THE LOBSTER FISHERY OF MAINE. 
253 
Eastport, which have good railroad and steamship facilities with points outside of the 
State. Those shipped from the latter point are mainly from the British Provinces, the 
fishermen near Eastport bringing them in in their own boats. A number also come 
in from the Provinces on the regular steamship lines. The other places get their 
supply from the smacks and also from the fishermen in their vicinity, who run in their 
own catch. Portland is very favorably situated in this regard, as Casco Bay is a 
noted fishing center for lobsters. 
As soon as a smack arrives it is moored directly alongside one of the cars. The 
lobsters are then dipped out of the well by means of long-handled scoop nets and 
thrown on the deck of the vessel. The doors of the car are then opened, and men on 
the vessel pick over the lobsters lying on the deck and toss them two by two into the 
different compartments, those dead and badly mutilated being thrown to one side for 
the time being. All vigorous lobsters above a certain size are placed in compartments 
of the car by themselves, while the weak and small are put in separate compartments. 
The dead lobsters and those which have had their shells broken or have been so 
injured that they are very sure to die are either thrown overboard or on the dump. 
A lobster which has lost one or even both claws is not thrown away, as such an injury 
would have very little effect on its health. 
When an order is received for live lobsters, those which have been longest in the 
cars are usually shipped. Flour barrels holding about 140 pounds or sugar barrels 
holding about 185 pounds, with small holes bored in the bottoms for drainage, are 
used for the shipment. Formerly the lobsters were packed close together in the barrel, 
and a large piece of ice was put in at the top, but this was found to kill a number of 
them. The present method is to split off about one-third of a 100-pound cake of ice 
the long way, and place it upright about half way of the length of the barrel, the 
lobsters then being packed snugly on all sides of the ice. In handling them the 
packer seizes the lobster by the carapax with his right hand, bends the tail up under 
the body with his left hand, and quickly deposits it in the barrel. The packer usually 
has his right baud covered with a woolen mit or wrapped in a long piece of linen, 
for protection from the claws of the lobster. 
When the barrel is nearly full the lobsters are covered with a little seaweed or 
large-leaved marine plauts, and the rest of the space is filled with cracked ice. The 
top is then covered with a piece of sacking, which is secured under the upper hoop 
of the barrel. Packed in this way, lobsters have easily survived a trip as far west as 
St. Louis. 
Owing to the high prices realized in England for live lobsters, attempts have been 
made to ship live American lobsters to that market, generally from Canadian ports. 
In 1877 Messrs. John Marston & Sons, of Portland, made a trial shipment of 250. 
They were placed in a large tank 20 feet long by 8 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and 
constantly supplied with fresh seawater through six faucets by means of a donkey 
engine, a waste-pipe preventing any overflow. The trip was fairly successful, as only 
50 died, and the balance brought from 00 to 75 cents per pound. 
The smacks and dealers buy lobsters by count, as the fishermen generally have 
no facilities for weighing them; but the dealers always sell by weight. The mortality 
among the lobsters from the time they are put aboard the smacks until they are 
barreled for shipment is estimated at about 5 per cent. 
