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Photo of John Atwood from his self-published book, 'The Pilgrimage of a Pilgrim Eighty Years.' |
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History Highlights
John Atwood's 'Pilgrimage of a Pilgrim'
Laurel Guadazno
BANNER COLUMNIST
'I entered my career in this life as a fisher boy at the age of eight years.' wrote John Atwood, 'At nine years I was cook of schooner Seaflower. At the age of ten years I was cook of schooner Porpoise.'
Long Point, where John Atwood lived, is the name given to the narrow strip of sand that forms the very tip end of Cape Cod. In the early 1800s fish were abundant in Provincetown Harbor and Cape Cod Bay. Since Provincetown residents lived primarily by fishing, nearness to the fishing grounds and an abundance of fish attracted many fishermen to build their homes on Long Point. The first home constructed on Long Point was built by John Atwood's father (also John Atwood) and occupied in November 1818. Soon a small community existed on Long Point.
In 1892 at age 80, Atwood wrote and self-published a small book about his religious beliefs and experiences on the water. The title page reads, 'The Pilgrimage of a Pilgrim Eighty Years by John Atwood, Veteran Fisherman of Cape Cod, Born in Provincetown, at 12:20 P.M., December 26, 1811.' John's older brother was N. E. Atwood, a highly esteemed ichthyologist and friend of Louis Agassiz.
Atwood seems to have had only two interests in life: religion and fishing. Most of the chapters in his self-published book concern the former. Atwood comes across as a rather self-important old man, but the book is interesting because it gives some insight into the life and interests of a resident of the Long Point community. In it Atwood credits himself with many advances in fishing. 'In 1833 I introduced trolling for halibut and fished in that way one winter, in the gully north of Race Point, and kept it a secret, fisherman-like, and caught about three shares of fish to my neighbor's one.' Unfortunately for him, the next winter all his neighbors figured out how and where Atwood was catching so many halibut and adopted his methods. He continues, 'In 1838 I introduced the netting of mackerel with gill nets at Sandy Point, Pleasant Bay, Chatham and Nantucket.'
He states quite proudly, 'In 1848 I brought the first mackerel ever received on ice to Boston. It was August. I took them in the sloop smack American Eagle.' Later he introduced the use of a jib topsail that increased the speed of his little fishing vessel, allowing him to reach the markets even more quickly than before.
Perhaps John Atwood's most successful development was the schooner Golden Eagle. He proclaims, 'She was constructed to carry two cargoes at one time, and she was a success. I could and did carry the largest load of live lobsters that any smack ever carried into New York, and as large a freight of iced halibut and cod on the well deck as any smack carried to New York.' Not one to lose any opportunity to make money, John Atwood operated the schooner as a packet ship between Provincetown and Boston in the winter.
For a time he gave up fishing and bought into the Central Wharf Company, one of the largest mercantile companies in town. When his health began to fail, he sold his shares and went to sea again.
What comes across in Atwood's book is the determination to be the best fisherman with the fastest boat. He, and I imagine all good captains, derived great pride and satisfaction from getting to market first and receiving the best price for their catch. Unfortunately after 62 years in the fishing business the bottom fell out of the Grand Banks fishing industry and John Atwood writes, 'I left Provincetown without a dollar to my name to enter the commission business in Boston. It was an uphill road to travel at my age, but nothing daunted I commenced my work in earnest.'
The story has a happy ending, though, for John Atwood was able to lay up treasure enough to feed and clothe himself as well as purchase a nice comfortable home in Malden Massachusetts. He writes, I have a modest income sufficient for my daily wants and now I have nothing to trouble or worry me in this world, nor in any other.'
[Laurel Guadazno is visitor services manager for the Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum. She also writes and narrates 'History Highlights,' heard regularly on WOMR, 92.1 FM.]
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Apr 10th, 2003