The Lobster Fishery of Maine | Page 3

farther inland this became inconvenient, and it soon became customary
for certain persons living on the coast to attend to supplying the wants
of the inland settlers, and thus the commercial fishery was established.
The coast of Maine is very favorably situated for this fishery. In its
eastern and middle sections the shore is bold and rocky, while it is cut
up by large deep inlets and coves which are studded with numerous
islands, large and small, and by bold rocky promontories. Groups of
islands are also numerous farther off shore, like the Fox and Matinicus
Islands, Deer and Mount Desert islands. Large and small fresh-water
rivers are numerous and the granite bottoms of these channels and
inlets form admirable breeding grounds. In the western end the shores
are not so rocky, being broken frequently with sandy reaches, while the

rivers are small and comparatively shallow. West of Casco Bay the
islands are infrequent. As a result of this conformation of coast the best
fishing grounds in Maine are between Cape Elizabeth and Quoddy
Head.
As early as 1830 smacks from Boston and Connecticut visited
Harpswell for fresh lobsters, and it is very probable that even before
this time they had visited the points farther west in the State, as the
history of the fishery, so far as known, shows that it gradually worked
to the eastward. This was doubtless owing to the fact that the trend of
settlement in the early part of the century was in that direction. It is also
probable that, for some time before the people along the coast took up
the fishery, the smackmen themselves did their own fishing. This is
easily believed when the great abundance is considered. It is known
that this was done in Massachusetts.
During summer the lobsters were very common close in shore and
could easily be gaffed by boys at low water; but this could hardly be
called a regular fishery.
The regular fishery began with the use of hoop-net pots, which were
generally of very rude construction, and the facility with which the
lobsters escaped from them led to their disuse soon after the lath pots
began to be introduced. The lath pots were essentially the same in
construction as those now used on the coast of Maine, and each pair of
fishermen then handled between 25 and 50.
Up to about 1865 it was the custom to set the traps singly, and two men
were usually employed in the fishery, one to haul up, empty the pot,
rebait it, and drop it overboard, while the other handled the boat. In the
latter year it was discovered that by setting the pots on trawls more pots
could be set and only one man would be required to work them. This
invention, which was claimed by several different persons, proved quite
successful for a while, but after a time, when the supply of lobsters
began to drop off, better results were secured by scattering the pots
over a greater area and shifting their position each time they were
fished, which was very easily done. As a result of this the use of trawls
decreased very rapidly.

The following facts regarding the early lobster fishery of Maine are
from the Fishery Industries of the United States, section v, vol. II, pp.
700, 701:
In 1841 Capt. E. M. Oakes began to carry lobsters from Cundy's
Harbor and Horse Island Harbor, Harpswell, to Mr. Eben Weeks, at
East Boston. He was then running a well-smack, named the
Swampscott, of 41 tons, old measurement. The season extended from
the 1st of March until about the 4th of July, after which time the
lobsters were supposed to be unfit for eating; the black lobsters, or
shedders, were even considered poisonous. During this season of four
months Captain Oakes made ten trips, carrying in all 35,000, by count.
He continued in this trade about six years, taking the combined catch of
about five or six fishermen. At this same period the smack _Hulda B.
Hall_, 50 tons, of New London, Conn., Captain Chapell, was carrying
lobsters from Cape Porpoise, Gloucester, Ipswich Bay, and
occasionally Provincetown, to Boston, making 15 trips in the season of
four months, and taking about 3,500 lobsters each trip. Captain Chapell
was supplied with lobsters by four men at Cape Porpoise, and by the
same number at both Gloucester and Ipswich Bay. For four months
following the close of the lobster season on the Maine coast, or from
July 4 until November, Captain Chapell ran his smack with lobsters to
New York, obtaining most of his supplies at Provincetown.
In 1847 Captain Oakes purchased the smack Josephine, with which he
began running to Johnson & Young's establishment, at Boston, in 1848,
buying a portion of his lobsters in the Penobscot Bay