CONCERNING SHIPPING AND TRADE
New England, with its many rivers and indented coastline, until
recent years, has been a breeding place for sailors and a location
for shipbuilding. During the first century following the settlement,
the larger part of the population lived near the coast, and as roads
between towns were poor, it naturally followed that craft of small
tonnage were constantly employed for transport on the ocean and the
navigable rivers, and as no extent of rich soil was found awaiting
cultivation, many settlers, of necessity, turned to fishing and to
trade. A ship carpenter was brought over to Plymouth, in 1624, who
"quickly builte them 2 very good and strong shalops ... and a great
and strong lighter, and had ... timber for 2 catches" framed when
he fell sick of a fever and soon died.[44] These shallops were used
in opening a fur trade among the Indians on the Kennebec River that
eventually discharged the indebtedness of the Pilgrims to the London
adventurers.
[44] William Bradford, _History of Plymouth Plantation_, Boston,
1912.
Six shipwrights were sent over by the Company of the Massachusetts
Bay, in the spring of 1629, together with a considerable stock
of ship stores, such as pitch, tar, cordage and sail cloth.[45]
Doubtless these men were employed at the outset in housing the
settlers and in building small fishing boats, as the first vessel
of any size in the Bay, of which there is record, is Governor
Winthrop's trading bark, _The Blessing of the Bay_, of thirty tons,
built mainly of locust, which went to sea, August 31, 1631, on a
voyage to the eastward and afterwards traded with the Dutch at New
Amsterdam.[46]
[45] _Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society_, Vol. III,
p. 90.
[46] _Winthrop's Journal_, New York, 1908.
In January, 1633, Emanuel Downing wrote to the Council for New
England that he had made enquiries of Mr. Winthrop respecting
the ship carpenters employed in New England and found that the
plantation was able to build ships of any burden. Their most
competent shipwright was William Stephens, who had built in England,
the _Royal Merchant_, a ship of six hundred tons.
The General Court, in 1639, exempted ship carpenters and fishermen
(during the fishing season) from compulsory military training.[47]
Two years later the Court was informed that some shipwrights were
scanting their work and an order was adopted providing for a survey
of all ship construction as was usual in England at that time.[48]
[47] _Massachusetts Bay Records_, Boston, 1853.
[48] _Ibid._
The coasting trade led to the building of small shallops and sloops
and the need for firewood in Boston and Charlestown brought about
the building of sloops, broad of beam, intended especially for that
trade. Fishing craft and wood sloops were soon being built all
along the coast. As early as 1634, one merchant in Marblehead owned
eight fishing craft, and Portsmouth, N. H., had six great shallops,
five fishing boats, with sails and anchors, and thirteen skiffs, in
the trade as early as 1635. Richard Hollingsworth, in 1637, had a
shipyard at Salem Neck and in 1641, built "a prodigious ship of 300
Tons."
The number of New England vessels used in foreign trading during
the seventeenth century was considerable and the mainstay of the
trade was the fishing business. Off-shore fishing in the early
days was carried on in shallops--capacious, open boats carrying
several pairs of oars and also fitted with masts and sails. They
were sometimes decked over, in whole or in part, and usually carried
one mast with a lug sail. Many of these small craft were built in
the winter time by the fishermen and their sons, as a fisherman is
always more or less of a boatbuilder by virtue of his calling. The
lumber for the boat would be cut in the common woods and got out, a
little at a time, and the boat when built would actually cost its
owner little more than the outlay for certain necessary fittings.
These boats might be framed-in anywhere--on the beach in front
of the fisherman's cottage; in his dooryard or in the woods, some
distance from the shore, to which the hull would be dragged by
oxen, on sledges of timber. The first vessels sent to "the banks,"
from Massachusetts, for deep-water fishing, were "a ship and other
vessels," rig unknown.[49] That was in 1645.
[49] _Winthrop's Journal_, New York, 1908.
By 1665 there were three hundred New England vessels trading with
Barbadoes, Virginia, Madeira, Acadia, etc., and 1,300 smaller
craft were fishing at Cape Sable. Cod and mackerel were caught and
salted. The best fish were sent to Malaga and the Canaries, the
second sort to the Portugal Islands, and the worst to the Barbadoes
there to be used in the diet of the negro slaves. At that time,
the principal commodities produced in the Massachusetts Bay were
fish and pipe-staves, masts, fir-boards, pitch, tar, pork, beef,
and horses and corn which were sent to Virginia, Barbadoes, &c.
Tobacco and sugar were taken in payment and shipped to England.
Excellent masts were shipped from the Piscataqua River, and many
pipe-staves. There were more than twenty sawmills located on that
river and "much good timber was spoilt," reported an agent of Lord
Arlington, the Secretary of State.[50] New England masts, 33 to 35
inches in diameter, at that time cost the Navy Commissioners from
£95 to £115 per mast. The agent also reported that Boston, the chief
town, was "built on a peninsula in the bottom of a bay, which is a
good harbour and full of fish. The houses are generally wooden, the
streets crooked, and neither days, months, seasons, churches, nor
inns are known by their English names."
[50] _Calendar of State Papers, Am. and W. I._ (1661-1668), 347.
During the middle years of the seventeenth century the waters of
the West Indies were covered with privateers commissioned to prey
upon Spanish commerce. Not only did the home government issue
these commissions but every Colonial governor as well, and not
infrequently it was difficult to separate privateering from piracy.
