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diff --git a/26632.txt b/26632.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24b0d1e --- /dev/null +++ b/26632.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3754 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Bounty of the Chesapeake, by James Wharton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Bounty of the Chesapeake + Fishing in Colonial Virginia + + +Author: James Wharton + + + +Release Date: September 16, 2008 [eBook #26632] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOUNTY OF THE CHESAPEAKE*** + + +E-text prepared by Mark C. Orton and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 26632-h.htm or 26632-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/6/3/26632/26632-h/26632-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/6/3/26632/26632-h.zip) + + +Transcriber's note: + + Research indicates that the copyright on this book + was not renewed. + + + + + +THE BOUNTY OF THE CHESAPEAKE + +Fishing in Colonial Virginia + +by + +JAMES WHARTON + + * * * * * + +JAMESTOWN 350TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORICAL BOOKLETS + +_Editor_--E. G. SWEM, Librarian Emeritus, College of William and Mary + +COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATIONS: JOHN M. JENNINGS, Director of the Virginia +Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia, _Chairman_. FRANCIS L. +BERKELEY, JR., Archivist, Alderman Library, University of Virginia, +Charlottesville, Virginia. LYMAN H. BUTTERFIELD, Editor-in-Chief of the +Adams Papers, Boston, Mass. EDWARD M. RILEY, Director of Research, +Colonial Williamsburg, Inc., Williamsburg, Virginia. E. G. SWEM, +Librarian Emeritus, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, +Virginia. WILLIAM J. VAN SCHREEVEN, Chief, Division of Archives, +Virginia State Library, Richmond, Virginia. + + 1. _A Selected Bibliography of Virginia, 1607-1699._ By E. G. Swem, +John M. Jennings and James A. Servies. + + 2. _A Virginia Chronology, 1585-1783._ By William W. Abbot. + + 3. _John Smith's Map of Virginia, with a Brief Account of its History._ +By Ben C. McCary. + + 4. _The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London, with Seven +Related Documents; 1606-1621._ Introduction by Samuel M. Bemiss. + + 5. _The Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624._ By Wesley Frank Craven. + + 6. _The First Seventeen Years, Virginia, 1607-1624._ By Charles E. +Hatch, Jr. + + 7. _Virginia under Charles I and Cromwell, 1625-1660._ By Wilcomb E. +Washburn. + + 8. _Bacon's Rebellion, 1676._ By Thomas J. Wertenbaker. + + 9. _Struggle Against Tyranny and the Beginning of a New Era, Virginia, +1677-1699._ By Richard L. Morton. + +10. _Religious Life of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century._ By George +MacLaren Brydon. + +11. _Virginia Architecture in the Seventeenth Century._ By Henry +Chandlee Forman. + +12. _Mother Earth--Land Grants in Virginia, 1607-1699._ By W. Stitt +Robinson, Jr. + +13. _The Bounty of the Chesapeake; Fishing in Colonial Virginia._ By +James Wharton. + +14. _Agriculture in Virginia, 1607-1699._ By Lyman Carrier. + +15. _Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in Virginia, 1607-1699._ By Susie +M. Ames. + +16. _The Government of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century._ By Thomas +J. Wertenbaker. + +17. _Domestic Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century._ By Annie +Lash Jester. + +18. _Indians in Seventeenth-Century Virginia._ By Ben C. McCary. + +19. _How Justice Grew. Virginia Counties._ By Martha W. Hiden. + +20. _Tobacco in Colonial Virginia; "The Sovereign Remedy."_ By Melvin +Herndon. + +21. _Medicine in Virginia, 1607-1699._ By Thomas P. Hughes. + +22. _Some Notes on Shipping and Ship-building in Colonial Virginia._ By +Cerinda W. Evans. + +23. _A Pictorial Booklet on Early Jamestown Commodities and +Industries._ By J. Paul Hudson. + +Price 50 cents Each + +Printed in the United States of America + + * * * * * + + +THE BOUNTY OF THE CHESAPEAKE + +Fishing in Colonial Virginia + +by + +JAMES WHARTON + + + + + + + +The University Press of Virginia +Charlottesville + +Copyright(C) 1957 by +Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration +Corporation, Williamsburg, Virginia + +Second printing 1973 + +Jamestown 350th Anniversary +Historical Booklet Number 13 + + + + +FOREWORD + + +Just as a series of personal letters may constitute an autobiography, +so the extracts from Colonial writings that follow tell the unique +story of the fisheries of Virginia's great Tidewater. In them it is +possible to trace the measured growth of a vital industry. The +interspersed comments of the compiler are to be understood as mere +annotations. This is the testimony, then, of those who from the +beginning participated in one of the foremost natural resources of this +country. + +I gratefully acknowledge guidance in research to Mr. John C. Pearson of +the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, who masterfully surveyed the field +and first brought the early fishery reports to public notice. + +JAMES WHARTON +Weems, Virginia + + + + +THE BOUNTY OF THE CHESAPEAKE + + + + +The Bounty of The Chesapeake + + +The voyage to America in 1607 was like a journey to a star. Veteran +rovers though the English were, none of them had any clear idea of what +to expect in the new land of Virginia. Only one thing was certain: they +would have nothing there but what they took with them or wrought from +the raw materials of the country. + +What raw materials? + +They had reliable information that the climate was mild. Therefore, +crops could be raised. They learned of inexhaustible timber: so ships +and dwellings and industrial works could be built. They hoped for gold +and dreamed of access to uncharted lands of adventure. But putting +first things first, how would they eat in the meantime? + +When Sir Walter Raleigh established the first English colony in +"Virginia"--on what is now Roanoke island, North Carolina--two good +reporters, one a writer, the other an illustrator, were commissioned to +describe what they saw. This was twenty-two years before Jamestown and +naturally all the material consisted of Indian life and customs. Thomas +Hariot wrote: + + For four months of the year, February, March, April and May, there + are plenty of sturgeon; and also in the same months of herrings, + some of the ordinary bigness as ours in England, but the most part + far greater, of eighteen, twenty inches, and some two feet in + length and better; both these kinds of fish in these months are + most plentiful and in best season which we found to be most + delicate and pleasant meat. + + There are also trouts, porpoises, rays, oldwives, mullets, plaice, + and very many other sorts of excellent good fish, which we have + taken and eaten, whose names I know not but in the country language + we have of twelve sorts more the pictures as they were drawn in the + country with their names. + + The inhabitants use to take them two manner of ways, the one is by + a kind of weir made of reeds which in that country are very strong. + The other way which is more strange, is with poles made sharp at + one end, by shooting them into the fish after the manner as + Irishmen cast darts; either as they are rowing in their boats or + else as they are wading in the shallows for the purpose. + + There are also in many places plenty of these kinds which follow: + + Sea crabs, such as we have in England. + + Oysters, some very great, and some small; some round and some of a + long shape. They are found both in salt water and brackish, and + those that we had out of salt water are far better than the other + as in our own country. + + Also mussels, scallops, periwinkles and crevises. + + _Seekanauk_, a kind of crusty shellfish which is good meat about a + foot in breadth, having a crusty tail, many legs like a crab, and + her eyes in her back. They are found in shallows of salty waters; + and sometimes on the shore. + + There are many tortoises both of land and sea kind, their backs and + bellies are shelled very thick; their head, feet and tail, which + are in appearance, seem ugly as though they were members of a + serpent or venomous; but notwithstanding they are very good meat, + as also their eggs. Some have been found of a yard in breadth and + better. + +In a charming drawing of a group of Indian maidens John White, the +artist associate, commented: "They delight ... in seeing fish taken in +the rivers." + +Over and over the first visitors to the Chesapeake bay painted rosy +pictures of its marine life, stressing the abundance, variety and +tastiness of the fish and shellfish. Exploration and communication were +chiefly by water: it was natural that emphasis be laid on water +resources. Though it is proverbial that fish stories partake of +fiction, in the case of John Smith and his successors, it is doubtful +whether they were greatly exaggerated. This was a world where nature, +especially in the waters, was immeasurably prolific. + +On the other hand, the conclusions drawn by many of those reading the +reports were probably unjustified. The infinite plenty was one thing. +Making constant and profitable use of it was another. + +Thus, although Smith cited an impressive roster of edible fish in the +vicinity of Jamestown, it was not to follow that the settlers were +always able to turn them to advantage. There were several good reasons. + +Long before Jamestown the fisheries off the coast of Northern America +and Canada were known to be richly productive, with promise of an +organized and dependable industry. But farther south conditions were +found to be quite different. The fishing in the Chesapeake bay had +frustrating ways. Sometimes there were hordes of fish. Again they +stayed away in large numbers. They were usually present during warm +weather when spoilage was worst. The first colonists had no ice at all +and very little salt. Frequent spells of damp weather made sun-drying +impractical. If more fish were caught than could be eaten at once, the +excess was very likely wasted. Fishing gear was consistently +inadequate. But from the very first, fishing and its development had +been kept in mind by the promoters of the colony. + +Fishing rights were defined in 1606 in letters patent to Sir Thomas +Gates, Sir George Somers and others, as recorded in the Charter granted +in 1606: + + They shall have all ... fishings ... from the said first seat of + their plantation and habitation by the space of fifty miles of + English statute measure, all along the said coast of Virginia and + America, towards the west and southwest, as the coast lies ... and + also all ... fishings for the space of fifty English miles ... all + along the said coast of Virginia and America, towards the east and + northeast ... and also ... fishings ... from the same, fifty miles + every way on the sea coast, directly into the mainland by the space + of one hundred like English miles. + +In the new fishing territory around Jamestown the Indians were the +professionals and their methods were of great interest to the English +novices. A description is furnished by William Strachey, secretary of +state of the colony and author of _The Historie of Travaile into +Virginia Britannia_: + + Their fishing is much in boats. These they call quintans, as the + West Indians call their canoas. They make them with one tree, by + burning and scraping away the coals with stones and shells till + they have made them in the form of a trough. Some of them are an + ell deep and forty or fifty foot in length and some will transport + forty men, but the most ordinary are smaller and will ferry ten or + twenty, with some luggage, over their broadest rivers. Instead of + oars, they use paddles and sticks, with which they will row faster + than we in our barges. They have nets for fishing, for the quantity + as formerly braided and meshed as ours and these are made of bark + of certain trees, deer sinews, or a kind of grass, which they call + pemmenaw, of which their women between their hands and thighs, spin + a thread very even and readily, and this thread serves for many + uses, as about their housing, their mantles of feathers and their + [?] and they also with it make lines for angles. + + Their angles are long small rods at the end whereof they have a + cleft to which the line is fastened, and at the line they hang a + hook, made either of a bone grated (as they nock their arrows) in + the form of a crooked pin or fishhook, or of the splinter of a + bone, and with a thread of the line they tie on the bait. They use + also long arrows tied on a line, wherewith they shoot at fish in + the rivers. Those of Accowmack use staves, like unto javelins, + headed with bone; with these they dart fish, swimming in the + water.... + + By their houses they have sometimes a scaena or high stage, raised + like a scaffold, or small spelts, reeds, or dried osiers covered + with mats which gives a shadow and is a shelter ... where on a loft + of hurdles they lay forth their corn and fish to dry.... + + They are inconstant in everything but what fear constrain them to + keep; crafty, timorous, quick of apprehension, ingenious enough in + their own works, as may testify their weirs in which they take + their fish, which are certain enclosures made of reeds and framed + in the fashion of a labyrinth or maze set a fathom deep in the + water with divers chambers or beds out of which the entangled fish + cannot return or get out, being once in. Well may a great one by + chance break the reeds and so escape, otherwise he remains a prey + to the fishermen the next low water which they fish with a net at + the end of a pole.... + +The earliest observers reveal how intimately food from the waters was +linked with the colonists' experiences. George Percy wrote in 1607: + + We came to a place [Cape Henry] where they [natives] had made a + great fire and had been newly roasting oysters. When they perceived + our coming, they fled away to the mountains and left many of the + oysters in the fire. We ate some of the oysters which were very + large and delicate in taste. + +This was April 27 of that year. Oyster roasts have been a Virginia +institution ever since. He continued: + + Upon this plot of ground [Lynnhaven Bay] we got good store of + mussels and oysters, which lay on the ground as thick as stones. We + opened some and found in many of them pearls. + +The pearls would probably not have been worth mentioning, except as a +novelty, if they had come from oysters alone. The Virginia oyster pearl +lacks luster. But the mussel, particularly the one found in the James +river, yields an iridescent pearl of some little value. + +A month later more oysters, in a form unknown in Virginia today, were +obtained from Indians by Captain Christopher Newport in return for +ornaments, according to Gabriel Archer in 1607: + + He notwithstanding with two women and another fellow of his own + consort followed us some six miles with baskets full of dried + oysters and met us at a point, where calling to us, we went ashore + and bartered with them for most of their victuals. + +A letter from the Council in Virginia to the Council in England in 1607 +stated: + + We are set down eighty miles within a river, for breadth, sweetness + of water, length navigable up into the country, deep and bold + channel, so stored with sturgeon and other sweet fish as no man's + fortune has ever possessed the like. And, as we think, if more may + be wished in a river it will be found. + +After various vicissitudes John Smith confessed: + + Though there be fish in the sea, fowls in the air, and beasts in + the woods, their bounds are so large, they so wild, and we so weak + and ignorant, we cannot much trouble them. + +George Percy introduced a happier note: + + It pleased God, after a while, to send those people which were our + mortal enemies [Indians] to relieve us with victuals, as bread, + corn, fish, and flesh in great plenty, which was the setting up of + our feeble men, otherwise we had all perished. + +John Smith tells about another crisis: + + Our victuals being within eighteen days spent and the Indians' + trade decreasing, I was sent to the mouth of the river, to + Kecoughtan [Hampton], an Indian town, to trade for corn and try the + river for fish, but our fishing we could not effect by reason of + the stormy weather.... Only of sturgeon we had great store, whereon + our men would so greedily surfeit, as it cost many their lives. + +And still another: + + From May to September, those that escaped lived upon sturgeon and + sea crabs. + +And this: + + So it happened that neither we nor they had anything to eat but + what the country afforded naturally. Yet of eighty who lived upon + oysters in June or July, with a pint of corn a week for a man lying + under trees, and one hundred twenty for the most part living upon + sturgeon, which are dried till we pounded it to powder for meal, + yet in ten weeks but seven died. + +For once he paints a brighter picture: + + The next night, being lodged at Kecoughtan, six or seven days the + extreme wind, rain, frost, and snow caused us to keep Christmas + among the savages, where we were never more merry, nor fed on more + plenty of good oysters, fish, flesh, wild fowl, and good bread. + +He describes further ups and downs: + + Now we so quietly followed our business that in three months, we + ... provided nets and weirs for fishing. + + Sixty or eighty with Ensign Laxon were sent down the river to live + upon oysters, and twenty with Lieutenant Percy to try fishing at + Point Comfort. But in six weeks, they would not agree once to cast + out their net. + + We had more sturgeon than could be devoured by dog or man, of which + the industrious by drying and pounding, mingled with caviar, + sorrel, and other wholesome herbs, would make bread and good meat. + +Despite the privations much food is available, Smith avers: + + In summer no place affords more plenty of sturgeon, nor in winter + more abundance of fowl, especially in time of frost. There was once + taken fifty-two sturgeon at a draught, at another draught + sixty-eight. From the latter end of May till the end of June are + taken few but young sturgeon of two foot or a yard long. From + thence till the midst of September them of two or three yards long + and a few others. And in four or five hours with one net were + ordinarily taken seven or eight; often more, seldom less. In the + small rivers all the year there is a good plenty of small fish, so + that with hooks those that would take pains had sufficient.... + + Of fish we were best acquainted with sturgeon, grampus, porpoise, + seals, stingrays whose tails are very dangerous, brits, mullets, + white salmon, trouts, soles, plaice, herring, conyfish, rockfish, + eels, lampreys, catfish, shad, perch of three sorts, crabs, + shrimps, crevises, oysters, cockles, and mussels. But the most + strange fish is a small one so like the picture of St. George's + dragon as possibly can be, except his legs and wings; and the + toadfish which will swell till it be like to burst when it comes + into the air. + +When Smith spoke of sturgeon he was most probably referring to the +James river, the best waters for sturgeon in Virginia to this day. The +"small rivers" were the fresh-water tributaries of the large salty +ones. The small fish to be found there which would take the hook in +winter were probably the non-migratory species like perch, catfish and +suckers. If some of the names Smith gives seem puzzling today, it +should be remembered that often the same fish name has applied +throughout history to different fish at different times or in different +areas. Contrariwise, different names, in regional usage, may apply to +the same fish. Thus it is virtually impossible to say whether all the +fish named by Colonial reporters are to be found in Virginia waters +today. For example, though no "white salmon" are known in Virginia, it +is possible that Smith referred to a fish that merely resembled a +salmon without belonging to that family. On the other hand, it is +conceivable that Virginia boats caught "white salmon" in the Atlantic +Ocean. "Conyfish" can mean several different fishes, so that it is not +possible to be sure what Smith had in mind; so with "brit." "Crevise" +is an older name for crawfish. Seals still make rare appearances in the +bay. As for the stingrays, he spoke from experience; he was spiked by +one. Almost all of his list are still being caught off Jamestown. The +"St. George's dragon" or sea horse, is among them. + +There are many more varieties of fish caught by Virginia fishermen +today than were ever mentioned in Colonial records. This is due to +superior gear and the more intensive use of it. + +Captain Christopher Newport was among the earliest observers confirming +Smith. He wrote in 1607: + + The main river [James] abounds with sturgeon, very large and + excellent good, having also at the mouth of every brook and in + every creek both store and exceedingly good fish of divers kinds. + In the large sounds near the sea are multitudes of fish, banks of + oysters, and many great crabs rather better, in fact, than ours and + able to suffice four men. And within sight of land into the sea we + expect at time of year to have a good fishing for cod, as both at + our entering we might perceive by palpable conjectures, seeing the + cod follow the ship ... as also out of my own experience not far + off to the northward the fishing I found in my first voyage to + Virginia.... + + The commodities of the country, what they are in else, is not much + to be regarded, the inhabitants having no concern with any nation, + no respect of profit.... Yet this for the present, by the consent + of all our seamen, merely fishing for sturgeon cannot be worth less + than L1,000 a year, leaving herring and cod as possibilities.... + + We have a good fishing for mussels which resemble mother-of-pearl, + and if the pearl we have seen in the king's ears and about their + necks come from these shells we know the banks. + +The crab "able to suffice four men" could scarcely have been other than +the horseshoe. It has never been considered a delicacy. + +It is usually by contraries that the truth is determined. Even in the +midst of the apparent plenty of fish, fishing crews sometimes came home +empty-handed after continued effort. Often storms interfered. + +From personal experience John Smith was able to sound the warning about +Chesapeake weather: + + Our mast and sail blew overboard and such mighty waves overraked us + in that small barge that with great danger we kept her from sinking + by freeing out the water. + + The winds are variable, but the like thunder and lightning to + purify the air I have seldom either seen or heard in Europe. + +As if struck by the helplessness of the settlers, a compassionate chief +extended aid to them in 1608. A letter from Francis Perkins tells the +story: + + So excessive are the frosts that one night the river froze over + almost from bank to bank in front of our harbour, although it was + there as wide as that of London. There died from the frost some + fish in the river, which when taken out after the frost was over, + were very good and so fat that they could be fried in their own fat + without adding any butter or such thing.... + + Their own great emperor or the wuarravance, which is the name of + their kings, has sent some of his people that they may teach us how + to sow the grain of this country and to make certain traps with + which they are going to fish. + +A letter from the Council in Virginia to the Virginia Company in London +in 1610 shows that such favors were returned: + + Whilst we were fishing divers Indians came down from the woods unto + us and ... I gave unto them such fish as we took ... for indeed at + this time of the year [July] they live poor, their corn being but + newly put into the ground and their own store spent. Oysters and + crabs and such fish as they take in their weirs is their best + relief. + +Oysters occurred in vast banks and shoals within sight of the Jamestown +fort. During the 1609-10 "starving time" a minimum force was retained +at the settlement while everyone else was turned out to forage as best +he could. Most sought the oyster grounds where they ate oysters nine +weeks, a diet varied only by a pitifully negligible allowance of corn +meal. In the words of one of the foragers, "this kind of feeding caused +all our skin to peel off from head to foot as if we had been dead." The +arrival of supplies ended the ordeal. But soon hunger descended again +and the oyster beds would have been the natural recourse if it had not +been winter and the water too cold to wade in. So the oysters were no +help. + +That conscientious reporter, William Strachey, wrote in 1610: + + In this desolation and misery our Governor found the condition and + state of the Colony. Nor was there at the fort, as they whom we + found related unto us, any means to take fish; neither sufficient + seine, nor other convenient net, and yet of their need, there was + not one eye of sturgeon yet come into the river. + + The river which was wont before this time of the year to be + plentiful of sturgeon had not now a fish to be seen in it, and + albeit we laboured and hauled our net twenty times day and night, + yet we took not so much as would content half the fishermen. Our + Governor therefore, sent away his long boat to coast the river + downward as far as Point Comfort, and from thence to Cape Henry and + Cape Charles, and all within the bay, which after a seven nights + trial and travail, returned without any fruits of their labours, + scarce getting so much fish as served their own company. + + And, likewise, because at the Lord Governor and Captain General's + first coming, there was found in our own river no store of fish + after many trials, the Lord Governor and Captain General dispatched + in the _Virginia_, with instructions, the seventeenth of June, + 1610, Robert Tyndall, master of the _De la Warre_, to fish unto, + all along, and between Cape Henry and Cape Charles within the + bay.... Nor was the Lord Governor and Captain General in the + meanwhile idle at the fort, but every day and night he caused the + nets to be hauled, sometimes a dozen times one after another. But + it pleased not God so to bless our labours that we did at any time + take one quarter so much as would give unto our people one pound at + a meal apiece, by which we might have better husbanded our peas and + oatmeal, notwithstanding the great store we now saw daily in our + river. But let the blame of this lie where it is, both upon our + nets and the unskilfulness of our men to lay them. + +The matter of sturgeon was of prime importance not only for subsistence +but for export, particularly of the roe. Caviar was in great demand in +England. But with uncertainty as to when the sturgeon would appear in +the river, plus hot weather, plus feeble facilities, the growth of the +industry was impeded. When tobacco, first commercially grown by John +Rolfe, appeared on the scene in 1612 and proved to be a sure money +maker, the export of sturgeon products came to a standstill. It was +having hard going anyway. Complaints from England regarding quality +were familiar enough. According to Lord De La Warr in 1610, on the +subject, "Virginia Commodities": + + Sturgeon which was last sent came ill-conditioned, not being well + boiled. If it were cut in small pieces and powdered, put up in + cask, the heads pickled by themselves, and sent here, it would do + far better. + + Roes of the said sturgeon make caviar according to instructions + formerly given. Sounds of the said sturgeon will make isinglass + according to the same instructions. Isinglass is worth here 13s. + 4d. per 100 pounds, and caviar well conditioned is worth L40 per + 100. + +Other instances stressed the undependable fishing. Lord De La Warr +wrote to the Earl of Salisbury in England in 1610: "I sent fishermen +out to provide fish for our men, to save other provision, but they had +ill success." + +Captain Samuel Argall was specially commissioned by the authorities in +England to deep-sea fish for the benefit of the Colony. After ranging +over a wide area between Bermuda and Canada, he reported in 1610: + + ... The weather continuing very foggy, thick, and rainy, about five + of the clock it began to cease and then we began to fish and so + continued until seven of the clock in between thirty and forty + fathoms, and then we could fish no longer. So having gotten between + twenty and thirty cods we left for that night, and at five of the + clock, the 26th, in the morning we began to fish again and so + continued until ten of the clock, and then it would fish no longer, + in which time we had taken near one hundred cods and a couple of + halibuts.... + + Then I tried whether there were any fish there or not [off Maine + coast], and I found reasonable good store there. So I stayed there + fishing till the 12th of August, [1610] and then finding that the + fishing did fail, I thought good to return to the island + [Jamestown].... + +Captain Argall also offered his opinion of the usefulness of the +islands off Virginia's seacoast peninsula, later known as the Eastern +Shore: + + Salt might easily be made there, if there were any ponds digged, + for that I found salt kernel where the water had overflowed in + certain places. Here also is great store of fish, both shellfish + and others. + +The root of the trouble, so far as local fishing conditions were +concerned, was the lack of adequate equipment together with ignorance +of its proper use. Perhaps the ease with which fish were caught at +certain times had spoiled the hardy settlers. + +A low opinion of their attitude in this vital pursuit came from Sir +Thomas Gates in 1610: + + A colony is therefore denominated because they should be coloni, + the tillers of the earth and stewards of fertility. Our mutinous + loiterers would not sow with providence and therefore they reaped + the fruits of far too dear bought repentance. An incredible example + of their idleness is the report of Sir Thomas Gates who affirms + that after his first coming thither he had seen some of them eat + their fish raw rather than they would go a stone's cast to fetch + wood and dress it. + + Joined unto these another evil: There is great store of fish in the + river, especially of sturgeon, but our men provided no more of them + than present necessity, not barreling up any store against the + season [when] the sturgeon returned to the sea. And not to + dissemble their folly, they suffered fourteen nets, which was all + they had, to rot and spoil, which by orderly drying and mending + might have been preserved but being lost, all help of fishing + perished. + +Very few of them had come equipped for fishing. Their seines were as +old-fashioned as those used by the Apostles in the New Testament, the +simple kind you lowered from a boat and dragged ashore. The Indians had +taught them how to spear large fish and erect weirs out of stakes and +brushwood to entrap migrating schools. Such methods worked well enough +during the season. But in cold weather, when provisions ran low, +scarcely any fish were present in the bay proper. + +It was different in New England and Canada. There the fishing was good +the year round. The sea bottom was dragged by efficient trawl-nets, and +fished with gang-lines of baited hooks, as it still is today. The cool +temperatures over many months of the year made the catches much less +perishable. Conditions favored an organized fish-salting industry. + +Though the Jamestown people had easy access to some 3,000 square miles +of inland tidal water and were only a little way from the open sea, +they never developed their marine riches. One good reason was that +their original aims were in other directions. When the first intentions +to colonize New England came to the King's notice, he asked the leaders +what drew them there. The one-word answer: "Fishing." If the Virginians +had been similarly queried they would have given various replies, but +certainly not that one. + +In describing the fisheries of New England, John Smith had enthused: + + Let not the meanness of the word fish distaste you, for it will + afford us good gold as the mines of Guiana or Tumbata, with less + hazard and charge, and more certainty and facility. + +The need for fishermen in Virginia was officially recognized to only a +slight degree. A 1610 memorandum from the Virginia Council to the +authorities in London asked that an effort be made to include among the +next immigrants 20 fishermen and 6 net makers. Select them with care +was the word sent out in England by means of a broadside issued by the +Council of Virginia, December, 1610: + + Whereas the good ship called the _Hercules_ is now preparing and + almost in a readiness with necessary provisions to make a supply to + the Lord Governor and the Colony in Virginia, it is thought meet, + for the avoiding of such vagrant and unnecessary persons as do + commonly proffer themselves being altogether unserviceable, that + none but honest sufficient artificers, as carpenters, smiths, + coopers, fishermen, brickmen, and such like, shall be entertained + into this voyage. Of whom so many as will in due time repair to the + house of Sir Thomas Smith in Philpot Lane, with sufficient + testimony to their skill and good behavior, they shall receive + entertainment accordingly. + +It was only a question of time before the Virginia colonists would, +though surrounded all the while by their own huge marine resources, +subsist on salt fish from the North. Sir Thomas Dale, governor from +1611 to 1616, perceived the trend. One of his first moves was to ask +the President of the Virginia Company to provide men trained enough to +build a coastal trade in furs, corn and fish: + + Let me intreat that we may have both an admiral and hired mariners, + to be all times resident here. The benefit will quickly make good + the charge as well by a trade of furs to be obtained with the + savages in the northern rivers to be returned home as also to + furnish us here with corn and fish. The waste of such men all this + time whom we might trust with our pinnaces leaves us destitute this + season of so great a quantity of fish as not far from our own bay + would sufficiently satisfy the whole Colony for a whole year. + +There were no boats available even for simple oystering. During the +term of the stringent Governor Dale some disaffected colonists tried to +escape in a shallop and a barge, which were "all the boats that were +then in the Colony." + +Ironically punctuating the sagas of hardship were the marveling +descriptions publicized in England. Corroborating the mouth-watering +tales of Smith, William Strachey wrote in 1612: + + To the natural commodities which the country has of fruit, beasts, + and fowl, we may also add the no mean commodity of fish, of which, + in March and April, are great shoals of herrings, sturgeon, great + store commonly in May if the year be forward. I have been at the + taking of some before Algernoone fort and in Southampton river in + the middle of March, and they remain with us June, July, and August + and in that plenty as before expressed. + + Shad, great store, of a yard long and for sweetness and fatness a + reasonable food fish; he is only full of small bones, like our + barbels in England. There is the garfish, some of which are a yard + long, small and round like an eel and as big as a mare's leg, + having a long snout full of sharp teeth. + + Oysters there be in whole banks and beds, and those of the best. I + have seen some thirteen inches long. The savages use to boil + oysters and mussels together and with the broth they make a good + spoon meat, thickened with the flour of their wheat and it is a + great thrift and husbandry with them to hang the oysters upon + strings ... and dried in the smoke, thereby to preserve them all + the year. + + There be two sorts of sea crabs. One our people call a king crab + and they are taken in shoal waters from off the shore a dozen at a + time hanging one upon another's tail; they are of a foot in length + and half a foot in breadth, having legs and a long tail. The + Indians seldom eat of this kind. There is a shellfish of the + proportion of a cockle but far greater [conch]. It has a smooth + shell, not ragged as our cockles; 'tis good meat though somewhat + tough. + +And, according to Alexander Whitaker in 1613: + + The rivers abound with fish both small and great. The sea-fish come + into our rivers in March and continue the end of September. Great + schools of herrings come in first; shads of a great bigness and the + rockfish follow them. Trout, bass, flounders, and other dainty fish + come in before the others be gone. Then come multitudes of great + sturgeons, whereof we catch many and should do more, but that we + want good nets answerable to the breadth and depth of our rivers. + Besides our channels are so foul in the bottom with great logs and + trees that we often break our nets upon them. I cannot reckon nor + give proper names to the divers kinds of fresh fish in our rivers. + I have caught with mine angle, carp, pike, eel, perches of six + several kinds, crayfish and the torope or little turtle, besides + many small kinds. + +When Whitaker penned the word "torope," he was giving the +English-speaking world a new term, new because the animal it defined +was unknown in Europe. Later spelled "terrapin," it meant the +diamond-back, the esoteric little creature that spread the fame of the +Chesapeake bay around the world and became an indispensable course on +menus designed for the entertainment of royalty and the discriminating +elect. The colonists probably ate it prepared Indian fashion, that is, +roasted whole in live coals and