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Sacred Cod of Massachusetts
A view from the bottom of a carved codfish suspended from the ceiling of the Massachusetts House of Representatives chamber.
Year1784 (1784)
TypeWood carving
Mediumpine
Dimensions4 ft 11 in (1.50 m)
LocationMassachusetts State House, Boston, Massachusetts

The Sacred Cod of Massachusetts, known simply as the Sacred Cod and officially as the Representation of a codfish, is a carving of a codfish that hangs in the House of Representatives chamber of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. The Sacred Cod measures 4 feet 11 inches (1.50 m) long, is carved out of a solid piece of pine, and symbolizes the importance of the fishing industry to Massachusetts. Around 1840, this industry employed 12,000 people in roughly 1,300 vessels in coastal Massachusetts and supported many related businesses. There have been a total of three Sacred Cods, the first was created early in the 18th century and destroyed by a fire in the Old State House in 1747. The second was created between 1748 and 1773 and subsequently went missing early in the American Revolution during the British occupation of Boston. The current fish was carved in 1784 and presented to the House later that year by the Boston merchant John Rowe.

The Sacred Cod was stolen as a practical joke in 1933 by students from Harvard University, causing the Massachusetts State Police to dredge the Charles River and search a plane in Newark, New Jersey for the fish. It was recovered two days later. It was stolen again by students from the newly founded University of Massachusetts Boston in 1968 as a protest. The cod was found three days later behind a door in the House chamber. There is also a brass casting of a fish incorporated into the central chandelier of the Massachusetts Senate chamber known as the Holy Mackerel.

Background

A broad side view of an Atlantic cod swimming in dark water.
The Atlantic Cod

Cod has a long history in Massachusetts and is entwined with many of the states early events and people. The fish was so abundant in the waters surrounding Massachusetts, it led English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold to name Cape Cod in 1602.[1] Fishing for the Atlantic Cod, Gadus morhua, was the key industry for much of coastal Massachusetts prior to the Industrial Revolution.[2] It was so important that a 1895 report by the Massachusetts legislature states that, “the first product of American industry exported from Massachusetts was a cargo of fish.”[3] In the Gloucester and Boston areas, the cod industry supported about 400 boats, as well as businesses related to the storing and shipping of the fish including salt mining, ice harvesting, and ship building.[2] In the early history of the United States, cod was the one of the first goods used for trade; with dried cod being traded for precious metals with Europe and for rum and molasses from the West Indies.[3] The Fishing industry in the state reached its zenith around 1840, with roughly 1,300 vessels and 12,000 employees.[1] Because of advances in fishing since the Industrial Revolution, the Atlantic Cod's conservation status was changed to Vulnerable species in 1996[4] and it is in danger of becoming commercially extinct.[2]

Representations of codfish have been used for symbolic purposes in New England for centuries. The "codfish aristocracy" was a sometimes derisive name used for an entire wealthy class in Massachusetts due to the wealth they gained from the sale of cod.[5] Cod were also represented on many early American coins as well as a two penny stamp for the Massachusetts Bay Colony, further showing the correlation between wealth and cod in early New England.[6] Images of cod have represented government and organizations across New England, appearing on the Plymouth Land Company seal, the 1776 state Seal of New Hampshire,[6] and the early crest of the Salem Gazette.[7] The cod was also incorporated into countless weathervanes up and down the New England coast, representing its value as a symbol to the common citizen.[7] Cod is held in such high regard in Massachusetts that in 1974 it was chosen as the official state fish.[8]

Description

The Sacred Cod is a painted carving of a codfish;[9] the current carving is the third in a series of representations called the Sacred Cod. From its inception the fish has symbolized the importance of the fishing industry to Massachusetts.[10] The current carving was was created in 1784 and presented to the House later that year by the Boston merchant John Rowe.[11] The artist who carved the 4-foot-11-inch (1.50 m) fish out of solid pine[9] is unknown. It is believed that John Welch was the carver of either the current Sacred Cod or the previous version, according to an 1895 document recording oral histories. Because Welsh was born on August 11, 1711, and the most recent carving was created in 1784, he would have been 74 years old when it was built. This seems an unlikely age to carve a fish of such size, while a committee of the House of Representatives in 1895 assumed it is more likely he carved the second Sacred Cod.[12] In 1894, the Sacred Cod was painted by Walter M. Brackett in a lifelike style.[13]

