England were built principally with a view to accommodating the largest amount of that commodity which it was practicable to store in the same extent of room, the holds being unusually spacious, while the cabins were very contracted. The number of casks which they carried ranged from two hundred to six hundred, or in point of weight, from one hundred and twenty to three hundred thousand pounds.[1] Fitzhugh asserted that he could load a big vessel with as much facility as a small, but it is significant that the planters, whether they produced large crops of tobacco or purchased a great quantity in addition to what they cultivated, as a rule, in sending their hogsheads to Europe, apportioned them to different ships. In February, 1685, Byrd wrote to his English correspondent that he had recently forwarded thirty in one vessel and ninety-one in another.[2] In 1695, Fitzhugh exported eight hogsheads in one ship, twenty in a second, and thirty-seven in a third.[3] In adopting this course, both Byrd and Fitzhugh, who were representatives of their class, were influenced not so much by apprehension lest in sending all of their tobacco in a single
- ↑ Letters of William Fitzhugh, April 8, 1687. The following items in the appraisement of the Francis and Mary, owned in part by Francis Emperor of Lower Norfolk County, will show the value of many of the ships engaged in the transportation of tobacco: hull, with her masts, yards, standing and running rigging, £140; one sheet cable of ten inches, one cable of seven inches, one of five and a half, £50; one suit of sails, £10; one anchor weighing 700 lbs., one weighing 500 lbs., one small anchor, £15; one long boat with mast and sails, £4; seven guns, weight 5800 lbs. with carriages, tackles, round and bar shot, crows and hammer, £40; five old muskets and two swords, £14; one copper kettle, iron pot and skillet, £10 five tons of old water casks and two tons of new, £5; the value of the vessel and contents being £265 12s. Records of Lower Norfolk County, original vol. 1656-1666, f. p. 114.
- ↑ Letters of William Byrd, Feb. 19, 1685.
- ↑ Letters of William Fitzhugh, June 10, 1695.