opened at table where the savory meat +was extracted by appreciative fingers. Over generations of +terrapin-fanciers it evolved into one of the stars of the gastronomic +firmament. It is a wholly American dish and it was born at Jamestown. + +Contemporary Historian Ralph Hamor added his testimony in 1614: + + For fish, the rivers are plentifully stored with sturgeon, porpoise, + bass, rockfish, carp, shad, herring, eel, catfish, perch, flat-fish, + trout, sheepshead, drummers, jewfish, crevises, crabs, oysters, and + divers other kinds. Of all which myself has seen great quantity + taken, especially the last summer at Smith's Island at one haul a + frigate's lading of sturgeon, bass, and other great fish in Captain + Argall's seine, and even at the very place which is not above + fifteen miles from Point Comfort. If we had been furnished with + salt to have saved it, we might have taken as much fish as would + have served us that whole year. + +The mention of carp will interest those who believe carp to have been +introduced into Virginia much later. The jewfish is common in more +southern waters but there may well have been some strays in the +Chesapeake. Although croakers, one of the bay's most abundant fish in +modern times, are not mentioned, it would not be unreasonable to assume +that they were included under "drummers." So with spot, a member of the +drum family bearing a superficial resemblance to a bass or perch. The +term "spot," as applied to a Virginia fish does not seem to have become +current till the late 19th century. + +An event of special interest to statisticians occurred in 1612. The +first attempt made in the New World to require certain fish catches to +be reported was among the regulations propounded by Governor Thomas +Dale. The penalty for violation would shock today's delinquent record +keepers: + + All fishermen, dressers of sturgeon, or such like appointed to fish + or to cure the said sturgeon for the use of the Colony, shall give + a just and true account of all such fish as they shall take by day + or night, of whatsoever kind, the same to bring unto the Governor. + As also all such kegs of sturgeon or caviar as they shall prepare + and cure upon peril for the first time offending herein of losing + his ears, and for the second time to be condemned a year to the + galleys, and for the third time offending to be condemned to the + galleys for three years. + +The years of trial and error fishing had brought their return in +increased knowledge, according to John Rolfe in 1616: + + About two years since, Sir Thomas Dale ... found out two seasons in + the year to catch fish, namely, the spring and the fall. He himself + took no small pains in the trial and at one haul with a seine + caught five thousand three hundred of them, as big as cod. The + least of the residue or kind of salmon trout, two foot long, yet he + durst not adventure on the main school for breaking his net. + Likewise, two men with axes and such like weapons have taken and + killed near the shore and brought home forty [fish] as great as cod + in two or three hours space.... + +There was a hint that the Virginia Company was interfering with free +ocean fishing by claiming all the land to Newfoundland,--not that it +was getting much out of it. One complaint as published in London +sometime before February 22, 1615, in the anonymous tract, _The Trades +Increase_, read: + + The Virginia Company pretend almost all that main twixt it and + Newfoundland to be their fee-simple, whereby many honest and able + minds, disposed to adventure, are hindered and stopped from + repairing to those places that they either know or would discover, + even for fishing. + +As a matter of fact, there was continuous wrangling in London over the +fishing rights off the entire coast administered by the Virginia +Company. The proposed settlers of the Northern Colony in New England +had fishing uppermost in their minds and would have been glad to +exclude fishermen coming from the Southern Colony. Minutes of meetings +of the Company reveal how earnest was the struggle: + + December 1, 1619. The last great general court being read, Mr. + Treasurer acquainted them that Mr. John Delbridge, purposing to + settle a particular colony in Virginia, desired of the Company that + for defraying some part of his charge he might be admitted to fish + at Cape Cod. Which request was opposed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, + alleging that he always favored Mr. Delbridge but in this he + thought himself something touched that he should sue to this + Company and not rather to him as the matter properly belonged to + the Northern Colony to give liberty for fishing in that place, it + lying within their latitude. This was answered by Mr. Treasurer + that the Companies of the South and North Plantations are free of + one another and that the patent is clear that each may fish within + the territory of the other, the sea being free for both. If the + Northern Company abridged them of this, they would take away their + means and encouragement for sending out men. To which Sir + Ferdinando Gorges replied that if he was not mistaken both the + Companies were limited by the patents unto which he would submit. + For the deciding whereof it is referred to the Council, who are of + both Companies, to examine the patents tomorrow afternoon at the + Lord Southampton's and accordingly to determine the dispute. + +Two weeks later the Council gave its decision: Either Colony could fish +within the bounds of the other. But this was by no means an end to the +matter. The Northern Colony requested a new patent to resolve the +disputes. With suggestions and counter-suggestions, the debate dragged +on through the spring, summer and fall. About the time the Northern +Colony had arranged to exclude the Southern Colony from free fishing, +the King stepped in, declaring that "if anything were passed in the New +England patent that might be prejudicial to the Southern Colony it was +done without his knowledge and that he has been abused thereby by those +that pretended otherwise to him." Finally, after a year-and-a-half of +cross-purposes, agreement was reached: + + June 18, 1621. There was a petition exhibited unto His Majesty in + the name of the patentees and adventurers in the plantation of New + England concerning some difference between the Southern and + Northern Colonies, the said petition was by His Majesty referred to + the consideration of the Lords. Their Lordships, upon the hearing + and debating of the matter at large and by the consent of both + Colonies, did establish and confirm two former orders, the one + bearing date of the 16th of March 1620, agreed upon by the Duke of + Lenox and the Earl of Arundell; the other of the 21st of July 1620 + ordered by the Board whereby it was thought fit that the said + colonies should fish at sea within the limits and bounds of each + other reciprocally, with this limitation that it be only for the + sustentation of the people of the Colonies there and for the + transportation of people into either Colony. Further it was ordered + at this time by their Lordships that they should have freedom of + the shore for drying of their nets and taking and saving of their + fish and to have wood for their necessary uses, by the assignment + of the Governors at reasonable rates. Lastly the patent of the + Northern Colony shall be renewed according to the premises, and + those of the Southern plantation to have a sight thereof before it + be engrossed and the former patent to be delivered into the hand of + the patentees. + +In an effort to encourage Virginians to salt their own fish, an order +from London recommended the reopening of the old sea-water-evaporators +on Smith's island, off Cape Charles, where salt had been produced in +the first days. The Virginia Company advised the Governor and Council +in 1620: + + The last commodity, but not of least importance for health, is + SALT: the works whereof having been lately suffered to decay; we + now intending to restore in so great plenty, as not only to serve + the Colony for the present, but as is hoped, in short time, the + great fishings on those coasts, a matter of inestimable advancement + to the Colony, do upon mature deliberation ordain as followeth: + First, that you the Governor and Council, do chose out of the + tenants for the Company, 20 fit persons to be employed in salt + works, which are to be renewed in Smith's Island, where they were + before; as also in taking of fish there, for the use of the Colony, + as in former times was also done. These 20 shall be furnished out + at the first, at the charges of the Company, with all implements + and instruments necessary for those works. They shall have also + assigned to each of them for their occupation or use, 50 acres of + land within the island, to be land of the Company. The one moiety + of salt, fish, and profits of the land shall be for the tenants, + the other for us the Company, to be delivered into our store: and + this contract shall be continued for five years. + +The reply of Secretary of the Colony, John Pory, was something less +than complacent: + + The last commodity spoken of in your charter is salt; the works + whereof, we do much marvel, you would have restored to their former + use; whereas I will undertake in one day to make as much salt by + the heat of the sun, after the manner used in France, Spain, and + Italy, as can be made in a year by that toilsome and erroneous way + of boiling sea water into salt in kettles as our people at Smith's + Island hitherto accustomed. And therefore when you enter into this + work, you must send men skillful in salt ponds, such as you may + easily procure from Rochell, and if you can have none there, yet + some will be found in Lymington, and in many other places in + England. And this indeed in a short time might prove a real work of + great sustenance to the Colony at home, as of gain abroad, here + being such schools of excellent fish, as ought rather to be admired + of such as have not seen the same, than credited. Whereas the + Company do give their tenants fifty acres upon Smith's Island some + there are that smile at it here, saying there is no ground in all + the whole island worth the manuring. + +Following this exchange, attempts at salt making, especially on the +Eastern Shore where the waters were saltiest, were renewed. John Rolfe +reported in 1621: + + At Dale's Gift, being upon the sea near unto Cape Charles, about + thirty miles from Kecoughtan, are seventeen inhabitants under + command of Lieutenant Cradock. All these are fed and maintained by + the Colony. Their labor is to make salt and catch fish.... + +Secretary Pory soon expressed his disagreement with the project in more +than words and succeeded in effecting the removal of the salt works to +a more convenient location. That this hardly fulfilled expectations is +evidenced by a letter written in 1628 to the King by the Governor and +Council: + + Great likeliness of the certainty of bay salt, the benefit that + will thereby accrue to the Colony will be great, and they shall + willingly assist Mr. Capps in making his experiment, which, brought + to perfection, will draw a certain trade to them. And they hope + that the fishing upon their coasts will be very near as good as + Canada. + +Mr. Capps, a citizen of Accomack, had proposed that if the Colony would +subsidize him he would undertake to supply it with salt from evaporated +sea water. His offer was accepted and the enterprise set up. After +waiting patiently and seeing little salt the Council took him to task. +His plea was the familiar one of most operations that fail: lack of +capital. He had worked hard, he said; he had all the firewood he needed, +workmen were available, and the sun shone bright. The bottle-neck was +too few evaporating pans. But apparently he had not won the Council's +confidence. The Capps salt company was dissolved. + +Another one sprang up about 30 years later under the sponsorship of +Colonel Edmund Scarborough of Northampton County. Such was the public +interest aroused by this influential man, who, among other +distinctions, had been a Burgess between 1642 and 1659, that the +importation of salt into the county was prohibited to encourage him. +Finally, in 1666, this project was abandoned for reasons that remain +obscure. Most probably the quality of the product was inferior. + +The salt shortage continued despite other random attempts to alleviate +it. For example, in 1660 one Daniel Dawen of Accomack was exempted from +taxes and granted public funds for his "experiments of salt." + +The trouble that attended obtaining salt in needed quantity and of +satisfactory quality accompanied the development of Virginia right up +to George Washington's time. + +Despite all attempts to the contrary, reliance on salt fish from the +North kept gaining. The General Assembly that had met in 1619 censured +a Captain Warde for establishing a plantation in Virginia without +asking anybody's permission. But when it was brought out that he had +conveyed quantities of salt fish to the Colony from Canada on his ship +he was forgiven. This captain was an important link between the Colony +and the North. John Rolfe wrote to Sir Edwin Sandys in 1619: + + Captain Warde in his ship went to Monhegan [island, Maine] in the + Northern Colony in May and returned the latter end of July with + fish which he caught there. He brought but a small quantity by + reason he had but little salt. There were some Plymouth ships where + he harbored, who made great store of fish which is far larger than + Newland [Newfoundland] fish. + +The Maine waters were far busier than those of Virginia. For more than +a century vessels from half-a-dozen European nations had thronged +there, even to Greenland, attracted by the fishing, and the furs +available on the mainland. When some of the early experiments at +colonization failed, fishing became all the more emphasized. There was +usually excellent demand for the catches whether landed in Plymouth +(England) or Plymouth (Massachusetts), Portugal, Holland, the West +Indies or Virginia. These bold adventurers made use of the land in the +New World only for drying, salting and barreling their fish. If +conditions permitted, they transported them fresh, in a cargo commonly +known as "corfish." Oil made from whale and cod was a profitable +commodity. + +Fishermen were the pioneers and explorers of America's first days just +as the miners, trappers and traders were those of a later period. + +The importance of fish was thus underlined. In addition, conceding the +value to the untrained whites of Indians as fishermen, the 1619 +Assembly agreed to a proposal that Indians to the limit of six be +permitted to live in white settlements if they engaged in fishing for +the benefit of the settlement. Indian methods were first described by +Hariot of the Roanoke island colony: + + They have likewise a notable way to catch fish in their rivers, for + whereas they lack both iron and steel, they fasten unto their + reeds, or long rods, the hollow tail of a certain fish like to a + sea crab instead of a point, wherewith by night or day they strike + fishes, and take them up into their boats. They also know how to + use the prickles, and pricks of other fishes. They also make weirs, + with setting up reeds or twigs in the water, which they so plant + one with another, that they grow still narrower, and narrower. + There was never seen among us so cunning a way to take fish withal, + whereof sundry sorts as they found in their rivers unlike ours, + which are also of a very good taste. Doubtless it is a pleasant + sight to see the people, sometimes wading, and going sometimes + sailing in those rivers, which are shallow and not deep, free from + all care of heaping up riches for their posterity, content with + their state, and living friendly together of those things which God + of His bounty hath given unto them, yet without giving Him any + thanks according to His deserts. + +The most vivid and comprehensive description of Indian fishing was +given by historian Robert Beverley. Though his work was not published +until 1705, he dealt with an earlier period: + + Before the arrival of the English there, the Indians had fish in + such vast plenty that the boys and girls would take a pointed stick + and strike the lesser sort as they swam upon the flats. The larger + fish that kept in deeper water, they were put to a little more + difficulty to take. But for these they made weirs, that is, a hedge + of small rived sticks or reeds of the thickness of a man's finger. + These they wove together in a row with straps of green oak or other + tough wood, so close that the small fish could not pass through. + Upon high water mark they pitched one end of this hedge and the + other they extended into the river to the depth of eight or ten + foot, fastening it with stakes, making cods out from the hedge on + one side, almost at the end, and leaving a gap for the fish to go + into them. These were contrived so that the fish could easily find + their passage into those cods when they were at the gap, but not + see their way out again when they were in. Thus if they offered to + pass through, they were taken. + + Sometimes they made such a hedge as this quite across a creek at + high water and at low would go into the run, so contracted into a + narrow stream, and take out what fish they pleased. + + At the falls of the rivers where the water is shallow and the + current strong, the Indians use another kind of weir thus made. + They make a dam of loose stone, whereof there is plenty at hand, + quite across the river, leaving one, two, or more spaces or + trunnels for the water to pass through. At the mouth they set a pot + of reeds, wove in form of a cone, whose base is about three foot + [wide] and ten [foot] perpendicular, into which the swiftness of + the current carries the fish and wedges them so fast that they + cannot possibly return. + + The Indian way of catching sturgeon, when they came into the narrow + part of the rivers, was by a man's clapping a noose over their + tails and by keeping fast his hold. Thus a fish, finding itself + entangled, would flounce and often pull him under water. Then that + man was counted a cockarouse, or brave fellow, that would not let + go till with swimming, wading and diving, he had tired the sturgeon + and brought it ashore. These sturgeon would also leap into their + canoes in crossing the river, as many of them do still every year + into the boats of the English. + + They have also another way of fishing like those on the Euxine Sea, + by the help of a blazing fire by night. They make a hearth in the + middle of their canoe, raising it within two inches of the edge. + Upon this they lay their burning lightwood, split into small + shivers, each splinter whereof will blaze and burn end for end like + a candle. 