Note 1223 — Chapter VII
Reading edition
Yet in 1668-9 the colony of Massachusetts had sent a ship-load of masts to Charles II.; and at the end of the century, Bellomont, in one of his despatches home, says that from the port of Boston there sailed more vessels built in New England than belonged to all Scotland and Ireland. Bellomont urged on the home government the importance of making in America their own tar and pitch. New Hampshire was already sending masts, yards, and bowsprits to England, and Bellomont shows the government how they could save by carrying them for themselves. This was in 1700 and 1701.