Lobsters

Atlantic Fisherman magazine advertisement for Mianus diesel oil engines. Diesel engines became more popular for larger fishing vessels because of their fuel efficiency and simplicity.

They were being installed into sail powered offshore fishing vessels by the 1920s, first as auxiliaries to sails. Then sails became auxiliaries to engines, and finally, as more vessels turned from dory fishing to trawling, sails disappeared.

This double-ender (the type is not called a “peapod” on the island) was built in the 1950s on Matinicus by Merrill Young for Orren Ames, the last of the island’s lobstermen to row and haul traps by hand. Orren fished it for 20 years or so before retiring and selling the boat to the donor, a descendant of one of Matinicus’s first settlers, who bought a house on the island in the 1960s. He wanted a boat for his daughter’s use but also hoped to preserve the double-ender.

The American Lobster, Homarus americanus.

This image is from G. Brown Goode's The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, 1884-1887, Section I, Plate 271. The book can be found on line at NOAA Celebrates 200 Years of Science, Service, and Stewardship.

Tied up at Beals Wharf are the lobsterboat Ethel M. II and the sardine carrier Woiee. In 1955, there was still an active sardine canning industry; now the few surviving sardine carriers are used to carry bait. Woiee, built in 1918, was converted to a motor sailing ketch used as charter yacht.