Currently the fish hangs in the House of Representatives chamber of the Massachusetts State House in Boston, Massachusetts and is, "...placed opposite the Speaker's chair between the two sets of central columns, and under the names 'Motely,' and 'Parkman,'" as was decreed by the House of Representatives in 1984.[9] The carving hangs facing to the left, towards the Democrats' side of the room, when viewed from the speaker's chair. News articles sometimes state that the fish is turned to face whichever political party in power,[14] but this tradition was not recorded in 1895 written history of the carving.[15]

History

A representation of a cod has hung in the seat of Massachusetts government since at least the early 18th century. The first cod was a gilded wood carving of the fish which hung from the ceiling of what is now called the Old State House.[6] It has been suggested that this cod was a gift from Judge Samuel Sewall, best known as the judge who presided over the Salem witch trials, although nowhere in his estate is this gift mentioned.[16] A fire in 1747[17] destroyed the Sacred Cod as well as state owned records, books and paintings, and large amounts of wines and other liquors belonging to private business who used the cellars of the building as storage. The entire interior of the building was destroyed, but the brick walls were left intact and used when the building was rebuilt.[18]

A room with pale yellow walls, white wainscoting, and white dental crown molding. various display cases dot the floor and pictures hang on the walls.
The Representatives Chamber in the Old State House where the Sacred Cod hung.

The second Sacred Cod was the shortest lived of the carvings. The fish was installed in the State House after it was reconstructed in 1748[19] and was subsequently painted by Thomas Crafts Jr. in 1773.[20] While the carving was being recreated, a golden lion and a silver unicorn, symbols of the British monarchy, were added to the exterior of the State House.[6][17] In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was read from the balcony of the Old State House and the crowd that had assembled tore down and burned the lion and the unicorn as an act in defiance of British rule.[21] The Sacred Cod survived this destruction, but went missing from the House Chamber during the British occupation of Boston early in the American Revolution.[20]

The third Sacred Cod was carved in 1784 after John Rowe introduced the motion to the House "that leave might be given to hang up the representation of a Cod Fish in the room where the House sit [sic], as a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth, as had been usual formerly."[6][22][23] The new Massachusetts State House, designed by Charles Bulfinch, was completed on January 11, 1798,[24] and when the governing bodies of the commonwealth moved to this building they brought the Sacred Cod with them.[25] It hung in the House chambers, only being taken down twice due to renovations of the room, and both times it received a new coat of paint.[9] Over time the State House again proved to be too small and an expansion was planned, which brought with it a new House chamber. The last business transacted in the former House Chamber before the move in 1895 was a unanimously adopted motion that created a three-man committee to "prepare and report to the House the complete history of the codfish suspended in the chamber of the House of Representatives."[26]

Once moved into the new Charles Brigham expansion (which would be finished in 1898) of the Statehouse, the House ordered the "...immediate removal of the ancient 'representation of a codfish' from present position in the chamber recently vacated by the House, and to cause it to be suspended in a suitable place over the Speaker's chair in this chamber..."[26] The Sacred Cod was lowered from the ceiling and then wrapped in an American flag. It was placed on a bier and was carried by three Massachusetts Representatives, while being escorted by the Sergeant-at-Arms.[27] A procession to the chamber began and the Cod was carried as such to its new home. When the procession arrived at the new chamber, the members of the House rose and applauded the fish.[27] At this point a resolution was passed to have the "representation of a codfish" re-painted, and it subsequently was by Walter M. Brackett.[13] It was then hung in the rear of the House Chamber, over the public gallery, in such a manner that the Speaker of the House faces the cod when he addresses the House.[28]

Cod-napping

A small two story brick building with off white stone details at the corners, above the windows, and two string courses between the stories.
The Harvard Crimson building where members of the Harvard Lampoon raided prior to the "Cod-napping."

