John L. Hoyt

John L. Hoyt, Scarborough, ca. 1864

Contributed by Maine State Archives

John L. Hoyt, Scarborough, ca. 1864

John L. Hoyt, ca. 1864

John L. Hoyt served as a Second Lieutenant in the 29th Maine Infantry, Company I during the Civil War.

Hoyt enlisted in Scarborough on January 9, 1864 at the age of 24, and received a bounty of $310. He was a resident of East Livermore at the time. Individuals could enlist in any town which paid a higher bounty. In Hoyt’s case, he chose Scarborough’s bounty money and thus mustered in as part of Scarborough’s required quota.

The 29th Maine infantry regiment mustered in at Augusta for three years. After briefly serving in Louisiana, the regiment transferred to Virginia. Hoyt was killed on October 19, 1864 during the Shenandoah Valley campaign at the Battle of Cedar Creek, where the Union army, led by General Philip Sheridan, was victorious.

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Horatio Hight

Horatio Hight, Scarborough, ca. 1862

Contributed by Maine State Archives

Horatio Hight, Scarborough, ca. 1862

Horatio Hight served Co. C of the 12th Maine Regiment during the Civil War. He enlisted as a second lieutenant on November 15, 1861 at the of age 27, and was promoted to first lieutenant on December 4, 1862. On January 10, 1863, he resigned. He received a bounty of $200 on April 27, 1864 for reenlisting.

Hight was one of four children of Amos and Eliza Hight. In 1856, he was a student at the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, now known as Kents Hill School. In the 1860 US Census, the Hight family was listed as lived with the Freedom Milliken family. Freedom Milliken also served in the Scarborough regiments during the Civil War.

At the time of his enlistment, Hight was single and a resident of Scarborough. After the war, he married Clara E. Milliken and a son, Clarence, was born in 1868.

The 1870 US Census lists Horatio as a teacher. After the war, Hight was appointed by President Andrew Johnson Assistant Appraiser of Merchandise for the city of Portland. He served as a customs officer from 1866 to 1888. Horatio Hight died on July 9, 1899 in Portland and is buried in Portland’s Evergreen Cemetery.

 

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George E. Andrews

George E. Andrews, Scarborough, 1864

Contributed by Maine State Archives

George E. Andrews, Scarborough, 1864

George E. Andrews, 1864

George E. Andrews served as a second lieutenant in the 12th Maine Regiment, Company D, during the Civil War.

Andrews was born in Scarborough around 1832. He mustered into service for the Civil War on November 15, 1861 in Portland for a three-year period, elected as first sergeant. Andrews was commissioned a second lieutenant on December 12, 1864. Surviving the war, he mustered out in 1866 and returned home to Maine.

Andrews’s unit of the 12th Maine left Portland for Lowell, Massachusetts on November 24th. Shortly after arriving there, they were loaded aboard a transport to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, arriving on January 2, 1862. On February 4th, they were aboard a ship sailing for Ship Island, Louisiana.

Colonel George F. Shepley, commander of the 12th Maine regiment, was appointed Military Governor of Maine and promoted to Brigadier General. He and his regiment, including George Andrews, served in several minor expeditions. They participated in the Teche campaign and took part in the assault and siege of Port Hudson.

In 1864, the 12th Maine regiment was transferred to Virginia. There they joined General Philip Sheridan’s army. They participated in several battles in the Shenandoah Valley and experienced heavy losses.

George Andrews, his wife, Frances, and two children settled in Portland where George became a carpenter. Andrews died in Portland on April 13, 1911 and is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Portland.

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Clamming and Lobstering – Part 4

Catch of the Day – Part 4

By Bruce Thurlow

Images from Scarborough Historical Society, Bruce Thurlow, Bill Bayley and Don Googins

I Remember Lobster Fishing in Scarborough

Most clam and lobster fisheries in Scarborough have been associated with Pine Point, and many Pine Point residents have been lobstermen, clam diggers or both. The Scarborough anchorage at Pine Point is where the Scarborough, Nonesuch and Libby Rivers converge and the departure point for many fishermen. As one of four boys whose father, grandfathers, several uncles and cousins were all lobstermen, I recall lobster fishing during the period 1949 to 1966.

