Collections
MF 047 Penobscot Bay Fisheries and
Industries Project
Number of
Interviews: 13
Dates when interviews were conducted: 1973-1974
Time period covered: 1920s-1970s
Principal interviewers: David Taylor
Finding Aides: brief indexes and transcripts
Access Restrictions: none
Description: A series of thirteen interviews (1973-1974) done
by David Taylor under contract for the Penobscot Marine Museum, on
the fisheries and related industries of Penobscot Bay, the Penobscot
River, and the surrounding area. Topics discussed include salmon,
smelt, and lobster fishing; captaining a lobster smack; the catching
and marketing of eels; ship and boat building; and Friendship
sloops.
764 Osborne Wade, Sr., interviewed by David Taylor, June 7,
12, & 25, & August 1 & 9, 1973, at Wade’s home in Lincolnville,
Maine.14 page index, 26 page transcript.
Session One, June 7, 1973: Wade describes his life as a salmon
fisherman beginning around the turn of the century; maintenance,
rent, and ownership of salmon berths; fishing with pole weirs;
maintenance, parts, and setup of salmon nets; affect of weather on
salmon catches; typical day fishing; packing, and marketing of
salmon.
Session Two, June 12, 1973 :Wade discusses salmon wherries; care &
building of a wherry; wherry builders Orin Ames, Henry Drinkwater,
Stimp Rhodes, and Elisha Griffin; marketing of salmon; seasonal
nature of salmon fishing; care of nets; influence of berth location
& weather on salmon catch.
Session Three, June 25, 1973: Wade talks about other fish caught in
salmon nets, monkfish, pollock, shad; effect of seals on salmon
fishery; use of killicks; use, manufacture, and maintenance of
salmon nets; diagram and description of salmon weir; story about
whale entangled in salmon nets; financial aspects of salmon fishing;
trawling for cod, haddock, and hake; fishing on the Penobscot River.
Session Four, August 1, 1973: Wade details his work on a Penobscot
Bay lumber schooner, 1911-1915; loading lumber; the schooner, the
Livelihood, built in Deer Isle by Mr. Billings; freight rates and
profits; other cargoes; typical activities on board and living
quarters; combination of sail and engines in river sailing; loading
and unloading of cargo; Bangor as a lumber port. Also discusses
function of spring pole and head buoys in salmon nets; river driving
of lumber; sorting of logs; boom work.
Session Five, August 9, 1973:Wade describes trade aboard a Penobscot
Bay coasting schooner; lumber trade, types of lumber carried; lime
trade in kiln wood and kiln rock; lime kilns in Campden, Rockport,
Rockland, Lincolnville; coastal trade in granite from Stonington,
Hurricane Island, Vinalhaven. St. George, Franklin; loading granite;
dangers of navigation and advantages/disadvantages of various
cargoes, differences in schooner models; cost & types of sails; full
description of living quarters; cooking & supplies on schooner;
decline of coastal trade; discussion of pinkys; used for
hand-lining; why no longer built.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes 3 hours: T609 - T613; Photos: P433 - P434,
P528 - P529
765 Newell Perry interviewed by David Taylor, June 8 & 15,
1973, at Perry’s home in Winterport, Maine. Accession includes 2
detailed maps of the Penobscot River between Verona and Orrington.
51 page index.
Session One, June 8, 1973: Perry discusses smelt fishing on the
Penobscot River near Prospect; construction, setting, mending, and
hauling of nets; effect of tide on catch; smelting season and daily
catch; fishing crews, his own included his father, Earl Baker,
Ernest Johnson, and Eddie Locke; other smelt fishermen, Calvin Young
and George Page; marketing and storing smelt; smelting clothing;
describes scows and their gear; navigating at night; grappling
buoys; catching smelt with dip nets; and fishing for herring on
Vinalhaven in 1948.
Session Two, June 15, 1973: Perry and George Page of Brewer talk
about winter smelt fishing; freezing of the Penobscot River; state
laws; fishing through the ice; maintenance, size, and price of nets;
fishing camps; storage, packing, and marketing of smelt; Page’s
partner Chet Neally; “Boston boat” and maritime trade on the
Penobscot River; stories about head lice and bed bugs.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes 2 hours: T614 - T615; Photo: P529
766 Earl Baker interviewed by David Taylor, June 18,. 1973,
at Baker’s home in Winterport, Maine. 4 page index. Baker and his
wife discuss commercial smelt fishing; fishing camps; smelt netting;
smelting on Verona Island; hauling, setting, and maintaining nets;
the smelting season; financial aspects of smelt fishing; story about
Jim Jepson, fisherman and storyteller; building, maintenance, and
use of scows; differences between ice fishing and frame fishing;
marketing smelt; use of horses; use and setting up of frames, watch
buoys, and gear units. Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries
Project, Penobscot Marine Museum. Tapes 2 hours: T616 - T617
767 Walter Trundy interviewed by David Taylor, June 27 and
July 3, 1973, at Trundy’s home in Stockton Springs, Maine. 5 page
index, 68 page transcript. Trundy was Town Clerk of Stockton Springs
from 1907 up to and including time of interview.
