The Lobster Fishery of Maine Part 2

In the warm season the pots are frequently set on trawls or "ground lines," as lobsters are quite thick then on the rocky bottom near sh.o.r.e. If the bottom is sandy they are set farther from sh.o.r.e.

Lobsters are most numerous on a rocky bottom. In the trawl method the pots are usually set about 30 feet apart, depending on the depth of water, so that when one pot is in the boat the next will be on the bottom. The ground lines have large anchors at each end and a floating buoy tied to a strong line, which is fastened to the ground line almost 25 fathoms from the anchors. When the last pot is hauled the anchor is far enough away to hold the boat in position. The pots are set at distances from the sh.o.r.e ranging from 100 yards to 5 or 6 miles. This method of setting pots was first used about the year 1865 in Sagadahoc County. The traps are set in from 3 to 10 fathoms in the warm season.

In winter fishing the pots are generally set singly, as the lobsters are more scattered then and the best results are attained by shifting the position of the pots slightly each time they are fished. This is caused by the drift of the boat while the fisherman is hauling in the pot, emptying and rebaiting it, and then dropping it overboard again.

The winter fishing is generally carried on in the open sea, although in a few places, like Sheepscot Bay, the lobsters in winter retire to the deep waters of the bays and can there be caught. The pots are generally set in from 20 to 50 fathoms of water at this season.

Certain fishermen claim that when pots are set on a trawl placed across the tide the catch is greater than when the trawl is set in the direction of the current. In the former case, it is a.s.serted, the scent or fine particles coming from the bait is more widely diffused and more apt to attract the lobsters. In entering, after first reconnoitering around and over the pot, the lobster always backs in, primarily that he may be prepared to meet any foe following him, also because his large claws would be apt to catch in the net funnel should he enter head first. After discovering that he is imprisoned, which he does very speedily, he seems to lose all desire for the bait, and spends his time roaming around the pot hunting for a means of escape.

The pots are generally hauled once a day, but sometimes twice a day in good weather. As the tide along the Maine coast is quite strong, the fishermen usually haul their pots at or about slack water, low tide generally being preferred when they are worked once a day. The number used by a fisherman varies greatly on different sections of the coast.

According to the investigations of this Commission, the average number of pots to the man in certain years was as follows: Fifty-six pots in 1880, 59 in 1887 and 1888, 58 in 1889 and 1892, and 50 in 1898. This average, however, is somewhat misleading, as quite a number of persons along the coast take up lobstering for only a few months in the year, and then return to their regular occupations. As these persons use but few pots, the average per man throughout the whole State is very considerably reduced. The regular lobster fishermen have been steadily increasing the number of their pots for several years past. They have found this an absolute necessity in order to catch as many lobsters now as they caught twenty or thirty years ago. It is not unusual now to find one of the regular fishermen handling as high as 100 pots, and sometimes even 125, when a few years ago 25 and 50 pots was a large number. This does not take into account his reserve stock of pots, which it is necessary to have on hand in order to replace those damaged or lost.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fishermen operating their pots]

BAIT.

Cod, hake, and halibut heads are quite generally used as bait. Halibut heads are said to be the best, as they are tougher than the cod or hake heads, and thus last much longer. Sculpins, flounders, in fact almost any kind of fish, can be used. In the vicinity of sardine canneries the heads of herring are used. Sometimes the bait is slightly salted, at other times it is used fresh. Small herring are lightly salted, and then allowed to remain until partly decayed, when they are inclosed in small bags, and these put into the pots. The oil from this bait forms a "slick" in the water, and when the smell from it is strong the fishermen consider it at its best. The bait is generally secured by small haul-seines and spears in sections where offal can not be bought.

FISHING VESSELS AND BOATS.

The fishing vessels are either sloop or schooner rigged, with an average net tonnage of slightly over 8 tons (new measurement) and an average value of about $475. There has been a great increase in the number of these vessels during recent years. Eight vessels were used in 1880, 29 in 1889, and 130 in 1898. Quite a number of these vessels are used in other fisheries during their seasons. Two men usually form a crew, although three, and sometimes four, are occasionally used.

The other vessels comprise sailboats under 5 tons and rowboats.

