July 4, 2013 — As we fish the sea of history today for stories of our revolutionary origins, we can catch a glimpse of what lured the Pilgrims to first drop their anchor off Provincetown before landing at Plymouth Rock.
They came for the seafood.
Searching for a new home, the Pilgrims first heard of Cape Cod looking at a map drawn by Bartholomew Gosnold, who was struck by the abundance of cod along the coast of what is now New England. His failed attempt to sail to China in 1602 is how this peninsula got its name changed from Pallavisino to Cape Cod.
Now, if you really want to dive deep into a great summer read, I suggest you get a copy of one of my favorite books, Mark Kurlansky's "Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World."
Kurlansky reports that while Gosnold literally put Cape Cod on the map, it was a map made by Capt. John Smith in 1616 marking the fishing hot spots in New England that convinced the Pilgrims to ask for a land grant to "where there was this Cape Cod."
Kurlansky quotes William Bradford, the man who would become the leader of Plymouth Colony and the governor of Massachusetts: "The major part inclined to go to Plymouth, chiefly for the hope of present profit to be made by the fish that was found in that country."
The "merchant adventurers" who financed the Pilgrim's voyage "expected to make a profit on this plantation. They expected to get their money back through the fisheries," Peter Arenstam, manager of the Maritime Artisans Department at the Plimouth Plantation told me.
Of course, the Pilgrims were horrible fishermen who almost starved to death if not for the indigenous Wampanoag who helped them survive until the settlers learned how to fish.
"It took them a long time to catch on but they were eventually successful. It's not a stretch to say cod is our founding fish. It's what made money for many New England settlers and provided a livelihood for thousands of families," Arenstam said.
That's why, he added, there's a solid-pine "sacred" cod hanging in the Statehouse today.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times