John Quelch, who was hanged in Boston for piracy, in 1704, preyed
upon Portuguese commerce as he supposed in safety and not until he
returned to Marblehead did he learn of the treaty of peace that
made him a pirate. In 1653, Thomas Harding captured a rich prize
sailing from Barbadoes and in consequence was tried in Boston for
piracy, but saved his neck when he was able to prove that the vessel
was Dutch and not Spanish.
The town of Newport, R. I., frequently profited from the visits
of known pirates, as in 1688, when Peterson, in a "barkalonga" of
ten guns and seventy men, refitted at Newport and no bill could be
obtained against him from the grand jury, as they were neighbors and
friends of many of the men on board. Two Salem ketches also traded
with him and a master of one brought into "Martin's Vineyard," a
prize that Peterson, "the pirate, had taken in the West Indies."[51]
Andrew Belcher, a well-known Boston merchant, and master of the ship
_Swan_, paid Peterson £57, in money and provisions, for hides and
elephants' teeth, taken from his plunder.
[51] _Massachusetts Archives_, XXXV, folio 61.
The ill-defined connection between privateering and piracy was fully
recognized in those days and characterized publicly by the clergy.
In 1704 when Rev. Cotton Mather preached his "Brief Discourse
occasioned by a Tragical Spectacle in a Number of Miserables under
Sentence of Death for Piracy," he remarked that "the Privateering
Stroke so easily degenerates into the Piratical; and the
Privateering Trade is usually carried on with an Unchristian Temper,
and proves an Inlet unto so much Debauchery and Iniquity."
Another strong influence that led to insecurity on the high seas
and eventually to outright piracy was the operation of the English
Navigation Acts. European nations were in agreement that the
possession of colonies meant the exclusive control of their trade
and manufactures.
In 1696, Col. Charles Lidgett, a New England merchant, in "Some
Considerations Offered to the Board of Trade," wrote that "all
the American Colonies are generally esteemed according to the
Conveniency and benefit they bring to England, their Mother."[52]
Lord Chatham wrote, "The British Colonists in North America have no
right to manufacture so much as a nail for a horse shoe," and Lord
Sheffield went further and said, "The only use of American Colonies,
is the monopoly of their consumption, and the carriage of their
produce."[53]
[52] _Cal. State Papers, Am. and W. I._ (1696-1697), 84.
[53] Viscount Bury, _Exodus of the Western Nations_, London, 1865.
English merchants naturally wished to sell at high prices and to buy
colonial raw materials as low as possible and as they were unable to
provide a market for all that was produced, the Colonies were at a
disadvantage in both buying and selling. By the Acts of Navigation
certain "enumerated articles" could be marketed only in England.
Lumber, salt provisions, grain, rum and other non-enumerated
articles might be sold within certain limits but must be transported
in English or plantation-built vessels of which the owners and
three-fourths of the mariners were British subjects. Freight rates
also advanced, as other nations, notably the Dutch, had previously
enjoyed a good share of the carrying trade.
The first Navigation Act was passed in 1645. It was renewed and its
provisions enlarged in 1651, 1660, 1663 and later. Before long it
was found that these attempts to monopolize the colonial markets
resulted in a natural resistance and smuggling began and also an
extensive trade with privateers and pirates who brought into all the
smaller ports of New England captured merchandise that was sold at
prices below the usual market values. Matters went from bad to worse
and servants of the Crown frequently combined with the colonists to
evade the obnoxious laws. Even the Royal Governors connived at what
was going on. This was particularly true in the Colonies south of
New England.
There were pirates and pirates. Some were letters-of-marque and
illegitimate traders and enjoyed the protection of merchants and
officials on shore, while others were outlaws. In 1690, Governor
Bradstreet of the Massachusetts Colony was complaining of the great
damage done to shipping by "French Privateers and Pirates," and
four years later, Frontenac, the Governor of Canada, was asking for
a frigate to cruise about the St. Lawrence against the New England
"_corsaires and filibusters_." There is no doubt these French
privateers were a considerable menace to New England shipping and
that there was need for privately armed vessels to protect the
coast, a task not easy or desirable; so why should one scrutinize
too closely semi-piratical captures made by so useful friends?
The profits of piracy and the irregular trade practiced at that time
were large, and twenty-nine hundred per cent profit in illicit trade
was not unusual, so there is little wonder that adventurous men took
chances and honest letters-of-marque sometimes seized upon whatever
crossed their course. The pirate, the privateer and the armed
merchantman often blended the one into the other.[54]
[54] Dow and Edmonds, _Pirates of the New England Coast_, Salem,
1923.
Edward Randolph landed in Boston on June 10, 1676, and during the
next week the following vessels arrived: "a Bostoner, 100 tons,
Clutterbuck, master, from Nantes, laden with 50 butts of brandy and
French commodities; a pink, of Boston, from France, of 70 tons,
with 12 tun of brandy, wine, etc.; a Scotsman, 130 tons, from the
Canaries, with 80 pipes of Canary; a Bostoner, 80 tons, from the
Canaries, with 50 pipes of Canary, and a ketch of Southampton, from
Canary, with wine."[55] He reported to Secretary Coventry that the
fishermen had made good voyages notwithstanding the war with the
Indians. He estimated that the fish exported amounted to about
£50,000 yearly with profitable returns in barter on masts and timber
for shipping sent to Barbadoes and other of the Carib Islands. The
Bay of Campeachy supplied about 1,000 tons of logwood annually.
The maritime towns were well stored with sailors, fishermen and
carpenters, and yearly several ships of good burthen were built,
besides ketches and barques. In 1676 thirty vessels had been ordered
set on the stocks by merchants in England, but the Indian War had
prevented building the full number. However, twelve were in process
of construction at Boston, Charlestown, Salisbury and other places,
some of which were upwards of 160 tons burthen.