The sailboats are generally small square-sterned sloops, open in the afterpart, but with a cuddy forward. They are all built with centerboards, and some are lapstreak while others are "set work."

Around the afterpart of the standing room is a seat, the ballast is floored over, and two little bunks and a stove generally help to furnish the cuddy. They vary in length from 16 to 26 feet and in width from 6 to 9 feet; they average about 2 tons. They are especially adapted to the winter fishery, as they are good sailers and ride out the storms easily.

Dories are in quite general use in the lobster fishery, as are also the double-enders, or peapods. This latter is a small canoe-shaped boat of an average length of 15-1/2 feet, 4-1/2 feet breadth, and 1-1/2 feet depth. They are mainly built lapstreak, but a few are "set work." Both ends are exactly alike; the sides are rounded and the bottom is flat, being, however, only 4 or 5 inches wide in the center and tapering toward each end, at the same time bending slightly upward, so as to make the boat shallower at the ends than in the middle. This kind of bottom is called a "rocker bottom." They are usually rowed, but are sometimes furnished with a sprit sail and centerboard.

TRANSPORTING VESSELS OR SMACKS.

Even before the lobster fishery had been taken up to any extent, the coast of Maine was visited by well-smacks from Connecticut and New York, most of which had been engaged in the transportation of live fish before engaging in the carrying of lobsters. These vessels sometimes carried pots, and caught their own lobsters; but as this method was not very convenient, the people living along the coast took up the fishery, and sold the lobsters to the smackmen. About 1860 the canneries began to absorb a considerable part of the catch, and they employed vessels to ply along the coast and buy lobsters.

As these vessels would only be out a few days at a time, wells were not necessary, and the lobsters were packed in the hold. In the summer great numbers of them were killed by the heat in the hold.

After 1885 the canneries rapidly dropped out of the business, the last one closing in 1895. In 1853 there were but 6 smacks, 4 of them from New London, Conn. In 1880 there were 58, of which 21 were dry smacks, while in 1898 there were 76, of which 17 were steamers and launches and 59 sailing vessels. These were all well-smacks. A few sailing smacks also engaged in other fishery pursuits during the dull summer months. In 1879 a steamer which had no well was used to run lobsters to the cannery at Castine. The first steamer fitted with a well to engage in the business was the _Grace Morgan_, owned by Mr. F. W.

Collins, a lobster dealer of Rockland, who describes the steamer as follows:

The steam and well smack _Grace Morgan_ was built in 1890, by Robert Palmer & Son, of Noank, Conn. At that time she was a dry boat, but the following year, 1891, the Palmers built a small well in her as an experiment, but I am of the opinion that it did not prove very satisfactory or profitable; consequently they offered her for sale and wrote to me in relation to buying her. I went to Noank and looked her over and came to the conclusion that by enlarging the well and making other needed changes she could be made not only a good boat to carry lobsters alive, but also to do it profitably; consequently I bought her and brought her to Rockland, had the well enlarged on ideas of my own, and differently constructed, so as to give it better circulation of water, and also made other needed improvements throughout the boat to adapt her especially for carrying lobsters alive. The changes I made in her proved so successful in keeping lobsters alive, while it increased the capacity for carrying, that I have since adapted the same principles on all my boats. The well I had put into the _Grace Morgan_ is what is termed a "box well," that is, without any well deck. The well is built from the sides of the steamer directly to the hatch on the main deck, with bulkheads forward and aft and tops running directly to the deck. . . . You will see at once that this well has many advantages over the old style with flat well decks, like those of sailing vessels: (1) It affords a much larger carrying capacity in same s.p.a.ce of vessel. (2) The priming-out pieces are much higher up on sides of vessel, giving more room for boring hull, which affords much better circulation of water in well, which is a great advantage in keeping lobsters alive while on long trips. (3) Every lobster can be easily bailed out of the well without grounding the vessel, which is necessary with all vessels having the old-style well. (4) In all steam and well smacks the after part of the ship is always steadiest, consequently the well being located aft, as in my smacks, the lobsters contained in them are not subjected to the hard pounding while running in seaway that they are in the old-style wells, where there is no chance to relieve themselves other than to be forced against the well decks by the upward force of the water when the vessel settles into the sea, and which results in killing many of them.

