d share, as did
their forefathers a hundred and fifty years ago. But the old New England
strain of blood no longer predominates, and Portuguese, Scandinavians,
and Nova Scotia "Bluenoses" bunk with the lads of Gloucester stock. Yet
they are alike for courage, hardihood, and mastery of the sea, and the
traditions of the calling are undimmed.

There was a time before the Civil War when Congress jealously protected
the fisheries by means of a bounty system and legislation aimed against
our Canadian neighbors. The fishing fleets were regarded as a source
of national wealth and the nursery of prime seamen for the navy and
merchant marine. In 1858 the bounty system was abandoned, however, and
the fishermen were left to shift for themselves, earning small profits
at peril of their lives and preferring to follow the sea because they
knew no other profession. In spite of this loss of assistance from the
Government, the tonnage engaged in deep-sea fisheries was never so great
as in the second year of the Civil War. Four years later the industry
had shrunk one-half; and it has never recovered its early importance *

* In 1882, the tonnage amounted to 193,459; in 1866, to 89,336.

The coastwise merchant trade, on the other hand, has been jealously
guarded against competition and otherwise fostered ever since 1789, when
the first discriminatory tonnage tax was enforced. The Embargo Act of
1808 prohibited domestic commerce to foreign flags, and this edict was
renewed in the American Navigation Act of 1817. It remained a firmly
established doctrine of maritime policy until the Great War compelled
its suspension as an emergency measure. The theories of protection
and free trade have been bitterly debated for generations, but in this
instance the practice was eminently successful and the results were
vastly impressive. Deepwater shipping dwindled and died, but the
increase in coastwise sailing was consistent. It rose to five million
tons early in this century and makes the United States still one of the
foremost maritime powers in respect to saltwater activity.

To speak of this deep-water shipping as trade coastwise is misleading,
in a way. The words convey an impression of dodging from port to port
for short distances, whereas many of the voyages are longer than those
of the foreign routes in European waters. It is farther by sea from
Boston to Philadelphia than from Plymouth, England, to Bordeaux. A
schooner making the run