As observed by
William Wood in New Englands Prospect, published in 1634-35 as an advertisement for Englishmen to emigrate to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Some of the species Wood mentions may have become extinct from over-fishing in the 17th and 18th centuries. Fishing and whaling in the North Atlantic were big business even before the New England colonies were established, and became one of the chief recreational pursuits of the settlers.
Let me leade you from the land to the Sea, to view what
commodities may come from thence; there is no countrey knowne, that yeelds more
variety of fish winter and summer: and that not onely for the present spending
and sustentation of the plantations, but likewise for trade into other
countries, so that those which have had stages & make fishing voyages into
those parts, have gained (it is thought) more than the Newfoundland Jobbers.
Codfish in these seas are larger than in Newfoundland, six or seven making a
quintall, whereas there they have fifteene to the same weight; and though this
they seeme a base and more contemptible commoditie in the judgement of more
neate adventurers, yet it hath bin the enrichment of other nations, and is
likely to prove no small commoditie to the planters, and likewise to England if
it were thorowly undertaken. Salt may be had from the salt Islands,
and as is supposed may be made in the countrey. The chiefe fish for trade is Cod, but for the use of the countrey,
there is all manner of fish as followeth.
The king of waters,
the Sea shouldering Whale,
The snuffing Grampus,
with the oyly Seale,
The Storme presaging
Porpus, Herring-Hogge,
Lineshearing Sharke,
the Catfish, and Sea Dogge,
 |
| Still-Life of Fish and Cat by Clara Peeters, 1594-1657. |
The Scale-fenc'd
Sturgeon, wry mouthd Hollibut,
The flounsing Sammon,
Codfish, Greediguts [see below].
Cole, Haddocke,
Haicke, the Thornebacke, and the Scale,
Whose Slimie outside
makes himselfe in date,
The stately Basse old Neptunes sleeting post,
That tides it out and
in from Sea to Coast.
Consorting Herrings,
and the bony Shad,
Big bellied Alewives,
Machrills richly clad
With Rainebow colours,
thy Frost fist and the Smelt,
As good as ever lady
Gustus [taste] felt.
The spotted Lamprons,
Eeles, the Lamperies,
That seeke fresh water
brookes with Argus eyes;
These waterie
villagers with thousands more,
Doe passe and repasse
neare the verdant store.
 |
Broyling Fish Over Fire, by John White c 1540-1593.
“The men bestow their
time in fishing,
hunting, wars, and such man-like exercises,”
William Strachey
wrote of Native Americans in 1609-1610. |
Kinds of all Shel-fish.
The luscious Lobster,
with the Crabfish raw,
The Briniy Osier,
Muscle, Periwigge,
And Tortoise sought
for by the Indian Squaw,
Which to the slats
daunce many a winters Jigge,
To dive for Coddes,
and to digge for Clamms,
Whereby her lazie
husbands guts hee cramms.
To omit such of these as are not usefull, therefore not to
be spoken of, and onely to certifie you of such as be usefull.
First the Seale
which is that which is called the Sea Calfe, his skinne is good for divers
uses, his body being betweene fish and flesh, it is not very delectable to the
pallate, or congruent with the stomack; his Oyle is very good to burne in Lampes,
of which he affords a great deale.
 |
Late 17th century fishing vessel.
Ships such as this one often frequented the coastal waters
around the
island of Newfoundland on a seasonal
basis during the 17th and 18th
centuries. Ship detail
from a French woodcut of unknown origins. In
1710,
a similar scene appeared on the Herman Moll map
of North America
with the English description,
"A VIEW OF A STAGE & ALSO YE MANNER OF
FISHING FOR, CURING & DRYING COD AT
NEWFOUNDLAND."
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/17century_vessel.html |
The Sharke is a kinde
of fish as bigge as a man, some as bigge as a horse, with three rowes of teeth
within his mouth, with which he snaps asunder the fishermans lines, if he be
not very circumspect: This fish will leape at a mans hand if it be over board,
and with his teeth snap off a mans legge or hand if he be a swimming; These are
often taken, being good for nothing but to put on the ground for manuring of
land.
The Sturgeons be
all over the countrey, but the best catching of them be upon the shoales of Cape Codde,
and in the River of Mirrimacke, where much is taken, pickled and brought
for England,
some of these be 12. 14. 18. foote long: I set not downe the price of fish there,
because it is so cheape, so that one may have as much for two pence, as would
give him an angell in England.
The Sammon is as good as it is in England
and in great plenty. The Hollibut is
not much unlike a plaice or Turbot, some being two yards long and
one wide: and a foot thicke; the plenty of better fish makes these of little esteeme,
except the head and finnes, which stewed or baked is very good: these Hollibuts
be little set by while Basse is in season. Thornebacke
and Scates [rays] is given to the
dogges, being not counted worth the dressing in many places.
 |
Atlantic bass, William Wood's favorite fish.
He thought sea bass was better than lobster.
Do not neglect the "sweet, good, pleasant to the palate,
wholesome" marrow in the headbone. (Ack!)
Wood describes bass as 3-4 feet long or larger, so today's
bass must be wimps compared to those in the 1630s. |
The Basse is one
of the best fishes in the countrey, and though men are soone wearied with other
fish, yet are they never with Basse; it is a delicate, fine, fat, fast fish,
having a bone in his head, which containes a sawcerfull of marrow sweet and
good, pleasant to the pallat, and wholsome to the stomack. When there be great
store of them,we onely eate the heads, and salt up the bodies for winter, which
exceedes Ling or Haberdine. Of these fishes some be three and some foure foot
long, some bigger, some lesser: at some tides a man may catch a dozen or twenty
of these in three houres, the way to catch them is with hooke and line: The
Fisherman taking a great Cod-line, to which he fastneth a peece of Lobster, and
throwes it into the Sea, the fish biting at it he pulls her to him, and knockes
her on the head with a sticke.
