fishing was now and then manifest. For example, in 1710 one adventurous
fisherman wished to extend the home fisheries to whaling and applied to
the Virginia Council for a license. Whales, though not common in
Chesapeake bay or the ocean area near it, had been noted from time to
time ever since the birth of the Colony. Most often they were washed
ashore dead. John Custis, of Northampton County, succeeded in making 30
barrels of oil from one such in 1747. The year before that a live one
was spotted in the James river by some Scottish sailors who were able
to comer it in shallow water. After killing it, they found it to
measure 54 feet! The _Virginia Gazette_, published in Williamsburg,
carried this item in 1751:
Some principal gentlemen of the Colony, having by voluntary
subscription agreed to fit out vessels to be employed in the whale
fishery on our coast, a small sloop called the _Experiment_ was
some time ago sent on a cruise, and we have the pleasure to
acquaint the public that she is now returned with a valuable whale.
Though she is the first vessel sent from Virginia in this employ,
yet her success, we hope, will give encouragement to the further
prosecution of the design which, we doubt not, will tend very much
to the advantage of the Colony as well as excite us to other
profitable undertakings hitherto too much neglected.
Commented John Blair in his _Diary_ on the incident: "Heard our first
whale brought in and three more struck but lost." The _Experiment_
continued its whaling career successfully for three years. When it
retired, no similar enterprise replaced it. Yet in a list of exports
from Virginia for the year ending September 30, 1791, 1263 gallons of
whale oil appears. Even today whales are occasionally represented in
Virginia fishery products, as when one is washed up on a beach and
removed by the Coast Guard to a processing plant to be turned into meal
and oil.
The overall value of Virginia's fisheries as an industrial resource was
glacially slow in reaching public consciousness. Here and there, like
dim lights along an uncertain voyage, bits of legislation or isolated
conservation procedures appeared. In due course it became evident that
natural fishways--to choose one example--were being obstructed to the
disadvantage of both the fish and navigation. Hening records the law
enacted to keep the rivers open:
1745. And whereas the making and raising of mill dams, and
stone-stops, or hedges for catching of fish, is a great obstruction
to the navigation of the said rivers [James and Appomattox]: Be it
further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all mill dams,
stone-stops, and hedges, already made across either of the said
rivers, where they are navigable, shall be thrown down and
destroyed by the person or persons who made the same....
Like most hastily framed and passed laws this one proved unsatisfactory
and a second one, with more detailed provisions was passed. Hening
records it:
1762. Whereas the act of assembly made in the first year of his
present Majesty's reign [1761], entitled, an act to oblige the
owners of mills, hedges, or stone-stops, on sundry rivers therein
mentioned, to make openings or slopes therein for the passage of
fish, has been found defective, and not to answer the purposes for
which it was intended, and it is therefore necessary that the same
should be amended: Be it therefore enacted by the Lieutenant
Governor, Council and Burgesses, of this present General Assembly,
and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the
owner or proprietor of all and every mill, hedge, or stone-stop, on
either of the rivers Nottoway and Meherrin, shall in the space of
nine months from and after the passing of this act, make an opening
or slope in their respective mill-dams, hedges, or stops, in that
part of the same where there shall happen to be the deepest water,
which shall be in width at least ten feet in the clear, in length
at least three times the height of the dam, and that the bottoms
and sides thereof shall be planked, and that the sides shall be at
least fourteen inches deep, so as to admit a current of water
through the same twelve inches deep, which shall be kept open from
the tenth day of February to the last day of May in every year....
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any
such owner or proprietor shall neglect or refuse so to do, within
the time aforesaid, the person so offending shall forfeit and pay
the sum of five pounds of tobacco for every day he or they shall so
neglect or refuse....
Still the fundamental problem was not solved; fish were not by-passing
the remaining obstructions in sufficient quantity to maintain the
expected harvest. After various amendments and additions this explicit
definition of a fishway or slope was enacted into law in 1771:
That a gap be cut in the top of the dam contiguous to the deepest
part of the water below the dam, in which shall be set a slope ten
feet wide, and so deep that the water may run through it 18 inches
before it will through the waste, or over the dam, that the
direction of the said slope be so, as with a perpendicular to be
dropped from the top of the dam, will form an angle of at least 75
degrees, and to continue in that direction to the bottom of the
river, below the dam, to be planked up the sides 2 feet high; that
there be pits or basins built in the bottom, at 8 feet distance,
the width of the said slope, and to be 12 inches deep, and that the
whole be tight and strong; which said slope shall be kept open from
the 10th day of February to the last day of May, annually, and any
owner not complying to forfeit 5 pounds of tobacco a day.
