VI 



Shipping of Lobsters 



The common container for shipping lobsters is a wooden 

 barrel having a wooden box, or small keg, inside the barrel 

 to hold the lobsters. Wet seaweed is packed with the lob- 

 sters, and the spaces around the inner wooden box are filled 

 with crushed ice. The inner box should be reasonably water- 

 tight so that the melting ice cannot drip fresh water onto 

 the lobsters, killing them. Occasionally a customer specifies 

 that the cover of the inside keg be waterproof to prevent 

 such leakage. 



Rail Express. The express shipping of live lobsters is 

 said to have originated by the desire of William Randolph 

 Hearst to serve lobsters at his mansion in Colorado. 



It is done successfully if the lobsters are carefully se- 

 lected to be vigorous, and if provision is made by the express 

 company to re-ice the container during transit. Care must 

 be taken to place the ice either below the bed of lobsters or 

 in the ice compartments surrounding them. Melting ice on 

 top of them would drip fresh water onto the lobsters, killing 

 them. 



Today, several firms specialize in shipping live lobsters 

 by Railway Express as far as the West Coast. Their guaran- 

 tee that they will arrive alive or your money back covers an 

 1,800-mile distance. 



Saltwater Farm of Maine has kindly furnished the 

 following information: 



We are pioneers in the business of guaranteeing 

 lobsters to arrive alive or your money back, and report 

 that our losses average 1 per cent or slightly less. There 

 are variations from year to year depending upon rail 

 strikes, and severe weather. 



Live lobsters travel in Railway Express service 

 under the live animal rate, which is, briefly stated, 150 

 per cent of first class rate billed in a 20-pound mini- 



