kind whereof is by the English called a sheepshead from the
resemblance the eye of it bears with the eye of a sheep. This fish
is generally about fifteen or sixteen inches long and about half a
foot broad. It is a wholesome and pleasant fish and of easy
digestion. A planter does often times take a dozen or fourteen in
an hour's time with hook and line.
There is another sort which the English call a drum, many of which
are two foot and a half or three foot long. This is likewise a very
good fish, and there is plenty of them. In the head of this fish
there is a jelly, which being taken and dried in the sun, then
beaten to powder and given in broth, procures speedy delivery to
women in labour.
At the heads of the rivers there are sturgeon and in the creeks are
great store of small fish, as perch, croakers, taylors, eels, and
divers others whose name I know not. Here are such plenty of
oysters as they may load ships with them. At the mouth of Elizabeth
River, when it is low water, they appear in rocks a foot above
water. There are also in some places great store of mussels and
cockles. There is also a fish called a stingray, which resembles a
skate, only on one side of his tail grows out a sharp bone like a
bodkin about four or five inches long, with which he sticks and
wounds other fish and then preys upon them.
The same author went farther than any other reporter up to that time in
telling a real fish story:
And now it comes into my mind, I shall here insert an account of a
very strange fish or rather a monster, which I happened to see in
Rappahannock River about a year before I came out of the country;
the manner of it was thus:
As I was coming down the forementioned river in a sloop bound for
the bay, it happened to prove calm, at which time we were three
leagues short of the river's mouth; the tide of ebb being then
done, the sloop-man dropped his grapline, and he and his boy took a
little boat belonging to the sloop, in which they went ashore for
water, leaving me aboard alone, in which time I took a small book
out of my pocket and sat down at the stern of the vessel to read;
but I had not read long before I heard a great rushing and flashing
of the water, which caused me suddenly to look up, and about half a
stone's cast from me appeared a prodigious creature, much
resembling a man, only somewhat larger, standing right up in the
water with his head, neck, shoulders, breast and waist, to the
cubits of his arms, above water; his skin was tawny, much like that
of an Indian; the figure of his head was pyramidal, and slick,
without hair; his eyes large and black, and so were his eyebrows;
his mouth very wide, with a broad streak on the upper lip, which
turned upward at each end like mustachioes; his countenance was
grim and terrible; his neck, shoulders, arms, breast and waist were
like unto the neck, arms, shoulders, breast and waist of a man; his
hands if he had any, were under water; he seemed to stand with his
eyes fixed on me for some time, and afterward dived down, and a
little after riseth at somewhat a farther distance, and turned his
head towards me again, and then immediately falleth a little under
water, and swimmeth away so near the top of the water, that I could
discern him throw out his arms, and gather them in as a man doth
when he swimmeth. At last he shoots with his head downwards, by
which means he cast his tail above the water, which exactly
resembled the tail of a fish with a broad fane at the end of it.
Judging from the few piddling regulations and restrictions referred to
in extracts already cited, the Virginia lawmakers could see no need for
intensive or even active supervision of the Tidewater fisheries. A
rather epoch-making law was enacted in 1678 by the county court of
Middlesex County, which is about 50 miles from James City, at the
juncture of the Rappahannock river and Chesapeake bay:
Whereas, by the 15th act of Assembly made in the year 1662, liberty
is given to each respective county to make by-laws for themselves;
which laws, by virtue of the said act are to be binding upon them
as any other general law; and whereas several of the inhabitants of
this county have complained against the excessive and immoderate
striking and destroying of fish, by some fire, of the inhabitants
of this county by striking them by a light in the night time with
fish gigs, wherby they not only affright the fish from coming into
the rivers and creeks, but also wound four times that quantity that
they take, so that if a timely remedy be not applied, by that means
the fishing with hooks and lines will be thereby spoiled to the
great hurt and grievance of most of the inhabitants of this county.