'Tis one man's work to tend this fire and keep it + flaming. At each end of the canoe stands an Indian with a gig or + point spear, setting the canoe forward with the butt end of the + spear as gently as he can, by that means stealing upon the fish + without any noise or disturbing of the water. Then they with great + dexterity dart these spears into the fish and so take them. Now + there is a double convenience in the blaze of this fire, for it not + only dazzles the eyes of the fish, which will lie still glaring + upon it, but likewise discovers the bottom of the river clearly to + the fisherman, which the daylight does not. + +Under Governor George Yeardley in 1616, there were 400 people at +Jamestown and one old frigate, one old shallop and one boat belonging +to the community. There were two boats privately owned. The boats best +suited to local fishing, and the most easily available, were the Indian +dugout canoes. Such was the size of the trees that it was possible to +make them comparatively roomy, as Strachey noted. + +Every passing year brought home to the steadily growing Colony the need +of improving its fishing practices. Most nets had to be bought in +England. Here is a London item from a 1623 _List of Subscribers and +Subscriptions for Relief of the Colony_: "Richard Tatem will adventure +[speculate] in cheese and fishing nets the sum of L30 sterling." + +Jamestown had by 1624 begun to spawn little Jamestowns throughout the +countryside. A census was ordered of all settlements. In January, 1625, +there were 1209 white persons, and 23 negroes. This first American +census listed, among general provisions, the stocks of salt fish. On +hand at thirteen settlements was 58,380 pounds. James City had the +largest supply, 24,880 pounds. Elizabeth City was next with 10,550 +pounds. A community listed only as "Neck of Land" adjacent to +Jamestown, consisting of perhaps ten dwellings and plantations, had +4,050 pounds. The smallest store, 450 pounds, was credited to another +"Neck of Land" in Charles City. From the accumulated evidences of +disorganized home fishing, coupled with the deficiency of salt, it is +to be concluded that most of this supply had come from the Northern +fishing grounds. + +There were 40 boats of various sizes and uses listed in this census. +For example, at Jamestown a "barque of 40 tons, a shallop of 4 tons and +one skiff" were among the ten there. + +A token of the stress resulting from inadequate fisheries even after 16 +years of active colonization is this letter preserved in the records of +the Virginia Company. A Virginia citizen named Arundle in 1623 wrote to +his friend, Mr. Caning, in London: + + The most evident hope from altogether starving is oysters, and for + the easier getting of them I have agreed for a canoe which will + cost me 6 livres sterling. + + Emigrants had been advised not to leave for Virginia without some + fishing equipment. In his _Travels_, John Smith had included the + warning: "A particular of such necessaries as either private + families or single persons shall have cause to provide to go to + Virginia ... nets, hooks and lines must be added." + +Records of the Virginia Company in London throw light on the +extensiveness of the fish trade. Robert Bennett wrote from Virginia to +Edward Bennett in London in 1623: + + My last letter I wrote you was in the _Adam_ from Newfoundland, + which I hope you shall receive before this. God send her back in + safety and this from Canada. I hope the fish will come to a good + reckoning for victuals is very scarce in the country. Your + Newfoundland fish is worth 30s. per hundred, your dry Canada [fish] + L3, 10s. and the wet L5, 10s. per hundred. I do not know nor hear + of any that is coming hither with fish but only the _Tiger_ which + went in company with the _Adam_ from this place and I know the + country will carry away all this forthwith. + +And again from the records of the Company, this extract from _An +Account of Sums Subscribed and Supplies Sent Since April_, dated July +23, 1623: + + ... We have received advice that from Canada there departed this + last month a ship called Furtherance with above forty thousand of + that fish which is little inferior to ling for the supply of the + Colony in Virginia and that fish is worth not less than L600. + + +[Illustration: _The broyling of their fish over the flame of fire._ + +Library of Congress Photo + +The first settlers did not have to learn from the Indians how to cook +fish, but this method was perhaps as appetizing as any they knew.] + +[Illustration: _The manner of their fishing._ + +Library of Congress Photo + +The first colonists saw the Indians engaged in fishing practices that +included spearing, luring with firelight, and entrapping in staked-off +enclosures.] + +[Illustration: The sheepshead was one of the favorite seafoods of +Tidewater Virginians from the beginning. It was fairly abundant, +according to their records, and remained so until the twentieth +century, when it became almost extinct in Chesapeake waters. + +U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Photos] + +[Illustration: The ugly-looking but delicious-tasting sturgeon was the +fish that principally engaged the attention of the first colonists. +They were impressed by its abundance and were busy for a time in +shipping its roe to England for [1]caviar. + +U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Photos] + + [1] (we cannot be certain that much actual caviar was produced at + Jamestown. The chances are that the roe was merely salted down + and that the final processing took place in England) + +[Illustration: Haul-seining or dragging fish ashore by enclosing them +in a long net, is a form of fishing that has thrived almost unchanged +through the ages. Its practice at Jamestown was limited by the lack of +nets.] + +[Illustration: The toothsome Chesapeake Bay hard crab was, and is still +to a great extent today, taken by baits spaced along lines sunk to the +bottom and then raised and the tenacious crabs removed.] + +[Illustration: Vast quantities of river herring were taken in +haul-seines in the spring throughout Tidewater Virginia. A crew dragged +the fish ashore to a force of women cutters waiting to prepare them for +salting down.] + +[Illustration: Great living oyster mounds, built up by nature through +the ages, impeded ships in the lower James river. At high tide they +were hidden so that unwary pilots struck them; at low they could be +picked over by hand. They remained a threat to navigation until they +disappeared under three centuries of harvesting. + +Original drawing by Esther Derieux] + +[Illustration: Fishing implements excavated at Jamestown. The large +fish-hook was for ocean cod fishing or possibly for snagging sturgeon +in the river. The spear, attached to a wooden handle, was for stalking +big fish in shallow water, or for capturing those that could be +attracted to a light in a boat at night. The lead weights were suitable +for (right) a handline, (left) a net. + +National Park Service] + +[Illustration: Early salt-evaporating houses were located close by the +sea, from which the water was channeled in by slow stages to take +advantage of natural evaporation before wood fires finished the job. +When the crystals formed they were shoveled into conical baskets and +drained.] + +[Illustration: Courtesy Mariners Museum + +An 18th century plan of a solar-evaporating works. Sea water is +channeled into the primary reservoir (DD), from which it is conducted +to (FFF) and (KKK) by progressive stages to the final basins where it +crystallizes.] + + +The kernel of the situation was reflected by the Dutch traveler, +David De Vries, who made voyages to America from 1632 to +1644: + + In going down to Jamestown on board of a sloop, a sturgeon sprang + out of the river, into the sloop. We killed it, and it was eight + feet long. This river is full of sturgeon, as also are the two + rivers of New Netherland. When the English first began to plant + their Colony here, there came an English ship from England for the + purpose of fishing for sturgeon; but they found that this fishery + would not answer, because it is so hot in summer, which is the best + time for fishing, that the salt or pickle would not keep them as in + Muscovy whence the English obtain many sturgeon and where the + climate is colder than in the Virginias. + +The effects of the Virginians' favoring tobacco-growing above fishing +were also noted by De Vries on a visit to Canada: + + Besides my vessel [at Newfoundland] there was a small boat of fifty + or sixty lasts [110 tons], with six guns, which had come out of the + Virginias with tobacco, in order to exchange the tobacco for fish. + +A rather aggrieved reaction to the tales of abundant natural resources +in Virginia is contained in this letter from one Tho. Niccolls to Sir +Jo. Worstenholme in London in 1623: + + If the Company would allow to each man a pound of butter and a + portion of cheese weekly, they would find more comfort therein then + by all the deer, fish, and fowl [that] is so talked of in England, + of which, I can assure you, your poor servants have not had so much + as the scent since their coming into the country. + +To prevent profiteering in Canadian fish the Virginia authorities had +set the selling prices: + + January 3, 1625-6: Proclamation by the Governor and Council of + Virginia renewing a former proclamation of August 31, 1623, + restraining the excessive rates of commodities--commanding that no + person in Virginia, either adventurer or planter, shall vend, + utter, barter, or sell any of the commodities following above the + prices hereafter mentioned, viz: New Foundland fish, the hundred + ... 10 pounds of tobacco; Canada dry fish, the hundred ... 24 + pounds of tobacco; Canada wet fish, the hundred.... 30 pounds of + tobacco. + +In one proposed deal of fish for tobacco the owner of the fish got +scared off, as recorded in the Minutes of the Council and General +Court, 1622-29: + + Luke Edan, sworn and examined, says that there were sixteen + thousand fish offered him by one Corbin at Canada which afterward + the said Corbin refused to sell him for it was told him his tobacco + was not good, and as the examiner heard, it was Henry Hewat that + told him so. + +A case of special concession for the sale of fish was shown in a ruling +of the Virginia Council in 1626: + + It is ordered that whereas Mr. Weston came up to James City, he + shall sell 3,000 of his fish there, which he has promised to sell + at reasonable rates. Therefore, in regard the proclamations are not + published for the choosing of merchants and factors, it is + permitted that such as are desirous to buy any of the said fish he + may have leave to deal with Mr. Weston, notwithstanding orders to + the contrary. + +Another dissuading factor in the unsubstantial fishing in Virginia was +the threat of Indian attack. The Assembly in 1626 ruled: + + It is ordered, according to the act of the late General Assembly, + that no man go or send abroad either upon fowling, fishing, or + otherwise whatsoever without a sufficient plenty of men, well armed + and provided of munition, upon penalty of undergoing severe censure + of punishment by the Governor and Council. + +It was characteristic of Virginia's fisheries that the pessimists +occupied the stage for a while, then the optimists. An example of the +whipping-up of enthusiasm is this discourse of Edward Williams writing +on Virginia at mid-century. China was a fabulous country, therefore he +compared Virginia with it. Ideas ran riot as he contemplated the +resources crying to be developed: + + ... What multitudes of fish to satisfy the most voluptuous of + wishes, can China glory in which Virginia may not in justice boast + of?... Let her publish a precedent so worthy of admiration (and + which will not admit belief in those bosoms where the eye cannot be + witness of the action) of five thousand fish taken at one draught + near Cape Charles, at the entry into Chesapeake bay, and which + swells the wonder greater, not one fish under the measure of two + feet in length. What fleets come yearly upon the coasts of + Newfoundland and New England for fish, with an incredible return? + Yet it is a most assured truth that if they would make experiment + upon the south of Cape Cod, and from thence to the coast of this + happy country, they would find fish of greater delicacy, and as + full handed plenty, which though foreigners know not, yet if our + own planters would make use of it, would yield them a revenue which + cannot admit of any diminution while there are ebbs and floods, + rivers feed and receive the ocean, or nature fails in (the + elemental original of all things) waters. + + There wants nothing but industrious spirits and encouragement to + make a rich staple of this commodity; and would the Virginians but + make salt pits, in which they have a greater convenience of tides + (that part of the universe by reason of a full influence of the + moon upon the almost limitless Atlantic causing the most spacious + fluxes and refluxes, that any shore of the other divisions in the + world is sensible of) to leave their pits full of salt-water, and + more friendly and warm sunbeams to concoct it into salt, than + Rochel, or any parts of Europe. Yet notwithstanding these + advantages which prefer Virginia before Rochel, the French king + raises a large proportion of his revenues out of that staple + yearly, with which he supplies a great part of Christendom. + + Nor would it be such a long interval (salt being first made) + betwixt the undertaking of this fishing, and the bringing it to + perfection, for if every servant were enjoined to practice rowing, + to be taught to handle sails, and trim a vessel, a work easily + practised, and suddenly learned, the pleasantness of weather in + fishing season, the delicacy of the fish, of which they usually + feed themselves with the best, the encouragement of some share in + the profit, and their understanding what their own benefit may be + when their freedom gives them an equality, will make them willing + and able fishermen and seamen. To add further to this, if we + consider the abundance, largeness, and peculiar excellency of the + sturgeon in that country, it will not fall into the least of + scruples, but that one species will be of an invaluable profit to + the buyer, or if we repeat to our thoughts the singular plenty of + herrings and mackerel, in goodness and greatness much exceeding + whatever of that kind these our seas produce, a very ordinary + understanding may at the first inspection perceive that it will be + no great difficulty to out-labor and out-vie the Hollander in that + his almost only staple. + +This flowery author goes on to make ingenious suggestions about raising +fish in captivity, like domesticated animals, by inclosing a creek +against their egress but keeping it sluiced to permit the action of +tides. He even guesses that a nutritious and medicinal oil could be +produced from fish livers. It is worth noting that both these +suggestions have been proved practical but they had to wait until +modern times to be carried out. + +In the anonymous _A Perfect Description of Virginia_, published in +1649, the population is given as 15,000 English and 300 negroes. The +count of boats, remembering the shortage of 40 years before, is +impressive: "They have in their Colony pinnaces, barks, great and small +boats many hundreds, for most of their plantations stand upon the river +sides or up little creeks, and but a small way into the land so that +for transportation and fishing they use many boats." + +The enmity of the Indians had been a constant irritation, and worse, +ever since the first days. As soon as it became possible to do so, +effort was made to cut them off from the resources of the tidal waters. +It was reasoned, and as it turned out, rightly, that with them unable +to supplement their food supplies with fish and shellfish, especially +oysters, they would be weakened in body and more easily subdued. The +word early went out: Keep the Indians away from the water. This +strategy worked so successfully that by 1662 it was deemed safe to ease +the pressure. Thus another milestone was reached: the first oyster +licensing law, as recorded in Hening's _Statutes_: + + Be it further enacted that for the better relief of the poor + Indians whom the seating of the English had forced from their + wonted convenience of oystering, fishing ... that the said Indians + upon address made to two of the justices of that county they desire + to oyster ... they, the said justices, shall grant a license to the + said Indians to oyster ... provided the said justices limit the + time the Indians are to stay, and the Indians bring not with them + any guns, or ammunition or any other offensive weapon but only such + tools or implements as serve for the end of their coming. If any + Englishman shall presume to take from the Indians so coming in any + of their goods, or shall kill, wound, maim any Indian, he shall + suffer as he had done the same to an Englishman and be fined for + his contempt. + +This was followed, according to Hening, in 1676 by another cavalier +gesture to the oppressed: + + ... It is hereby intended that our neighbor Indian friends be not + debarred from fishing and hunting within their own limits and + bounds, using bows and arrows only. Provided also that such + neighbor Indian friends who have occasion for corn to relieve their + lives and it shall and may be lawful for any English to employ in + fishing or deal with fish, canoes, bowls, mats, or baskets, and to + pay the said Indians for the same in Indian corn, but no other + commodities.... + +Thomas Glover, author of _An Account of Virginia_, addressed to the +Royal Society in London, published in 1676, sides with the optimists. +His catalogue has a familiar sound but it is valuable as substantiating +many of the earlier reports. One impression to be gained from it is +that after more than 60 years of occupancy of the new territory, the +settlers had in no way depleted their fishery resources, had not, in +fact, even scratched the surface: + + In the rivers are great plenty and variety of delicate fish. One + kind whereof is by the English called a sheepshead from the + resemblance the eye of it bears with the eye of a sheep. This fish + is generally about fifteen or sixteen inches long and about half a + foot broad. It is a wholesome and pleasant fish and of easy + digestion. A planter does often times take a dozen or fourteen in + an hour's time with hook and line. + + There is another sort which the English call a drum, many of which + are two foot and a half or three foot long. This is likewise a very + good fish, and there is plenty of them. In the head of this fish + there is a jelly, which being taken and dried in the sun, then + beaten to powder and given in broth, procures speedy delivery to + women in labour. + + At the heads