During the months of April, May and June, in the year 1717, there were twenty-seven inward entries at the Salem customhouse. All but three were plantation built. Seventeen were owned in Salem; two hailed from London; two from Liverpool, and one from Bristol. There were eight ships, four brigantines, twelve sloops and three schooners. The first of these schooners to enter was the schooner _Fisher_, 30 tons, Timothy Orne, master, registered at the Salem customhouse, Oct. 27, 1715. This is the earliest authentic record of a schooner I have ever found. Those vessels having the largest tonnage were the ship _Patience and Judith_, 100 tons, owned in London, England, and carrying six guns and a crew of fourteen men, entering from the Isle of May, with a cargo of 140 tons of salt; and, second, the ship _Friendship_, Capt. Samuel Crow, 100 tons, owned in Salem, carrying two guns and a crew of ten men, also entering from the Isle of May with 90 tons of salt. Ten out of the twenty-seven entries brought in salt for the Salem fisheries. Rum and lignumvitae wood came from the West Indies, and wheat, corn, beans, flour, flax, hides, pork and lard came from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. The ships from English ports brought European goods.
During the last three months of 1754, eighty-seven vessels cleared outward at the Salem customhouse and sixty-eight were schooners. The largest tonnage was the snow _Aurora_ of Salem, 130 tons, built at Newbury that year, sailing for Liverpool with a cargo of 15,000 staves and 40 tons of pine timber. Of the ten European clearances, seven were for Bilboa, with salted fish; thirty-three cleared for ports in the West Indies; forty for southern colonies; and two for Newfoundland. The principal cargoes were salted fish, manufactured lumber, rum, sugar, molasses, salt, horses, sheep, and salted meats. Nearly all clearing for Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas carried cargoes of wooden, earthen and iron wares, probably manufactured in Salem or its immediate vicinity. Twenty-six thousand bricks were shipped to the West Indies and 20 bales of hay to South Carolina. The two schooners clearing for Halifax were loaded with "dead meat," probably intended for the garrison.