A History of Whitby, and Streoneshalh Abbey (Electronic book text)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3* CHAP. III. THE HARBOUR, PIERS, QUAYS, DRAW-BRIDGE, SHIPPING, SHIPBUILDING AND MANUFACTURES CONNECTED WITH IT, COMMERCE, WHALE FISHERY, CUSTOM-HOUSE. Hitherto we have viewed Whitby as a textit{town, let us now examine it as a textit{sea-port; in which light its importance is most considerable.The reader has already been informed, that the first voyage from this port, of which there is any record, was that of /ISIIlcda, in the year 684. Soon after the conquest, the port of Whilby must have been of some consequence, as it is particularly specified in the charters of the Percy family, among their donations to the monastery. Yet it does not appear to have made great progress under the government of the monks; for, as we learn from the accounts of their expenditure, the coals procured for the abbey were chiefly brought by vessels belonging to Shields, Newcastle, Sunderland, Barton, Lynn, and other ports; though the Whitby vessels also brought a considerable quantity.* At the dissolution of the monastery, Whitby was a fishing town of great note. The number of vessels belonging to it has not been recorded; but Robin Hood's Bay had then textit{20 boats, and of course Whitby * According to the Roll for 13945, the names of the owners or masters of Whitby vessels which brought coals that year for the monastery, were: Elias Nesfeld, John Cundith, John Thorpe, and John Legat. had many more. About that time the harbour received great improvements, by the erection of a new quay, and the enlargement of the pier. How long a pier had existed there, on which side of the river it lay, or whether it was on both sides, is not known; but it was then repaired, or rather rebuilt, with stone that had fallen from the cliffs, as well as with timber.* It is probable that about this time, or soon after...