[55] _Cal. State Papers, Am. and W. I._ (1675-1676), 408.
In October he wrote that there were about thirty merchants in
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine estimated worth from £10,000
to £20,000. Local commodities consisted of naval stores, cattle and
provisions, exported to Virginia, Maryland and the West Indies--(to
the latter were also sent "houses ready framed"), to Spain,
Portugal, the Straits and England. Tobacco, sugar, indigo, cotton,
wool, ginger, logwood, fustic, cocoa and rum were imported and again
exported. "They trade with most parts of Europe from which they
import direct all kinds of merchandise, so that little is left for
English merchants to import," wrote Randolph. "Some ships have been
sent to Guinea, Madagascar, etc., and some to Scanderoon; there are
built in the Colony, 730 ships varying from 6 to 250 tons, by thirty
master shipbuilders." Duties were imposed on provisions and wines
imported, and on ships, but there was no custom on exports, except
on horses.[56]
[56] _Cal. State Papers, Am. and W. I._ (1675-1676), 466.
In April, 1675, William Harris wrote from Boston that "The merchants
seem to be rich men, and their houses [are] as handsomely furnished
as most in London. In exchange of fish, pipe-staves, wool and
tobacco, they have from Spain, Portugal, and the islands, the
commodities of those islands; their wool they carry to France and
bring thence linen; to England they bring beaver, moose, and deer
skins, sugar and logwood, and carry hence cloth and ironwares; to
Barbadoes, in exchange for horses, beef, pork, butter, cheese,
flour, peas, biscuit, they have sugar and indigo; when they trade
with Jamaica; as they do sometimes, they bring home pieces of eight,
plate, and pigs of silver.... As to cloth, there are made here
Linsey woolseys, and other of cotton and wool, and some all sheep's
wool, but the better sort of linen is brought from England; they
have many woolcombers, and some make tammeys, but for their private
use. Salt they get from Tortudas, not far from Barbadoes. It is sold
at 10s. the hogshead, and is clear and white as alum, very sharp and
much stronger than ordinary bay salt."[57]
[57] _Ibid._, 221-222.
Governor Simon Bradstreet wrote in 1680, in answer to an enquiry
from the Lords of the Privy Council: "There may bee near twenty
English merchants within our Government bred up to that calling, and
neere as many others that do trade and merchandize more or less;
but Foreign merchants of other Nations Wee have none ... there are
two or three [merchants] in our Corporation that may bee worth
sixteen or eighteen thousand pound a piece, some few others worth
eight or ten Thousand pounds a piece, a third sort worth four or
five thousand pounds a piece.... Hee is accounted a rich man in the
Country that is worth one thousand or Fifteen hundred pounds. There
are about one hundred or one hundred and twenty Ships, Sloopes,
Katches and other Vessells that trade to and from hence yearly of
our own or English built, most of them belonging to the Colony, wee
have eight or ten ships of one hundred tons or upwards, three or
four of two hundred tons or more, and about Forty or Fifty Fishing
Katches of betwixt twenty and Forty tons; Six or eight English ships
do usually come hither yearly belonging to the Kingdom of England,
bringing commodities of all sorts from thence.
"The obstructions wee [encounter] within our trade are the generall
decay of any profitable trade in the places wee mostly trade unto.
Vizt. to all his Majesties plantations in America, where wee send
our horses, beasts, timber, provisions, mackeril, fish, etc. For the
commodities of those places which are spent here or transported into
England wee finde those markets many times so overlaid and clogged
with the like comoditys from England, Ireland and other places,
that many of our commodities are sold at cheaper rates many times
then they were worth at home. 2dly The Algeir men of warr infesting
the seas in Europe have taken some of our Ships and men which is a
discouragement to our trade and Navigation. 3dly the French at Nova
Scotia or Acadia (as they call it) do interrupt our Fishers in those
parts and Sr. Edmond Andros, Governor of New-Yorke for his highness
the Duke of Yorke, doth the like betwixt the French and Pemaquid
requiring duty to bee paid to them by all our Vessells that fish in
those Seas, otherwise threatening to make prizes of them, which hath
been alwaies Formerly free For his Majesties Subjects for Fishing
ever since wee came hither. The double custom which our merchants
pay for Sugar, Indigo, Cotton Wool, Tobacco, etc. First at the
places from whence they fetch these commodities, the greatest part
whereof is transported from hence to England, where they pay the
full custome again.
"Wee impose no rates or dutys upon Goods exported they being
generally the produce of the Country got with hard labour and sold
at low prices ... and but one penny pr pound upon Goods imported,
when they come into the Merchant's hands, which is the taxe wee
have set upon houses, Lands, cattle and other estate of the Country
yearly."[58]
[58] _3 Collections_ (_Mass. Hist. Society_), Vol. VIII, pp. 336-339.
By this time the Colonists were all comfortably housed according to
the standards of the period and were producing all the foodstuffs
needed and more. Wines and spirit were imported in considerable
quantity to give variety to the native beer and cider. Much butter
and cheese were brought from abroad and also luxuries such as
spices, chocolate, raisins of the sun, almonds, figs, oranges,
etc. Our English ancestors were gross eaters and drinkers. Mulled
and spiced wines were drunk in the absence of tea and coffee, and
highly-seasoned dishes were popular. The absence of a variety of
root-crops made it necessary to pickle meat and pepper and spice
were used to a considerable extent. There was a very comfortable and
varied diet among the merchant and governing class but the farmers
and common people lived much on salt pork, beans, fish and boiled
foods. As for clothing--home industry, of course, provided a certain
amount but as yet the loom was not in common use. Between 1665
and 1675 over three hundred estates were settled in Essex County,
Massachusetts, with only nine looms listed in the inventories.
