The Fishing Industry
From time immemorial it has been an
honorable calling "to those that went down to the sea in boats".
These brave and hardy mariners, inured from early life to
exposure and countless dangers, acquire a courage and calmness
in the hour of peril that are sublime. The brilliant and daring
achievements of our little navy in its unequal contest with the
"Mistress of the Sea" in 181214, which attracted the notice and
compelled the respect of the whole world, were made possible by
our plucky seamen who manned those ships.
In the future, when warfare will be
practically settled on the ocean, this country will not turn in
vain to our brave sailors and fishermen to defend the nation's
honor in the time of peril. For this reason the interests of the
mariners have always been watched with the greatest solicitude,
and their rights jealously protected both by national laws and
international treaties since the foundation of the government.
The fisheries at Swan's Island must have
begun with, and, in fact, led to, its settlement; in after years
they became the sole means of support to its inhabitants. Few,
if any other town in the State, ever had its entire population
dependent upon one industry for a livelihood. During the first
half century after its settlement, and even later, every man and
boy in this town was perfectly familiar with and had been
employed on a boat or vessel in this dangerous but oftentimes
lucrative employment of following the sea.
Most of the settlers who came here had
been fishermen in the places from which they came, and their
chief attraction here was the abundance and variety of fish that
could be caught near the shore, and the excellent harbor which
afforded shelter for their boats. Even those who were engaged
for a time in cutting and hauling logs that were manufactured at
Swan's mills, soon began to see a more lucrative employment in
the shore fisheries, which industry was beginning to be
stimulated by a demand in the market.
Even in those early times, with what
could be earned from the fisheries, with the crops that could be
raised from the fairly productive soil, and cutting kiln wood in
the winter, the settler could make ample provision for his
family. Others engaged in freighting Swan's lumber to market.
Among those who came here for this purpose were the Nutters,
Kents and Sadlers. Kiln wood was carried to what is now the city
of Rockland, where lime burning had begun. Paving stones taken
from the surf worn beaches of the outer shores were disposed of
in the older towns of Massachusetts. Traders came here in
vessels from a distance, and offered liquor, manufactured
articles and other wares in exchange for such products as could
readily be handled, such as dried fish, wool and such products
of the soil as could be spared.
Near the year 1800 the market for salt
fish increased, and the price was good considering the ease with
which they could be taken; the business drew the attention of
the settlers more and more to this means of obtaining a
livelihood. Unfortunately their lack of the means to engage in
the business on a large scale, as well as a lack of knowledge of
the business conditions at a distance, prevented them from
securing the profit they otherwise could have made. Years
elapsed before anything larger than open boats were used at this
island. Both the boat and the mode of fishing were of the most
primitive character. The largest boats were called chebacco
boats. They were small two-masted boats of about fifteen tons.
Cod and haddock were the only fish for which there was a call in
the market. Halibut were plenty, often so abundant as to make it
necessary for a boat to change her berth to avoid them, but they
were not marketable. Occasionally a fisherman would catch one
and smoke it for use in his own family. The larger part of the
fishing, however, was done in small rowboats called wherries.
The fishermen would usually get an early start so as to be on
the fishing grounds by daylight. Often a large number of boats
would go out in company. Here they would fish with hand lines
until near sundown, when they would get up their killick and
start for the harbor.
When brought to shore the fish were
split, dressed and thoroughly washed, then carried on a hand
barrow to the little fish house where they were salted. During
the day women spread the fish on flakes to dry, turning them to
dry both sides alike and often shading them with green boughs in
the heat of the day to save them from being burned by the sun.
When sufficiently cured, they were stored in the loft of the
fish house until fall when they were carried to market and
exchanged for shoes, clothes and provisions to last the family
through the long, bleak winters. The fisherman's wife found few
moments in the day to be idle. Besides the care of a large
family of children, she carded, spun and wove the wool into
cloth for the use of the family; and, with the aid of the
children, planted a little garden, tending it whenever there was
a spare moment. In the fall she would gather in a good harvest
to reward her for her toil. Such hardships and privations of
these pioneer settlers on these inhospitable shores, and the
firm and cheerful willingness and power to overcome all these
obstacles, have certainly transmitted to their descendants on
this island the thrift, frugality and self reliance which have
been the means of surrounding them with homes of comfort and
luxury.
Many of the early settlers here were
boat builders. They could get out their building material from
the forest around them, and work on boats during odd hours in
the winter when they could not go out fishing. Moses Staples not
only built boats for home use, but also small vessels, which he
sold to people from other places. The Joyces were also ship
carpenters.