On April 26, 1933, members of the Harvard Lampoon (the Lampoon) magazine stole the Sacred Cod as a practical joke in an event that came to be known as "The Cod-napping".[11][29] Prior to the execution of the theft, the perpetrators knew that they would have to distract editors from their rival publication, The Harvard Crimson (the Crimson). the Lampoon, a comedic publication at Harvard University, and the Crimson, a newspaper based in the same school, were constantly trying to sabotage each other.[30] To keep staff from the Crimson from sabotaging the Cod-napping, Lampoon staff raided the Crimson's offices[30] at 5:15 in the morning intent on stamping "Compliments of the Lampoon" on the next days Crimson. When the newspapers could not be found the ten students instead kidnapped J.M. Boyd, one of three Crimson staff members who happened to be in the building at the time. Boyd was brought to a hiding place in Wellesley Hills, where his captors tried to convince him to be interviewed on radio station WBZ. He refused and instead Lampoon student R. J. Walsh convincingly impersonated Boyd on the radio, with out the knowledge of the radio station managers. Boyd was returned to the Crimson the next day at 9:30 pm after being brought back to Boston and having a social tea.[31] This diversion kept members of the Crimson busy trying to find their fellow editor, while the theft plan continued without a hitch.[30]

After the raid on the Crimson, three members of the Lampoon staff prepared to steal the Sacred Cod. They pretended to be tourists, sneaked a pair of wire cutters into the State House and, when no one was looking, cut the cords suspending the cod. They hid the cod in a flower box that they had brought and left the State House with it. An anonymous call tipped off State House officials that the cod was missing.[30][32] The theft was considered a major one, with the House of Representatives declaring that it would not legislate without the cod present. The Harvard Crimson investigated the theft themselves and determined that the Lampoon was behind it. On April 27, the Crimson gave the staff of the Lampoon an ultimatum to give the Sacred Cod, by midnight, to them and allow the Crimson to take credit for returning it or they would go public with their findings.[33] After not receiving a reply from the Lampoon, the details of theft were printed in the next morning's edition of the Crimson.[33]

The Massachusetts State Police were called in to assist with the search for the cod. They went so far as to dredge the Charles River, in hopes of recovering the Sacred Cod.[33] The authorities also found out that a member of the Lampoon staff was on board a plane heading to Newark, New Jersey. They searched Logan International Airport and wired the authorities in Newark to search the plane the student was on when it arrived, but the cod was still not recovered.[34] The office of the mayor of Boston also received a call saying to "tell the Mayor that when the Sacred Cod is returned it will be wrapped in the municipal flag, now flying in front of City Hall" and to "Try and catch us when we cop the flag."[30]

Two days after the Sacred Cod was stolen, the Harvard University Police Department received an anonymous phone call informing them on how to get the Sacred Cod back.[30] This led to the Harvard University Police following a car without a license plate in West Roxbury. After 20 minutes, two men, dressed in collared shirts with the collars turned up and hats pulled down, jumped out of the car and handed the cod to the police before speeding away.[11][30] The cod was not wrapped in the municipal flag as threatened.[34]

On April 28, the Sacred Cod was again hung in the rear of the House Chamber, over the public gallery, although it was hung 6 inches (150 mm) higher to prevent future thefts.[35] No charges were filed against in response to the "Cod-napping"; details on the whereabouts of the cod during the 50 hours it was missing never surfaced.[30][34]

Post Cod-napping

The next threat to the Sacred Cod came in 1941, when the Aluminum-for-defense Collection Drive in Massachusetts was mistakenly informed that the Cod was made of aluminum, and asked that it be donated to the war effort. Christian Herter, then the Speaker of the House, informed the drive that the Cod was created 43 years before aluminum was discovered. Herter passed the request along to the Massachusetts State Senate, where another, albeit metallic, fish emblem is displayed.[36]

In 1968 the Sacred Cod disappeared for a second time. It was stolen by students from the newly founded University of Massachusetts Boston on November 14 in protest of what students saw as the "arbitrariness" of the state's decision to build the new permanent campus for the university at Columbia Point.[37] One of the thieving students stated, "We are offended that the legislators spend between 6 million and 8 million on our college in Boston, yet there are not 5% of these legislators who have ever cared to visit our institutions."[37] An anonymous spokesman for the group of students contacted every major Boston newspaper and stated the group had stolen the cod, had no intention of keeping it, and would return the fish within two months.[37] Three days after its theft, the Sacred Cod was found behind a door in the House chamber.[38]

Other State House symbols

A view of the Massachusetts senate chamber complete with two story ornate blue and white walls and white domed ceiling. A large chandler hangs from the center of the dome with a brass fish incorporated into the top of the design.
The Holy Mackerel can be seen in the chandelier in the Massachusetts Senate.