Eighty-three of these homes, however, possessed spinning
wheels--cotton, linen and wool--for every good wife and child could
knit stockings, mittens and tippets. Among those who died during
this ten years were two tailors, five shoemakers, a cloth worker and
eight weavers.[59]
[59] _Probate Records Essex Co., Mass._, Salem, 1917.
Much clothing was brought from overseas, particularly for the town
dwellers. John Hull, the mintmaster, records in his diary in June,
1657, that three ships arrived from London bringing supplies of
clothing, "for, as yet," he writes, "our chief supply, in respect
of clothes, is from England." He owned a number of vessels and
his little ketches were constantly on the go between Boston and
the Barbadoes and thence to Bilboa, London or Bristol. He shipped
salted fish, logwood, tobacco, furs and plantation products and
received iron in bars, salt, wines and fruits from Spain, while from
England came dress goods, lead, shot, etc. His serges he wanted "sad
coloured," none above 42 shillings, nor under 30 shillings. He also
instructed one of his captains to load "dowlass and good nowell
convass [which was used for sails], Dutch duffalls, red penystones
and flanils, no such scalet cloth as you brought me before." He
looked askance at calicoes. Another time he called for duffalls,
white, striped or blue, with red and blue stockings, none above 16
shillings and under if possible. He wanted no "kersey" that cost
above 46 pence per yard and the black stuff, either of "hair or
wosted," must be cheap.
A cousin once advised him to ship a cargo of pipe-staves, hoops
and fish to the Canaries, but he declined the venture and wrote in
reply that he "would more and more affect and imbrace opportunity of
getting out rather than running into the businesses of this world
Speacially forraigne trafficque as desirous to be more thoghtfull
of Lanching into that vast ocian of Eternity whither we must all
shortly bee carried yt soe I might bee in a prepared posture for my
Lord's Comeing."[60]
[60] Hull, _Letter Book_ (American Antiquarian Society).
His sea captains were carefully instructed "to see to the worship of
God every day in the vessel and to the santification of the Lord's
day and suppression of all prophaness that the Lord may delight to
be with you and his blessing be upon you which is the hearty prayer
of youre frind and own^r." The sailors were not all to this way of
thinking, however, but Mintmaster Hull rode with the ruling party
which saw to it that the Quarterly Courts were kept busy measuring
out the metes and bounds. In the journal of the voyage over kept by
the Reverend Higginson in 1629, he records a visitation of avenging
Providence; a just retribution inflicted upon the ungodly. He
writes, "this day a notorious wicked fellow yt was given to swearing
and boasting of his former wickednes and mocked at y^e daies of
fast, railing & jesting ag^t puritans, this fellow fell sicke of ye
[small] pocks and dyed."
It is interesting to discover at how early a date it was possible to
purchase in the shops in New England, the manufactured products of
Old England. It is known that George Corwin set up a shop in Salem,
for the sale of fabrics and hardware, as early as 1651, or only
twenty-five years after the first immigration. His shop was well
stocked and at the outset he was selling such luxuries as children's
toys. Undoubtedly stocks of manufactured goods were on sale in the
Colony years before this time. In the matter of house hardware
Corwin sold a considerable variety of locks. He carried stock locks
of several sizes, spring locks with screws, single and double chest
locks, warded outside chest locks, outside box locks, plain cupboard
locks and small and large padlocks--by no means a poor assortment
for a small shop tucked into a corner in the American wilderness.
This shop, a few years later, was supplying the town with such
articles as combs, white haft knives, barbers' scissors, flour
boxes, carving tools, carpenter's tools of all kinds, door latches,
curry combs and brushes for horses, and a great variety of earthen
and woodenware. Its shelves held broadcloth, red cloth rash,
perpetuana, red cotton, sad colored rugs, green rugs, green Tammy,
blue calico, crape, curley duroy, prunella, silk barronet, peniston,
Persian silk, worsted faradeen, camblet, St. Peter's canvas, hall
cloth, vittery, blue linen, noyles, together with a great variety
of hose, stomachers, ribbons, tape, fileting, silk and gimp laces,
needles, pins, thread, buttons, etc., etc.[61]
[61] Corwin MSS. (Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.).
The invoice of an importation made into Boston in 1690, contains
such items as brass curtain rings, dressing glasses, square
monument candlesticks, iron spring candlesticks, brass extinguishers
and save-alls, tin lanterns, pocket nutmeg graters, bread graters,
wooden rat traps with springs and a great variety of woodenware. It
seems strange that New England should import from across seas wooden
plates and bowls, yet here they are:
9 doz. best Maple Trenchers @ 30/ per dozen
1 doz. Porridge Dishes at 11/4.
Here also are carved spoons, beer taps, hair sieves, sucking bottles
and milk trays.[62]
[62] John Caxy v. Joseph Mallenson, _Mass. Archives_.
