ocum

Updated: May 20, 2025

It was only an iron basket perched on a beacon, in which were burned "fier bales of pitch and ocum," as the colonial records express it Sometimes tallow candles illuminated this pioneer light of the establishment of which announcement was made in the Boston News, of September 17, 1716, in this wise: "Boston. And all Fishing Vessels, Wood Sloops, &c. Five Shillings each by the Year."

Willis J. (Willis John) Abbot - American Merchant Ships and Sailors