Those who tried climbing over the palisade were shot; anyone who succeeded in

getting over was killed by the Narragansett forces.[4]

The land was poor for farming, but access to the region's waterways left room for
commerce and trade, and Groton became a town of oceangoing settlers. Most of the
community began to build ships, and soon traders made their way to Massachusetts
Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony to trade for food, tools, weapons, and clothing.
John Leeds was the earliest shipbuilder, coming as a sea captain from Kent,
England. He built a 20-ton brigantine, a two-masted sailing ship with square-rigged
sails on the foremast and fore-and-aft sails on the mainmast. Thomas Starr built a
67-ton square-sterned vessel, and Thomas Latham launched a 100-ton brig on the
Groton bank with mast standing and fully rigged. The sturdy ships built in Groton
engaged in highly profitable trade with the islands of the Caribbean.