From the returns of outward and inward entries at the Colonial
ports, the records of which are now preserved in the Public Record
Office in London, much may be learned concerning early shipping
and trade in the Massachusetts Bay. Let us take, for example, the
last six months in the year 1714, covering the outward entries
of shipping at the port of Boston. During that time there were
236 clearances not including, of course, fishermen and coasting
craft. The rig is not stated in the first part of the register but
between Sept. 21st and December 31st there were cleared 49 ships,
18 brigantines, 64 sloops, two barques, one snow, one pink, and a
"ship or snow" of 40 tons. Not a schooner is mentioned. The largest
ship measured 210 tons and the smallest was the _Grayhound_ of
London, a British-built vessel of 33 tons, carrying a crew of five
men and a cargo of dyewood, turpentine, whale oil, barrel staves and
sugar. With the exception of five ships hailing from London, every
vessel cleared was "plantation built," that is, it had been built
in one of the American colonies. Of the 236 entries, 147 of the
vessels hailed from Boston; 18 were owned in London; six in Bristol;
four came from the West Indies; and the rest hailed from New York,
Virginia, Maryland, and other colonies. Most of them were small
craft averaging from thirty to sixty tons burthen.[63]
[63] Public Record Office, C.O. 5: 848-851 (copies at Essex
Institute).
The _Hopewell_, of North Carolina, five tons, and a crew of two men,
was loaded with rum and salt.
The _Swallow_, of Boston, 20 tons, and three men, sailed for
Annapolis Royal with a cargo of tobacco, pitch, molasses, rum, pork,
and English goods for the garrison.
The sloop _Success_, owned in New York, 20 tons, with four men,
sailed for home carrying four hhds. rum, pewter ware, a cart,
chairs, boxes, etc.
The sloop _Pelican_ of Boston, 25 tons, with four men, sailed for
Virginia, loaded with 42 bbls. salt, three hhds. rum, iron pots, etc.
The sloop _Sea Flower_ of Boston, 40 tons, with six men, entered
out, the 3d day of November, carrying bread, butter, beer, onions,
and peas for the logwood cutters in the Bay of Campeachy.
The brigantine _William and Susanna_, owned in Salem, 40 tons, and
eight men, sailed for Virginia, carrying rum, lime juice, salt,
earthen ware, etc.
The sloop _Branch_ of Boston, 50 tons, with six men, sailed for
South Carolina, carrying rum, blubber, onions, etc.
The brigantine _Speedwell_ of Boston, 60 tons, with seven men,
cleared for Surinam, carrying 10 pipes of wine and twenty horses.
The ship _Brunswick_ of Boston, 65 tons, two guns and ten men,
sailed for Barbadoes, carrying 37 hhds. fish, 50 boxes candles, and
15 boxes of soap.
The ship _Mary Ann_ of London, 80 tons, with four guns and ten men,
entered out, bound for Lisbon, carrying 240 quintals of salted fish,
"which is the whole cargo," states the register.
The ship _Bedmunster_ of Bristol, 100 tons, with ten men, returned
home with 18-1/2 tons of logwood, 507 bbls. tar, 307 bbls. pitch, 7
bbls. whale oil, and 40-1/2 bbls. cranberries.
The ship _Amity_ of London, 130 tons, six guns and fourteen men,
returned with a cargo of 20 hhds. sugar, 5 bags of cotton, 168 tons,
9 cwt. 1 qr. and 14 lbs. logwood, 10 bbls. pitch, pimento, wines,
furs and staves.
The largest ship to clear was the _Sophia_ of Boston, 310 tons,
built in New Hampshire, armed with 18 guns and carrying a crew of
twenty men. She sailed for Barbadoes carrying fish, corn, candles
and lumber.
Among the more unusual articles of merchandise enumerated in the
cargo lists are "2 cases of returned pictures," shipped to London;
pots and frying pans, to Maryland; apples, cider, Indian meal, and
six sheep, shipped to Newfoundland; 230 barrels of cider shipped to
Philadelphia; and rum, cider, iron and brass, saddles and bridles,
etc. to North Carolina. Bricks, shingles, iron and woodenware, hops,
pickled sturgeon, beeswax, rice, furs, washed leather, linens and
calicoes are mentioned.
The West India trade called for lumber, horses, rum, food, and
luxuries; and supplied sugar and molasses. Salt fish and pickled
sturgeon were sent to Spain, Portugal and the Western Islands--Roman
Catholic countries. The important dyewood trade in the Bay of
Campeachy required foodstuffs; and the coasting trade with the
Southern colonies called for manufactured goods of all sorts and
supplied in return tobacco, pitch, turpentine and tar, which were
used in the New England shipyards and also reshipped to England.
The fisheries in Newfoundland called for foodstuffs and London and
Bristol supplied markets for dyewoods, naval stores, furs, whale
oil, sugar, manufactured lumber, and wines brought from Portugal and
the Western Islands.
During the months of April, May and June, in the year 1717, there
were twenty-seven inward entries at the Salem customhouse. All
but three were plantation built. Seventeen were owned in Salem;
two hailed from London; two from Liverpool, and one from Bristol.
There were eight ships, four brigantines, twelve sloops and three
schooners. The first of these schooners to enter was the schooner
_Fisher_, 30 tons, Timothy Orne, master, registered at the Salem
customhouse, Oct. 27, 1715. This is the earliest authentic record
of a schooner I have ever found. Those vessels having the largest
tonnage were the ship _Patience and Judith_, 100 tons, owned in
London, England, and carrying six guns and a crew of fourteen men,
entering from the Isle of May, with a cargo of 140 tons of salt;
and, second, the ship _Friendship_, Capt. Samuel Crow, 100 tons,
owned in Salem, carrying two guns and a crew of ten men, also
entering from the Isle of May with 90 tons of salt. Ten out of the
twenty-seven entries brought in salt for the Salem fisheries.