of the rivers there are sturgeon and in the creeks are + great store of small fish, as perch, croakers, taylors, eels, and + divers others whose name I know not. Here are such plenty of + oysters as they may load ships with them. At the mouth of Elizabeth + River, when it is low water, they appear in rocks a foot above + water. There are also in some places great store of mussels and + cockles. There is also a fish called a stingray, which resembles a + skate, only on one side of his tail grows out a sharp bone like a + bodkin about four or five inches long, with which he sticks and + wounds other fish and then preys upon them. + +The same author went farther than any other reporter up to that time in +telling a real fish story: + + And now it comes into my mind, I shall here insert an account of a + very strange fish or rather a monster, which I happened to see in + Rappahannock River about a year before I came out of the country; + the manner of it was thus: + + As I was coming down the forementioned river in a sloop bound for + the bay, it happened to prove calm, at which time we were three + leagues short of the river's mouth; the tide of ebb being then + done, the sloop-man dropped his grapline, and he and his boy took a + little boat belonging to the sloop, in which they went ashore for + water, leaving me aboard alone, in which time I took a small book + out of my pocket and sat down at the stern of the vessel to read; + but I had not read long before I heard a great rushing and flashing + of the water, which caused me suddenly to look up, and about half a + stone's cast from me appeared a prodigious creature, much + resembling a man, only somewhat larger, standing right up in the + water with his head, neck, shoulders, breast and waist, to the + cubits of his arms, above water; his skin was tawny, much like that + of an Indian; the figure of his head was pyramidal, and slick, + without hair; his eyes large and black, and so were his eyebrows; + his mouth very wide, with a broad streak on the upper lip, which + turned upward at each end like mustachioes; his countenance was + grim and terrible; his neck, shoulders, arms, breast and waist were + like unto the neck, arms, shoulders, breast and waist of a man; his + hands if he had any, were under water; he seemed to stand with his + eyes fixed on me for some time, and afterward dived down, and a + little after riseth at somewhat a farther distance, and turned his + head towards me again, and then immediately falleth a little under + water, and swimmeth away so near the top of the water, that I could + discern him throw out his arms, and gather them in as a man doth + when he swimmeth. At last he shoots with his head downwards, by + which means he cast his tail above the water, which exactly + resembled the tail of a fish with a broad fane at the end of it. + +Judging from the few piddling regulations and restrictions referred to +in extracts already cited, the Virginia lawmakers could see no need for +intensive or even active supervision of the Tidewater fisheries. A +rather epoch-making law was enacted in 1678 by the county court of +Middlesex County, which is about 50 miles from James City, at the +juncture of the Rappahannock river and Chesapeake bay: + + Whereas, by the 15th act of Assembly made in the year 1662, liberty + is given to each respective county to make by-laws for themselves; + which laws, by virtue of the said act are to be binding upon them + as any other general law; and whereas several of the inhabitants of + this county have complained against the excessive and immoderate + striking and destroying of fish, by some fire, of the inhabitants + of this county by striking them by a light in the night time with + fish gigs, wherby they not only affright the fish from coming into + the rivers and creeks, but also wound four times that quantity that + they take, so that if a timely remedy be not applied, by that means + the fishing with hooks and lines will be thereby spoiled to the + great hurt and grievance of most of the inhabitants of this county. + It is therefore by this court ordered that from and after the 20th + day of March next ensuing, it shall not be lawful for any of the + inhabitants of this county to take, strike, or destroy any sort of + fish in the night time with fish gigs, harping irons, or any other + instrument of that nature, sort or kind, within any river, creek or + bay which are accounted belonging to or within the bounds or + precincts of this county. And it is further ordered that if any + person or persons being a freeman, shall offend against this order, + he or they so offending shall for the first offence be fined five + hundred pounds of good tobacco to be paid to the informer, and for + every other offence committed against this order after the first, + by any person, the said fine to be doubled and if any servants be + permitted or encouraged by their masters to keep or have in their + possession any fish gig, harping iron or any other instrument of + that kind or nature and shall therewith offend against this order, + that in such case the master of such servant or servants shall be + liable to pay the several fines above mentioned, and if any servant + or servants shall, contrary to and against their master's will and + knowledge, offend against this order, that for every offence they + receive such corporal punishment as by this court shall be thought + meet. + +As population became more dense it was inevitable that rights +previously of little significance began to be asserted. This case of +1679 taken from Hening's _Statutes_, was a forerunner of countless +others like it which continue to this day: + + Robert Liny, having complained to this Grand Assembly that whereas + he had cleared a fishing place in the river against his own land to + his great cost and charge supposing the right thereof in himself by + virtue of his patents, yet nevertheless several persons have + frequently obstructed him in his just privilege of fishing there, + and despite of him came upon his land and hauled their seines on + shore to his great prejudice, alleging that the water was the King + Majesty's and not by him granted away in any patent and therefore + equally free to all His Majesty's subjects to fish in and haul + their seines on shore, and praying for relief therein by a + declaratory order of this Grand Assembly; it is ordered and + declared by this Grand Assembly that every man's right by virtue of + his patent extends into the rivers or creeks so far as low water + mark and it is a privilege granted to him in and by his patent, and + that therefore no person ought to come and fish there above low + water mark or haul seines on shore without leave first obtained, + under the hazard of comitting a trespass for which he is sueable by + law. + +In most cases this decision somewhat limited a landowner's claim. But +on the seaside of Virginia's Eastern Shore conditions have always been +so that at low tide thousands of acres of land are laid bare, with the +result that "low water mark" is in many cases difficult of +interpretation as a boundary between waterfront properties and the +public domain. + +Toward the close of the century fishing methods had shaped up +advantageously compared to the crudities and hit-or-miss practices of +the first settlers. Robert Beverley described them in 1705: + + The Indian invention of weirs in fishing is mightily improved by + the English, besides which, they make use of seines, trolls, + casting nets, setting nets, hand fishing and angling and in each + find abundance of diversion. I have sat in the shade at the heads + of the rivers angling and spent as much time in taking the fish off + the hook as in waiting for their taking it. Like those of the + Euxine Sea, they also fish with spilyards which is a long line + staked out in the river and hung with a great many hooks on short + strings, fastened to the main line, about four foot asunder. The + only difference is that our line is supported by stakes and theirs + is buoyed up with gourds. + +The abundance of the fisheries never ceased impressing visitors. A +French tourist added to the chorus in 1687: + + Fish too is wonderfully plentiful. There are so many shell oysters + that almost every Saturday my host craved them. He had only to send + one of his servants in one of the small boats and two hours after + ebb tide he brought it back full. These boats, made of a single + tree hollowed in the middle, can hold as many as fourteen people + and twenty-five hundredweight of merchandise. + +As if to crown the final emergence of recognition of the home fisheries +William Byrd I instructed his agent in Boston in 1689 to send him a +variety of commodities in return for a bill of exchange but _no salt +fish_: + + By the advice of my friend, Captain Peter Perry, I made bold to + give you the trouble of a letter of the 1st instant with two small + bills of exchange which I desired you to receive and return the + effects to me in the upper part of James River, either in rum, + sugar, Madeira wine, turnery, earthenware, or anything else you may + judge convenient to this country (fish excepted).... + +Evidently at least some good salt was now at hand to preserve the roe +herring that choked the rivers and creeks in the spring. The +salt-herring breakfast was on its way to becoming a Virginia +institution, and the salt-fish monopolies of New England and Canada +were cracking after three-quarters of a century. + +The score of "firsts" in the Virginia fishery world have been noted as +they occurred. Among them were the first fishery statistics, the first +licensing law, the first price control, the first diamond-back +terrapin, the first conservation measures. And now in 1698 there was +the first agitation against polluted waters: + + We, the Council and Burgesses of the present General Assembly, + being sensible to the great mischiefs and inconveniences that + accrue to the inhabitants of this, his Majesty's Colony and + Dominion of Virginia, by killing of whales within the capes + thereof, in all humility take leave to represent the same unto Your + Excellency and withal to acquaint you that by the means thereof + great quantities of fish are poisoned and destroyed and the rivers + also made noisome and offensive. For prevention of which evils in + regard the restraint of the killing of whales is a branch of His + Majesty's royal prerogative. + + We humbly pray that Your Excellency [the Governor, Francis + Nicholson] will be pleased to issue out a proclamation forbidding + all persons whatsoever to strike or kill any whales within the bay + of Chesapeake in the limits of Virginia which we hope will prove an + effectual means to prevent the many evils that arise therefrom. + +As Jamestown reached the end of its span, the fisheries came of age. +Inequities were being ironed out, methods were being perfected, and +planners were at work on ways of employing more and more of the +fast-growing population in searching out and making available the +bounty of the fair Chesapeake. + +At the start of the 18th century, however, there was little evidence of +an organized industry in any phase. Everywhere were unlimited +opportunities for exploitation. The abundance of oysters still +impressed travelers. In the extract to follow, Francis Louis Michel of +Switzerland speaks of the method of tonging oysters in 1701, but note +that he says, "They usually pull from six to ten times." This could be +taken to mean that each individual procured his own oysters from the +lavish supply virtually at his doorstep, and stopped as soon as he had +a "mess" to enjoy over the week-end: + + The water is no less prolific, because an indescribably large + number of big and little fish are found in the many creeks, as well + as in the large rivers. The abundance is so great and they are so + easily caught that I was much surprised. Many fish are dried, + especially those that are fat. Those who have a line can catch as + many as they please. Most of them are caught with the hook or the + spear, as I know from personal experience, for when I went out + several times with the line, I was surprised that I could pull out + one fish after another, and, through the clear water I could see a + large number of all kinds, whose names are unknown to me. They + cannot be compared with our fish, except the herring, which is + caught and dried in large numbers. Thus the so-called catfish is + not unlike the large turbot. A very good fish and one easily caught + is the eel, also like those here [in Switzerland]. There is also a + kind like a pike. They have a long and pointed mouth, with which + they like to bite into the hook. They are not wild, but it happens + rarely that one can keep them on the line, for they cut it in two + with their sharp teeth. We always had our harpoons and guns with us + when we went out fishing, and when the fish came near we shot at + them or harpooned them. A good fish, which is common and found in + large numbers is the porpoise. They are so large that by their + unusual leaps, especially when the weather changes, they make a + great noise and often cause anxiety for the small boats or canoes. + Especially do they endanger those that bathe. Once I cooled and + amused myself in the water with swimming, not knowing that there + was any danger, but my host informed me that there was.... The + waters and especially the tributaries are filled with turtles. They + show themselves in large numbers when it is warm. Then they come to + the land or climb up on pieces of wood or trees lying in the water. + When one travels in a ship their heads can be seen everywhere + coming out of the water. The abundance of oysters is incredible. + There are whole banks of them so that the ships must avoid them. A + sloop, which was to land us at Kingscreek, struck an oyster bed, + where we had to wait about two hours for the tide. They surpass + those in England by far in size, indeed, they are four times as + large. I often cut them in two, before I could put them into my + mouth. The inhabitants usually catch them on Saturday. It is not + troublesome. A pair of wooden tongs is needed. Below they are wide, + tipped with iron. At the time of the ebb they row to the beds and + with the long tongs they reach down to the bottom. They pinch them + together tightly and then pull or tear up that which has been + seized. They usually pull from six to ten times. In summer they are + not very good, but unhealthy and can cause fever. + +The most comprehensive list of fish thus far given by the early +historians was offered by Robert Beverley in 1705. Again as with John +Smith, there are names that do not fit in today. But these are very +few: "greenfish," "maid," "wife," and "frogfish" perhaps, all of which, +however, are well-known in England. The recurring mention of carp in +the early authorities quoted is interesting, since it has long been +believed that carp were introduced into the Chesapeake region in 1877 +by the U.S. Fish Commission. No doubt that was carp of another +species. The esteemed sheepshead is today very rare: + + As for fish, both of fresh and salt water, of shellfish, and + others, no country can boast of more variety, greater plenty, or of + better in their several kinds. + + In the spring of the year, herrings come up in such abundance into + their brooks and fords to spawn that it is almost impossible to + ride through without treading on them. Thus do those poor creatures + expose their own lives to some hazard out of their care to find a + more convenient reception for their young, which are not yet alive. + Thence it is that at this time of the year, the freshes of the + rivers, like that of the Broadruck, stink of fish. + + Besides these herrings, there come up likewise into the freshes + from the sea multitudes of shad, rock, sturgeon, and some few + lampreys, which fasten themselves to the shad, as the remora of + Imperatus is said to do to the shark of Tiburon. They continue + their stay there about three months. The shad at their first coming + up are fat and fleshy, but they waste so extremely in milting and + spawning that at their going down they are poor and seem fuller of + bones, only because they have less flesh. As these are in the + freshes, so the salts afford at certain times of the year many + other kinds of fish in infinite shoals, such as the oldwife, a fish + not much unlike a herring, and the sheepshead, a sort of fish which + they esteem in the number of their best. + + There is likewise great plenty of other fish all the summer long + and almost in every part of the rivers and brooks there are found + of different kinds. Wherefore I shall not pretend to give a detail + of them, but venture to mention the names only of such as I have + eaten and seen myself and so leave the rest to those that are + better skilled in natural history. However, I may add that besides + all those that I have met with myself, I have heard of a great many + very good sorts, both in the salts and freshes, and such people + too, as have not always spent their time in that country, have + commended them to me, beyond any they had ever eaten before. + + Those which I know myself, I remember by the names of herring, + rock, sturgeon, shad, oldwife, sheepshead, black and red drums, + trout, taylor, greenfish, sunfish, bass, chub, plaice, flounder, + whiting, fatback, maid, wife, small turtle, crab, oyster, mussel, + cockle, shrimp, needlefish, bream, carp, pike, jack, mullet, eel, + conger eel, perch, and catfish. + + Those which I remember to have seen there of the kinds that are not + eaten are the whale, porpoise, shark, dogfish, gar, stingray, + thornback, sawfish, toadfish, frogfish, land crabs, fiddlers, and + periwinkle. + +Francis Makemie, often called the father of American Presbyterianism, +was concerned, in his _A Plain and Friendly Perswasive to the +Inhabitants of Virginia and Maryland for Promoting Towns and +Cohabitations_, about the dearth of markets for fishery products. It +was a condition brought about largely by a general lack of money in +circulation. It was easily possible for entire families to subsist the +year around on the fruits of land and water plus unexacting manual +labor. Wealth was concentrated in the hands of the more important +planters whose estates were usually self-sufficient and concentrating +on trade with England. The natural bounty of the Tidewater region thus +actually deterred the development of Virginia along the lines of New +England with its urban centers: + + Cohabitation would not only employ thousands of people ... others + would be employed in hunting, fishing, and fowling, and the more + diligently if assured of a public market.... + + So also our fishing would be advanced and improved highly by + encouraging many poor men to follow that calling, and sundry sorts + which are now slighted would be fit for a town market, as sturgeon, + thornback, and