MAINE: WISCASSET DISTRICT. 71 



According to Mr. W. P. Leuix-x, Wise-asset was formerly extensively engaged in the fisheries, 

 and being the only port in the district all of (lie vessels of the region \vere obliged to go there to 

 paper. The business began about 1822, and increased so rapidly that in 1832 $3,000 was paid in 

 bounties to the fishermen belonging to the Wiscasset district. 



The fishery was at its height between 1858 and 18CO, when thirty to Ihirty-five sail of " bankers" 

 and an equal number of shore-vessels fitted at Wiscasset. Many of them were owned wholly or in 

 part in the town, and the rest belonged to the towns of Woolwich, Southport, Westport, and Booth 

 Bay, where the i ulk of the catch was landed to be cured for market. The vessels usually made short 

 trips in the early spring to Gape Sable, after which they went to "the Cape shore" for cod, returning 

 in time to engage in the mackerel fisheries of the Xew England coast in the late summer and fall. 



The method of trawling was introduced into the region about 1845, and from the first was 

 remarkably successful among the "bankers," the vessels securing full cargoes of larger and better 

 fish in about two-thirds of the time required with hand lines. Very little bait was carried by the 

 Wiscasset vessels, the greater part of them using herring that were taken in gill-nets from day to 

 day while the vessel lay at auchor on the fishing grounds The vessels were "fitted at the 

 halves," and the crews were gathered from the surrounding country. 



From 18CO the fishing interests of the town gradually declined, and by 1873 Wiscasset had 

 entirely lost the trade in this line, the vessels for the most part fitting in Booth Bay and Port- 

 land. 



At the present time Wiscasset has only one vessel, a schooner of 53.59 tons, engaged in the fish- 

 eries. This vessel carries twelve men, and lands her catch wholly at Gloucester and Portland, seldom 

 returning home during the fishing season. There are no boat-fisheries of note, and, aside from 

 the vessel mentioned, the only fishing consists in the capture of a few fish and lobsters for the 

 Wiscasset market by fishermen belonging at Edgecomb and other towns nearer the fishing grounds. 



A small part of the business of the town is indirectly dependent on the fisheries. One of the 

 largest saw-mills is extensively engaged in the manufacture of fish-box shooks, shipping annually 

 to Gloucester and Provincetowu from 22,000 to 25,000 in number, valued at $10,000. The mill 

 employs about fifty men and boys, and is engaged chiefly in the manufacture of sugar-box shooks 

 and hogshead heads for the West India trade; and it is only the refuse lumber, that cannot be 

 used for this purpose, that is worked up for fish-boxes. The shooks are shipped by vessel, fully 

 nine-tenths of the entire quantity going to Gloucester. About one-fourth of the business of the 

 mill is dependent upon this trade. 



WESTPORT. Westport is a narrow island forming the western bank of Sheepscott Bay. It 

 lies just south of Wiscasset, extending to the lower part of Georgetown, a distance of 10 or 11 

 miles. It was formerly a part of Edgecomb, but was set off and incorporated in 1828. In 1870 it 

 had a population of 099. 



Many dilapidated buildings along the shores of the island mark the location of defunct 

 curing-stands, where formerly an extensive business was done, showing that Westport must have 

 taken a prominent place among the fishing towns of the State. Ship-building was carried on 

 to some extent, and two or three yards furnished a good many vessels to this and adjoining towns. 

 Westport vessels joined the Booth Bay fleet in the Labrador fisheries in 1819, and three or four 

 schooners were sent yearly until 1850. Vessels were sent from Westport to the Magdalen Islands 

 for herring at an early date, the schooner Banner visiting the locality before 1830. By 1840 six 

 sail of large vessels went regularly to these islands in the early spring, bringing their catch home 

 in bulk, where the fish were smoked and boxed for the Boston market. Several parties engaged 

 extensively in the business, and large smoke-houses were built in different parts of the town. 