Rum and lignumvitae wood came from the West Indies, and wheat,
corn, beans, flour, flax, hides, pork and lard came from Maryland,
Virginia and North Carolina. The ships from English ports brought
European goods.
During the last three months of 1754, eighty-seven vessels cleared
outward at the Salem customhouse and sixty-eight were schooners.
The largest tonnage was the snow _Aurora_ of Salem, 130 tons, built
at Newbury that year, sailing for Liverpool with a cargo of 15,000
staves and 40 tons of pine timber. Of the ten European clearances,
seven were for Bilboa, with salted fish; thirty-three cleared for
ports in the West Indies; forty for southern colonies; and two for
Newfoundland. The principal cargoes were salted fish, manufactured
lumber, rum, sugar, molasses, salt, horses, sheep, and salted meats.
Nearly all clearing for Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas carried
cargoes of wooden, earthen and iron wares, probably manufactured in
Salem or its immediate vicinity. Twenty-six thousand bricks were
shipped to the West Indies and 20 bales of hay to South Carolina.
The two schooners clearing for Halifax were loaded with "dead meat,"
probably intended for the garrison.
During the first three months of the year 1762, fifty-three vessels
cleared from Salem, bound for foreign ports and the southern
colonies; thirty-four were schooners. The largest vessel was the
ship _Antelope_, 150 tons, a prize, registered at Salem in 1761 and
owned by Richard Derby. She cleared for Guadaloupe with lumber,
fish, train oil, and Fyall wines. There were nineteen clearances
for Guadaloupe during those three winter months. Listed with the
staples were the following curious items, viz.: 7-1/2 tons prize soap,
illegally imported, shipped to Guadaloupe; and 12,000 feet of oars,
shipped to St. Christophers. There is a surprising diversity of
ownership among these fifty-three vessels. No large shipowner had a
considerable interest. Richard Derby of Salem owned three vessels;
Robert Hooper of Marblehead, two; Jeremiah Lee of Marblehead, two;
Nathaniel Ellery of Gloucester, owned two and the rest were owned by
men who cleared only one vessel.
The ships, that plied between English and American ports, at more
or less regular intervals during the eighteenth century, not only
brought an exchange of merchandise, but also carried passengers.
Officials connected with the government--the customs service and
the military establishment, with a sprinkling of clergymen and
scholars, were crossing on nearly every ship and the New England
merchant sailing to London to buy a new stock of goods for his shop
and the Englishman who came to the colonies bringing adventures of
goods in great variety, all helped to maintain the service. In the
year 1737, the Boston newspapers mention by name eighteen persons
who had arrived by ship or were about departing. On January 31st,
John Banister, late in business with his uncle Samuel Banister, at
Marblehead, advertised in the _Gazette_ that he designed speedily
to embark for Great Britain and requested a settlement of all
accounts. John Jeykill, the collector of the Port of Boston,
arrived from London, April 18th, in Captain Shepardson; early in
May, Thomas Phillips of Boston, merchant, advertised that he would
sell his household furniture by vendue, as he intended speedily
for London, and a week later Major Martin and family arrived from
Antequa, in the West Indies. He proposed to reside in Boston for a
few years. Toward the last of the month, the Lieutenant-Governor of
New Hampshire sailed from Portsmouth, bound for England, and about
the middle of June, the Rev. Doctor McSparrow and lady arrived in
Boston. As late in the year as December 20th, Edmund Quincy, Esq.,
the agent of the Province at the Court of Great Britain, was sailing
for London, in Captain Homans, with several other unnamed gentlemen.
Very little is known at the present time concerning the intimate
details of life on board ship in the early times and especially as
to the accommodations provided for passengers. On the vessels that
brought over emigrants in any number, the living conditions must
have been well-nigh intolerable because of crowding many people into
limited space and also by reason of a meagre equipment and lack of
necessary conveniences. During the period of the German emigration
and that from northern Ireland in the mid-eighteenth century, there
was frequently a high mortality during the voyage and sometimes,
when it was of unusual length, the supply of food and water ran
short and there was terrible suffering. Doubtless some attempt
was made to separate the sexes and the families but from time to
time cases are found in the court records in which depositions or
testimony clearly show that living conditions on board ship in the
early days were decidedly of a miscellaneous character.
It isn't necessary to delve into the very remote past in order to
discover casual social relations between the sexes on board ship. In
1888, I went the length of Cape Breton and while sailing up the Bras
d'Or lakes on the steamer that plied regularly during the summer, I
came on deck early one morning to see the sun rise and then began an
exploration of the boat. On the lower deck I suddenly came upon some
twenty or more barefooted and half-clothed men and women lying in a
long row, side by side, stretched out on mattresses placed on the
deck. They were probably waitresses, cooks, stewards, and the like,
but may have been second-class passengers. However that may be, they
were unconscious of the presence of any passer-by and slept quietly
together like so many puppies.
In the olden time it is known that in the more regular passenger
service the main cabin was parted off at night by means of curtains.
Small cabins or staterooms were also built and especially on
the larger ships. It is impossible to imagine that it could be
otherwise, when the official station or wealth of the passenger is
considered.
