THE LOBSTER FISHERY OF MAINE. 
243 
At first, as most settlers lived on or near the coast, each family could easily 
secure its own supply, but as the settlements gradually extended farther inland this 
became inconvenient, and it soon became customary for certain persons living on the 
coast to attend to supplying the wants of the inland settlers, and thus the commercial 
fishery was established. 
The coast of Maine is very favorably situated for this fishery. In its eastern and 
middle sections the shore is bold and rocky, while it is cut up by large deep inlets 
and coves which are studded with numerous islands, large and small, and by bold 
rocky promontories. Groups of islands are also numerous farther off’ shore, like the 
Fox and Matinicus Islands, Deer and Mount Desert islands. Large and small fresh- 
water rivers are numerous and the granite bottoms of these channels and inlets form 
admirable breeding-grounds. In the western end the shores are not so rocky, being 
broken frequently with sandy reaches, while the rivers are small and comparatively 
shallow. West of Casco Bay the islands are infrequent. As a result of this confor- 
mation of coast the best fishing-grounds in Maine are between Cape Elizabeth and 
Quoddy Head. 
As early as 1830 smacks from Boston and Connecticut visited Harpswell for fresh 
lobsters, and it is very probable that even before this time they had visited the points 
farther west in the State, as the history of the fishery, so far as known, shows that it 
gradually worked to the eastward. This was doubtless owing to the fact that the 
trend of settlement in the early part of the century was in that direction. It is also 
probable that, for some time before the people along the coast took up the fishery, the 
smackmen themselves did their own fishing. This is easily believed when the great 
abundance is considered. It is known that this was done in Massachusetts. 
During summer the lobsters were very common close in shore and could easily be 
gaffed by boys at low water; but this could hardly be called a regular fishery. 
The regular fishery began with the use of hoop-net pots, which were generally of 
very rude construction, and the facility with which the lobsters escaped from them 
led to their disuse soon after the lath pots began to be introduced. The lath pots were 
essentially the same in construction as those now used on the coast of Maine, and each 
pair of fishermen then handled between 25 and 50. 
Up to about 1865 it was the custom to set the traps singly, and two men were 
usually employed in the fishery, one to haul up, empty the pot, rebait it, and drop it 
overboard, while the other handled the boat. In the latter year it was discovered 
that by setting the pots on trawls more pots could be set and only one man would be 
required to work them. This invention, which was claimed by several different 
persons, proved quite successful for a while, but after a time, when the supply of 
lobsters began to drop off, better results were secured by scattering the pots over a 
greater area and shifting their position each time they were fished, which was very 
easily done. As a result of this the use of trawls decreased very rapidly. 
The following facts regarding the early lobster fishery of Maine are from the 
Fishery Industries of the United States, section y, vol. ii, pp. 700, 701: 
In 1841 Capt. E. M. Oakes began to carry lobsters from Cundy’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 the lobsters were supposed to be unfit for eating; the black lobsters, or 
shedders, were even considered poisonous. During this season of four months Captaiu Oakes made 
ten trips, carrying in all 35,000, by count. He continued in this trade about six years, taking the 
combined catch of about live or six fishermen. At this same period the smack Hulda B. Hall, 50 tons, 