An increase in the demand and supply of
fish called for boats of larger capacity, for better fishing
grounds were found farther off shore, where it was unsafe to go
in small boats; besides, the latter were inconvenient in
carrying their fish to market. So about the year 1810 the
chebacco boat was succeeded by the jigger or pinky. The pinky
had a small cuddy wherein were berths for the crew, a brick
fireplace and chimney with a wooden funnel. Their food consisted
mainly of fish, potatoes, pork, molasses and Indian or barley
bread. In these small crafts some long and hazardous voyages
were made. This was especially risky in returning from the gulf
of St. Lawrence in the fall of the year, when they would often
encounter severe gales where no harbor could be made, and the
only alternative was to withstand the tempest as best they
could, or go to their destruction on that rockbound shore. It
seems almost miraculous that no more accidents occurred at that
time.
Mackerel were first caught in 1800. At
first little attention was paid to this kind of fish, but year
by year mackerel fishing grew in importance. In 1816 the jig
hook was invented by Abraham Lurvey. The earliest practice of
catching mackerel was for the vessel to drift slowly under light
sail, with the crew ranged along the side of the vessel or boat,
each with a hook and line attached to a pole held in the hand.
The hook being baited and flung out to a length of several
yards, and it moving through the water, attracted the attention
of the mackerel, which, upon being caught, were landed on board
and thrown into a barrel or tub. It was discovered later that
throwing chopped menhaden or herring into the water had the
effect of attracting the mackerel in great numbers. The oily
portion of the bait covering the surface of the water, acted as
a guide for the fish to follow until, reaching the side of the
vessel, they came in contact with the hooks baited with fresh
and more palatable bait which was ravenously seized by the
mackerel. Bait mills, to grind up the fish, came into use in
1820. This was a great laborsaving device, as previous to this
time the fish had to be chopped with a hatchet. Poles to which
lines were attached while fishing were soon dispensed with as
being cumbersome and unnecessary. Soon any sized boat, from a
skiff to a pinky, was serviceable for catching mackerel. Skill
in catching was the main consideration. In getting crews, boys
from twelve to twenty were more often selected as being more
proficient than those of more mature years. This employment of
boys made the burden of raising large families easy, when they
were composed mostly of boys. A separate account was kept of
each man's catch, so the more skillful he was the greater would
be his income. One half of the gross stock went to the owners of
the vessel who furnished the supplies and provisions, and the
other half went to the crew. Some years, even in these small
crafts, excellent y ear's work was made.
Quite a number of pinkies were owned
here, among them were the "Columbia", owned by Levi Torrey, the
schooner "Amelia", owned by Benjamin Stinson, the "Pearl",
"Young James", "Catherine", built by Silas Hardy, and the
"Arcade", built by Ebenezer Joyce and Alexander Staples in 1827.
Vessels engaged in mackerel fishing
would fit out in March or April to go south and return about the
first of July. The rest of the season would be spent in the Bay
of Fundy and along the whole coast of Maine, and some even went
to the gulf of St. Lawrence. Cod fishing, however, continued to
be the principal fishery.
Recognizing the great service of the
fishermen in the war, and wishing to further encourage this
industry, Congress passed an act on July 29, 1813, to pay a
bounty to vessels so employed. The following is a synopsis of
that law: That after the last day of December, 1814, there shall
be paid to the owners of vessels carrying on the bank and other
cod fisheries who have been employed therein at sea for four
months in the year, the following bounty: For vessels between 20
and 30 tons, $2.40 per ton; above 30 tons, $4, of which
three-eighths shall go to the owners of the vessel, and
five-eighths divided among the crew. The amount allowed to any
one vessel was not to exceed $272. At the same time a bounty was
granted to fishing boats of more than five and less than twenty
tons, provided said boat landed a quantity of fish equal to
twelve quintals for every ton of measurement. The codfish
industry reached its height about 1832, after which it gradually
declined. The bounty laws were repealed July 28, 1866.
As the other fisheries declined, The
mackerel catch increased, the common practice being to engage in
cod fishing, getting one fare before the mackerel appeared,
either on the Maine coast or in the gulf of St. Lawrence, after
which the vessel, and usually the same crew, would engage in
mackerel fishing.
A day's experience on board of a
hand-line mackerel fisherman of those times is so graphically
described by Aaron Lightfoot that I give it below:
"The amount of moral courage and
Christian fortitude required for a landsman to get up out of a
comfortable bed and struggle up on a cold, wet, cheerless deck
to handle cold, wet lines and colder, wetter fish, all for the
'experience', will never be known except by those who have
allowed themselves to be deluded into the thing. It is
diabolical. Now the mainsail is up, the jib down, and the
captain is throwing bait. It is not yet quite light, but we hear
other mainsails going up all around us. A cold drizzling rain
does not add to the comfort of the situation, and we stand
around shivering, half asleep, with our sore hands in our wet
pockets, about as 'demmed moist, uncomfortable bodies', as ever
dear old Mantilini saw, and all wishing we were at home, and had
never heard of a mackerel. The skipper, however, is holding his
line over the rail with an air that clearly intimates that the
slightest kind of a nibble will be quite sufficient this morning
to seal the doom of the unfortunate mack.
