schooners (five to fifty tons), four bateaux (smaller sailboats), fifteen fishing boats (which could possibly have been rowboats), and eleven

small boats or canoes. (2) From the outset of British settlement on the Island, the fishery was

considered an important industry. In a London Journal of 1774, a report by Gamaliel Smethurst stated that he had lived on the Island from 1762— 17 63, and had taken an active part in the foundation of the Island’s

fishery:

I was the first Brit who attempted a fishery on the Island of St. John. I had raised two storehouses at St. Peters, and had employed most of the people on the Island in the fishery; I had likewise brought a crew from Marblehead in New England. (3)

The importance of the fishery in our area was indicated early when Lot 40 was one of two lots* on the Island which was given the distinction of being allotted to a fishing company.

American vessels fished the waters off the Island and dominated the Fishing Industry at this time. Excerpts from an article, which appeared in the Islander in September of 1859, presents the Island’s Fishing Industry as it existed at that time:

It is necessary that we should encourage to come among us our more enterprising and energetic neighbors, to teach our people how to catch fish, and to buy them from them when caught... It is no unusual thing to see at one view, on the North Side of the Island, several hundreds of fore and aft Schooners, belonging to American subjects... There are very few vessels belonging to this Island employed in the Mackerel fishery — we have been informed, on good authority, that probably the number so engaged does not exceed a half dozen...A ready cash market exists in the Island for all the fish that can be caught... (4)

Prior to the—mid 1800s, fishing was simply a means of diversifying the settlers diets. As Islanders did not own their own waters, the Americans ruled the Industry and employed their own vessels in Maritime waters. (5)

Although the convention of 1818 had banned the American Fishermen from PEI’s inshore fishery, it had not been enforced. The next Act to regulate the Island’s fisheries was in 1825, which established regulations for the hiring and employment of fishermen, the payment of creditors, and the dates for the opening and closing of the fishing season; April 15th and November 1st respectively. (6) The Reciprocity Treaty of 1854 established a system of free trade between Canada and the United

* The other Lot given to a fishing company was Lot 59.