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.