The effort was of little avail. Before many dams could be so
laboriously modified the Revolutionary War arrived to obscure placid
matters like fish conservation.
The diaries of the 18th Century Virginia planters abound with
references to seafoods. Most of them lived either on or within easy
distance of Tidewater. Most of them had nets and other fishing
implements of their own and crews among the slaves to work them.
Whenever their needs required, an expedition was made. Perhaps there
was a season of bountiful entertaining in prospect. The seine would be
taken to a likely spot and hauled ashore. Or a boat would go out and
load up with oysters. The fish had to be eaten right away or salted
down. But oysters stored in a dark cellar, especially in cool weather,
would keep for weeks if moistened from time to time.
One diarist, James Gordon, lived near the Rappahannock river in a
section affording a variety of seafoods. Note these typical entries:
Sept. 20, 1759. Fine weather. Went in the afternoon and drew the
seine. Had very agreeable diversion and got great plenty of fine
fish....
Sept. 26. Went with my wife in the evening to draw the seine. Got
about sixty greenfish and a few other sorts.
Sept. 28. Sent in the morning to have the seine drawn. They made
several hauls and got good fish, viz: three drum, one of them
large, trouts, greenfish, etc....
Oct. 6. Went with my wife to see the seine drawn. We dined very
agreeably on a point on fish and oysters....
Jan. 22,--Bought about 70 gallons of rum. Got fine oysters there.
Feb. 12. Went on board the New England man and bought some pots,
axes and mackerel.
Feb. 22. Drew the seine and got 125 fine rock and some shad.
July 14. Drew the seine today and got some fine rock.
Feb. 9, 1760. Went with my wife and Mr. Criswell to draw the seine.
We met in Eyck's Creek a school of rock--brought up 260. Some very
large; the finest haul I ever saw. Sent many of them to our
neighbors.
The term "greenfish" is unknown among Virginia Tidewater fishermen.
Here again we have a British name brought into Virginia by a colonist
not long removed from that country. There "greenfish" is applied to the
bluefish, of which there were and are at times plenty in the
Rappahannock river.
Another diarist, who lived only a few miles away from Gordon, also on
the Rappahannock river, was Landon Carter, son of the famed Robert, or
"King," Carter of Corotoman in Lancaster County. There is no doubt
about it: he was an oyster lover. He not only knew a way to hold
oysters over an extended period--one wishes one knew what it was--but
he had the courage and originality to eat them in July, contrary to a
widely respected superstition:
Jan. 14, 1770. My annual entertainment began on Monday, the 8th,
and held till Wednesday night, when, except one individual or two
that retired sooner, things pleased me much, and therefore, I will
conclude they gave the same satisfaction to others.
The oysters lasted till the third day of the feast, which to be
sure, proves that the methods of keeping them is good, although
much disputed by others.
July, 1776. Last night my cart came up from John E. Beale for iron
pots to make salt out of the bay water, which cart brought me eight
bushels oysters. I ordered them for family and immediate use. As we
are obliged to wash the salt we had of Col. Tayloe, I have ordered
that washing be carried into the vault and every oyster dipped into
it over all and then laid down on the floor again.... Out of the
eight bushels oysters I had six pickled and two bushels for
dressing. But I was asked why Beale sent oysters up in July. I
answered it was my orders. Who would eat oysters in July said the
mighty man; and the very day showed he not only could eat them but
did it in every shape, raw, stewed, caked in fritters and pickled.
George Washington, too, was an oyster fancier as this note to his New
York friend George Taylor shows:
Mt. Vernon, 1786. Sir: ... Mrs. Washington joins me in thanking you
also for your kind present of pickled oysters which were very fine.
This mark of your politeness is flattering and we beg you to accept
every good wish of ours in return.
