it:

Abby Morton, Joseph Whitton, master, lost in Hell Gate, New York.

Adelaide, Capt. Joseph Sampson, was lost on the Banks.

Samuel, condemned in Nova Scotia.

Brontes, on a passage from Aux Cayes, to Boston, left Holmes Hole December 31, 1862, and was never heard from. Her crew consisted of John E. Morton, captain; George Morey, mate, and Samuel Howland, Isaac Howland, Bartlett Finney and Josiah H. Swift.

Charles, Isaac Howland, master, was lost on Cape Cod.

Charles, Isaac Swift, master, left Plymouth September 29, 1868, on a fall fishing trip, and was never heard from.

Congress, owned by Samuel Doten, was lost.

Wampatuck, seized in Nova Scotia in 1870 or 1871.

Delos, sunk in Nantucket Roads in 1872.

Wm. Tell, sold before 1828, and lost on Grand Banks in 1829.

Christie Johnson, Solomon M. Holmes, master, was lost on the banks in 1874.

Ellis, was lost on Cape Cod in 1844.

Flash, Eli H. Minter, master, was lost in the West Indies in 1865.

Fred Lawrence was lost.

Herald, lost or sold in Nova Scotia in 1870.

Linnet, Wm. Langford, master, was lost with all hands, in September, 1870.

Martha Washington, Capt. Gooding, was lost in Nova Scotia in 1874.

Mary A. Taylor, Lewis King, master, was lost or sold in Nova Scotia in 1874.

May was lost in 1871.

Ocean, Jerry McCuskey, master, was lost in Nova Scotia in 1870.

Olive Branch was lost in 1869.

President, John Ellis Bartlett, master, lost in 1828, bound to Martinique.

President, Stephen D. Drew, master, was lost on Cape Cod in 1844.

Rollins, Charles Harlow, master, was lost on Cape Cod in 1868.

Seadrift was lost or sold in 1871 in Nova Scotia.

Speedwell was lost in the West Indies in 1865.

Swallow was lost or sold in Nova Scotia in 1871.

Thatcher Taylor, James Simmons, was lost or sold in 1871.

Fearless, Capt. George N. Adams, sailed from Boston for Aux Cayes, August 13, 1862, and was never heard from.

John Eliot, Francis H. Weston, master, sailed from Boston October 9, 1863, for Cape Haytien, and crew taken off November 21 by schooner Thrasher, and landed at Port Spain.

Mary Holbrook, was lost in the Gulf, January 25, 1831.

Joshua Bates was lost on Richmond Island in February, 1876.

Franklin was lost at the Western Islands in 1837.

George Henry, Lamberton, master, was condemned in West Indies, 1869.

Vesper, Capt. Burgess, sailed from New York, February 28, 1846, for Jamaica, and was lost probably in a gale March 2.

Flora, Benjamin Jenkins, master, was spoken August 8, 1846, with 15,000 fish; August 21, with 21,000; August 28, with 23,000; September 17, with 30,000, and was probably lost in a gale which occurred September 19, 1846.

Coiner, Samuel Rogers, master, was lost on a passage home from Inagua in 1865.

Stranger was lost at sea near St. Thomas, 1835.

Oronoco was lost in 1871.

Schooner Maracaibo, changed to a brig before she entered the whale fishery, has been earlier mentioned without any details of her loss. She sailed from Plymouth on a whaling voyage September 12, 1846. On the 19th, in latitude 38.22, and longitude 72.35, she was capsized, losing second mate, Wm. Tripp, of Tiverton, David Sylvia seaman, and George Ellis of Plymouth, also a seaman, who was drowned in the forecastle. The masts went by the board, and the brig righted, and Capt. Collingwood and eighteen men were lashed to the wreck ninety-six hours with only a barrel of sugar to eat. On the twenty-third they battened down the hatches and bailed the vessel out, and on the twenty-fourth set up jury masts. On the twenty-fifth they obtained from the bark Newton of New Bedford two spars and gear, and a quadrant, and finally, after being on the wreck twenty-one days, were taken off by the bark Clement.

The question is often asked, what becomes of all the vessels that have been built? Upon this question official records throw some light. The last accessible statistics show that during the ten years from 1879 to 1889, nineteen thousand one hundred and ninety United States vessels were wrecked on or near the coasts, or on the inland waters of the United States, and during the same period, sixty-six hundred and forty-one British vessels.

The following is an imperfect list of skippers since 1828:

There are several disconnected items which may be mentioned in this chapter. The Sunbeam, sold a few years ago, was employed in 1905 in carrying gravel from the Gurnet to Boston, and the Sabine, sold at the same time, is used as a house boat in Boston harbor by a Portuguese lobsterman. The Maria of Plymouth, and the schooner R. Leach of Bucksport, Me., were the first United States vessels to use, in 1859, trawls in salt fishing. It was a method of fishing introduced by the French, and until the above date was looked upon as an experiment. It may not be generally known that there is a Plymouth Rock on the banks. It is laid down in “Sailing Directions for the Island and Banks of New Foundland,” etc., published in 1882, as one of the Eastern shoals, a group around Nine-fathom Bank, which latter lies in latitude 46.26.45 N. and longitude 50.28.06 W. Plymouth Rock has 15 fathoms of water, and was named in honor of Capt. Burgess, of the schooner Lyceum of Plymouth, who discovered it.