Note 69 — Emmanuel Altham to Sir Edward Altham
Reading edition
A fishing stage, built over rock ledges near some convenient harbor, was a scaffold or “wharf built of spruce trees, boards, and beach stones where the fish could be cleaned,” salted and cured in the sun. The fishermen raced from Europe to get the best places, so a ship already in New England waters could hope to beat them all. S. E. Morison, The Story of the “Old Colony” of New Plymouth (1956), 122. The new year began on March 25 in the Old Style dating system.