It is therefore by this court ordered that from and after the 20th
day of March next ensuing, it shall not be lawful for any of the
inhabitants of this county to take, strike, or destroy any sort of
fish in the night time with fish gigs, harping irons, or any other
instrument of that nature, sort or kind, within any river, creek or
bay which are accounted belonging to or within the bounds or
precincts of this county. And it is further ordered that if any
person or persons being a freeman, shall offend against this order,
he or they so offending shall for the first offence be fined five
hundred pounds of good tobacco to be paid to the informer, and for
every other offence committed against this order after the first,
by any person, the said fine to be doubled and if any servants be
permitted or encouraged by their masters to keep or have in their
possession any fish gig, harping iron or any other instrument of
that kind or nature and shall therewith offend against this order,
that in such case the master of such servant or servants shall be
liable to pay the several fines above mentioned, and if any servant
or servants shall, contrary to and against their master's will and
knowledge, offend against this order, that for every offence they
receive such corporal punishment as by this court shall be thought
meet.
As population became more dense it was inevitable that rights
previously of little significance began to be asserted. This case of
1679 taken from Hening's _Statutes_, was a forerunner of countless
others like it which continue to this day:
Robert Liny, having complained to this Grand Assembly that whereas
he had cleared a fishing place in the river against his own land to
his great cost and charge supposing the right thereof in himself by
virtue of his patents, yet nevertheless several persons have
frequently obstructed him in his just privilege of fishing there,
and despite of him came upon his land and hauled their seines on
shore to his great prejudice, alleging that the water was the King
Majesty's and not by him granted away in any patent and therefore
equally free to all His Majesty's subjects to fish in and haul
their seines on shore, and praying for relief therein by a
declaratory order of this Grand Assembly; it is ordered and
declared by this Grand Assembly that every man's right by virtue of
his patent extends into the rivers or creeks so far as low water
mark and it is a privilege granted to him in and by his patent, and
that therefore no person ought to come and fish there above low
water mark or haul seines on shore without leave first obtained,
under the hazard of comitting a trespass for which he is sueable by
law.
In most cases this decision somewhat limited a landowner's claim. But
on the seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore conditions have always been
so that at low tide thousands of acres of land are laid bare, with the
result that "low water mark" is in many cases difficult of
interpretation as a boundary between waterfront properties and the
public domain.
Toward the close of the century fishing methods had shaped up
advantageously compared to the crudities and hit-or-miss practices of
the first settlers. Robert Beverley described them in 1705:
The Indian invention of weirs in fishing is mightily improved by
the English, besides which, they make use of seines, trolls,
casting nets, setting nets, hand fishing and angling and in each
find abundance of diversion. I have sat in the shade at the heads
of the rivers angling and spent as much time in taking the fish off
the hook as in waiting for their taking it. Like those of the
Euxine Sea, they also fish with spilyards which is a long line
staked out in the river and hung with a great many hooks on short
strings, fastened to the main line, about four foot asunder. The
only difference is that our line is supported by stakes and theirs
is buoyed up with gourds.
The abundance of the fisheries never ceased impressing visitors. A
French tourist added to the chorus in 1687:
Fish too is wonderfully plentiful. There are so many shell oysters
that almost every Saturday my host craved them. He had only to send
one of his servants in one of the small boats and two hours after
ebb tide he brought it back full. These boats, made of a single
tree hollowed in the middle, can hold as many as fourteen people
and twenty-five hundredweight of merchandise.
As if to crown the final emergence of recognition of the home fisheries
William Byrd I instructed his agent in Boston in 1689 to send him a
variety of commodities in return for a bill of exchange but _no salt
fish_:
By the advice of my friend, Captain Peter Perry, I made bold to
give you the trouble of a letter of the 1st instant with two small
bills of exchange which I desired you to receive and return the
effects to me in the upper part of James River, either in rum,
sugar, Madeira wine, turnery, earthenware, or anything else you may
judge convenient to this country (fish excepted)....