These are at one time (when Alewives passe up the Rivers) to be catched in Rivers, in Lobster time at the Rockes, in Macrill time in the Bayes,
at Michelmas in the Seas. When they use to tide it in and out to the Rivers and
Creekes, the English at the top of an high water do crosse the Creekes with
long seines or Basse Netts, which stop in the fish; and the water ebbing from
them they are left on the dry ground, sometimes two or three thousand at a set,
which are salted up against winter, or distributed to such as have present
occasion either to spend them in their houses, or use them for their ground.
The Herrings be much like them that
be caught on the English coasts. Alewives be a kind of fish which is much like a
Herring, which in the latter end of Aprill come up to the fresh Rivers to
spawne, in such multitudes as is allmost incredible, pressing up in such shallow
waters as will scarce permit them to swimme, having likewise such longing
desire after the fresh water ponds, that no beatings with poles, or forcive
agitations by other devices, will cause them to returne to the sea, till they
have cast their Spawne. The Shaddes
be bigger than the English Shaddes and fatter.
The Macrills [mackerel]
be of two sorts, in the beginning of the yeare are great ones, which be upon
the coast; some are 18. inches long. In Summer as in May, June, July, and
August, come in a smaller kind of them: These Macrills are taken with drailes
which is a long small line, with a lead and hooke at the end of it, being
baited with a peece of red cloath: this kind of fish is counted a leane fish in
England, but there it is so fat, that it can scarce be saved against winter
without reisting.
 |
| Eel and lampern |
There be a great store of
Salt water Eeles, especially in such places where grasse growes:
for to take these there be certaine Eele pots made of Osyers, which must be
baited with a peece of Lobster, into which the Eeles entering cannot returne
backe againe: some take a bushel in a night in this manner, eating as many as
they have neede of for the present, and salt up the rest against winter. These
Eeles be not of so luscious a taste as they be in England, neyther are they so aguish
[feverish? shivering? quivering?],
but are both wholesome for the body, and delightfull for the taste:
Lamprons and
Lampreyes be not much set by.
Lobsters be in
plenty in most places, very large ones, some being 20. pound in weight; these are
taken at a low water amongst the rockes, they are very good fish, the small
ones being the best, their plenty makes them little esteemed and seldome eaten.
The Indians get many of them every day for to baite their hookes withall, and
to eate when they can get no Basse.
The
Oisters be
great ones in forme of a shoo horne, some be a foote long, these breede on certaine
bankes that are bare every spring tide. This fish without the shell is so big
that it must admit of a division before you can well get it into your mouth.
 |
The "periwig fish" is
probably the starlet sea
anemone, which lives in
salt marshes. Thanks to
Alysa Farrell for
help in identification. |
The
Perewig is a kind of fish that
lyeth in the ooze like a head of haire, which being touched conveyes it selfe
leaving nothing to bee seene but a small round hole.
Muscles [mussels] be in great plenty, left onely for the Hogges,
which if they were in England
would be more esteemed of the poorer sort.
Clamms
or Clamps is a shel-fish not much unlike a cockle, it lyeth under the sand, every
six or seven of them having a round hole to take ayre and receive water at. When
the tide ebbs and flowes, a man running over these Clamm bankes will presently
be made all wet, by their spouting of water out of those small holes: These
fishes be in great plenty in most places of the countrey, which is a great
commoditie for the feeding of Swine, both in winter, and Summer; for being once
used to those places, they will repaire to them as duely every ebbe, as if they
were driven to them by keepers: In some places of the countrey there bee Clamms
as bigge as a pennie white loafe, which are great dainties amongst the natives,
and would bee in good esteeme amongst the English were it not for better fish.
 |
Greediguts fish (Lophius piscatorius) is one U.G.L.Y. fish!
'The singular appearance and habits of the
goosefish have gained it numerous appellations. In Massachusetts the
fishermen know it by the names "goosefish," "angler," or "fishing
frog." In Maine it is the "monkfish," in Rhode Island the "bellows-fish," in
eastern Connecticut the "molligut," and in South Carolina "allmouth."
The early colonial writers refer to it as the "greedigut." It is also
known as the "wide-gap," "kettle-maw," and "sea devil."' ~Unutilized fishes and their relation to the fishing industries, by Irving Angell Field.
Color photo of greediguts fish: http://www.marlin.ac.uk/imgs/o_loppis2.jpg |
*************
More about New England fish: http://www.narragansettbay.info/swgamefish.cfm
See Kathleen Wall's article on Eels--Fat and Sweet HERE.
Massachusetts Bay underwater: http://www.mwra.state.ma.us/harbor/html/mb_images.htm
17th-century sea monsters: http://scolarcardiff.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/science-and-sea-monsters/
If they had Shark Week in the 17th century: http://marybarrettdyer.blogspot.com/2014/08/if-they-had-shark-week-in-17th-century.html
If you enjoy articles like this, you’ll love the book The Dyers of
London, Boston, & Newport
(The Dyers #3), by
Christy K Robinson. It’s packed with illustrations, trivia, new research, and
facts about the people and culture of the 17th century.