catfish. Our vast plenty of oysters would make a + beneficial trade, both with the town and foreign traders, believing + we have the best oysters for pickling and transportation if + carefully and skillfully managed. + +By 1705 the seat of government had been transferred to nearby +Williamsburg. The need of establishing towns as foci for the developing +countryside had been felt and now the legislators turned their +attention to promoting the fish markets therein, followed by some +essential protection of the rights of fishermen and others. Hening's +_Statutes_ gives the details: + + October, 1705. For the encouragement and bettering of the markets + in the said town, Be it enacted, That no dead provision, either of + flesh or fish shall be sold within five miles of any of the ports + or towns appointed by this act, on the same side the great river + the town shall stand upon, but within the limits of the town, on + pain of forfeiture and loss of all such provision by the purchases, + and the purchase money of such provision sold by the vendor, + cognizable by any justice of the county.... + + Be it further enacted and declared, That if any person or persons + shall at any time hereafter shoot, hunt or range upon the lands and + tenements, or fish or fowl in any creeks or waters included within + the lands of any other person or persons without license for the + same, first obtained of the owner and proprietor thereof, every + such person so shooting, hunting, fishing, fowling, or ranging, + shall forfeit and pay for every such offence, the sum of five + hundred pounds of tobacco.... + + Be it further enacted, That if any person shall set, or cause to be + set, a weir in any river or creek, such person shall cause the + stayes thereof to be taken up again, as soon as the weir becomes + useless; and if any person shall fail of performing his duty + herein, he shall forfeit and pay fifteen shillings current money, + to the informer: To be recovered, with costs, before a justice of + the peace. + +The essentials of any stable industry are: control of supply and means +of distribution. The fisheries of Virginia were blessed with neither of +these advantages. Any progress had to be made in spite of uncertain +harvests and lack of packing and handling facilities. Distribution of +fresh seafoods was impossible without rapid transportation and adequate +refrigeration. Neither was available for two centuries. Virginia's huge +supply of oysters was a case in point. Consumption of oysters was +limited to those who lived on the spot, and though they figured +importantly in the Tidewater diet, as a palpable resource they were +untouched until the 19th century. The principal means of preserving +them before then was by pickling. In that form they were quite popular +during the Colonial period. Fish were salted when there was a surplus +and in certain seasons, especially the spawning time of the anadromous +river-herring, they were available in phenomenal quantities. They +remain today among Virginia's most plentiful fish but the salting +industry has now become a mere token of its former magnitude. + +The Chesapeake bay blue crab which today constitutes a resource worth +about $5,000,000 a year to Virginia crabbers and packers, had to wait +even longer than fish and oysters did for development. Salting and +pickling were unsuitable to this delicate food and expeditious handling +methods did not exist. + +In an exhaustive catalogue of the marine life of Virginia William Byrd +II, of Westover said: + + Herring are not as large as the European ones, but better and more + delicious. After being salted they become red. If one prepares them + with vinegar and olive oil, they then taste like anchovies or + sardines, since they are far better in salt than the English or + European herring. When they spawn, all streams and waters are + completely filled with them, and one might believe, when he sees + such terrible amounts of them, that there was as great a supply of + herring as there is water. In a word, it is unbelievable, indeed, + indescribable, as also incomprehensible, what quantity is found + there. One must behold oneself. + +At the time he wrote Virginians were beginning to compete with +Canadians and New Englanders in exporting salt fish, particularly to +the West Indies, where a large proportion of them were exchanged for +the rum so freely used on the plantations as slave rations. + +There were no dams barring access to the highest reaches of the rivers +and no cities and factories to discharge pollution, so that the +river-herring and shad made their way far inland even to the Blue Ridge +mountains. There the pioneers awaited them eagerly each spring and +salted down a supply to tide them over till the next run. Small wonder, +then, that the love of salt herring--always with corn bread--became +ingrained in so many Old Virginians! + +They had an illustrious exemplar. Once, in 1782, when George Washington +was due to visit Robert Howe the honored host wrote to a friend: +"General Washington dines with me tomorrow. He is exceedingly fond of +salt fish." + +Despite obstacles a healthy experimentation in the various phases of +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. + +These nets were designed for hauling ashore by hand. It was not till +much later that other nets, of the styles so familiar today, gill nets +and pound nets in particular, came into general use. + +Much longer seines than Washington needed were used as fish became +scarcer. There are tales of them four and five miles long, actually +able to block off the entire river, being used in the neighborhood of +Mt. Vernon before control laws were enacted and enforced. The catches +were enormous. Barges were heaped high with all sorts of fish and towed +into Washington City where they were sold before they spoiled, for what +they would bring. + +Today the pollution for which Washington and Alexandria are responsible +has destroyed most fish life within several miles of Mt. Vernon. + +Like his fishing predecessors ever since Jamestown, Washington had his +troubles with salt. One of his business letters ordering a supply +complained: "Liverpool salt is inadequate to the saving of fish.... +Lisbon is the proper kind." + +He was only briefly touching on a subject that had vexed the Colonists +since the beginning. Through the years the cry for more and better salt +had gone up. The fishermen of Virginia needed salt for their fish as +badly as the Hebrews in Egypt needed straw for their bricks. Although +trading with foreign countries increased steadily, the question of a +salt supply for Virginia remained unsolved. + +As the 18th century had progressed, matters grew even worse. In 1763 +the Virginia Committee of Correspondence had written urgently to its +agent in London to apply to Parliament for an act to + + allow to this Colony the same liberty to import salt from Lisbon or + any other European ports, which they have long enjoyed in the + Colonies and provinces of New England, New York and Pennsylvania. + This is a point that hath been more than once unsuccessfully + labored; but we think it is so reasonable, that when it is set in a + proper light, we shall hope for success. The reason upon which the + opposition hath been supported, is this general one that it is + contrary to the interest of Great Britain to permit her plantations + to be supplied with any commodity, especially any manufacture from + a foreign country, which she herself can supply them with. This we + allow to be of force; provided the Mother Country can and does + supply her plantations with as much as they want; but the fact + being otherwise, we have been allowed to supply ourselves with + large quantities from Cercera, Isle of May, Sal Tortuga and so + forth. The course of this trade being hazardous, in time of war, + this useful and necessary article hath been brought to us at a high + price of late. The reason or pretence of granting this indulgence + to the Northern Colonies, in exclusion of the Southern, we presume + to be to enable them to carry on their fishery to greater + advantage, the salt from the Continent of Europe being fitter for + that purpose than the salt from Great Britain or that from any of + the islands we have mentioned. But surely this reason is but weakly + founded with respect to Pennsylvania, whose rivers scarcely supply + them with fish sufficient for their own use; whereas the Bay of + Chesapeake abounds with great plenty and variety of fish fit for + foreign markets, as well as for ourselves, if we could but get the + proper kind of salt to cure it. Herrings and shads might be + exported to the West Indies to great advantage; and we could supply + the British markets with finer sturgeon than they have yet tasted + from the Baltic. And it is an allowed principle that every + extension of the trade of the Colonies, which does not interfere + with that of the Mother Country is an advantage to the latter; + since all our profits ultimately center with her. + +It was pointed out that the English merchants were not above sharp +practices in filling orders for salt; they would reduce the amount +shipped to individuals and provide the captain with all he could carry +extra to be sold at high prices to needy buyers. + +The plaint was just another of the rumblings of discontent contributing +to the grand explosion of thirteen years later. The intricacies were +entered into in detail by the Committee: + + We have twelve different Colonies on the Continent of North + America. Four of them, viz., Pennsylvania, New York, New England, + and Newfoundland, have liberty to import salt from any part of + Europe directly. The other eight, viz., Virginia, Maryland, East + and West Jersey, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Nova Scotia, + as well as all the West India Islands, are deprived of it. + + At present those Colonies on whose behalf the petition is given, + are supplied with salt from the Isle of Mays in Africa, Sal + Tortuga, and Turks Island in America, also a little from England; + but are deprived of the only salt that answers best for the + principal use, viz., to preserve fish and other provisions, twelve + months, or a longer time. What they have from Great Britain is made + from salt water by fire, which is preferred for all domestic uses. + The African or American salt is made from salt water by the sun; + which is used for curing and preserving provisions. The first, made + by fire, is found, by long experience, in warm climates, to be too + weak; the provisions cured with it turn rusty, and in six or eight + months become unfit for use. The second kind, by the quantity of + alum, or some other vicious quality in it, is so corrosive, that in + less than twelve months, the meat cured with it is entirely + deprived of all the fat, and the lean hardened, or so much + consumed, as to be of little service. The same ill qualities are + found in these salts with regard to fish: wherefore the arguments + used, that they ought to have English salt only, are as much as to + say, they should be allowed to catch fish, or salt any provisions, + but let their cattle and hogs die without reaping the advantage + nature has given them. + + In all countries where a benefit can arise by fish or provisions, + salt must be cheap; and as its value where made is from ten to + twenty shillings the ton, so the carriage of it to America is often + more than the real value: It is in order to save part of the + expense of carriage, this application is made; for although some + gentlemen do not seem to know it, yet we have liberty, by the + present laws in force, to carry any kind of European salt to + America, the ship first coming to an English port, in order to make + an entry. + + We have also liberty to bring it from any salt island in Africa or + America; but by the Act of 15 Car. II. Chap. 7, salt is supposed to + be included under the word commodity; whereby it is, with all + European goods, prevented from being carried to America, unless + first landed in England: the consequence whereof is, that English + ships, which (I shall suppose) are hired to sail from London to + Lisbon with corn, and thence proceed to America, have not the + liberty to carry salt in place of ballast, and therefore under a + necessity to pay above L10 sterling at Lisbon for ballast (that is + to say, for sand), which they carry to America, or else return to + England in order to get a clearance for the salt, which would be + more expense than its value. + + Now, had they liberty to carry salt directly to America, they would + not only save the money paid for the sand, but also gain by the + freight of salt perhaps L60 or L80 more. Thus on an average every + ship that goes now empty from these ports to America, might clear + L70 and there are above a hundred sail to that voyage every year. + This is an annual loss of L7,000 at least; and besides, as the ship + loses no time in this case (salt being as soon taken in as sand), + they could afford to sell the best salt as cheap in America as is + now paid for the worst; for as a ship must make a long voyage on + purpose to get, and make it in the salt islands, so the expense + thereof is more than the value of the salt at Lisbon, St. Ibbes, + and so forth. + +The proponents of the petition made out a strong case. They went into +the grading of the kinds of salt obtained from the West Indies, Africa +and Europe and asserted that, inferior though some of them were, they +nevertheless had been found to be "preferable to England salt for +curing and preserving their fish": + + To know the qualities of the different kinds of salt used in + America may be an amusement to a speculative man; but seems + entirely out of the question in this case; for whatever may be said + on that head, long experience and the universal agreement of all + from America, as well as former Acts of Parliament, show that the + common white salt will not answer the uses it is chiefly wanted for + there. + + As to what is called Loundes's brine salt, that, and his many other + projects, seemed to be formed on the same plan with Subtle's in + _The Alchemist_, his scheme looking as if he only wanted the money, + and left it to others to make the salt. + + Salt can, without doubt, be made of any desired quality, but the + price, the place of delivery, and the quantity to be had of so + useful a commodity must also be regarded. + + We can get salt at Sal Tortuga for the raking and putting it into + our ships; but the expense of a voyage on purpose for it is greater + than to buy it at a place from whence the freight may be all saved, + and to have the best salt on the cheapest terms, is, no doubt the + intention of this application, as it certainly was of the other + Colonies that have obtained this privilege. + +All the Virginians were asking, in effect, was the liberty to import +from Europe what salt they wished! + +As the moment of Independence neared, the stress grew greater. George +Washington's Mt. Vernon overseer during the crucial years, his distant +relative Lund Washington, addressed a letter to him in 1775: + + The people are running mad about salt. You would hardly think it + possible there could be such a scarcity. Five and six shillings per + bushel. Conway's sloop came to Alexandria Monday last with a load. + +A couple of months later the crisis was reached: + + I have had 300 bushels more of salt put into fish barrels, which I + intend to move into Muddy Hole barn, for if it should be destroyed + by the enemy we shall not be able to get more. There is still fifty + or sixty more bushels, perhaps a hundred in the house. I was + unwilling to sell it, knowing we could not get more and our people + must have fish. Therefore I told the people I had none. + +Two more years of adversity went by. Lund wrote in 1778: + + I was told a day or two past that Congress had ordered a quantity + of shad to be cured on this river. I expect as everything sells + high, shad will also. I should be fond of curing about 100 barrels + of them, they finding salt. We have been unfortunate in our crops, + therefore I could wish to make something by fish. + +He proposed that he cure fish "for the Continent" and make "upwards of +200 pounds": + + I have very little salt, of which we must make the most. I mean to + make a brine and after cutting off the head and bellies, dipping + them in the brine for but a short time, then hang them up and cure + them by smoke, or dry them in the sun; for our people being so long + accustomed to have fish whenever they wanted, would think it very + bad to have none at all. + +All ended well for that season. Lund wrote: + + I have cured a sufficient quantity of fish for our people, together + with about 160 or 170 barrels of shad for the Continent. + +One of the most interesting diarists of Revolutionary days was young +Nicholas Cresswell, an Englishman of 24 when he arrived in America for +a three-years visit. He was in Leesburg, Virginia, in December 1776 +when he recorded this occurrence: + + A Dutch mob of about forty horsemen went through the town today on + their way to Alexandria to search for salt. If they find any they + will take it by force.... This article is exceedingly scarce; if + none comes the people will revolt. They cannot possibly subsist + without a considerable quantity of this article. + +The raiders were pacified by an allotment of three pints of salt per +man. + +A vivid picture of what the lack of salt entailed was given by +Cresswell in April 1777: + + Saw a seine drawn for herrings and caught upwards of 40,000 with + about 300 shad fish. The shads they use but the herrings are left + upon the shore useless for want of salt. Such immense quantities of + this fish is left upon the shore to rot, I am surprised it does not + bring some epidemic disorder to the inhabitants by the nauseous + stench arising from such a mass of putrefaction. + +A fishery by-product of importance to early Virginians, lime, was of +interest to Washington. It was extensively obtained by burning oyster +shells. + +Early Virginia masonry shows that such lime was mixed in mortar and it +was usually of poor quality, perhaps because of crude facilities for +burning. Today's shell lime is much in demand in agriculture and its +price is higher than mined lime. George Washington found that for the +purpose of building it left much to be desired. He wrote to Henry Knox +from Mt. Vernon in 1785: + + I use a great deal of lime every year, made of the oyster shells, + which, before they are burnt, cost me twenty-five to thirty + shillings per hundred bushels; but it is of mean quality, which + makes me desirous of trying stone lime. + +He was paying about seven cents a bushel for shells, which seems high +for those days of abundant oysters and cheap labor. Until recently the +Virginia market price was very little more. + +Washington's probing, weighing mind slighted no phase of his fishery. +About