"'There, by Jove! the captain's hauling
back, I told you so! Skipper's got him, no, ah, captain, you
hauled back too savagely!'
"With the first movement of the
captain's arm indicating the presence of fish, everybody rushes
madly to the rail, and jigs are heard on all sides splashing
into the water, and eager hands and arms are stretched at their
full length over the side, feeling anxiously for a nibble.
"'Sh__hist! there's something just
passed my fly, I felt him,' says an old man standing alongside
of me. 'Yes, and I've got him!' triumphantly shouts the next man
on the other side of him, hauling in, as he speaks, a fine
mackerel, and striking him off into the barrel in the most
approved style.
"Zzzzip goes my line through and deep
into my poor fingers, as a huge fellow rushes savagely away with
what he finds is not so great a prize as he fondly supposed. I
was greatly flurried, missed stroke half a dozen times in as
many fathoms of line, and at length succeeded in landing my
first fish safely in my barrel, where he lies floundering,
'melancholy and melodious,' as my next neighbor styles it.
"Daylight soon dawns, and the rain,
which had been threatening very moistly all night, began to pour
down in dead earnest; and as the big drops began to patter in
the water the fish began to bite furiously.
"'Shorten up,' says the skipper, and we
shorten our lines to about eight feet from the rail to the
hooks, when we can hook them in just as fast as we can move our
hands and arms. ' Keep your lines clear! 'is now the word, as
the doomed fish flip faster and faster into our barrels. Every
face wears an expression of anxious determination. Everybody
moves as though he had a full set of elastic springs within him;
every heart beats loud with excitement, and every hand hauls in
fish and throws out hook with a method; cool precision, a kind
of slow haste, which unites the greatest speed with the utmost
security against foul lines.
"The rain momentarily increases. We hear
jigs rattling down, and glancing up hastily, I am surprised to
find our vessel surrounded on all sides by the fleet, which has
already become aware that we have fish alongside.
"Meantime the wind rises, the sea
struggles against the rain, which is endeavoring with its steady
patter to quiet the turmoil of Old Ocean. We are already on our
third barrel of fish, each, and still they come as fast as ever,
and the business (sport it ceased to be some time ago) continues
with undiminished vigor. Streams of perspiration course down our
faces. jackets, caps and even our shirts are thrown off to give
greater freedom to limbs that are worked to their utmost.
"'Hello! where are the fish?' calls out
somebody; and sure enough, all at once the whole business comes
to a standstill, the fish have apparently 'shut up shop' and
gone home, for not the faintest nibble does one of the fishermen
get. The mackerel, which a moment ago were fairly rushing on
board, have in that moment disappeared so completely that not a
sign of one is left. The next vessel under our lee holds them a
little longer than we, but they finally also disappear from her
side. And so on all around us.
"And now we have a chance to look around
us; to compare notes on each other's success; to straighten our
backbones, nearly broken and aching horribly with constant
reaching over; to examine our fingers, cut to pieces and grown
as sensationless as a piece of salt junk, with the perpetual
dragging of small lines across them."
About the year 1850 a decided
improvement in the moral and social condition of the people of
Swan's Island took place. Increased economy resulted in placing
some of the settlers in a position to obtain better fishing
crafts, and the bounty paid by the government greatly stimulated
the industry here. This saved the necessity of running in debt
in advance for the necessaries of life and the expense of
running the craft. Improved methods of fishing were learned from
the crafts of the larger ports of Massachusetts, New Hampshire
and Maine, and at the outbreak of the Civil war quite a number
of fair sized vessels were owned by their captains here. The
high price for fish caused by the war resulted in increased
production, and a steady growth in prosperity was maintained for
several years. Several captains here accumulated considerable
property, and the lesson learned from them resulted in
profitable returns to the generation succeeding them.
The following is a list of vessels
belonging to Swan's Island which were registered at the
customhouse at Castine at the close of the war: Schooners
"Clarissa Person", "Eagle", "Eliza Mary", "Emerald", "Empire",
"Gipsy Queen", " Golden Rule", "Huntress", "Ivy", "John Pew",
"Lucy May", "Matilda", "Orinole", "Phebe", "Rainbow",
"Reindeer", "S. J. Collins", "Sharpshooter", "Shawmut",
"Traveler", "Traverse" and "Volant". In tonnage they ranged from
ten to sixty tons.
