CHAPTER XI
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.
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
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
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.
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."
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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 ownr." 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 ye daies of fast, railing & jesting agt 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
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
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
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 18½ tons of logwood, 507 bbls. tar, 307 bbls. pitch, 7 bbls. whale oil, and 40½ 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.: 7½ 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.