During the first three months of the year 1762, fifty-three vessels cleared from Salem, bound for foreign ports and the southern colonies; thirty-four were schooners. The largest vessel was the ship _Antelope_, 150 tons, a prize, registered at Salem in 1761 and owned by Richard Derby. She cleared for Guadaloupe with lumber, fish, train oil, and Fyall wines. There were nineteen clearances for Guadaloupe during those three winter months. Listed with the staples were the following curious items, viz.: 7-1/2 tons prize soap, illegally imported, shipped to Guadaloupe; and 12,000 feet of oars, shipped to St. Christophers. There is a surprising diversity of ownership among these fifty-three vessels. No large shipowner had a considerable interest. Richard Derby of Salem owned three vessels; Robert Hooper of Marblehead, two; Jeremiah Lee of Marblehead, two; Nathaniel Ellery of Gloucester, owned two and the rest were owned by men who cleared only one vessel.
The ships, that plied between English and American ports, at more or less regular intervals during the eighteenth century, not only brought an exchange of merchandise, but also carried passengers. Officials connected with the government--the customs service and the military establishment, with a sprinkling of clergymen and scholars, were crossing on nearly every ship and the New England merchant sailing to London to buy a new stock of goods for his shop and the Englishman who came to the colonies bringing adventures of goods in great variety, all helped to maintain the service. In the year 1737, the Boston newspapers mention by name eighteen persons who had arrived by ship or were about departing. On January 31st, John Banister, late in business with his uncle Samuel Banister, at Marblehead, advertised in the _Gazette_ that he designed speedily to embark for Great Britain and requested a settlement of all accounts. John Jeykill, the collector of the Port of Boston, arrived from London, April 18th, in Captain Shepardson; early in May, Thomas Phillips of Boston, merchant, advertised that he would sell his household furniture by vendue, as he intended speedily for London, and a week later Major Martin and family arrived from Antequa, in the West Indies. He proposed to reside in Boston for a few years. Toward the last of the month, the Lieutenant-Governor of New Hampshire sailed from Portsmouth, bound for England, and about the middle of June, the Rev. Doctor McSparrow and lady arrived in Boston. As late in the year as December 20th, Edmund Quincy, Esq., the agent of the Province at the Court of Great Britain, was sailing for London, in Captain Homans, with several other unnamed gentlemen.