When in 1770 a notice appeared in the _Virginia Gazette_ about the
proposed academy in New Kent County an added attraction was featured:
"Among other things the fine fishery at the place will admit of an
agreeable and salutary exercise and amusement all the year." It was the
Chickahominy river, a tributary of the James, that was referred to.
Fishing is still "agreeable" there. Citizens of Richmond,
recreation-bent, throng to it along with the residents of its banks,
many of whom make their living out of it. This is one of the sections
where the water, though tidal, is fresh. Anadromous herring, shad, rock
and sturgeon are caught. Unlike the salty bay, fish can be caught here
the year round. Among them are catfish, carp, perch and bass.
One of the most accurate and vivid reporters of Colonial Virginia
plantation life was Philip Vickers Fithian, tutor to the family of
Councillor Robert Carter of Nominy Hall on the lower Potomac river. In
his _Journals_ are appetizing references to seafood:
1774, March: With Mr. Randolph, I went a-fishing, but we had only
the luck to catch one apiece.
April. We had an elegant dinner; beef and greens, roast pig, fine
boiled rockfish.
July. We dined today on the fish called the sheepshead, with crabs.
Twice every week we have fine fish.
On the edges of these shoals in Nominy River or in holes between
the rocks is plenty of fish.
Well, Ben, you and Mr. Fithian are invited by Mr. Turberville, to a
fish feast tomorrow, said Mr. Carter when we entered the Hall to
dinner.
As we were rowing up Nominy we saw fishermen in great numbers in
canoes and almost constantly taking in fish,--bass and perch.
This is a fine sheepshead, Mr. Stadly [the music master], shall I
help you? Or would you prefer a bass or a perch? Or perhaps you
will rather help yourself to some picked crab. It is all extremely
fine, sir, I'll help myself.
August. Each Wednesday and Saturday, we dine on fish all the
summer, always plenty of rock, perch, and crabs, and often
sheepshead and trout.
September. We dined on fish and crabs, which were provided for our
company, tomorrow being fish day.
September. Dined on fish,--rock, perch, fine crabs, and a large
fresh mackerel.
I was invited this morning by Captain Tibbs to a barbecue. This
differs but little from the fish feasts, instead of fish the dinner
is roasted pig, with the proper appendages, but the diversion and
exercise are the very same at both.
An English traveler in 1759, Andrew Burnaby, registered his wonder at
the way fish were taken in the reaches of the Chesapeake:
Sturgeon and shad are in such prodigious numbers [in Chesapeake
Bay] that one day within the space of two miles only, some
gentlemen in canoes caught above six hundred of the former with
hooks, which they let down to the bottom and drew up at a venture
when they perceived them to rub against a fish; and of the latter
above five thousand have been caught at one single haul of the
seine.
The "gentlemen" concerned were obviously not slaves serving the needs
of a plantation, but, judging from the amount caught, expert commercial
fishermen. The sturgeon, after the roe was removed, were stacked in
carts and peddled in nearby towns. The shad, after as many as possible
were sold fresh, were salted down.
The snagging of big sturgeon as recounted by the French traveler
Francois J. de Chastellux in 1781 remained in common practice into the
20th Century, when the big ones became much scarcer:
As I was walking by the river side [James near Westover], I saw two
negroes carrying an immense sturgeon, and on asking them how they
had taken it, they told me that at this season they were so common
as to be taken easily in a seine and that fifteen or twenty were
found sometimes in the net; but that there was a much more simple
method of taking them, which they had just been using. This species
of monster, which are so active in the evening as to be perpetually
leaping to a great height above the surface of the water, usually
sleep profoundly at mid-day. Two or three negroes then proceed in a
little boat, furnished with a long cord at the end of which is a
sharp iron crook, which they hold suspended like a log line. As
soon as they find this line stopped by some obstacle, they draw it
forcibly towards them so as to strike the hook into the sturgeon,
which they either drag out of the water, or which, after some
struggling and losing all his blood, floats at length upon the
surface and is easily taken.
The frequently met-with term, "fishery," in Colonial writings took on a
special meaning as the industry developed. It was used in the sense of
what the present Virginia lawbook calls a "regularly hauled fishing
landing."