The captain's cabin had its steward and there the food and service
were undoubtedly better than that provided forward where all slept
in canvas hammocks slung from hooks in the deck timbers overhead,
or lay upon pallet beds on the deck. Here they served themselves
from the ship's galley. The foul odors below deck and the unsanitary
conditions are part of the lore of the sea. "Ship feaver" was well
known to all physicians practicing in seaport towns. In those days
the cooking was done in an open fireplace. So, too, on shipboard
there was provided an open "hearth" made of cast iron and weighing
from four to eight hundred pounds. This was fastened to the deck
and its "chimney" was screened by a "smoke sail." A smaller "hearth"
was in the captain's cabin and supplied all the heat below. It must
have been bitterly cold on board ship during a winter crossing.
The coals in these "hearths" were a menace to safety and required
constant attention.
A communication printed in the _Boston News-Letter_ describes
an escape from fire on board one of these English packets. The
writer, a good New England puritan, first declares his suspicion
that a certain military gentleman, a fellow passenger from Boston,
had brought on board a fair lady who was not his wife. The couple
occupied a small cabin, partitioned off from the main cabin, which
had a curtained window looking into it. There were other curtains
about. As the Boston shopkeeper sat near the "hearth," musing over
his suspicions, a sudden lurch of the vessel brought a carelessly
placed curtain swinging into the coals on the "hearth" and in an
instant it was aflame. The shopkeeper shouted "Fire! Fire!" which
brought the major's inamorata to her cabin window and an instant
later she rushed into the main cabin with a certain necessary
receptacle in her hands. One splash and the worst was over. The
charred curtain was soon torn from its fastenings and the fire
stamped out on the cabin floor.
In 1760, Jacob Bailey, a native of Rowley, Mass., and a graduate
of Harvard College, having prepared for the ministry and been
licensed to preach, determined to obtain orders in the Church of
England and so, through the intervention of friends, took passage
from Boston for London in the ship _Hind_, carrying twenty guns,
which sailed in company with six other vessels. Mr. Bailey kept a
diary of the voyage and his description of the accommodations which
the ship supplied, the life on board, and the men with whom he was
brought in contact, is a surprisingly vivid picture of strange and
uncouth conditions attending passenger service to England in the
mid-eighteenth century. The ship lay at anchor in the harbor and Mr.
Bailey went out to her in a small boat.
"The wind was blowing strong, and it was some time before we could
get on board ship. At length, with difficulty, I clambered up the
side and found myself in the midst of a most horrid confusion. The
deck was crowded full of men, and the boatswain's shrill whistle,
with the swearing and hallooing of the petty officers, almost
stunned my ears. I could find no retreat from this dismal hubbub,
but was obliged to continue jostling among the crowd above an hour
before I could find anybody at leisure to direct me. At last, Mr.
Letterman, the Captain's steward, an honest Prussian, perceiving
my disorder, introduced me through the steerage to the lieutenant.
I found him sitting in the great cabin. He appeared to be a young
man, scarce twenty years of age, and had in his countenance some
indications of mildness. Upon my entrance he assumed a most
important look and with a big voice demanded to know my request.
I informed him that I was a passenger on board the _Hind_, by
permission of Capt. Bond, and desired that he would be civil enough
to direct me to the place of my destination. He replied in this
laconic style: 'Sir, I will take care to speak to one of my mates.'
This was all the notice, at present. But happily, on my return from
the cabin, I found my chest and bedding carefully stowed away in the
steerage. In the meantime the ship was unmoored and we fell gently
down to Nantasket....
"I observed a young gentleman walking at a distance, with a pensive
air in his countenance. Coming near him, in a courteous manner
he invited me down between decks to a place he called his berth.
I thanked him for his kindness and readily followed him down a
ladder into a dark and dismal region, where the fumes of pitch,
bilge water, and other kinds of nastiness almost suffocated me
in a minute. We had not proceeded far before we entered a small
apartment, hung round with damp and greasy canvas, which made, on
every hand, a most gloomy and frightful appearance. In the middle
stood a table of pine, varnished over with nasty slime, furnished
with a bottle of rum and an old tin mug with a hundred and fifty
bruises and several holes, through which the liquor poured in as
many streams. This was quickly filled with toddy and as speedily
emptied by two or three companions who presently joined us in this
doleful retreat. Not all the scenes of horror about us could
afford me much dismay till I received the news that this detestable
apartment was allotted by the captain to be the place of my
habitation during the voyage!
"Our company continually increased, when the most shocking oaths and
curses resounded from every corner, some loading their neighbors
with bitter execrations, while others uttered imprecations too awful
to be recorded. The persons present were: first, the captain's
clerk, the young fellow who gave me the invitation. I found him a
person of considerable reading and observation who had fled his
native country on account of a young lady to whom he was engaged.
Second, was one John Tuzz, a midshipman and one of my messmates, a
good-natured, honest fellow, apt to blunder in his conversation and
given to extravagant profaneness. Third, one Butler, a minister's
son, who lived near Worcester, in England. He was a descendant from
Butler, the author of _Hudibras_, and appeared to be a man of fine
sense and considerable breeding, yet, upon occasion, was extremely
profane and immodest, yet nobody seemed a greater admirer of
delicacy in women than himself. My fourth companion was one Spear,
one of the mates, a most obliging ingenious young gentleman, who was
most tender of me in my cruel sickness. Fifth: one of our company
this evening was the carpenter of the ship who looked like a country
farmer, drank excessively, swore roundly, and talked extravagantly.
Sixth: was one Shephard, an Irish midshipman, the greatest champion
of profaneness that ever fell under my notice. I scarce ever knew
him to open his mouth without roaring out a tumultuous volley of
stormy oaths and imprecations. After we had passed away an hour
or two together, Mr. Lisle, the lieutenant of marines, joined our
company. He was about fifty years of age, of gigantic stature, and
quickly distinguished himself by the quantities of liquor he poured
down his throat. He also was very profane.