Anchorage at Pine Point

Anchorage at Pine Point

In the mid-1900s, Scarborough lobster fishermen set strings of traps that were checked, as weather permitted, on a daily basis. Occasionally, when winter fishing or fishing in very deep water, one line had two traps (doubles); but most of the time only single traps were on a rope and buoy (singletons). Men would set a string of singletons, anywhere from 4 to 8 or 20 to 40, depending on the bottom to be fished. Each trap was connected to a buoy by a rope about 15 fathoms in length. About 5 fathoms up from the trap, a bobber was attached to the rope. This was intended to prevent the rope from getting caught on ledges, kelp, or anything else at low tide.

Around 1952, some fishermen began using fathometers to check the water depth and ocean floor. Before fathometers, lobstermen used greased window weights attached to twine to do this. Fishermen also used visual signs to note where to put a string of traps. For example, it was quite common to hear “dump the string” when the stern came between those two large trees on Stratton Island.

It was understood that two territories existed off Pine Point. A lobster fisherman would either go to Stratton and Bluff Islands or along Prouts Neck to Richmond Island. Fishermen who went toward Richmond Island stopped at a place called Deep Ledge and those from the Spurwink River would fish along that part of the Cape Elizabeth coast as far as and including Richmond Island. Those who went to Stratton and Bluff Islands would often go toward Old Orchard Pier. However, they would not fish any of the islands found at the Saco River entrance, for these were the grounds of Saco (Camp Ellis) fishermen.

These historic community boundaries are still respected, and many young fishermen might fish where family before him fished, but today anyone goes anywhere. Yet, many places along Maine’s coast still have definite territories. Recently, the press has had stories related to a shooting and boats being sunk over territorial disputes! A reason for the local decline in observing territories, I speculate, is that many fishermen are going offshore. Larger fiberglass boats; more powerful diesel engines; and modern equipment, such as hydraulic pot haulers, GPS, radar, etc., enable the lobster fisherman to reach offshore fishing areas faster and more safely.

Today, many lobster fishermen do go to offshore grounds. However, most lobsters are caught in late summer and fall when they migrate closer to shore areas to molt. This is when a lobster sheds its exoskeleton and grows a new shell. During this period lobsters are very soft, don’t move around much for several days and are vulnerable to almost everything, including fish and seals. Once lobsters become more active, they are very hungry and are caught in higher numbers.

Bayley’s Lobster Pound was the dealer for most Pine Point and Ferry Beach lobster fishermen. Bayley’s shipped lobsters to the Fulton Fish Market in New York City and provided lobster meat to many Old Orchard Beach, Saco and Scarborough restaurants and area take-out establishments. Other Pine Point lobster pound dealers have been Googin’s Lobster Pound, Fogg’s Lobster Pound, Thurlow’s Shellfish (formerly Googin’s Lobster Pound), Pine Point Seafood Distributors and the Fishermen’s Co-Operative. Today some lobster fishermen are selling lobsters from their homes. An ability to have a saltwater tank away from the source of the water has enabled these men to have a home business. In 2010 the only Pine Point-based lobster dealers are Bayley’s Lobster Pound and the Fishermen’s Co-Operative.

Managing the Catch

Bayley's Lobster Pound, Scarborough, ca. 1948

Bayley’s Lobster Pound, Scarborough, ca. 1948

Since all lobsters look alike whether caught near shore or offshore, it’s imperative that state, interstate and federal regulations complement one another. The Maine Department of Marine Resources manages lobster fishing within a three-mile boundary of the coast, working closely with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, a compact of fifteen eastern seaboard states. Federal regulations are covered under the auspices of the National Marine Fisheries Service and are concerned with lobster harvesting between three and 200 miles offshore. All states and the federal government share a minimum legal size, 3 ¼ inches carapace-length measured from the eye socket to the beginning of the tail. Maine has a maximum legal size of 5 inches carapace-length, to keep the largest breeders in the lobster population. All egg-bearing females and those with a V-notch cut in a tail flipper must be released. Cutting a V-notch is meant to keep the females in the breeding pool and is voluntary on the part of conservation-minded lobstermen.


Sources

Gold, Susan Dudley, ed. Scarborough at 350: Linking the Past to the Present. Scarborough, ME: Friends of Scarborough 350th, 2007.

Libbey, Dorothy Shaw. Scarborough Becomes a Town. Freeport, ME: The Bond Wheelwright Co., 1955.

