Clamming and Lobstering – Part 3

Posted on October 26, 2016 by scarbo7_wp

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.

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

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Clamming and Lobstering – Part 2

Posted on October 25, 2016 by scarbo7_wp

Catch of the Day – Part 2

By Bruce Thurlow

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

Protection of clams in the Town of Scarborough, 1853

Protection of clams in the Town of Scarborough, 1853

By 1880 conflict arose between Scarborough Marsh diking company owners and clam diggers, boaters, and fishermen who claimed that dikes shut out the overflowing tides of the marshes, resulting in streams becoming shallower. Farmers supported diking, because it resulted in increased acreage and thus increased salt hay yield. Clam diggers believed they were losing flats and that clams were worth thousands of dollars more than hay. Clam diggers and fishermen petitioned the Maine State Legislature to abrogate an earlier act, which allowed the Southgate Diking Corporation to exist. The abrogating petition was never acted upon by the legislature; it was simply referred to the Commission of Interior Waters. The petition merely showed that a rift existed and that diking caused a negative impact on the marshland.

In the 1920s Fred Snow, a clam digger, found a better, more efficient way to can clams and founded Snow’s Canning Company. Snow started his canning operation by buying equipment from a defunct corn cannery. The original brand name was Ossipee, but Snow soon began using his family name. Because of the limited availability of soft-shell clams, another source of clams was needed for clam chowder. The sea, or hen, clam was trucked in from Wildwood, New Jersey. The hen clam became central to the factory’s operation, necessitating a need for more structures, trucks, a machine repair shop, employees and clam draggers. The factory was successful and ultimately employed thousands of people. By 1959 Snow’s had become part of the Borden Corporation. Snow’s Pine Point factory canned its last batch of chopped clams in 1990 after 68 years in business.

Thurston and Bayley Company, Scarborough, 1948

Thurston and Bayley Company, Scarborough, 1948

Although the process of canning clams had become more automated, the manner of handling clams remained the same. The largest clam dealer of several in the 1900s was Thurston & Bayley on Pine Point Road, almost across the street from Snow’s. Thurston & Bayley not only bought clams from diggers, but they developed a cottage industry. Residents were hired to cut clams and paid by the gallon of meat produced. Clams were delivered in the morning to local homes, and at the end of the day the meat would be picked up. One could work at home rather than going to cutting rooms at various locations. It was common to see a clam tray leaning against every fisherman’s house. The clam tray was used while cutting clams and usually held half a bushel at a time. The original building of Thurston and Bayley is now Bayley’s Seafood Company. The present owner, Stanley Bayley, is a nephew of Paul Bayley, founder of the original company.

Clam Permit, town of Scarborough, 1897

Clam Permit, town of Scarborough, 1897

As regulations became more stringent, the amount of clams was more limited. In 1973 Thurlow’s Shellfish Company, owned by David Thurlow, bought another processor, Googins Lobster Pound. Googins had the first purification system that allowed clam diggers to dig in once-polluted areas. When clams were held for two days in purified water, they cleansed themselves and could be used for food. The combination of this system and clams from open areas generated a larger supply. When Thurlow Shellfish Company closed, Pine Point Seafood Distributors, Inc., which operated wholesale and retail divisions, absorbed the business. The Clambake and Dunstan School Restaurants were the wholesale division’s largest clients.

Donald A. Thurlow opened the Pine Point Seafood Market and sold fish, lobsters, clams and other seafood. By 1971 the market moved to a larger building on the Clambake Restaurant property and was managed by Donald H. Thurlow. The market employed a number of people in its cutting room and supplied the Clambake Restaurant. In 1987 still on the Clambake property, the business moved to a new store, now the Nestling Duck Gift Shop, and was operated by Donald H. Thurlow’s grandsons, Michael and John Thurlow.