Evidently at least some good salt was now at hand to preserve the roe
herring that choked the rivers and creeks in the spring. The
salt-herring breakfast was on its way to becoming a Virginia
institution, and the salt-fish monopolies of New England and Canada
were cracking after three-quarters of a century.
The score of "firsts" in the Virginia fishery world have been noted as
they occurred. Among them were the first fishery statistics, the first
licensing law, the first price control, the first diamond-back
terrapin, the first conservation measures. And now in 1698 there was
the first agitation against polluted waters:
We, the Council and Burgesses of the present General Assembly,
being sensible to the great mischiefs and inconveniences that
accrue to the inhabitants of this, his Majesty's Colony and
Dominion of Virginia, by killing of whales within the capes
thereof, in all humility take leave to represent the same unto Your
Excellency and withal to acquaint you that by the means thereof
great quantities of fish are poisoned and destroyed and the rivers
also made noisome and offensive. For prevention of which evils in
regard the restraint of the killing of whales is a branch of His
Majesty's royal prerogative.
We humbly pray that Your Excellency [the Governor, Francis
Nicholson] will be pleased to issue out a proclamation forbidding
all persons whatsoever to strike or kill any whales within the bay
of Chesapeake in the limits of Virginia which we hope will prove an
effectual means to prevent the many evils that arise therefrom.
As Jamestown reached the end of its span, the fisheries came of age.
Inequities were being ironed out, methods were being perfected, and
planners were at work on ways of employing more and more of the
fast-growing population in searching out and making available the
bounty of the fair Chesapeake.
At the start of the 18th century, however, there was little evidence of
an organized industry in any phase. Everywhere were unlimited
opportunities for exploitation. The abundance of oysters still
impressed travelers. In the extract to follow, Francis Louis Michel of
Switzerland speaks of the method of tonging oysters in 1701, but note
that he says, "They usually pull from six to ten times." This could be
taken to mean that each individual procured his own oysters from the
lavish supply virtually at his doorstep, and stopped as soon as he had
a "mess" to enjoy over the week-end:
The water is no less prolific, because an indescribably large
number of big and little fish are found in the many creeks, as well
as in the large rivers. The abundance is so great and they are so
easily caught that I was much surprised. Many fish are dried,
especially those that are fat. Those who have a line can catch as
many as they please. Most of them are caught with the hook or the
spear, as I know from personal experience, for when I went out
several times with the line, I was surprised that I could pull out
one fish after another, and, through the clear water I could see a
large number of all kinds, whose names are unknown to me. They
cannot be compared with our fish, except the herring, which is
caught and dried in large numbers. Thus the so-called catfish is
not unlike the large turbot. A very good fish and one easily caught
is the eel, also like those here [in Switzerland]. There is also a
kind like a pike. They have a long and pointed mouth, with which
they like to bite into the hook. They are not wild, but it happens
rarely that one can keep them on the line, for they cut it in two
with their sharp teeth. We always had our harpoons and guns with us
when we went out fishing, and when the fish came near we shot at
them or harpooned them. A good fish, which is common and found in
large numbers is the porpoise. They are so large that by their
unusual leaps, especially when the weather changes, they make a
great noise and often cause anxiety for the small boats or canoes.
Especially do they endanger those that bathe. Once I cooled and
amused myself in the water with swimming, not knowing that there
was any danger, but my host informed me that there was.... The
waters and especially the tributaries are filled with turtles. They
show themselves in large numbers when it is warm. Then they come to
the land or climb up on pieces of wood or trees lying in the water.
When one travels in a ship their heads can be seen everywhere
coming out of the water. The abundance of oysters is incredible.
There are whole banks of them so that the ships must avoid them. A
sloop, which was to land us at Kingscreek, struck an oyster bed,
where we had to wait about two hours for the tide. They surpass
those in England by far in size, indeed, they are four times as
large. I often cut them in two, before I could put them into my
mouth. The inhabitants usually catch them on Saturday. It is not
troublesome. A pair of wooden tongs is needed. Below they are wide,
tipped with iron. At the time of the ebb they row to the beds and
with the long tongs they reach down to the bottom. They pinch them
together tightly and then pull or tear up that which has been
seized. They usually pull from six to ten times. In summer they are
not very good, but unhealthy and can cause fever.
