700 HISTORY AND METHODS OF THE FISHERIES. 



claim to tbe invention. The precise locality where trawls were first used is not known, but it was 

 somewhere between Harpswell and Friendship, and probably at Georgetown. This innovation 

 was in reality the result of competition, arising from the desire of one man to do the work pre- 

 viously performed by two. Experience also soon taught them that by the use of trawls, one man 

 might set even more pots than had formerly been handled by two men. Each man would set his 

 entire gang of pots in one or two strings where lobsters were abundant, but in a greater number 

 where they were less plentiful. Since about 1870, the use of trawls in the lobster fishery has 

 been decreasing, due to the fact that the lobstermen have discovered that they can often obtain 

 a better catch by scattering their pots over a greater area, and shifting them a little every time 

 they are hauled. Does not this fact indicate at least some falling off in the abundance of 

 lobsters? 



The following interesting facts regarding the early lobster fishery of Maine are furnished by 

 Capt. Elisha M. Oakes, of Viual Haven: In 1841, Captain Oakes began to carry lobsters from 

 Curdy'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 lobsters were sup- 

 posed 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 lobsters, 

 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 Hnlda B. Hall, 50 tons, of New London, Conn., 

 Captain Chapell, was carrying lobsters from Cape Porpoise, Maine, Gloucester, Ipswich Bay, and 

 occasionally Provincetown, Mass., to Boston, making fifteen trips in the course of 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 mouths following the close of the lobster season on the coast of Maine, or from July 4 

 until November, Captain Chapell ran his smack with lobsters to New York, obtaining the 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 region, where this fishery had just been started. The quantity of lobsters carried 

 by him that year was 40,000. The prices paid to the fishermen for smack lobsters was as follows : 

 During March, 3 cents each ; April, 2 cents ; May and June, 2 cents. In 1850 he began to obtain 

 supplies from the Muscle Ridges, leaving Harpswell entirely, on account of the small size of the 

 lobsters then being caught there. At this time the average weight of the lobsters marketed was 

 about 3 pounds, and all under 10 inches in length were rejected. The traps were made of the 

 same size as at present, but were constructed of round oak sticks, and with four hoops or bows to 

 support the upper frame-work. A string of bait, consisting mainly of flounders and sculpins, was 

 tied into each trap. About fifty traps were used by each fisherman, and they were hauled once a 

 day. The warps or buoy lines, by which the traps were lowered and hauled, were cut in 12 fathom 

 lengths. 



THE MUSCLE RIDGES, ME. Captain Oakes states that lobsters, were so abundant at the 

 Muscle Ridges, at this period, that four men could fully supply him with lobsters every trip he 

 made. In the course of ten days each man would obtain between 1,200 and 1,500 marketable lob- 

 sters. In Captin Oakes's opinion, the Muscle Ridges have furnished the most extensive lobster 

 fishery of the Maine coast. He ran to this locality until 1874. 



Capt. S. S. Davis, of South Saint George, informs us that about 1HG4, when he first began 



