METHODS OF SHIPPING, WHOLESALE TRADE, ETC.
As lobsters can not be shipped or preserved in a frozen state they must be shipped either alive or boiled. About nine-tenths of the lobsters caught in Maine waters are shipped in the live state. The principal shipping centers are Portland, Rockland, and Eastport, which have good railroad and steamship facilities with points outside of the State. Those shipped from the latter point are mainly from the British Provinces, the fishermen near Eastport bringing them in in their own boats. A number also come in from the Provinces on the regular steamship lines. The other places get their supply from the smacks and also from the fishermen in their vicinity, who run in their own catch. Portland is very favorably situated in this regard, as Casco Bay is a noted fishing center for lobsters.
As soon as a smack arrives it is moored directly alongside one of the cars. The lobsters are then dipped out of the well by means of long-handled scoop nets and thrown on the deck of the vessel. The doors of the car are then opened, and men on the vessel pick over the lobsters lying on the deck and toss them two by two into the different compartments, those dead and badly mutilated being thrown to one side for the time being. All vigorous lobsters above a certain size are placed in compartments of the car by themselves, while the weak and small are put in separate compartments. The dead lobsters and those which have had their shells broken or have been so injured that they are very sure to die are either thrown overboard or on the dump. A lobster which has lost one or even both claws is not thrown away, as such an injury would have very little effect on its health.
When an order is received for live lobsters, those which have been longest in the cars are usually shipped. Flour barrels holding about 140 pounds or sugar barrels holding about 185 pounds, with small holes bored in the bottoms for drainage, are used for the shipment. Formerly the lobsters were packed close together in the barrel, and a large piece of ice was put in at the top, but this was found to kill a number of them. The present method is to split off about one-third of a 100-pound cake of ice the long way, and place it upright about half way of the length of the barrel, the lobsters then being packed snugly on all sides of the ice. In handling them the packer seizes the lobster by the carapace with his right hand, bends the tail up under the body with his left hand, and quickly deposits it in the barrel. The packer usually has his right hand covered with a woolen mitt or wrapped in a long piece of linen, for protection from the claws of the lobster.
When the barrel is nearly full the lobsters are covered with a little seaweed or large-leaved marine plants, and the rest of the space is filled with cracked ice. The top is then covered with a piece of sacking, which is secured under the upper hoop of the barrel. Packed in this way, lobsters have easily survived a trip as far west as St. Louis.
Owing to the high prices realized in England for live lobsters, attempts have been made to ship live American lobsters to that market, generally from Canadian ports. In 1877 Messrs. John Marston & Sons, of Portland, made a trial shipment of 250. They were placed in a large tank 20 feet long by 8 feet wide and 3 feet deep, and constantly supplied with fresh seawater through six faucets by means of a donkey engine, a waste-pipe preventing any overflow. The trip was fairly successful, as only 50 died, and the balance brought from 60 to 75 cents per pound.
The smacks and dealers buy lobsters by count, as the fishermen generally have no facilities for weighing them; but the dealers always sell by weight. The mortality among the lobsters from the time they are put aboard the smacks until they are barreled for shipment is estimated at about 5 per cent.