to fertilize crops with fish experimentally, he wrote to his +overseer: "If you tried both fresh and salt fish as a manure the +different aspects of them should be attended to." A few weeks later, +after watching results, he wrote: "The corn that is manured with fish, +though it does not appear to promise much at first, may nevertheless be +fine.... It is not only possible but highly probable." + +This opinion was abundantly confirmed years later when vast quantities +of menhaden were converted into guano for crops by Atlantic coast +factories, a practice changed only when livestock-nutrition studies +showed that menhaden scrap was too valuable a protein source to be +spread on land. The fish referred to by Washington were in all +probability river-herring, or alewives, used as fertilizer at such +times as they were caught in greater abundance than the food market +could absorb. + +The probable yield of his fish trade was always carefully calculated, +even when the pressure of national affairs required his absence from +home. From Philadelphia we find him writing to his manager about a fish +merchant's offer: "Ten shillings per hundred for shad is very low. I am +at this moment paying six shillings apiece for every shad I buy." He +usually tried to get at least twelve shillings a hundred for his shad, +which were salted prior to marketing, although there were instances +when he let them go for as little as one pence apiece. The +extraordinary price of six shillings for one shad cited by him in +Philadelphia is hard to explain. It probably referred to a fresh one +caught early in the season and prepared especially for his table. +Though records of the average weight of shad in those days are lacking, +seven pounds is a fair estimate, and it may have been greater. The +weights now seldom exceed three or four pounds, because in the more +recent years of intensive fishing, shad have been widely caught up as +they returned from the ocean to spawn for the first time. Shad, along +with other anadromous, or "up-running," fish are born near the +head-waters of rivers, and seek the ocean for feeding and growth. +Unlike salmon they do not perish after one spawning and the oftener +they return, the larger they are. What conservationists call +"escapement," or the freedom to get back to the ocean from the rivers, +is considered vital to their survival in quantity. + +All through the two-score years of fishing at Mount Vernon, Washington +suffered, judging by his unceasing preoccupation with minor details, +from the lack of a fishing foreman to whom he could entrust the +operation with any confidence. Letters toward the close of his life +bearing on this subject are still replete with reminders concerning +trifles which would have been routine for any competent boss. The fish +runs start about March; therefore, in January he finds it necessary to +write; "It would be well to have the seines overhauled immediately, +that is, if new ones are wanting, or the old ones requiring much +repair, they may be set about without loss of time." He must even look +beyond his own help for the skill necessary to put his nets in order. +"I would have you immediately upon the receipt of this letter send for +the man who usually does this work for me.... Let him choose his twine +(if it is to be had in Alexandria) and set about them immediately." + +Abundance of fish created a bottleneck: + + In the height of the fishery they are not prepared to cure or + otherwise dispose of them as fast as they could be caught; of + course the seines slacken in their work, or the fish lie and spoil + when that is the only time I can make anything by the seine, for + small hauls will hardly pay the wear and tear of the seine and the + hire of the hands. + +However, then as now, fishing was a gamble: + + Unless the weather grows warmer your fishing this season will, I + fear, prove unproductive; for it has always been observed that in + cold and windy weather the fish keep in deep water and are never + caught in numbers, especially at shallow landings. + +And in 1794, he states, with the rather weary voice of experience, + + I am of opinion that selling the fish all to one man is best ... if + Mr. Smith will give five shillings per thousand for herrings and + twelve shillings a hundred for shad, and will oblige himself to + take all you have to spare, you had better strike and enter into a + written agreement with him.... I never choose to sell to wagoners; + their horses have always been found troublesome, and themselves + indeed not less so, being much addicted to the pulling down and + burning the fences. If you do not sell to Smith the next best thing + is to sell to the watermen.... I again repeat that when the schools + of fish run you must draw night and day; and whether Smith is + prepared to take them or not, they must be caught and charged to + him; for it is then and then only I have a return for my expenses; + and then it is the want of several purchasers is felt; for unless + one person is extremely well prepared he cannot dispose of the fish + as fast as they can be drawn at those times and if the seine or + seines do no more than keep pace with his convenience my harvest is + lost and of course my profit; for the herrings will not wait to be + caught as they are wanted to be cured. + +Thus did Washington become one of the first to encounter the besetting +plague of American mass production: the problem of distribution. + +That fishing was a vital prop in plantation economy is evidenced by a +letter of April 24, 1796, to his manager: + + As your prospect for gain is discouraging, it may, in a degree, be + made up in a good fishing season for herrings; that for shad must, + I presume, be almost, if not quite, over. + +Salt herrings were a staple in the feeding of the "black people," and +were issued to those at Mount Vernon at the rate of twenty a month per +head. But he warned about waiting for the annually expected herring +"glut" to occur before the slaves were provided for. If it should fail +to materialize--as had been known--what then? Save a "sufficiency of +fish" from the first runs, he wisely ordered. + +In 1781 he suggested that salt fish be contracted for the troops, and +possibly it was tried for a while, but the year following, army leaders +voted to exclude fish from the rations. + +Accounting records for 1774, presumably an average fishing year, show +receipts of L170 for the catch at the Posey's ferry fishery, with L26 +debited to operating cost. At the Johnson's ferry fishery L114 was +taken in and L28 paid out. The catch here represented consisted of +9,862 shad and 1,591,500 river herring, but other large hauls were also +made on the estate. Profits would seem to be adequate, although costs +of nets and boats were not figured in. Fishing boats were usually small +maneuverable craft that never had to put out very far from shore, and +cost about L5 to build. + +Occasionally Washington was approached by speculators offering to rent +the season's privileges at one of his fisheries for a flat sum. About +one such proposal in 1796 he expressed the opinion to his manager that +"under all chances fishing yourself will be more profitable than hiring +out the landing for L60." Nevertheless, the headaches had for years +made the transference of fishing to someone for cash on the barrelhead +a temptation. In February, 1770, he had entered into an agreement as to +sales while retaining the responsibility of catching: + + Mr. Robert Adams is obliged to take all I catch at Posey's landing + provided the quantity does not exceed 500 barrels and will take + more than this quantity if he can get casks to put them in. He is + to take them as fast as they are catched, without giving any + interruption to my people, and is to have the use of the fish house + for his salt, fish, etc., taking care to have the house clear at + least before the next fishing season; is to pay L10 for the use of + the house and 3 shillings 4 pence, Maryland currency, per hundred + for white fish. + +But in 1787 he wrote: "A good rent would induce me to let the fishery +that I have no trouble or perplexity about it." The _Diary_ shows a +good deal more interest during the early years in how the fish ran than +it does later. In April, 1760, he writes: + + Apprehending the herring were come, hauled the seine but catched + only a few of them, though a good many of other sorts.... Hauled + the seine again, catched two or three white fish, more herring than + yesterday and a great number of cats. + + August, 1768: Hauling the seine upon the bar of Cedar Point for + sheepshead but catched none. + + April, 1769: The white fish ran plentifully at my seine landing, + having catched about 300 at one haul.... + +The term "white fish" is not now generally applied to any species +caught in the Potomac, but a good guess is that, with Washington, it +was an alternate for shad. + +The Revolution was fought, but even before the surrender the minds of +America's statesmen were actively considering peace terms. Both Richard +Henry Lee and Thomas Jefferson suggested that the valuable fisheries +off Newfoundland be freely open to American ships. This time it was not +a question of the Northern Colony keeping the Southern Colony out as it +had been 150 years before. Thomas Jefferson, writing in 1778, wanted +the United Colonies to exclude England: + + If they [Britain] really are coming to their senses at last, and it + should be proposed to treat of peace, will not Newfoundland + fisheries be worthy particular attention to exclude them and all + others from them except our _tres grand_ and _chers amis_ and + allies? Their great value to whatever nation possesses them is as a + nursery for seamen. In the present very prosperous situation of our + affairs, I have thought it would be wise to endeavor to gain a + regular and acknowledged access in every court in Europe but most + the Southern. The countries bordering on the Mediterranean I think + will merit our earliest attention. They will be the important + markets for our great commodities of fish, wheat, tobacco, and + rice. + +Lee saw how fishing in Northern waters had started America on its way +to being a maritime power. In a series of letters to George Mason and +others he expresses his opinions forcibly: + + Our news here is most excellent; both from Williamsburg and from + Richmond it comes that our countrymen have given the enemy in the + South a complete overthrow.... Heaven grant it may be so. I shall + then with infinite pleasure congratulate my friend on the recovery + of his property, and our common country on so great a step towards + really putting a period to the war. I think that in this case we + may insist on our full share of the fishery, and the free + navigation of the Mississippi. These are things of very great and + lasting importance to America, the yielding of which will not + procure the Congress thanks either from the present age or + posterity. + + I rejoice greatly at the news from South Carolina. God grant it may + be true. If this should force the enemy to reason and to peace, + would you give up the navigation of the Mississippi and our + domestic fishery on the Banks of Newfoundland? The former almost + infinitely depreciating our back country and the latter totally + destroying us as a maritime power. That is taking the name of + independence without the means of supporting it. + + I rejoice exceedingly at our successes both in the North and in the + South. If we continue to do thus, it will not be in the power of + the execrable junto to prevent us from having a safe and honorable + peace next winter. In this idea I shall ever include the fisheries + and the navigation of the Mississippi. These, Sir, are the strong + legs on which North America can alone walk securely in + independence. + + If you do not get a wise and very firm friend to negotiate the + fishery, it is my clear opinion that it will be lost, and upon this + principle that it is the interest of every European power to weaken + us and strengthen themselves. + + I heartily wish you success in your negotiations and that when you + secure one valuable point for us (the fishery) that you will not + less exert yourself for another very important object,--the free + navigation of the Mississippi, provided guilty Britain should + remain in possession of the Floridas. + +Fishing as a matter of states' rights resulted in the pioneering +Potomac River Compact of 1785, when representatives of Maryland and +Virginia met under George Washington's sponsorship at Mt. Vernon to +deal with fishing and tolls. Maryland owned the river to the Virginia +shore line, and agreed to allow Virginians to fish in it in return for +free entry of Maryland ships through the Virginia capes. The compact, +in force to this day, was the first step taken in behalf of interstate +commerce. With its example to follow, other states eased the barriers +to their commercial interests, with immeasurable benefit to the Union. + +Commercial fishing in Virginia was, as the century closed, on the verge +of the stability it had sorely lacked. Its reliance on Indians for +knowledge and skill, as in the first of the 17th century, was as dead +as its reliance on England for manufactures in the last of the 18th. +Just around the corner were railroads and steamboats with their +comparatively swift transportation. Teeming cities needed to be fed, +and after nearly two centuries of education in the ways of the +Chesapeake Bay and its marine life, Virginia fishermen knew how to keep +the markets stocked. In 1794 a French visitor, Moreau de Saint Mery, +wrote: + + Fish is the commodity that sells for a ridiculously low price in + Norfolk. One can purchase weakfish weighing more than twenty pounds + for 4 or 5 francs and sometimes one that weighs three times more + for a gourde, 5 francs, 10 sous. Drum is also very cheap. Sturgeon, + weighing up to 60 pounds, can be bought for 6 French sous a pound, + about the same price paid for little codfish that are brought in + alive and are delicious to eat. Shad is also plentiful there. In + addition, one can get perch, porpoise, eels, leatherjackets, summer + flounder, turbot, mullet, trout, blackfish, herring, sole, garfish, + etc. In short, fish is so abundant in Norfolk that sometimes the + police find it necessary to throw back into the water those that + are not bought. + +Herring fishing began to be abandoned by the planters, many of whom +were up to their necks in a variety of enterprises, in favor of +business men intending to specialize. Letters from a Virginia +speculator, John F. Mercer, to Richard Sprigg, sketch the situation: + + April 19, 1779. To cure fish properly requires two days in the + brine before packing and they can only lie packed with safety in + dry weather. These circumstances joined with the heading and + drawing almost all the fish (a very tedious operation) will show + that no time was lost--only 9 days elapsed from his arrival here to + his completing his load of 15,000 herrings, a time beyond which + many wagons have waited on these shores for 4,000 uncured fish and + many have been obliged to return without one, after coming 40 and + 50 miles and offering 2 and 5 dollars a thousand. Several indeed + from my own shore and six who want 36,000 herring will, I believe, + quit this night without a fish, after waiting all this storm on the + shore five days. + + Mr. Clarke has had his fish completed two days.... He has been + delayed by the almost continual storm that has prevailed since his + arrival and which has ruined us fishermen. + + My fishery has been miserably conducted from the beginning as might + be expected from my entire ignorance and the penury of my partner + who was poorer than myself.... Still I have expectations that it + may turn out an immense thing from the trial we have made. The + shores being opposite to Maryland Point, the reach above and below + with the mouths of the two creeks on this side form a sweep, both + tides upon them, that must collect for fish; and they are kept in + by a kind of pound on the Virginia shore's trend. There apparent + advantages accord with the experiment for, with a desperate + patched-up seine that always breaks with a good haul, we have + contrived to land 20,000 a day, every day we can haul. We are + nearer to the Fredericksburg and Falmouth Virginia markets than any + shore that is or can be opened on the river by 10 miles + notwithstanding every discouragement and particularly the activity + and lies practiced against us by the Little Creek fisheries on each + side, who must fail with our success. + + April 10, 1795. Herrings they tell me are 10 shillings per thousand + at all the shores. If I had your lease I could make a fortune. I + have a great mind to send Pollard and George up for your small boat + and seine.... If Peyton comes down with his seine to haul at my + shore, I will seine salted herrings enough for us both. + +That acidulous but always colorful roving reporter from the mid-west, +Anne Royall, offers the best picture, for accuracy and detail, of +hauling a seine ever presented by anyone not a technician. Though +written almost 50 years after the Revolution, it describes the kind of +fishing on which Virginians had principally depended since Christopher +Newport began the Colonial era and George Washington ended it: + + The market of Alexandria is abundant and cheap; though much + inferior to any in any part of the western country, except beef and + fish, which are by far superior to that of the western markets.... + Their exquisite fish, oysters, crabs, and foreign fruits upon the + whole bring them upon a value with us. + + Their fish differ from ours, even some species. Their catfish is + the only sort in which we excel; they have none that answer to our + blue cat, either in size or flavor, and nothing like our mud-cat. + Their catfish is from ten to fifteen inches in length, with a wide + mouth, like the mud-cat of the Western waters; but their cat differ + from both ours in substance and color; they are soft, pied black + and white. They are principally used to make soup, which is much + esteemed by the inhabitants. All their fish are small compared with + ours. Besides the catfish which they take in the latter part of the + winter, they have the rock, winter shad, mackerel, and perch, shad + and herring. The winter shad is very fine indeed. They are like our + perch, but infinitely smaller. These fish are sold very low; a + large string, enough for a dozen persons, may be purchased for a + few cents. No fish, however, that I have tasted, equal our trout. + + The Potomac at Alexandria, is rather over a mile in width; it is + celebrated for its beauty. It is certainly a great blessing to this + country in supplying its inhabitants with food in the article of + fish. + + Fish is abundant (at Washington), and cheap at all seasons, shad is + three dollars per hundred; herrings, one