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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings

	SALEM MARITIME NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE Massachusetts	Salem Maritime National Historic Site
Essex County, Derby Street, Salem; address: Salem Maritime National Historic Site 174 Derby Street Salem, MA 01970. Salem Maritime National Historic Site

The group of buildings and wharves at this site memorializes U.S. maritime greatness and the pioneering enterprise upon the sea that strengthened the young Nation. Surviving from the period of Salem's supremacy as a port are Derby Wharf; Derby House; Hawkes House; and the Old Custom House, in which Nathaniel Hawthorne worked.

Founded in 1626 by Roger Conant as the plantation of Naumkeag and established 2 years later as the first town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Salem owed its prosperity to a seaboard location and was a major port long before the Nation was formed. Prior to the settlement of Boston, it was the principal debarkation point for the Puritan migrations from England in the 1630's.

From the beginning, American colonists depended upon the ocean for communication with the homeland and, because of the lack of roads, with the other colonies. Many colonists lived within reach of the sea and naturally turned to it for adventure, livelihood, and even riches. Indeed, the sea was the first frontier as well as the first highway. The colonies in New England, more than most others, grew up on the sea and for more than two centuries aggressively followed its calling. Much of the land was rocky and agricultural possibilities meager, but the coastal waters yielded an abundance of fish and the virgin forests afforded materials for building ships. The Salem colonists soon became actively engaged in maritime pursuits, particularly fishing and shipping.

Old Custom House, Salem Maritime National Historic Site, Massachusetts, commemorates the era of Salem's maritime supremacy. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the noted author, at one time worked in this building, erected in 1819.

Salem and other New England ports figured prominently in the colonial and early republican economy. Beginning soon in the 17th century, sailing vessels based at Salem plied the sealanes of the world. As early as 1643 Salem merchants sent fish, lumber, and provisions to the West Indies in exchange for sugar and molasses, which were brought home and made into rum. Gradually the orbit of trade was extended to Europe, for the most part to Portugal and Spain, which offered a ready market for dried fish and supplied salt, wine, fruit, iron, and Spanish dollars in return.

This trade and that with the West Indies—which after 1700 developed into the "triangular trade" between New England, the West Indies, and Africa—thrived until 1763, when the long struggle between France and England for the mastery of the American continent finally came to an end and the English Government began to enact and enforce new measures that stringently limited the commerce of the American colonies. Under these conditions the economic life of Salem, like that of all Atlantic ports, came to a standstill, and a discontent engendered that grew into resistance and eventually rebellion.

During the War for Independence Salem was a base for privateers, swift and formidable ships that ravaged British shipping. Because it was the one major port in the United States that did not fall into British hands during the war, it was active in privateering. During the years 1776-82 an average of 50 Salem vessels were continually at sea preying on enemy shipping and engaging enemy ships.

For nearly three quarters of a century after that time, until the era of the clipper ships, Salem continued to be a key New England port. At the end of the war the energy that had been shown in privateering found an outlet in a worldwide search for new markets. Between the War for Independence and the War of 1812, especially, Salem emerged as one of the major seaports in the Western Hemisphere. Not a large city, it gained wealth and fame from the work of a small but bold population of shipmasters and sailors, sponsored by a small group of enterprising merchants. The latter included the Derby family, particularly Richard, Elias Hasket, and Elias Hasket, Jr.

Old Custom House.

Salem shipmasters made pioneering voyages into the Baltic and beyond the Cape of Good Hope to the fabulous East Indies and China—voyages that helped to usher in the first golden age of foreign trade and to achieve for Salem the reputation of a "New World Venice." On some of those voyages, vessels were away as long as 2 years and might take on and dispose of several cargoes before returning to their home port from the Far East.

After the French Revolution brought on the general European war that broke out in 1793, it was not markets of the East alone that lured U.S. merchants. As France and England once again came to grips in a titanic struggle, ships of the neutral United States attempted to transport a large share of the goods of both belligerents. The U.S. vessels were exposed to constant danger of capture by privateers in the quest of plunder or by men-of-war that seized any shipping going in or out of enemy ports.

At first, British aggressions were the more serious, particularly in French West Indies waters. Negotiation of the Jay Treaty in 1794 somewhat reduced the friction between the United States and England, but it created resentment on the part of the French Republic, which accused the United States of repudiating the friendship formed during the War for Independence. The French increased their depredations on U.S. shipping, and Congress took warlike measures for the protection of U.S. trade. In 1798 it organized the Navy Department and abrogated all treaties with the French. The Navy could not provide all the necessary war vessels, so during the summer of 1798 citizens of the seaport towns were requested to build ships by subscription. Salem raised $74,700 in a few weeks for the construction of the Essex, a 32-gun frigate, which became famous in naval annals.

Derby House.

The embargo President Jefferson imposed on U.S. shipping in 1807 and the War of 1812 were severe blows to Salem and were the first of several factors that in but a few decades led to the decline of her commerce. During the War of 1812, however, privateering took the place of trade as it had in the War for Independence. At the end of hostilities, Salem displayed the same pioneering instinct that had been in evidence at the close of the War for Independence. Merchants and captains explored new channels of trade to Africa, Australia, and South America. After the discovery of gold in California in 1848, Salem shipowners were among the first to reap profits from the trade around Cape Horn to San Francisco. However, the great increase in the size of vessels that came with the decade of the clipper ships, 1850-60, brought Salem's maritime activities abruptly to a close. Her harbor was too shallow to accommodate the large ships, and the deep water ports of Boston and New York absorbed her commerce.

Salem Maritime was designated a national historic site in 1938. It occupies an area of almost 9 acres bordering on Salem Harbor. Capt. Richard Derby began building Derby Wharf soon after 1762. After the War for Independence it became a mercantile center of the Republic. One of the major survivals from Salem's era of maritime supremacy, it was restored in 1938. It extends nearly 2,000 feet into the harbor. Directly opposite the wharf is the Custom House, constructed in 1819, where Nathaniel Hawthorne once worked and collected materials for his distinguished novel The Scarlet Letter. The oldest surviving brick house in Salem is the Derby House, erected in 1761-62 by Capt. Richard Derby for his son, Elias Hasket Derby. Other buildings of interest are the Hawkes House and the Rum Shop.