"About nine o'clock the company began to think of supper, when a
boy was called into the room. Nothing in human shape did I ever see
before so loathsome and nasty. He had on his body a fragment only
of a check shirt, his bosom was all naked and greasy, over his
shoulders hung a bundle of woolen rags which reached in strings
almost down to his feet, and the whole composition was curiously
adorned with little shining animals. The boy no sooner made his
appearance than one of our society accosted him in this gentle
language. 'Go you ---- rascal, and see whether lobscouse is ready.'
Upon this the fellow began to mutter and scratch his head, but
after two or three hearty curses, went for the galley and presently
returned with an elegant dish which he placed on the table. It was
a composition of beef and onions, bread and potatoes, minced and
stewed together, then served up with its broth in a wooden tub, the
half of a quarter cask. The table was furnished with two pewter
plates, the half of one was melted away, and the other, full of
holes, was more weather-beaten than the sides of the ship; one knife
with a bone handle, one fork with a broken tine, half a metal spoon
and another, taken at Quebec, with part of the bowl cut off. When
supper was ended, the company continued their exercise of drinking,
swearing and carousing, till half an hour after two, when some of
these obliging gentlemen made a motion for my taking some repose.
Accordingly, a row of greasy canvas bags, hanging overhead by the
beams, were unlashed. Into one of them it was proposed that I should
get, in order to sleep, but it was with the utmost difficulty I
prevented myself from falling over on the other side....
"The next day, towards evening, several passengers came on board,
viz: Mr. Barons, late Collector, Major Grant, Mr. Barons' footman,
and Mrs. Cruthers, the purser's wife, a native of New England. After
some considerable dispute, I had my lodgings fixed in Mr. Pearson's
berth, where Master Robant, Mr. Baron's man, and I, agreed to lie
together in one large hammock."[64]
[64] Rev. W. A. Bartlett, _The Frontier Missionary_, Boston, 1853.
Such were the accommodations of the petty officers' mess on board a
twenty-gun ship of 1760 in the New England service.
In October, 1774, Miss Janet Schaw set sail from the Firth of Forth,
Scotland, in the brig _Jamaica Packet_, of eighty tons burden, built
in Massachusetts two years before. With her sailed a girl friend,
two young nephews, her brother and her maid. They arrived on board
in the evening and turned in at once. In Miss Schaw's journal of the
voyage, now in the British Museum, we read:
"Our Bed chamber, which is dignified with the title of _state room_,
[there were only two staterooms: the captain occupied the other] is
about five foot wide and six long; on one side is a bed fitted up
for Fanny and on the opposite side one for me. Poor Fanny's is so
very narrow, that she is forced to be tied on, or as the Sea term
is _lashed in_, to prevent her falling over. On the floor below
us lies our Abigail. As she has the breadth of both our Beds and
excellent Bedding, I think she has got a most envyable Berth, but
this is far from her opinion, and she has done nothing but grumble
about her accommodations." The two had been asleep about an hour
when her brother came to the stateroom and let down "the half door"
to enquire after their healths. His "Cott" swung from the ceiling
of the cabin of the brig and the two boys slept on a mattress on
the deck beneath the hammock. The hencoop was located on deck just
over his head and in the morning the rooster and hens kept up such a
pecking that it was impossible for him to sleep. The brig was making
a northerly course in a heavy sea and Fanny and the maid were both
seasick and lying flat on their backs in their five by six foot
cubicle, dimensions probably somewhat underestimated by Miss Schaw,
although later she records that "we sit in bed till we dress, and
get into it whenever we begin to undress."
In the cabin, in which Schaw hung his "cott," was a small cast-iron
stove and here, too, was the case containing the Captain's gin,
which he frequently opened and the odor of which set their stomachs
topsy-turvy and sent poor Fanny to her bed, and Schaw flying on deck
for fresh air. This cabin was furnished with joint stools, chests,
table, and even an elbow chair which Miss Schaw had lashed to a
mooring near the fireside.
A few days after sailing the brig ran into a storm and the water
finding its way into the cabin almost reached the beds in the
stateroom--(which was located beside the companion stair)--forcing
the maid to "peg in with the boys who could easily let her share
with them." The gale also washed away most of their private store
of provisions so they were forced to depend upon the ship's stores
which consisted mainly of neck-beef, several barrels of New England
pork, then on its third voyage across the Atlantic, oatmeal,
stinking herrings and excellent potatoes. Lobscouse was a favorite
dish made from salt beef that had been hung by a string over the
side of the ship till tolerably fresh and then cut up in little
pieces and stewed for some time with potatoes, onions and peppers.
They also varied their diet by "chowder, scratch-platter and
stir-about."[65]
[65] _Journal of a Lady of Quality_, New Haven, 1921.
Just forward of the cabin was the steerage filled with immigrants
of all ages. Their beds were made up on the deck where they lay
alongside of each other and in this low-studded space they existed
when the hatches were battened down in stormy weather. "They have
only for a grown person per week, one pound neck beef, or spoilt
pork, two pounds oat meal, with a small quantity of bisket, not only
mouldy, but absolutely crumbled down with damp, wet and rottenness.
The half is only allowed a child, so that if they had not potatoes,
it is impossible they could live out the voyage. They have no drink,
but a very small proportion of brakish bad water."
It is quite plain that eighteenth-century trans-Atlantic voyaging
was full of discomfort to the average traveler, and to the
unfortunate in the steerage a fearful adventure.