Both of my steamers have box wells aft, and from my experience, compared with all other steam and well smacks afloat, I am convinced that this well, for all practical purposes, is the best that has yet been adapted to steam smacks. So far as the _Grace Morgan_ is concerned, she has been a perfect success in carrying her lobsters in all kinds of weather since I put her into commission October 27, 1892, during which time she has had a wonderful career, as well as carrying millions of lobsters.

Probably no boat of her size has ever had such an experience, as she has run steadily the year around in all kinds of weather during the past eight years. . . . Previous to buying the _Grace Morgan_ I had run steamers in the lobster business, but they had no well, and being so hot in their holds, particularly in the summer months, the lobsters died so fast that the business in dry steamers could not be made profitable. This is what prompted me to construct a well in mine, as I have done.

The _Grace Morgan_ has a length of 49 feet, a breadth of 13.9 feet, and a depth of 5.7 feet, a gross tonnage of 21 tons, and a net tonnage of 10 tons.

The steam smacks now used average about 14 tons. They are usually built low in the water, and have a small pilot-house forward, with an open s.p.a.ce between it and the engine-house, and living quarters aft.

The boat has also one or two short masts. Some of them also have the pilot-house and engine-house joined together. In those with a s.p.a.ce between the pilot-house and engine-house the well is usually placed in this open s.p.a.ce. Where the pilot-house and engine-house are together the well is either located forward or aft. These wells are generally capable of bolding from 3,000 to 10,000 live lobsters. Small holes in the bottom of the well keep it filled with fresh sea water. Should the weather be clear the proportion of dead and injured lobsters will be small, but in bad weather many are apt to be killed by the pitching and rolling to which they are subjected.

These smacks make regular trips up and down the coast, landing their cargoes either at Rockland, Portland, or at one of the lobster pounds scattered along the coast. They not only stop at the villages, but also drop anchor off the little camps of the lobstermen, and should the smacks of two rival dealers arrive at a place simultaneously, which frequently happens, the bidding between the captains for the fishermen's catch gladdens the latter's heart and greatly enriches his pocketbook. Most of the captains have regular places of call where they know the fishermen are holding their lobsters for them, and they follow a rude sort of schedule, which will not often vary more than a day or two. The lobsters are bought of the fishermen by count, and cash is paid for them. Should the smack belong to a dealer this practically ends the financial side of the transaction so far as the captain is concerned, as the crew are paid wages. Should the smack belong to a person other than the dealer, which is frequently the case, he either makes an agreement with some dealer to run for him exclusively at a certain price or commission, or else buys from the fishermen and then sells at either Rockland or Portland. This method of buying lobsters is somewhat hazardous, as the market price sometimes changes sharply when the smack is out of reach of telegraphic communication.

LOBSTER CARS.

Lobsters must be marketed in a live or boiled condition; and as fishermen can get better prices for them alive than boiled, each fisherman generally has a live-car in which to hold them until they can be sold. These cars are usually oblong, rectangular boxes, with open seams or numerous small holes to permit the free circulation of the water. They are of various sizes, according to the needs of the fisherman, a good average being about 6 feet long by 4 feet wide and about 2 feet deep. The door is placed on the top. They are usually moored close to the sh.o.r.e during the fishing season, the rest of the time being hauled up on the beach.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fishermen's lobster cars]

The dealers cars are very similar to those used by the fishermen, only much larger. They generally average about 30 feet in length, 12 feet in width; and 3 feet in depth, with capacity for from 2,000 to 3,000 lobsters. The inner part of this car is usually divided off into five transverse compartments by means of a framework inside. Each compartment is provided with two large doors entering from the top, one door on each side of the middle line of the car. These cars cost the dealers about $70 each. The life of one of these cars is about five or six years, although at the end of about three years it is generally necessary to replace the sides of the car on account of the ravages of a dock worm which is quite abundant along the Maine coast.