This is usually a shore privately owned where the fronting waters have
been cleared of obstructions. The owner, or some one permitted by him,
operates a long seine at that place by carrying it offshore in boats
and hauling it to land. So long as he thus uses the spot "regularly"
the law protects him, now as in the past, by making it illegal for any
other person to fish with nets within a quarter-mile of "any part of
the shore of the owner of any such fishery."
The rights to such a property were, and are, in many cases extremely
profitable. George Washington was among the Virginia planters zealously
caring for their "fisheries."
Often the privilege of using these was advertised in the newspapers or
otherwise for rent for a long or short term. Some owners who did not
themselves wish to fish counted on their shores to yield rental. One of
these, George William Fairfax, must have expressed himself to
Washington on the subject, for the latter wrote him in June, 1774:
... As to your fishery at the Raccoon Branch, I think you will be
disappointed there likewise as there is no landing on this side of
river that rents for more than one half of what you expect for
that, and that on the other side opposite to you (equally good they
say) to be had at L15 Maryland currency....
But growing along with this practice was sentiment favoring fishing
places open to the general public. When an attempt was made about 1770
to take over certain lands near Cape Henry for private operation, a
vigorous protest ensued:
The petition of the subscribers, inhabitants of the county of
Princess Anne in behalf of themselves and the other inhabitants of
this colony, humbly shows: That the point of land called Cape Henry
bounded eastward by the Atlantic Ocean, northwardly by Chesapeake
Bay, westwardly and southwardly by part of Lynnhaven River and by a
creek called Long Creek and the branches thereof, is chiefly desert
banks of sand and unfit for tillage or cultivation and contains
several thousand acres.
And that for many years past a common fishery has been carried on
by many of the inhabitants of said county and others on the shore
of the ocean and bay aforesaid, as far as the western mouth of
Lynnhaven River. And that during the fishing season the fishermen
usually encamp amongst the said sand hills and get wood for fuel
and stages from the desert, and that very considerable quantities
of fish are annually taken by such fishery which greatly
contributes to the support and maintenance of your petitioners and
their families.
Your petitioners further show that they have been informed that
several gentlemen have petitioned your Honour to have the land
aforesaid granted to them by patent and that one Keeling has lately
surveyed a part thereof situated near the mouth of Long Creek
aforesaid, and that if a patent should be granted for the same, it
would greatly prejudice the said fishery.
Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that no patent may be
granted to any person or persons for the same lands or any part
thereof; and that the same may remain a common for the benefit of
the inhabitants of this Colony in general for carrying on a fishery
and for such public uses as the same premises shall be found
convenient.
Even when the new United States Government erected a lighthouse at Cape
Henry a careful stipulation was made in the act ceding the property in
1790 that the public were not to be denied fishing privileges there:
Deed of cession of two acres of land at Cape Henry, in Princess
Anne County, Virginia, for the purpose of erecting a lighthouse
thereon ... provided that nothing contained in this act shall
affect the right of this State to any materials heretofore placed
at or near Cape Henry for the purpose of erecting a lighthouse, nor
shall the citizens be debarred, in consequence of this cession,
from the privileges they now enjoy of hauling their seines and
fishing on the shores of the said land so ceded to the United
States.
When George Washington had come, a newlywed, to be master of Mt. Vernon
in 1759 he found the prospects for fishing very satisfying. One of his
letters at this time boasted:
A river [the Potomac] well-stocked with various kinds of fish at
all seasons of the year, and in the spring with shad, herrings,
bass, carp, perch, sturgeon, etc., in great abundance. The borders
of the estate are washed by more than ten miles of tidewater, the
whole shore, in fact, is one entire fishery.
Washington generously ordered his overseer to admit "the honest poor"
to fishing privileges at one of his shores, a concession that may have
been customary among many landowners.
He was a man who believed in keeping records, and so complete a file of
them has now been reassembled at Mt. Vernon that it is possible to
follow his career in any phase: officer, business speculator, host,
farmer, legislative adviser, and friend. He gave to fishing the
painstaking personal attention he gave to all else. As a "fisherman" he
directed the manufacture as well as the repair of his nets, and the
curing, shipping and marketing of his fish.