To maintain healthy stocks and assure consumer food safety, clamming is highly regulated. Clams are an important resource not only for human consumption but also for other creatures in the marshes, rivers, and the ocean’s edge. The number of commercial licenses is limited and they are difficult to get. More licenses are available for recreational clammers who want to dig just enough for their families. A serious issue facing clammers is red tide, a naturally occurring toxic algae. Toxins accumulate in mussels and clams during a red tide and can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning in consumers. When red tide occurs, clam flats are closed and clam harvesters are out of work for days or months until the threat has passed.

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

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Clamming and Lobstering – Part 1

Posted on October 24, 2016 by scarbo7_wp

Catch of the Day – Part 1

By Bruce Thurlow

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

Local Fishermen at Pine Point, Scarborough, 1932

Local Fishermen at Pine Point, Scarborough, 1932

Scarborough’s coastline, with its marsh, freshwater streams, saltwater rivers, beaches and rocky ledges, has been a site for fisheries, clam digging, lobster fishing and recreational activities for centuries. The Scarborough anchorage at Pine Point has never been home port to any large fishing vessels, but it’s likely that some Scarborough men fished offshore on commercial vessels at the Banks or in recent years, aboard draggers, trawlers or gill-netting vessels, probably out of Portland. Scarborough men have engaged primarily in coastal fishing, particularly clams and lobsters. As a second job, some lobstermen operated fishing party boats summer afternoons, taking groups to catch mackerel, pollack, flounder, cod and haddock along the coast. During winter months these same men often outfitted their boats for dragging hen (sea) clams, scallops or shrimp. Stream and river fishing was recreational, as well as a source of family food.

Clam Harvesting

Clam Diggers ca. 1933

Clam Diggers ca. 1933

Although the tools are simple (a metal rake, metal bucket and onion bags), clam digging is hard, backbreaking work with hours dependent on tides and light. The metal rake or “clam hoe” has a short 12”-18” handle, so the digger must bend at the waist often in mud to the knees to dig through the tidal mud flats for clams. There is no quick way to harvest clams; only hand tools or hands are allowed by the state. The process of harvesting clams hasn’t changed over the years, only the tools. Pails or wire baskets have replaced wooden hods or wicker baskets; onion bags have replaced wooden bushel baskets, and outboard motor boats have replaced the rowboats once used to reach the flats across the river. Unchanged are the seasonal weather conditions, mosquitoes, green-headed flies and midges that bother diggers on the flats.

Burnham and Morrill Clam Plant, Scarborough, ca. 1885

Burnham and Morrill Clam Plant, Scarborough, ca. 1885

Early settlers used clams for bait, selling their excess to vessels in the Grand Banks fleet and other fishing areas. Clams were shucked (meat cut from the shell), salted, and barreled in fish houses on the flats of Blue Point. Burnham & Morrill was the first company in the United States to commercialize clamming. Its first factory began operations at the end of Seavey’s Landing Road in Blue Point before 1869, using the same canning process as that used for farm produce, such as corn. After 1873 Burnham & Morrill moved to Jones Creek at Pine Point. Clams were shipped to the factory from all over the east coast. In 1883 Burnham & Morrill and other companies canned and shipped 3,000 to 8,000 bushels of clams. Burnham & Morrill moved its clam packing business to Portland in 1897, but continued to employ Pine Point diggers because the firm’s reputation had been based partly on the Scarborough clam. Burnham & Morrill used clams soaked in water because they were lighter in color. Other canneries used “unsoaked” clams, as “soaked” clams lost not only color, but flavor. Pine Point clam diggers sold many bushels of clams to Burnham & Morrill and other dealers as well as to other diggers, but they also kept some for their families.

Leavitt Bros. Clam Label ca 1910

Leavitt Bros. Clam Label ca 1910

was the second largest cannery and in 1892 was located near the Pine Point Depot. Leavitt Brothers supplied Burnham & Morrill and the Soldiers’ Home in Togus. A December 1893 newspaper article stated that Leavitt Brothers shipped 100 gallons of clams to the Soldiers’ Home each week. During the canning process, tops were individually hand-soldered onto filled cans, and it’s believed that this process may have been the cause of serious fires at both Leavitt’s and Burnham & Morrill.

