250 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
FISHING VESSELS AND BOATS. 
The fishing vessels are either sloop or schooner rigged, with an average net 
tonnage of slightly over 8 tons (new measurement) and an average value of about 
$475. There has been a great increase in the number of these vessels during recent 
years. Eight vessels were used in 1880, 29 in 1889, and 130 in 1898. Quite a number 
of these vessels are used in other fisheries during their seasons. Two men usually 
form a crew, although three, and sometimes four, are occasionally used. 
The other vessels comprise sailboats under 5 tons and rowboats. The sailboats 
are generally small square-sterned sloops, open in the afterpart, but with a cuddy 
forward. They are all built with centerboards, and some are lapstreak while others 
are “set work.” Around the afterpart of the standing room is a seat, the ballast is 
floored over, and two little bunks and a stove generally help to furnish the cuddy. 
They vary in length from 16 to 26 feet and in width from 6 to 9 feet; they average 
about 2 tons. They are especially adapted to the winter fishery, as they are good 
sailers and ride out the storms easily. 
Dories are in quite general use in the lobster fishery, as are also the double- 
enders, or peapods. This latter is a small canoe-shaped boat of an average length of 
15^ feet, 4J feet breadth, and 14 feet depth. They are mainly built lapstreak, but a 
few are “set work.” Both ends are exactly alike; the sides are rounded and the 
bottom is flat, being, however, only 4 or 5 inches wide in the center and tapering 
toward each end, at the same time bending slightly upward, so as to make the boat 
shallower at the ends than in the middle. This kind of bottom is called a “rocker 
bottom.” They are usually rowed, but are sometimes furnished with a sprit sail and 
centerboard. 
TRANSPORTING VESSELS OR SMACKS. 
Even before the lobster fishery had been taken up to any extent, the coast of 
Maine was visited by well-smacks from Connecticut and New York, most of which 
had been engaged in the transportation of live fish before engaging in the carrying 
of lobsters. These vessels sometimes carried pots, and caught their own lobsters; 
but as this method was not very convenient, the people living along the coast took up 
the fishery, and sold the lobsters to the smackmen. About 1860 the canneries began 
to absorb a considerable part of the catch, and they employed vessels to ply along 
the coast and buy lobsters. As these vessels would only be out a few days at a 
time, wells were not necessary, and the lobsters were packed in the hold. In the 
summer great numbers of them were killed by the heat in the hold. After 1885 the 
canneries rapidly dropped out of the business, the last one closing in 1895. In 1853 
there were but 6 smacks, 4 of them from New London, Conn. In 1880 there were 58, 
of which 21 were dry smacks, while in 1898 there were 76, of which 17 were steamers 
and launches and 59 sailing vessels. These were all well-smacks. A few sailing 
smacks also engaged in other fishery pursuits during the dull summer months. In 
1879 a steamer which had no well was used to run lobsters to the cannery at Castine. . 
The first steamer fitted with a well to engage in the business was the Grace Morgan , 
owned by Mr. F. W. Collins, a lobster dealer of Rockland, who describes the steamer 
as follows : 
The steam and well smack Grace Morgan was built in 1890, by Robert Palmer & Son, of Noank, 
Conn. At that time she was a dry boat, but the following year, 1891, the Palmers built a small well 
in her as an experiment, but I am of the opinion that it did not prove very satisfactory or profit- 