It seems obvious that suitable nets were not being manufactured in the
desired quantity or variety in America, otherwise he would hardly have
bought his in England.
He dealt with Robert Cary and Co., London, in 1771. Here is a typical
order:
One seine, seventy-five fathoms long when rigged for hauling; to be
ten feet deep in the middle and eight at the ends with meshes fit
for the herring fishery. The corks to be two and a half feet
asunder; the leads five feet apart; to be made of the best
three-strand (small) twine and tanned.
400 fathom of white inch rope for hauling the above seine. 150
fathom of deep sea line.
To get ready for spring fishing he had to prepare as far ahead as July.
Even then he was not always sure delivery would be on time:
... The goods you will please to forward by the first vessel for
Potomac (which possibly may be Captain Jordan the bearer of this)
as there are some articles that will be a good deal wanted,
especially the seine, which will be altogether useless to me if I
do not get them early in the spring, or in other words I shall
sustain a considerable disappointment and loss, if they do not get
to hand in time.
He wrote to Bradshaw and Davidson in London in 1772:
That I may have my seine net exactly agreeable to directions this
year I give you the trouble of receiving this letter from me to
desire that three may be made. One of them eighty fathom long,
another seventy, and the third sixty-five fathom, all of them to be
twelve feet deep in the middle and to decrease to seven at the ends
when rigged and fit for use; to be so close-meshed in the middle as
not to suffer the herrings (for which kind of fishery they are
intended) to hang in them because, when this is the case it gives
us a good deal of trouble at the busy hurrying season to disengage
the seine, and often is the means of tearing it. But the meshes may
widen as they approach the ends: the corks to be no more than two
feet and a half asunder and fixed on flatways that they may swim
and bear the seine up better with a float right in the middle to
show the approach of the seine with greater certainty in case the
corks should sink; the leads to be five feet apart. The seine I had
from you last year had two faults, one of which is that of having
the meshes too open in the middle; the other of being too strait
rigged; to avoid which I wish you to loose at least one-third of
the length in hanging these seines; that is, to let your 80 fathom
seine be 120 in the strait measure (before it is hung in the lead
and cork lines) and the other two to bear the same proportion, I
could wish to have these seines tanned but it is thought the one I
had from you last year was injured in the vat, for which reason I
leave it to you to have these tanned or not, as you shall judge
most expedient ... I would not wish to have them made of thick
heavy twine as they are more liable to heat and require great force
to work them....
A detailed reply came from James Davidson, a partner in the net
company:
London, Sept. 29, 1772. Sir: I had the honour of receiving your
letter with instructions concerning your seines. I shall always pay
due attention to the contents. I persuade myself you'll say I have
fulfilled your instructions given me in these three seines which I
heartily hope will be in time for the intended fishery. Am not
afraid but they will meet with your approbation and if you should
see any alteration wanting if you'll be so obliging as to send a
line in the same channel, it shall be attended to with great care.
Your order is for the corks to be put on flat ways. I have only put
them on the 65 fathom seine for these reasons. We have tried that
method before with every other invention for the satisfaction of
our fishermen here but they have assured us they really do not bear
the net up so well. They are obliged to be tied on so tight that
the twine cuts them and are much apter to break and after all in
dragging the net they will swim sideways. Now, Sir, you'll readily
see the above inconveniences. I have also put six floats in the
middle, two together to show the center of the net. Likewise the
length of the netting, 120 fathoms for the 80 fathoms, the other
two in proportion.
I now enter upon tanning. This, you may assure yourself, they are
pretty well wore if you have them tanned for we are obliged to haul
them in and out to take the tan and after that hauling them about
to get them thoroughly dry before we can possibly pack them or else
they would soon rot. Among the hundreds of seines I sent abroad
last year or this, I only tanned one besides yours. Therefore have
not tanned any of these. I think the three-quarters inch mesh that
I have put in the middle of the nets this year will be a cure for
the malady you mention of the herrings hanging in the mesh, for
last year I only put in inch mesh which upon examination you'll
soon perceive. Therefore, sir, I entreat the honour of a line
whether or not the two above three-quarters mesh seines answer the
purpose. I have tapered them away at the ends to [an] inch and a
half.