About the year 1871 a new mode of
catching mackerel was instituted. Instead of the hook and line,
large, expensive seines began to be used. The first to try this
new experiment from this island was Capt. Freeman Gott in the
schooner "Highland Queen" during the season of '72. So many more
fish could be taken in this way, that the other vessels quickly
supplied themselves with the necessary apparatus. Much more
capital became invested in this industry. New, fast sailing
vessels were built, and expensive seines and seine-boats were
required.
Stern discipline as seen on a merchant
ship does not exist on board a fisherman. Of the sixteen to
eighteen men that comprise her crew, all are on equal terms, the
captain often consulting with the crew, and all working with a
will and in harmony, as the income depends on the activity of
every man. The crew is composed mostly of Americans, who are
active and experienced fishermen. The food served aboard these
seiners is as good as at a hotel. The cabin is finished and
furnished in a tasteful and often elegant manner. The share is
managed differently from what it was on a hand liner, as the
crew of the seiner usually all share the same. One half of the
proceeds is thus divided among the crew, and the other half goes
to furnish supplies and gear, and to compensate the owners of
the vessel.
Mackerel seiners usually collect in a
fleet. Often a hundred or more sail of vessels will be in view
of each other at one time on the fishing grounds, or together
seek the shelter of some friendly harbor during a storm. Such a
fleet entering or leaving a harbor presents a most interesting
view.
Mackerel having been fed on bait so long
a time had become very tame, so that they would collect in great
bodies, called schools, which would appear near the surface of
the water. A lookout is kept at masthead. As soon as a school is
seen by him, all is excitement on board the vessel. The
seine-boat is manned by some ten men, who row rapidly toward
where the mackerel are showing. When in the right position the
seine, of about 1,500 feet, is cast in a circle around the fish
and the bottom of the seine is then pursed up. The vessel is
speedily brought "alongside the seine-boat, and a portion of the
cork line is fastened to the rail of the vessel, so that the
mackerel lie in the seine between the vessel's side and the
seine-boat. A large dip-net with tackle and a long handle soon
bails the mackerel out, by the half barrelful, on the deck.
Next begins the dressing of the
mackerel. With a small dip-net they are thrown into square
boxes, where they are split, gibbed and finally salted into
barrels. The fish is also often cut by slight curves called
"plowed", which gives them a fat appearance. Sometimes the seine
is thrown many times a day. Often the mackerel get frightened
and escape under the seine before it is pursed up; again two or
three hundred barrels may be taken at one time.
Fishermen from Swan's Island soon took a
leading place in this industry. Their knowledge of net fishing,
previously gained in the herring and other fisheries, made them
well qualified to operate the purse seine successfully.
Especially during the first two or three years our vessels were
noted for their phenomenal catches, from which sufficient profit
was made to enable them to buy and own, even then, ten to
fifteen of the best vessels in the fleet.
From 1874 to 1889 Swan's Island fishing
vessels took either the first or second place every year among
the fleet of the whole Atlantic coast, a fact that should awaken
an honest pride in the energy and thrift of our fishermen. Many
large and expensive vessels were built for and owned by our
captains, and seamen came from all the surrounding towns to
secure positions with our successful captains. Signs of
prosperity were everywhere apparent. New, elegant houses were
rapidly being erected. Roads were improved, and many horses were
brought to the island. Travel greatly increased so that it made
it profitable for a steamboat to connect here. No pauper called
for aid; everybody had a plenty. So alluring and profitable was
this occupation that almost every male inhabitant, except those
enfeebled by old age or the young boys, would be gone from the
island.
Among some of the notable fares it may
be noticed that in 1880 the schooner "Alice", of Swan's Island,
took 3,700 barrels of mackerel, stocking $19,548.75. In 1881 the
schooner "Isaac Rich'' took 2,000 barrels up to the middle of
July. The same year the schooner "Alice" took 4,804 barrels to
Oct. 21. In 1885 the steamer "Novelty", built for and commanded
by Hanson B. Joyce, was one of the largest fishing steamers in
the world, carrying a crew of forty men. Although very large
quantities of mackerel were taken, yet the expense of running
her was large. Unfortunately about this time the mackerel, which
had been so persistently chased, began to disappear. This made
the experiment with the steamer rather unprofitable, so in 1889,
after a four years' trial, she was sold at a considerable loss.
From this time until 1891 this industry gradually declined.
After this time the decline in the quantity obtainable and the
difficulty of keeping track of so small a body of fish, made
success more a matter of luck and circumstances than of energy
and hard work. Finally, one by one, the vessels were disposed of
until at this time none is owned here, and the fishermen have
found new occupations.
Additional Reading:
Commanders and their Vessels
Lobster, Shellfish and Sardine on Swan Island
Source: A History of Swan's Island,
Maine, by H.W. Small, MD, Ellsworth Me, Hancock County
Publishing Company, Printers, 1808
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