The Lobster Fishery of Maine | Page 9

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