dollar per thousand. + + Great quantities of herring and shad are taken in these waters + during the fishing season, which commences in March, and lasts + about ten weeks. As many as 160,000 are said to be caught at one + haul. When the season commences no time is to be lost, not even + Sunday. Although I am not one of those that make no scruple of + breaking the Sabbath, yet, Sunday, as it was, I was anxious to see + a process which I had never witnessed--I mean that of taking fish + with a seine--there being no such thing in the Western country. It + is very natural for one to form an opinion of some sort respecting + things they have never seen, but the idea I had formed of the + method of fishing with a seine was far from a correct one. In the + first place, about fifteen or twenty men, and very often an + hundred, repair to the place where the fish are to be taken, with a + seine and a skiff. This skiff, however, must be large enough to + contain the net and three men--two to row, and one to let out the + net. These nets, or seines, are of different sizes, say from two to + three hundred fathom in length, and from three to four fathom wide. + On one edge are fastened pieces of cork-wood as large as a man's + fist, about two feet asunder, and on the opposite edge are fastened + pieces of lead, about the same distance--the lead is intended to + keep the lower end of the seine close to the bottom of the river. + The width of the seine is adapted to the depth of the river, so + that the corks just appear on its surface, otherwise the lead would + draw the top of the seine under water, and the fish would escape + over the top. All this being understood and the seine and rowers in + the boat, they give one end of the seine to a party of men on the + shore, who are to hold it fast. Those in the boat then row off from + the shore, letting out the seine as they go; they advance in a + straight line towards the opposite shore, until they gain the + middle of the river, when they proceed down the stream, until the + net is all out of the boat except just sufficient to reach the + shore from whence they set out, to which they immediately proceed. + Here an equal number of men take hold of the net with those at the + other end, and both parties commence drawing it towards the shore. + As they draw, they advance towards each other, until they finally + meet, and now comes the most pleasing part of the business. It is + amusing enough to see what a spattering the fish make when they + find themselves completely foiled: they raise the water in a + perfect shower, and wet every one that stands within their reach. I + ought to have mentioned, that when the fish begin to draw near the + shore, one or two men step into the water, on each side of the net, + and hold it close to the bottom of the channel, otherwise the fish + would escape underneath. All this being accomplished, the fishermen + proceed to take out the fish in greater or less numbers, as they + are more or less fortunate. These fishermen make a wretched + appearance, they certainly bring up the rear of the human race. + They were scarcely covered with clothes, were mostly drunk, and had + the looks of the veriest sots on earth. + +A Virginian born in 1792, Col. T. J. Randolph of Edgehill near +Charlottesville, was asked to search his earliest memories in order to +record 18th century fishing conditions. He wrote a letter in 1875 to +the newly-constituted Virginia fish commissioners describing an era +well-nigh incredible to today's Tidewater fishermen: + + Shad were abundant in the Rivanna at my earliest recollection, say + prior to 1800. They penetrated into the mountains to breed. I have + heard the old people, when I was young, speak of their descending + the rivers in continuous streams in the fall, as large as a man's + hand. The old ones so weak, that if they were forced by the current + against a rock they got off with difficulty. Six miles north of + Charlottesville three hundred were caught in one night with a bush + seine. A negro told me he had caught seventeen in a trap at one + time. I recollect the negroes bringing them to my mother + continually. An entry of land near Charlottesville about 1735 + crossed the Rivanna for two or three acres as a fishing shore. The + dams absolutely stopped them, but they had greatly declined before + their erection. In 1810 every sluice in the falls at Richmond was + plied day and night by float seines. I never heard of rockfish + above the falls, and supposed they were confined to Tidewater.... + Rockfish were hunted on the Eastern Shore on horseback with spears. + The large fish coming to feed on the creek shores, overflowed by + the tide, showed themselves in the shallow water by a ripple before + them. They were ridden on behind and forced into water too shallow + for them to swim well, and were speared. I inferred from this fact + that they confined themselves to the Tidewater. When young, I have + heard the old people speak of an abundance of other fish. The + supposition was that the clearing of the country, and consequent + muddying of the streams, had destroyed them. + + By sluicing the dams, and prohibiting fishing in sluices, or + trapping, or anything that should bar their progress, I do not see + why the shad should not return. + +The shad have never returned to the up-country. But they still visit +the vast inland waters below the Fall line, sometimes so abundantly +that the price declines, as it did so recently as 1956, to where the +fishermen can scarcely make a profit. Other fish referred to by the +first Virginians continue to return, and will do so as long as our +outreaching civilization does not deprive them of the natural +conditions they need for survival. + +The years closely following the Revolution brought profound readjustment +in American commerce. Observations on whaling, a minor but vital home +industry, filled many pages of a 1788 communication of Thomas Jefferson +to John Jay, one of his confreres in the shaping of national policy. +After sketching the uses of whale oil, its economic position and its +history, he took up the particular problem facing the people of +Nantucket, perhaps the foremost whalers in America. As long as they had +been subjects of the British Empire they had been able to sell their +oil duty-free in England. Now as aliens they must pay the same tariff +charged other foreign traders. This meant the difference between a +profitable and unprofitable enterprise. A few Nantucket seamen had even +transferred to Nova Scotia in order to become British citizens again +and thus receive exemption from whale-oil import duty. This trend +alarmed the French in particular, who could visualize thousands of the +United States' best sailors going over to their enemies the English. +The remedy was suggested: make France the most attractive market for +U.S. whale oil. At the same time, English whaling had been government +subsidized and could undercut competition. + +The international chess game went briskly on, to the concern of +Jefferson and the well-wishers of the infant Union. Before the +Revolution England had fewer than 100 vessels whaling, while America +had more than 300. But by 1788 England had 314 and America 80. Such was +the result of the conflict, aided by the bounty paid by Britain to its +own whalers. Jefferson hoped that the United States producers could +develop a market in France, in part, by bartering oil for the essential +work clothes which hitherto had been bought for cash in England. But he +warned that without some kind of subsidy American whalers could neither +compete with foreign countries nor make a living commensurate with +other pursuits. The growing nation's sea-faring men would decrease to +the point where the country's sea power would be in question. + +As Secretary of State in 1791, Jefferson reported to Congress on the +two principal American fisheries of the day, both oceanic. "The cod and +whale fisheries," he began, "carried on by different persons, from +different ports, in different vessels, in different seas, and seeking +different markets, agree in one circumstance, as being as unprofitable +to the adventurer as important to the public." Once prosperous, he +said, they were now in embarrassing decline. + +He traced the history of the cod fisheries back to 1517, in which year +as many as 50 European ships were reported fishing off the Newfoundland +banks at one time. In 1577 there were 150 French vessels, 100 Spanish +and 50 Portuguese. The British limped far behind with 15. The French +gradually took over as they claimed more and more territory in the +region. Other nations dropped out, except England, whose cod fleet at +the beginning of the seventeenth century had increased to about 150 +vessels. These in due course were largely supplanted by the New England +colonists. When France lost Newfoundland to England in 1713 the English +and Colonial fisheries spurted ahead. By 1755 their fleets and catches +equaled those of the French, and in 1768 passed them. Jefferson's +statistics present an impressive picture of the fishing activity of +that time and place, especially when compared with the unorganized +Chesapeake fisheries just then coming of age. + +In 1791 he said there were 259 French vessels totaling 24,422 tons and +employing 9,722 seamen. Their catch: 20 million pounds that year. There +were 665 American vessels with 25,650 tonnage, 4,405 seamen and a catch +of around 40 million pounds. England's ships, tonnage and men were not +given. However, her estimated catch nearly equaled that of France and +America combined. Thus the Northern fishing grounds in their palmy days +accounted for well over 100 million pounds of cod a year. + +It is worth remarking that the size of today's New England cod fishery +is not radically different from the pre-Revolutionary one described by +Jefferson. Boats, men and catch remain about the same on the average. + +Turning to the whaling industry, Jefferson noted that Americans did not +enter it until 1715, although he credited the Biscayans and Basques of +Southern Europe with prosecuting it in the 15th century and leading the +way to the fishing grounds off Newfoundland. Whales were sought in both +the North and South Atlantic. The figures for the American Colonies in +1771 as given by Jefferson were 304 vessels engaged, totaling 27,800 +tons, navigated by 4,059 men. + +They were in for a difficult time in 1791. The Revolution halted their +activities and deprived them of their markets. Re-establishing this +fishery was a prime concern of Jefferson. + +It is significant that in his painstaking consideration of the nation's +fisheries he, a Virginian, apparently found no cause to deal with those +of his own Chesapeake bay. They were one day nevertheless to outstrip +many times over both the volume and value of American cod and whale +fisheries together. + +The evidence is that Jefferson was more interested in fish at +Monticello than anywhere else. But there the interest was personal, not +national. In his so-called _Farm Book_, or plantation record, he often +mentions fish. A note on slave labor reads: "A barrel of fish costing +$7. goes as far with the laborers as 200 ponds of pork costing $14." +This was in all probability Virginia salt-herring, which had finally +reached the status of a staple during the latter half of the 18th +century. An 1806 memorandum to his overseer runs: "Fish is always to be +got in Richmond ... and to be dealt out to the hirelings, laborers, +workmen, and house servants of all sorts as has been usual." In 1812 a +bill for fish, which he terms "indeed very high and discouraging, but +the necessity of it is still stronger," lists the species no doubt in +chief demand: "Twelve barrels herrings, $75. and one barrel of shads, +$6.50." These were salted and shipped in from Tidewater fisheries like +George Washington's at Mt. Vernon. + +For fresh fish Jefferson and his neighbors could look to their adjacent +rivers. In fact, so greatly did they rely on them that it was with +feelings akin to consternation that he wrote his friend William D. +Meriwether in 1809 that a neighbor, Mr. Ashlin, proposed to erect a dam +which was sure to inconvenience the watermen of the vicinity. +Furthermore, "to this then add the removal of our resort for fresh fish +... and the deprivation of all the intermediate inhabitants who now +catch them at their door." He was not on too firm ground in objecting, +however. He had a dam of his own across the Rivanna river which had +been there since 1757. + +He decided to build a fish pond in his garden. As he described it in +1808 it was little larger than an aquarium, 40 cubic yards contents, +probably for water lilies and goldfish. It was the first of several +fish ponds, constructed, no doubt, with both beauty and utility in +mind. A note in his _Weather Memorandum Book_ under date April 1812 +tells us: "The two fish ponds on the Colle branch were 40 days work to +grub, clean and make the dams." + +A series of letters in 1812 to friends who he thought might supply him +with live fish, particularly carp, for stocking, all run very much on +the order of this one to Captain Mathew Wills: + + I return you many thanks for the fish you have been so kind as to + send me, and still more for your aid in procuring the carp, and you + will further oblige me by presenting my thanks to Capt. Holman & + Mr. Ashlin. I have found too late, on enquiry that the cask sent + was an old and foul one, and I have no doubt that must have been + the cause of the death of the fish. The carp, altho it cannot live + the shortest time out of water, yet is understood to bear + transportation in water the best of any fish whatever. The + obtaining breeders for my pond being too interesting to be + abandoned, I have had a proper smack made, such as is regularly + used for transporting fish, to be towed after the boat, and have + dispatched the bearer with it without delay, as the season is + passing away. I have therefor again to solicit your patronage, as + well as Captain Holman's in obtaining a supply of carp. I think a + dozen would be enough and would therefore wish him to come away as + soon as he can get that number. + +From that time on his ponds came in for periodic mention, as when one +was broken up by flood waters in 1814. But despite setbacks he kept +faith in them as good food-producing adjuncts of a farm, thus +anticipating the U.S. Department of Agriculture's modern food-fish +pond-development program by more than a century. + +As is likely to be the case with experimenters, Jefferson's efforts at +fish propagation do not appear to have been overwhelmingly successful. +At any rate, there is much more frequent reference in his records to +putting fish in his ponds than taking them out. So far as he was +concerned, it may be said that results were less important than +example. Like all great leaders he was an originator and investigator, +confining himself to the basic things that insure man's sustenance and +contribute to his happiness, not the least of which is fishing. + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +Archer, Gabriel. _A Relation of the Discovery of Our River From James +Forte into the Maine, Made by Captain Christopher Newport._ Worcester, +1860. + +Beverley, Robert. _The History and Present State of Virginia._ London, +1705. + +Brown, Alexander. _The Genesis of the United States._ Boston, 1890. 2 +vols. + +Burnaby, Andrew. _Travels Through the Middle Settlements in North +America in the Years 1759-1760._ London, 1798. + +Byrd, William. _Natural History of Virginia._ Ed. and tr. by R. C. +Beatty and W. J. Mulloy. Richmond, 1940. + +Chastellux, Francois J. _Travels in North America in the Years 1780, +1781, and 1782._ London, 1787. + +Cresswell, Nicholas. _The Journal, 1774-77._ Ed. by Lincoln McVeagh. +New York, 1924. + +De Vries, David P. _Voyages From Holland to America, 1632-1644._ New +York, 1857. + +Durand, --. _A Huguenot exile in Virginia._ Ed. by Gilbert Chinard. New +York, 1934. + +Fithian, Philip V. _Journal and Letters, 1773-1774._ Ed. by Hunter D. +Farish. Williamsburg, 1943. + +Force, Peter. _Tracts and Other Papers._ Washington, 1836-46. 4 vols. + +Glover, Thomas. _An Account of Virginia._ London, 1676. + +Hamilton, Stanislaus M., ed. _Letters to Washington and Accompanying +Papers._ Boston, 1898-1901. 5 vols. + +Hamor, Ralph. _Notes of Virginian affaires of the Government of Sir +Thomas Gates and of Sir Thomas Dale till 1614._ Glasgow, 1906. + +---- _A True Discourse of the Present State of Virginia._ London, 1614. + +Hariot, Thomas. _Narrative of the First English Plantation of +Virginia._ London, 1893. + +Hart, Albert B. _American History Told by Contemporaries._ New York, +1908. 4 vols. + +Hening, William W. _The Statutes at Large of Virginia._ 1809-1823. 13 +vols. + +Jefferson, Thomas. _The Complete Jefferson._ Ed. by Saul K. Padover. +New York, 1943. + +---- _Thomas Jefferson's Farm Book._ Ed. by Edwin M. Betts. Princeton. +1953. + +---- _Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book, 1766-1824._ Ed. by Edwin M. +Betts. Philadelphia, 1944. + +Lee, Richard Henry. _Letters of Richard Henry Lee._ Ed. by James C. +Ballagh. New York, 1914. 2 vols. + +Middleton, Arthur P. _Tobacco Coast._ Ed. by George C. Mason. Newport +News, 1953. + +Neill, Edward. _Virginia Vetusta._ Albany, 1885. + +Newport, Christopher. _A Description of the Now-discovered River and +Country of Virginia, 1607._ Worcester, 1860. + +Pearson, John C. _The Fish and Fisheries of Colonial Virginia._ In +William and Mary College Quarterly, 1942-3. Williamsburg. + +Purchas, Samuel. _His Pilgrimes._ Glasgow, 1906. 20 vols. + +Royall, Anne. _Sketches of History, Life and Manners in the United +States._ New Haven, 1826. + +Smith, John. _Travels and Works of Captain John Smith._ Ed. by Edward +Arber. Edinburgh, 1910. 2 vols. + +Strachey, William. _The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia._ +London, 1849. + +Swem, E. G. _Virginia Historical Index._ Roanoke, 1934-6. 2 vols. + +Virginia. _Calendar of Virginia State Papers._ Richmond, 1875-1893. 11 +vols. + +Virginia Fish Commissioners. _Annual Report for the Year 1875._ +Richmond, 1875. + +Virginia Company. _The Records._ Ed. by S. M. Kingsbury. Washington, +1906-1935. 4 vols. + +Washington, George. _The Writings of George Washington._ Ed. by J. C. +Fitzpatrick. Washington. 39 vols. + +Whitelaw, Ralph T. _Virginia's Eastern Shore._ Ed. by George C. Mason. +Richmond, 1951. 2 vols. + + +Manuscripts + +_Mercer Papers_, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. + +Washington, Lund. _Letters._ Unpublished, at Mt. Vernon. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOUNTY OF THE CHESAPEAKE*** + + +******* This file should be named 26632.txt or 26632.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/6/6/3/26632 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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