The most comprehensive list of fish thus far given by the early
historians was offered by Robert Beverley in 1705. Again as with John
Smith, there are names that do not fit in today. But these are very
few: "greenfish," "maid," "wife," and "frogfish" perhaps, all of which,
however, are well-known in England. The recurring mention of carp in
the early authorities quoted is interesting, since it has long been
believed that carp were introduced into the Chesapeake region in 1877
by the U.S. Fish Commission. No doubt that was carp of another
species. The esteemed sheepshead is today very rare:
As for fish, both of fresh and salt water, of shellfish, and
others, no country can boast of more variety, greater plenty, or of
better in their several kinds.
In the spring of the year, herrings come up in such abundance into
their brooks and fords to spawn that it is almost impossible to
ride through without treading on them. Thus do those poor creatures
expose their own lives to some hazard out of their care to find a
more convenient reception for their young, which are not yet alive.
Thence it is that at this time of the year, the freshes of the
rivers, like that of the Broadruck, stink of fish.
Besides these herrings, there come up likewise into the freshes
from the sea multitudes of shad, rock, sturgeon, and some few
lampreys, which fasten themselves to the shad, as the remora of
Imperatus is said to do to the shark of Tiburon. They continue
their stay there about three months. The shad at their first coming
up are fat and fleshy, but they waste so extremely in milting and
spawning that at their going down they are poor and seem fuller of
bones, only because they have less flesh. As these are in the
freshes, so the salts afford at certain times of the year many
other kinds of fish in infinite shoals, such as the oldwife, a fish
not much unlike a herring, and the sheepshead, a sort of fish which
they esteem in the number of their best.
There is likewise great plenty of other fish all the summer long
and almost in every part of the rivers and brooks there are found
of different kinds. Wherefore I shall not pretend to give a detail
of them, but venture to mention the names only of such as I have
eaten and seen myself and so leave the rest to those that are
better skilled in natural history. However, I may add that besides
all those that I have met with myself, I have heard of a great many
very good sorts, both in the salts and freshes, and such people
too, as have not always spent their time in that country, have
commended them to me, beyond any they had ever eaten before.
Those which I know myself, I remember by the names of herring,
rock, sturgeon, shad, oldwife, sheepshead, black and red drums,
trout, taylor, greenfish, sunfish, bass, chub, plaice, flounder,
whiting, fatback, maid, wife, small turtle, crab, oyster, mussel,
cockle, shrimp, needlefish, bream, carp, pike, jack, mullet, eel,
conger eel, perch, and catfish.
Those which I remember to have seen there of the kinds that are not
eaten are the whale, porpoise, shark, dogfish, gar, stingray,
thornback, sawfish, toadfish, frogfish, land crabs, fiddlers, and
periwinkle.
Francis Makemie, often called the father of American Presbyterianism,
was concerned, in his _A Plain and Friendly Perswasive to the
Inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland for Promoting Towns and
Cohabitations_, about the dearth of markets for fishery products. It
was a condition brought about largely by a general lack of money in
circulation. It was easily possible for entire families to subsist the
year around on the fruits of land and water plus unexacting manual
labor. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of the more important
planters whose estates were usually self-sufficient and concentrating
on trade with England. The natural bounty of the Tidewater region thus
actually deterred the development of Virginia along the lines of New
England with its urban centers:
Cohabitation would not only employ thousands of people ... others
would be employed in hunting, fishing, and fowling, and the more
diligently if assured of a public market....
So also our fishing would be advanced and improved highly by
encouraging many poor men to follow that calling, and sundry sorts
which are now slighted would be fit for a town market, as sturgeon,
thornback, and catfish. Our vast plenty of oysters would make a
beneficial trade, both with the town and foreign traders, believing
we have the best oysters for pickling and transportation if
carefully and skillfully managed.