When new the top of the car is usually about a foot above the water, but as it gets water-soaked it sinks down until it is even with the water, and some of the older cars have to be buoyed up with kegs at each end, placed inside, to prevent them from sinking below the surface. These cars are moored alongside the docks of the dealers at Portland and Rockland and other points.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Lobster cars used in the wholesale trade at Portland]

Mr. J. R. Burns, of Friendship, has invented and patented a new style of car. The inside is divided into a series of compartments by horizontal and vertical part.i.tions of slats, wire netting, or any material which will permit the free circulation of the water. Each compartment has a chute extending down into it from the top, by means of which the lobsters can be put in and their food given them. There are also conveniently arranged openings, with doors, through which the lobsters may be removed when desired. These cars usually average about 35 feet in length, 18 feet in width, and 6 feet in depth, and have a capacity for about 5,000 lobsters each. They are in use at Rockland, Friendship, Tremont, and Jonesport. They prevent the lobsters from huddling together and thus killing each other by their own weight.

METHODS OF SHIPPING, WHOLESALE TRADE, ETC.

As lobsters can not be shipped or preserved in a frozen state they must be shipped either alive or boiled. About nine-tenths of the lobsters caught in Maine waters are shipped in the live state. The princ.i.p.al shipping centers are Portland, Rockland, and Eastport, which have good railroad and steamship facilities with points outside of the State. Those shipped from the latter point are mainly from the British Provinces, the fishermen near Eastport bringing them in in their own boats. A number also come in from the Provinces on the regular steamship lines. The other places get their supply from the smacks and also from the fishermen in their vicinity, who run in their own catch. Portland is very favorably situated in this regard, as Cas...o...b..y is a noted fishing center for lobsters.

As soon as a smack arrives it is moored directly alongside one of the cars. The lobsters are then dipped out of the well by means of long-handled scoop nets and thrown on the deck of the vessel. The doors of the car are then opened, and men on the vessel pick over the lobsters lying on the deck and toss them two by two into the different compartments, those dead and badly mutilated being thrown to one side for the time being. All vigorous lobsters above a certain size are placed in compartments of the car by themselves, while the weak and small are put in separate compartments. The dead lobsters and those which have had their sh.e.l.ls broken or have been so injured that they are very sure to die are either thrown overboard or on the dump. A lobster which has lost one or even both claws is not thrown away, as such an injury would have very little effect on its health.

When an order is received for live lobsters, those which have been longest in the cars are usually shipped. Flour barrels holding about 140 pounds or sugar barrels holding about 185 pounds, with small holes bored in the bottoms for drainage, are used for the shipment. Formerly the lobsters were packed close together in the barrel, and a large piece of ice was put in at the top, but this was found to kill a number of them. The present method is to split off about one-third of a 100-pound cake of ice the long way, and place it upright about half way of the length of the barrel, the lobsters then being packed snugly on all sides of the ice. In handling them the packer seizes the lobster by the carapace with his right hand, bends the tail up under the body with his left hand, and quickly deposits it in the barrel.

The packer usually has his right hand covered with a woolen mitt or wrapped in a long piece of linen, for protection from the claws of the lobster.

When the barrel is nearly full the lobsters are covered with a little seaweed or large-leaved marine plants, and the rest of the s.p.a.ce is filled with cracked ice. The top is then covered with a piece of sacking, which is secured under the upper hoop of the barrel. Packed in this way, lobsters have easily survived a trip as far west as St.

Louis.

Owing to the high prices realized in England for live lobsters, attempts have been made to ship live American lobsters to that market, generally from Canadian ports. In 1877 Messrs. John Marston & Sons, of Portland, made a trial shipment of 250. They were placed in a large tank 20 feet long by 8 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and constantly supplied with fresh seawater through six faucets by means of a donkey engine, a waste-pipe preventing any overflow. The trip was fairly successful, as only 50 died, and the balance brought from 60 to 75 cents per pound.

The smacks and dealers buy lobsters by count, as the fishermen generally have no facilities for weighing them; but the dealers always sell by weight. The mortality among the lobsters from the time they are put aboard the smacks until they are barreled for shipment is estimated at about 5 per cent.

BOILING.

Live lobsters are much preferred by the trade throughout the country, and only those that can not be marketed in such condition are boiled.

The number boiled fluctuates considerably, owing to the condition of the markets. When the fresh markets of Boston and New York are overstocked, the lobster dealers of Rockland and Portland, where most of the Maine lobsters are boiled, proceed to boil their surplus stock.