They were exempt from military and other public duties.

In 1636 the "Desire," a vessel of 120 tons, was built at Marblehead, the largest to that time.

By 1640 the port records of European ports begin to show the clearings of American-built vessels.
[Illustration: THE KETCH] In those days of wooden hulls and tapering masts the forests of New England were the envy of every European monarch ambitious to develop a navy.

It was a time, too, of greater naval activity than the world had ever seen--though but trivial in comparison with the present expenditures of Christian nations for guns and floating steel fortresses.

England, Spain, Holland, and France were struggling for the control of the deep, and cared little for considerations of humanity, honor, or honesty in the contest.