By 1705 the seat of government had been transferred to nearby
Williamsburg. The need of establishing towns as foci for the developing
countryside had been felt and now the legislators turned their
attention to promoting the fish markets therein, followed by some
essential protection of the rights of fishermen and others. Hening's
_Statutes_ gives the details:
October, 1705. For the encouragement and bettering of the markets
in the said town, Be it enacted, That no dead provision, either of
flesh or fish shall be sold within five miles of any of the ports
or towns appointed by this act, on the same side the great river
the town shall stand upon, but within the limits of the town, on
pain of forfeiture and loss of all such provision by the purchases,
and the purchase money of such provision sold by the vendor,
cognizable by any justice of the county....
Be it further enacted and declared, That if any person or persons
shall at any time hereafter shoot, hunt or range upon the lands and
tenements, or fish or fowl in any creeks or waters included within
the lands of any other person or persons without license for the
same, first obtained of the owner and proprietor thereof, every
such person so shooting, hunting, fishing, fowling, or ranging,
shall forfeit and pay for every such offence, the sum of five
hundred pounds of tobacco....
Be it further enacted, That if any person shall set, or cause to be
set, a weir in any river or creek, such person shall cause the
stayes thereof to be taken up again, as soon as the weir becomes
useless; and if any person shall fail of performing his duty
herein, he shall forfeit and pay fifteen shillings current money,
to the informer: To be recovered, with costs, before a justice of
the peace.
The essentials of any stable industry are: control of supply and means
of distribution. The fisheries of Virginia were blessed with neither of
these advantages. Any progress had to be made in spite of uncertain
harvests and lack of packing and handling facilities. Distribution of
fresh seafoods was impossible without rapid transportation and adequate
refrigeration. Neither was available for two centuries. Virginia's huge
supply of oysters was a case in point. Consumption of oysters was
limited to those who lived on the spot, and though they figured
importantly in the Tidewater diet, as a palpable resource they were
untouched until the 19th century. The principal means of preserving
them before then was by pickling. In that form they were quite popular
during the Colonial period. Fish were salted when there was a surplus
and in certain seasons, especially the spawning time of the anadromous
river-herring, they were available in phenomenal quantities. They
remain today among Virginia's most plentiful fish but the salting
industry has now become a mere token of its former magnitude.
The Chesapeake bay blue crab which today constitutes a resource worth
about $5,000,000 a year to Virginia crabbers and packers, had to wait
even longer than fish and oysters did for development. Salting and
pickling were unsuitable to this delicate food and expeditious handling
methods did not exist.
In an exhaustive catalogue of the marine life of Virginia William Byrd
II, of Westover said:
Herring are not as large as the European ones, but better and more
delicious. After being salted they become red. If one prepares them
with vinegar and olive oil, they then taste like anchovies or
sardines, since they are far better in salt than the English or
European herring. When they spawn, all streams and waters are
completely filled with them, and one might believe, when he sees
such terrible amounts of them, that there was as great a supply of
herring as there is water. In a word, it is unbelievable, indeed,
indescribable, as also incomprehensible, what quantity is found
there. One must behold oneself.
At the time he wrote Virginians were beginning to compete with
Canadians and New Englanders in exporting salt fish, particularly to
the West Indies, where a large proportion of them were exchanged for
the rum so freely used on the plantations as slave rations.
There were no dams barring access to the highest reaches of the rivers
and no cities and factories to discharge pollution, so that the
river-herring and shad made their way far inland even to the Blue Ridge
mountains. There the pioneers awaited them eagerly each spring and
salted down a supply to tide them over till the next run. Small wonder,
then, that the love of salt herring--always with corn bread--became
ingrained in so many Old Virginians!
They had an illustrious exemplar. Once, in 1782, when George Washington
was due to visit Robert Howe the honored host wrote to a friend:
"General Washington dines with me tomorrow. He is exceedingly fond of
salt fish."