With the morning the gale was piping smartly, and it never occurring to the captain of the revenue cutter that a vessel would attempt to go to sea in such a blow, he took his gig with her crew and went ashore. The ebb tide left the boat on the beach while Capt. Nicolson and his men were up town, and meanwhile the sympathetic Provincetowners, ready to help the Hope, stole the thole pins and an oar or two. This was the favorable moment, while the cutter was disabled for want of her commander and several men, for whose return on board she would have to wait, so Capt. Doten cut his cable and stern mooring line, quickly hoisted and sheeted home his fore topsail, and was moving down the harbor before the lieutenant in charge of the cutter realized the situation. Seizing a musket he fired at Capt. Doten, who was at the Hope’s helm, but made a bad shot. Then he let go a big gun at the brig, which also was poorly aimed, and did no harm. It served, however, as a signal for Capt. Nicolson to come on board, if he needed more than the evidence of his eyes. The town was immediately alive with excitement, for the seafaring men took in the whole plan and shouted with delight over its boldness and sheer sailor-like daring. Men hindered more than they helped while pretending to assist in getting the boat down to the water, but at last, with her captain on board again, the cutter got into full chase, firing her bow guns at the brig in hope of crippling her spars if doing nothing more damaging. Provincetown has rarely seen anything more exciting than that running fight, and the story is told there even to this day, as the writer can vouch, having himself heard it from an old sea dog over there within a few years.
The Hope was a good sailer, and soon doubled round the long, sandy point at the harbor mouth, across which the cutter still continued firing, the shots sending the sand into the air in clouds as they skipped over the beach.
After getting outside, Capt. Doten made more sail for the better handling of his vessel, and one of his men, William Stacy of Boston, went aloft to loose a to’gallant sail. Just as he reached the crosstrees and gripped the shrouds for further ascent, a shot passed so close to him that, holding by his hands, the wind of it strung him out like a flag. Getting his footing again he yelled: “A good shot, try it again,” and went on with his duty.
The cutter soon got into the open bay where the sea was so rough that her firing became entirely ineffectual, and she could only chase. Capt. Nicolson, however, was one of the plucky kind and meant to do his full duty by keeping the Hope in sight if he could do nothing more. The gale became fiercer, and the sea rougher as the two vessels got from under the lee of the Cape, and that night the cutter was forced ashore near Scituate and wrecked, but with no loss of life. Capt. Doten, with a loaded vessel under him, which he knew how to handle, made better weather of it, and succeeded in beating the Hope out past Cape Cod against the storm, and in a day or two was running for the West Indies, intending to make Martinique.
All went well until nearing his destination, when one afternoon a big British frigate poked her nose out from behind an island right across his path and fired a gun for him to heave to. There was nothing for it but to obey, and a boat with a boarding party was soon alongside. The officer wanted to know where the brig was bound, to which Capt. Doten replied, “West Indies and a market.” “You mean Martinique, don’t you?” said the officer, “and let me tell you that had you got in there the Frenchmen would have given you $25 a quintal for your fish; but you will do well as it is, for I’m going to send you into the English island of St. Lucia, and our people will give you $16.” “Very well,” answered Capt. Doten, “I’ll go to St. Lucia then.” “Yes,” replied the officer, “I’m sure you will, as I’m going with you, for you Yankees are altogether too smart and slippery to be trusted alone, with $9 on a quintal of fish difference as to where you land them.”
So the Hope went into St. Lucia, where Capt. Doten sold both fish and vessel, and later he found his way home with $25,000 in Spanish doubloons, a large part of the sum being sewed into his clothing, and the writer has heard the Captain’s wife tell of letting him into the house at about two o’clock one morning, and of their sitting up in bed together, ripping out the gold pieces and tossing them into a shining pile, of which “Hope told a flattering tale.”
CHAPTER X.
At the beginning of the Revolution the cod fishery of Plymouth was active and successful, and during the previous ten years had employed an average of sixty vessels. During the war it was of course seriously depressed, but after the declaration of peace its recuperation was rapid. In 1802 it had reached its maximum of prosperity, before the embargo and the war of 1812 again crippled it. In that year there were thirty-seven vessels engaged in it, employing two hundred and sixty-six men, and landing twenty-six thousand, one hundred and seventy-five quintals of codfish, or an average of seven hundred and seven quintals for each vessel. All but six of these vessels made two trips. The following list of the vessels engaged that year with their tonnage, the names of the skippers and the fare of each may be interesting to some of my readers.
