Dressing cod on deck of fishing schooner. The cod were cleaned and split, with livers, tongues and cheeks saved in separate buckets. They then went into the hold with salt between each layer. This schooner could be one of the smaller hand liners. The fisherman on the left wears a 'barvil", an apron waterproofed with linseed oil.
This image is from G. Brown Goode's The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, 1884-1887, Section V, Plate 33. This book can be found online at NOAA
Hand-line gear is pretty simple. A reel for the line, sinkers and hooks are all that one needs, except for bait.
This image is from G. Brown Goode's The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, 1884-1887, Section V, Plate 31. This book can be found online at NOAA
65-foot sardine carrier Grayling coming into Lubec. The vessel was owned by the R.J. Peacock Canning Co. of Lubec. She was built in 1915 by Frank Rice in East Boothbay as a purse seiner, with a 65 HP Standard gasoline engine. By 1925 she was hauling herring. WoodenBoat Magazine for May/June 1997 has an article on her history, while the March/April and May/June 1998 issues recount her reconstruction and conversion to a yacht by Doug Hylan.
Photograph from the Atlantic Fisherman collection.
This diagram shows a salmon weir, as typically built in Penobscot Bay around 1880. The salmon weir had multiple pounds (the area which corralled the fish), the final fish pound's floor being set so that it was almost dry at a very low tide. This made it easier to pick up the caught fish.
Salmon weirs were different in design from herring weirs, as they had multiple pounds.
This image is from G. Brown Goode's The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, 1884-1887, Section I, Plate 271. This book can be found online at NOAA
Aboard the Rockland sardine carrier Jacob Pike, the first sardine carrier to get radar, installed shortly after she was built in 1949. She had been designed with a square pilot house to accomodate the then bulky radar units. Looking at the camera is Captain Sherman Lord who sailed her until 1970. To the right is Fran Cassidy who was the electronics installer. The background looks like Camden, Maine.
The early powered lobster boats were open launches or power dories. This image dates to around 1905 and looks to have a double-ended reverse stern popular in recreational launches of the time. This boat might do 7 to 10 miles an hour, a far cry from today's boats, but they could operate in a calm with much less work than rowing. The steadying sail helps keep the boat from rolling while hauling traps.
The Muscongus Bay sloop was a very popular inshore fishing (hand lining) and lobstering boat type in mid-coast Maine in the mid 19th century. Locally called sloop boats, small ones like this evolved into larger sloop boats, thirty feet or so long, commonly called Friendship sloops as many were built in Friendship. This boat has Bristol on her trailboard which may indicate her town.
This image is from G. Brown Goode's The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, 1884-1887. This book can be found online at NOAA
Model of a 32-foot v-bottom Maine lobster boat from the 1970s. Includes hauling gear, two lobster traps, gaff, bait barrel, sorting table, and steadying sail.
