MAINE: CAST1NE DISTRICT. 39 



SWAN'S ISLAND j ITS EABLY FISHERIES. Swan's Island, formerly known as Burnt Coat, lies 

 a, few miles south by-west of Mount Desert. It is C or 7 miles long by 4 or 5 broad, and has 

 about 400 inhabitants. According to Capt. John Staples it was settled in 1775. From the first 

 the people have been largely dependent upon the water for a livelihood, though the soil is capable 

 of producing bountifully after it has once been cleared. Formerly, in common with other portions 

 of the coast, it had small vessels engaged in the shore and Bay of Fundy fisheries. In 1853 

 the first large vessel, the schooner Constitution, was brought to the island and fitted, for the Grand 

 Bank cod fisheries. Soon three or four others were purchased and sent to the same locality, the 

 majority fishing for mackerel after their return in the fall. 



THE MACKEREL FISHERY. About 1808 the Bank fisheries were almost wholly discontinued, 

 and the vessels turned their attention to the capture of mackerel. This fishery has continued to 

 develop, until Swan's Island has now, next to Portland, the largest mackerel fleet of any town on the 

 coast of Maine. Purse-seines were first used by these fishermen in 1870, and within a few years 

 all of the vessels were provided with them. Five of the mackerel vessels go south in the spring, 

 and the remaining four are usually hauled up till July, when the fish reach the coast of Maine ; the 

 crews in the mean time devoting their attention to the lobster fisheries. From the beginning of the 

 fishery to the present day, according to Mr. G. M. Staples, only three or four trips of mackerel have 

 been inspected on the island, the vessels almost invariably landing and packing at Portland, 

 Boston, or Gloucester. In 1879 the Swan's Island fleet landed 14,966 barrels of mackerel, two of 

 them beii g among the high-line vessels of the American fleet. 



THE VESSEL-FISHERIES OF THE ISLAND. In addition to the mackerel vessels, a fleet of 

 twelve sail are engaged in the shore fisheries, five of them going to Wood Island for herring after 

 the fishing for cod and hake is over. The herring are usually packed in Portland, and many -of 

 the "ground-fish" are sold at Deer Island and Mount Desert. 



A summation of the vessel-fisheries of the island for 1879 shows twenty-one sail, aggregating 

 885.05 tons. These had a value of $30,000, and furnished employment to 186 men. The catch 

 for the season was 14,906 barrels of mackerel, 1,055 barrels of herring, and 1,623 quintals of 

 cod, hake, and haddock. 



Two menhaden oil and guano factories were built on the island in 1875, one of them being 

 provided with boilers and hydraulic presses for doing an extensive business. They were run a 

 portion of three seasons, after which, owing to a scarcity of fish in the locality, the business was 

 discontinued. 



THE LOBSTER FISHERY. Next to mackereling, the trapping of lobsters is the principal busi- 

 ness of the people. According to Mr. David Smith, the first persons to engage in the capture of 

 lobsters for profit were fishermen from Gloucester, Mass., who came to the island on a smack about 

 1850, bringing their traps with them. They hired one or two of the resident fishermen to assist, 

 and the smack remained until her well had been filled, when she sailed for Boston. The fol- 

 lowing season some of the islanders became interested in this fishery, and about 1855 ten men 

 were regularly employed in this way during the summer months, smacks coining frequently to pur- 

 chase the catch. Fewer lobsters were taken from this time up to 1860, when the fishery was again 

 revived, and has continued to increase to the present time. There are now twenty-three men who 

 devote their attention to the capture of lobsters during the entire season, with fifty-one others, 

 who lobster from the middle of March till the lOtli of July, when they pile their pots upon the 

 beach and ship in the vessels to engage in the mackerel fisheries. 



Over 8,000 lobster pots are owned by the fishermen of the island, and about 5,600 barrels of 



