Bombay to load with cotton. Two other ships of his fleet, the
Astrea and Light Horse, were filled at Calcutta and Rangoon and
ordered to Salem. It was found, when the profits of these
transactions were reckoned, that the little squadron had earned
$100,000 above all outlay.

To carry on such a business as this enlisted many men and
industries. While the larger ships were making their distant
voyages, the brigs and schooners were gathering cargoes for
them, crossing to Gothenburg and St. Petersburg for iron, duck,
and hemp, to France, Spain, and Madeira for wine and lead, to the
French West Indies for molasses to be turned into rum, to New
York, Philadelphia, and Richmond for flour, provisions, and
tobacco. These shipments were assembled in the warehouses on
Derby Wharf and paid for the teas, coffees, pepper, muslin,
silks, and ivory which the ships from the Far East were fetching
home. In fourteen years the Derby ships made one hundred and
twenty-five voyages to Europe and far eastern ports and out of
the thirty-five vessels engaged only one was lost at sea.

It was in 1785 when the Grand Turk, on a second voyage, brought
back a cargo of silks, teas, and nankeens from Batavia and China,
that "The Independent Chronicle" of London, unconsciously
humorous, was moved to affirm that "the Americans have given up
all thought of a China trade which can never be carried on to
advantage without some settlement in the East Indies."

As soon as these new sea-trails had been furrowed by the keels of
Elias Hasket Derby, other Salem merchants were quick to follow in
a rivalry which left no sea unexplored for virgin markets and