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4

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Homer, Winslow

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Charlene Fenlason

People Who Called Scarborough Home

By Charlene Fenlason

Winslow Homer – Artist

Winslow Homer and Frank Coolbroth, Prouts Neck, ca. 1900

Winslow Homer and Frank Coolbroth, Prouts Neck, ca. 1900

Winslow Homer, landscape painter best known for his marine subjects, was born in Boston 24 February 1836 to Charles Savage Homer and Henrietta Benson Homer. His mother, an amateur watercolorist, was Homer’s first teacher. After Homer’s graduation from high school, his father arranged an apprenticeship for him with a commercial lithographer in Boston.

 

“Rocky Cliff, Coast of Maine” by Winslow Homer

By 1857, Homer had left the lithographer and his freelance career as an illustrator was underway, a period that lasted nearly twenty years. In 1861, Harper’s Weekly sent Homer to the front lines of the Civil War with General McClellan’s army where he sketched battle scenes and camp life. Back in his studio after this assignment, Homer worked on a series of war-related paintings based on his sketches. After the war, he spent time in Europe and began painting landscapes as he continued to work for Harper’s. By 1875, Homer stopped working as a commercial lithographer and focused on his painting. Following two years in England (1881-1882), Homer returned to the United States and moved to his family’s estate at Prouts Neck, where the sea and the cliffs in front of his studio became the subject matter of his great marine paintings. A lifelong bachelor, Homer was married to his work. He died in 1910, aged 74, in his Prouts Neck studio and is buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Source

Beam, Philip. Winslow Homer at Prouts Neck. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1966

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Haigis, Dr. Philip

Posted on October 22, 2016 by Charlene Fenlason

People Who Called Scarborough Home

By Charlene Fenlason

Dr. Philip Haigis

Dr. Philip Haigis, Scarborough, ca. 1960

Dr. Philip Haigis, Scarborough, ca. 1960

Dr. Philip Haigis, son of Peter Haigis and Ruth Hodges Haigis, was born 29 April 1916 at Foxboro, Massachusetts. After medical school at Kirksville (Missouri) College of Osteopathy, he completed his residency at the Osteopathic Hospital of Maine in Portland. He arrived in Scarborough in 1944 and opened his first office in the Marshview Restaurant while it was closed for the winter, as it was the only place that could be found at the time. Dr. Haigis then moved to a home at Route 1 and Scottow Hill Road where he also had his practice. He was on call seven days a week: house calls were $5.00 and office visits were $3.00. In the early years of his practice, Dr. Haigis was the only doctor in Scarborough. He served thirty-one years as the school physician and health officer for Scarborough. During this time, Dr. Haigis was also a member of the Masons, a member of the Lions Club and an amateur radio operator.

In 1951 following a terrible accident at Scottow Hill, Dr. Haigis and several men, some of whom were fellow members of the Lions Club, raised funds to convert an old bread truck into an ambulance. All of the equipment was donated and Dr. Haigis trained the personnel. Scarborough was the first town in Maine to have a rescue service, and later the group helped set up units in Standish and Cape Elizabeth. For many years, Dr. Haigis was the Maine State Director for the International Rescue First Aid Association. Another “first” attributed to Dr. Haigis was the creation of the mobile canteen unit that accompanied firemen on major fires.

Somehow, Dr. Haigis also found time to play occasionally with the Don Doane Band, a local jazz band. Just before he passed away, Dr. Haigis donated his musical instruments to Scarborough High School. In 1975, Dr. Haigis left Scarborough for Puerto Rico, where he became a civilian medical officer for the U.S. Navy. After fifty years of marriage, Faith died in 1990 and Dr. Haigis later married Helen Sluder of Naples, Florida. At age 78, he died of cancer in Naples, Florida, and is buried in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Sources

Killelea, Elaine. “Case History of Dr. Haigis Lists Many Firsts”. Portland Press Herald and Sunday Telegram, 1975.

Matson, Jess. Final Project: Dr. Philip Haigis, high school term paper, 1999.

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