The Massachusetts Senate also has a fish in its chamber. This fish, a brass casting, is incorporated into the central chandelier of the Senate Chamber.[11] This brass casting is unofficially known as the Holy Mackerel in reference to the Sacred Cod,[10] but does not have the history of its more famous counterpart.

The State House has other symbolic carvings and paintings, including a pine cone that adorns the lantern on top of the State Houses Dome. It represents the importance of the lumber industry in colonial Massachusetts.[29]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b The Sacred Cod Celebrate Boston. Retrieved on May 7, 2009.
  2. ^ a b c Brief history of the groundfishing industry of New England November 24, 2004. Northeast Fisheries Science Center. Retrieved on May 7, 2009
  3. ^ a b Nilsson, Casey. COD ALMIGHTY: The history and industry of state’s most celebrated fish. Taunton Gazette. August 13, 2011. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  4. ^ Template:IUCN2010
  5. ^ Committee 1895, pp. 20–21
  6. ^ a b c d e Kurlansky 1997, p. 79
  7. ^ a b The "Sacred Cod". The Miami News. October 21, 1929. Retrieved April 4, 2012
  8. ^ Massachusetts General Laws Ch. 2, § 13
  9. ^ a b c d Committee 1895, p. 20
  10. ^ a b The Massachusetts State House Today. Citizen Information Service. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
  11. ^ a b c d "The "Sacred" Cod Moves to the New State House". Mass Moments. Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. 2009. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
  12. ^ Committee 1895, pp. 18–19
  13. ^ a b Committee 1895, pp. 8–9
  14. ^ Healy, Mary Lou.State Symbols Are Many and Varried. The Lewiston Journal. September 11, 1982. Retrieved April 12, 2012.
  15. ^ Committee 1895
  16. ^ Committee 1895, p.17
  17. ^ a b "History of the Old State House Building". The Bostonian Society. 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
  18. ^ Architectural, 1970, p. 20
  19. ^ Architectural, 1970, p.21
  20. ^ a b Committee 1895, p. 18
  21. ^ "Old State House". The Freedom Trail Foundation. Retrieved May 6, 2009.
  22. ^ Belanger 2008, p. 149
  23. ^ Committee 1895, p. 13
  24. ^ "A Tour of the Massachusetts State House". Sec.state.ma.us. May 29, 1990. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  25. ^ Committee 1895, p.12
  26. ^ a b Committee 1895, p. 4
  27. ^ a b Committee 1895, p. 7
  28. ^ Committee 1895, p. 9
  29. ^ a b "House of Representatives". State House Tours. Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
  30. ^ a b c d e f g h Boese, Alex. "Theft of the Sacred Cod". Museum of Hoaxes. Retrieved May 7, 2009.
  31. ^ Canny Crimson Captive Claimed From Crass Commercialized Comic Cut-ups. The Harvard Crimson. April 27, 1933. Retrieved May 15, 2012.
  32. ^ "Massachusetts Sacred Cod vanishes from State House". The New York Times. April 26, 1933. p. 1. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  33. ^ a b c "Sacred Cod theft laid to 'Lampoon'". New York Times. April 28, 1933. p. 19. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  34. ^ a b c "'Sacred Cod' back in Honored Place". New York Times. April 29, 1933. Retrieved April 9, 2012.
  35. ^ Gellerman 2005, p. 5
  36. ^ "Sacred Cod Escapes Defense Melting Pot". The Evening Independent. St. Petersburg, Florida. July 16, 1941. Retrieved November 12, 2009.
  37. ^ a b c OUR OPINION: Sacred Cod and not so Sacred Students. Mass Media (Boston). November 19, 1968. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
  38. ^ "Codfish Still In Old Haunts". Toledo Blade. November 18, 1968. Retrieved November 12, 2009.

References

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