Martin, Kenneth R. and Nathan R. Lipfert. Lobstering and the Maine Coast . Bath, ME: Maine Maritime Museum, 1985.

Milliken, John, et al. petitioned the 59th Legislature of Maine to abrogate previous legislative act allowing existence of the Southgate Diking Company.

Scarborough Historical Society Collection: Clamming

Thurlow, Bruce. Presentation to the Scarborough Historical Society. Lobster Fishing at Pine Point from 1940-1970.

Thurlow, Bruce. Recollections About Lobster Fishing. Unpublished. Written for his sons, 2008.

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Clamming and Lobstering – Part 3

Catch of the Day – Part 3

By Bruce Thurlow

Images from Scarborough Historical Society, Bruce Thurlow, Bill Bayley and Don Googins

Lobster Fishing

The first recorded lobster catch was in 1605 when the crew of the Archangel, captained by George Waymouth, set a small fishing net near Monhegan Island and hauled up a net filled with various fish and “thirty very good and great lobsters.” In the 1600s and 1700s, lobsters were easily harvested from tidal pools along the shoreline. So plentiful were lobsters that Native-Americans used them for crop fertilizer and fish bait, as well as food for themselves; early settlers considered lobsters food for servants and paupers. Some indentured servants in Massachusetts had written in their contracts that they should not be served lobster more than three times a week

Lobster Trap Branding Iron, 1961

Lobster Trap Branding Iron, 1961

Lobster fishing is still done in much the same way as when the fishery began, with some modern technology to make it easier. Lobsters are fished with baited traps or pots and the traps are dropped from a boat or “set.” Traps are attached by rope to a floating buoy to mark their location. To identify his traps, each lobsterman has his own buoy colors and markings. Sometimes traps are strung together and marked by a single buoy; this is called a trawl or a string. As weather permits, traps are hauled up one to five days later. Originally, hauling was done by hand using a gaff (a stick with a hooked end) to hook the buoy and pull up its rope. Now the rope is typically placed over a roller powered by a hydraulic hauler that pulls a trap up from the ocean floor. A lobsterman is able to pull many more traps in a day using the latter method. Once on deck, the trap is emptied. Hopefully, the trap contains lobsters, but there may also be other sea creatures and seaweed as well. Legal lobsters are transferred to a holding tank on the boat, and those lobsters above or below the designated legal size or those carrying eggs or a V-notch (indicating females capable of bearing eggs) are returned to the water. The trap is re-baited and reset until the next haul.

Lobster fishing was essentially a local industry until the introduction of the lobster “smack” in the early 1800s. A smack was a small sailing vessel with an open holding well with holes drilled into it to allow circulation of seawater. Smacks could transport live lobsters over longer distances to markets in Boston and New York. In response to a demand for lobster that exceeded the range of smack boats, companies such as Burnham & Morrill began canning lobster meat.

The first tidal lobster pound was introduced in Vinalhaven in 1875 and others quickly followed. Lobster pounds were much like smack boats; lobsters were held in tanks with circulating seawater. A lobster pound allowed a dealer to hold lobsters for future sale or a newly molted lobster time to harden its shell.

Miss Pine Point, Scarborough, 1938

Miss Pine Point, Scarborough, 1938

Various types of boats have been used by lobstermen through the years—sloops, smacks, dories, and skiffs. The peapod was a large double-ended skiff later adapted for use with an outboard motor. By 1910 engines began replacing sails and oars in lobster boats. Eventually, lobster boats of about 26 feet in length were designed with inboard engines. Use of gasoline or diesel engines enabled lobstermen to fish further along the coast or offshore or finish hauling early enough to undertake a second fishing-related job such as fishing for shrimp or dragging for hen clams.

Toward the end of the 1800s, the lobster stock seemed to be in decline, spurring the enactment of laws to protect and conserve the lobster population. In 1872 a law was passed banning the taking of egg-bearing females, a conservation measure already practiced by many Maine lobstermen, and in 1874 the first laws regulating the minimum size of lobsters were enacted. The minimum size deemed legal has changed over time and there is now a maximum size allowable. Lobstermen use a special gauge to determine which lobsters may be legally kept. Licenses are required and the number must appear on traps and buoys. There is also a law making it illegal for anyone to touch a labeled trap or buoy other than its owner.

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