 Additionally, its shippers served in transporting and off-loading the continually growing numbers of settlers migrating from other parts of the Empire, particularly the United Kingdom and Ireland into the colonies.Most of these migrants went on to settle further westward of the Tidewater, later into the Piedmont, and finally into the Great Wagon Road, and the Wilderness Road which led them further west.The combination of import and export trade, human transportation, slave shipping, and the consequent requirements in parts and repair to maintain this small fleet resulted in a flourishing merchant community and an increase in the towns population.