Lucy, Thomas Sears, 75 tons, 800 quintals.
Old Colony, George Finney, 80 tons, 850 quintals.
Wm. Davis, Jr., Elkanah Finney, 90 tons, 1000 quintals.
Mary, Clark Finney, 75 tons, 450 quintals.
Swan, Thadeus Churchill, Jr., 60 tons, 895 quintals.
Polly, Amasa Churchill, 45 tons, 800 quintals.
Ceres, Wm. Brewster, 60 tons, 1,100 quintals.
Washington, Amasa Brewster, 90 tons, 840 quintals.
Swallow, Melzar Whiting, 50 tons, 900 quintals.
Benj. Church, Nathaniel Clark, 70 tons, 350 quintals.
Crusoe, Stephen Payne, 60 tons, 900 quintals.
Nightingale, Ansel Holmes, 35 tons, 700 quintals.
Union, Samuel Virgin, 70 tons, 850 quintals.
Rose, Barnabas Dunham, 55 tons, 710 quintals.
Dove, Wm. Barnes, 34 tons, 650 quintals.
Seaflower, Isaac Bartlett, 60 tons, 1,000 quintals.
— — — Nathaniel Sylvester, 80 tons, 800 quintals.
— — — Ansel Holmes, 60 tons, 500 quintals.
Phebe, John Allen, 75 tons, 700 quintals.
New State, Joseph Holmes, 50 tons, 700 quintals.
Drake, Barnabas Faunce, 44 tons, 550 quintals.
Columbia, Truman Bartlett, 70 tons, 700 quintals.
Neptune, Chandler Holmes, 55 tons, 600 quintals.
Esther, Seth Robbins, 45 tons, 600 quintals.
Lucy, Eben Davie, 50 tons, 600 quintals.
Caroline, Ellis Holmes, 60 tons, 800 quintals.
Hero, Joseph Doten, 60 tons, 600 quintals.
Industry, Joseph Ryder, 60 tons, 600 quintals.
Federalist, Finney Leach, 80 tons, 750 quintals.
Eagle, Jabez Churchill, 30 tons, 300 quintals.
Polly, Lemuel Leach, 70 tons, 700 quintals.
Leader, Job Brewster, 35 tons, 660 quintals.
Manson, Ellis Brewster, 105 tons, 450 quintals.
Rosebud, Andrew Bartlett, 40 tons, 580 quintals.
Hawk, Samuel Churchill, 60 tons, 700 quintals.
Seaflower, Ansel Bartlett, 40 tons, 790 quintals.
Rebecca, —— Codman, 50 tons, 700 quintals.
After the peace of 1815 the fishery entered upon a season of renewed activity, which continued with occasional periods of relaxation until its final extinction. The government having found during the revolution that fishermen made up a large share of naval enlistments, adopted the policy of aiding and encouraging the fishing industry, and in 1789 Congress passed an act granting a bounty of five cents per quintal on dried fish, and imposed a duty of fifty cents per quintal on imported fish. In 1790 the bounty of five cents was increased to ten, but on the 16th of February, 1792, the bounty of ten cents per quintal was discontinued, and an allowance was made to vessels employed in the cod fishery at sea for four months between the last day of February and the last day of November, according to the following rates: Vessels between twenty and thirty tons were to receive $1.50 per ton annually, and those of more than thirty tons, $2.50 per ton, but the allowance to any vessel was limited to $170. In 1797 the allowance was increased one-third; but in 1807 all bounties were abolished. In 1813 the bounty was revived and the allowance fixed as follows: To vessels from five to twenty tons, $1.60 per ton; to those from twenty to thirty, $2.40 per ton, and to those above thirty, $4, but no vessel was to receive more than $272. In 1819 an allowance was made to vessels from five to thirty tons of $3.50 per ton, and to those of more than thirty, $4 per ton, but vessels having a crew of ten men were to be allowed $3.50 per ton on a service of three months and a half. No vessel, however, was to receive more than $360. By an act passed in 1817, it was required in order to entitle a vessel to receive a bounty that the master and three quarters of the crew should be citizens of the United States, but in 1864 this requirement was limited to the masters. By an act passed July 28, 1866, bounties were abolished, and duties on salt used in curing fish were remitted.