Session One, June 27, 1973: Trundy talks about life in Stockton
Springs around 1900; fish and clams; Great Depression; experiences
as a storekeeper; shipping out of Stockton Springs; hippies; local
sea captains including Captain Eliot and Captain Hitchman; lumber
coasting; economic development of Stockton Springs; sardine factory;
ship builders, including Zebra Crooker; doctors.
Session Two, July 3, 1973: Trundy discusses sea captains; ship
launches; ship building during World War One; shipbuilders Zebra
Crooker and Emery and John Wardwell; his great-grandfather Joseph
Plumb Martin, Revolutionary War soldier; story about Captain Horace
Griffin winning the lottery; Stockton Springs barber Levi Griffin;
village on Cape Jellison; Stockton Springs policeman Bill Staples;
failure of Stockton Springs as a shipping port; docks built and
destroyed by fire; railroad line.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes 2 hours: T618 - T620; Photo: P451
768 Ernest Maloney interviewed by David Taylor, July 16, 1973
and January 3, 1974, at Maloney’s home in Port Clyde, Maine. 10 page
index, 15 page transcript.
Session One, July 16, 1973: Maloney discusses lobstering; lobster
fishing licenses; clamming and clam factories; marketing lobsters;
lobster boat engines; vessels used for lobstering, sail and power;
dory and pea pod boats; trawling; seiners, including Bert Simmons;
boundary maintenance; trap wars; living and fishing on islands; trap
design and materials, ballast, bait, and buoys; winter fishing; and
fishing expenses.
Session Two: January 3, 1974: Topics include dory and sloop use;
lobstering off Monhegan; sail versus power boats; Friendship sloops;
overnighting on the sloop; maintenance of sloop and sails;
two-header and three-header traps; building traps; Albion, Charles,
Jonah, and Wilbur Morse who built sloops; size limits on lobsters;
marketing lobsters; smacks came from Boston and Maine to buy
lobsters.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes3 hours: T621 - T624; Photos: P412 - P414
769 Sidney N. Sprague interviewed by David Taylor, July 5 and
12, 1973, at Sprague’s home in Rockland, Maine. 6 page index, 30
page transcript.
Session One, July 5, 1973: Sprague discusses lobster pounds owned by
the McLoon Lobster Co., duties and privileges of pound keepers;
lobster fishing rights and territories at Metinic Island, Matinicus
Island, North Haven, Vinalhaven, Monhegan Island, Green Island,
Camden, Rockland, Rockport, Spruce Head; lobster tagging; trap wars;
harassment of outsiders and newcomers; clamming territories;
building and maintaining lobster pounds; keeping lobsters alive in
the pounds, lobster disease “Red Tail.”
Session Two, July 12, 1973:Sprague talks about lobster fisherman
Gooden Grant; Isle Au Haut fishermen, fishing areas; sites of
lobster pounds around Penobscot Bay; pound operator Ladd Simmons;
building and financing pounds; Oliver Perry knowledgeable pound
constructor; maintenance of pounds and lobsters; defines chicken
lobster; barrel making; sizes of barrel for shipping lobsters;
McLoon ice houses and packing lobsters; use and building of scows;
marketing of lobsters; fish flakes; rum running.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes 2 hours: T625 - T627; Photo: P450
770 Phillip Raynes interviewed by David Taylor, July 5, 25,
and August 14, 1973, at Raynes’ home in Camden, Maine. 10 page
index, 57 page transcript.
Session One, July 5, 1973: Raynes talks about his grandfather, a
Grand Banks fisherman; also hand-lined in Penobscot Bay; and cooked
aboard a fishing schooner. Raynes describes gill netting with his
father; first fishing experiences; coot and duck shooting; trawling
hand-lines; buoys and killicks on trawl lines; trawling bait;
effects of pollution on the fishery; stopped trawling in the 1930s
and began lobstering; boat and equipment for lobstering; marketing
herring; lobster fishing laws; decline in salt fish business.
Session Two, July 25, 1973: Topics include: numbers, designs, and
building of lobster traps; Matinicus Island; storms; changes in rope
and heading material; preserving traps; ballasting traps; bait
spears, lines, and bags; types and source of bait; types of buoys,
styrofoam versus cedar; lobster hatchery; management of Maine’s
lobster fishery.
