Chapter IV: Part 4

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.

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Manuscripts

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Washington, Lund. _Letters._ Unpublished, at Mt. Vernon.