Session Three, August 14, 1973: Raynes discusses Gooden Grant’s
house on Isle Au Haut; types of bait, fresh versus salted;
relationships between fishermen; Lincolnville, Camden, Rockport,
Rockland, Green Island, Metinic Island, Monhegan Island fishing
areas; trap wars on Matinicus Island; industry in Camden, especially
lime kilns; marketing lobsters; typical day of fishing; women
lobster fishers; trawl line.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes 4 hours: T628 - T632
771 Henry Walls interviewed by David Taylor, July 13, 1973,
on Vinalhaven Island, Maine. 32 page partial transcript, 1 page
partial index. Walls talks about working in his grandfather’s store
on Vinalhaven Island in the early nineteenth century; eel grass in
the coves and harbors; catching flounder for lobster bait; lobster
buoy shape, color, and markings; building and baiting lobster traps;
differences between parlor and common traps; double-ended lobster
boat; advantage of rowing over engine power; sardine and herring
weirs and seiners; whale sighting near Hurricane Island; other fish
and shellfish caught in the lobster traps; number of traps set;
dogfish as a nuisance to fishermen; granite quarries on Hurricane
and Vinalhaven Islands; changes in winter clothing for lobstering;
marketing of lobsters; Sid Sprague and Hi Smith, lobster buyers.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes 1 hour: T633 - T634
772 Dan McLain interviewed by David Taylor, July 17, and 26,
1973, in Round Pond, Maine. 6 page index.
Session One, July 17, 1973: McLain describes hand-lining and
trawling; fishing on sailing vessels; trawling gear and techniques;
Georges Bank fishing grounds; cleaning ground fish; beam trawlers;
hand-lining gear and techniques; Nova Scotia fishermen; defines
underrunning and scabbing up of a trawl line; and lobster boats,
including sloops.
Session Two, July 26, 1973: McLain discusses lime and lumber
coasters (coasting vessels); running lobster smack for the Harvey
Lobster Co.; smack bought from Gooden Grant; buying lobsters from
fishermen; description and crew of smack; marketing lobsters in
Boston; pogey fishing; N. B. Church, pogey factory owner; pogey
fishing areas and gear; storage of pogeys; decline of pogey supply.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes 1 ½ hours: T635 - T636; Photo: P415
773 Gooden Grant interviewed by David Taylor, July 11, and
August 10, 1973, in Stonington, Maine. 9 page index.
Session One, July 11, 1973: Grant discusses catching lobsters with
hoop nets and traps; Isle au Haut lobster factory; selling to
lobster smacks; mackerel seineing; culling board and sizes of
marketable lobsters; pogey fishing with father; steam trawlers in
pogey fishery; running lobster smacks for McLoon Lobster Co.;
Friendship sloops; farms on Isle au Haut; dory factory at Bucksport;
Tom Nickerson; fishing the Grand Banks; gear and techniques for
trawling from a dory; salting fish on board schooner; power boats;
liquor and drinking; going to the West Indies in square riggers.
Grant was in Havana harbor for the sinking of the battleship Maine,
which began the Spanish-American war.
Session Two, August 10, 1973: Grant describes camp meetings in
Maine; store on Isle au Haut; living aboard Friendship sloops;
lobstering; relationships between lobstermen; life on Isle au Haut;
lobstering in winter; pogey press; 100 pogeys pressed for one gallon
of oil; construction of lobster traps; lobster buoys; superstitions
of lobster fishermen; recreation on fishing vessels; singing;
granite coaster and other coasting schooners; Isle au Haut lobster
factory and factory workers; rum running during Prohibition,
strategies and financial aspects.
Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine
Museum. Tapes 3 ½ hours: T637 - T640; Photos: P410 - P411
774 Lewis Stubbs interviewed by David Taylor, August 22,
1973, at Stubb’s home in Winterport, Maine. 4 page index. Stubbs
discusses seasonal employment, fish in winter and lumber mill rest
of the year; loading lumber schooners; smelt fishing on the
Penobscot River; bag nets and gill nets; daily routine of fishing;
setting and maintaining nets; location of and entertainment in
fishing camps; fishermen’s mittens; Newell Perry; fish sleds;
storing, packing, and marketing smelt; comparison of scow and pole
fishing for smelt; gill netting techniques, materials, cost; story
about Frank Perry; eel fishing with traps and spears. Penobscot Bay
Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine Museum. Tape 1
hour: T641
775 Maurice Mayhew, interviewed by David Taylor, August 29,
1973, at Mayhew’s home in Winterport, Maine. 3 page index. Mayhew
talks about smelt fishing on the Penobscot River; fishing with Earl
and Willis Baker and Mr. Bolin; hauling and setting nets; getting
his start in the 1920s; packing smelt; fishing camps; fishing
berths; cutting wood in the winter; Bert Alley who fished through
the ice near Frankfort; smelt fishing gear and nets; smelt scows,
building and maintenance; marketing smelt; eel fishing. Penobscot
Bay Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine Museum. Tape
1 hour: T642
776 Vincent Hincks interviewed by David Taylor,
September 30, 1973, at Hincks’ home in Orrington, Maine. 17 page
transcript. 2 pages additional material from C. G. Atkins, The
Fishery Industry of the United States (Washington: Government
Printing Office, 1887), p. 695-697. Hincks discusses commercial eel
fishing on the Penobscot River; construction of eel weirs; building,
baiting, setting, hauling, and maintaining eel traps; “Cannonball”
Baker, eel fisherman; marketing and storing eels. Penobscot Bay
Fisheries and Industries Project, Penobscot Marine Museum. Tape 1
hour: T643; Photos: P531 - P532
