Maine Memory Network

Compared to the average size lobster in his left hand, Carl A. Garris Jr. (1898-1982) displayed an unusually large lobster for Portland newspaper photographers. For a sense of proportion, Mr. Garris was listed as five feet, nine inches tall on his WWI draft registration card.

Carl Garris, Jr. was a Portland taxidermist, working at 224 Federal Street during the period.

In this color postcard, Lewis Kelsey Sr. shows his grandson Lewis Kelsey how to coil the lines that attach to the wooden lobster traps stacked behind them in the western Gut, South Bristol. Wood was the traditional material for lobster traps but those are no longer in use. Wooden traps have been replaced by wire traps that are easier to maintain and last longer.

This lobster named "Old Nep" was captured near Eastport. It is 40 inches long and weighs 30 1/2 pounds. It was displayed at the Acme Theatre, owned by Mrs. Wilbur A. Shea.

The August 13th, 1920 edition of the "Portland Evening Express," chronicled the second annual outing of the Portland Kiwanis Club. Members enjoyed a clambake..."a real old fashioned one, on the banks of the Scarboro River..." At the event, men participated in games and listened to Chandler's Military Band, before driving to Old Orchard Beach to ride in Captain Harry Jones' biplane.

The Portland Kiwanis Club was founded as a men's service club in 1917.

Lobsterman is standing with his lobster catch. There are three giant lobsters; one he is holding and the other two are on his wooden lobster trap taken on Swan's Island around 1930.

Walter Stinson, Ken Turner, Vernard Stinson, Wilson Burns, and Sheldon Carlson stood by wooden lobster traps and discussed the days haul of lobsters in 1950.

A colorful trademark label for canned "deep sea" lobster, with an image of a lobster. The label contains a reference to apparently winning a gold medal in Paris in 1878.

This trademark label was submitted to the Maine Secretary of State in 1891 in order to obtain legal protection for the design.

Half-round oak lobster traps, wooden crates, and bait barrels represent typical lobstering gear from the turn of the twentieth century.

The wooden lobster traps were weighted with stones so they would sink to the ocean floor. After the traps had "soaked up" the stones were no longer needed and were saved for setting traps the following season.

Lobstering remains an important activity on Monhegan Island in 2015.

Davis, Baxter & Company were the agents selling the Yarmouth Packing Company brands in the Portland area. Later, this company merged with the Portland Packing Company.

Maine lobsterman sitting on a dock preparing gear for a trip.

This Star Lobster packing label comes from the Portland Packing Company, 1867.

Two men work to plug the crusher claws on the day's lobster catch on a wharf in Portland.

A.P. Normandin rowing his dory filled with lobster traps out in the Cove at Prouts Neck. Normandin often would be 2-3 miles out from the anchorage at Pine Point. The cove was called Garrison Cove but now it is referred to as "the one at the Prouts Neck Yacht Club."

In the background one can see the water tower at Blue Point.

Postcards of lobster traps, lobster boats, and lobsters have been common for many years. Here Eldridge Stone is holding a lobster that probably weighs more than 8 pounds.

Stone was a colorful character in Port Clyde. He was said to be a rumrunner during Prohibition, who would take his boat out to a cove, sink it when the police were after him, and then raise it after things quieted down.

He also reportedly liked to make gifts to friends of fresh fish he helped himself to from someone else's catch.

Spencer Joyce talks about his love of lobstering from the time he was a boy to his adult years. He says, "I eat, sleep and dream lobstering. I have ever since I was a kid."

This interview was created and produced by Meghan Vigeant in 2010.

The loading dock at Bayley's Lobster Pound around 1948 where Dwight Underwood, state warden, shows the fisherman how to "v" notch a female lobster. Once found egg bearing, lobster fishermen were required to cut a V shaped notch in the lobster's middle tail and flubber. If caught again, without seeds, this lobster could not be taken.

Kneeling is Stephen Bayley, Haswell Turner, and Vance Turner.
First row are Albert Jordan and Dwight Underwood (State Warden).
Back row are Jack Turner, Bob Collins, Edward Bayley, and Roger Fogg.

Walter Joyce showing the largest lobster he caught that day near Swan's Island, ca. 1930.

An advertising photograph shows a lobster fisherman beside his lobster trap, holding a lobster buoy with a view of the Maine coast behind him.

The U.S. Department of Commerce used the poster to promote travel in the United States.

This lobster measuring tool was used to measure the length of a lobster. The hook is put in the eye socket and run along the back of the lobster to see if it's long enough to keep. In Maine if the size is too small or too large then the lobster must be thrown back into the water. The average size of the lobster is between one and five pounds.

Maine lobster weighing station.

This lobster trap branding iron was in use in 1961.

In Maine, every lobstermen has his own license number from the state which is on the bottom of the branding iron. In 1961, every licensed lobstering family had a fifty gallon fire barrel at the back of their house. This barrel became used as an outdoor means for burning such items as paper and wood. The top was open and a vent hole was made about half way down. The lobstermen used the vent to heat the branding iron. The intense heat would allow the lobstermen to brand ten to fifteen traps at one time. The lobstermen could feel the heat about half way up the handle so didn't need to worry about burning himself.

On the bottom of the trap where the parlor bumper is located is where the trap was branded.This method of branding is still in use today for any wooden traps.

Donald Thurlow's lobster boat was built in 1943 at the Pillsbury Building in Pine Point by Ward Bickford. It was a pine strip and oak framed wooden boat with a gasoline engine. From the engine pulley a drive belt ran a winch to mechanically lift (haul) the traps. These boats turned sharply and to reset a trap, the boat made a circle and "dumped" it so that the rope would go over the lower rail and not snag the lobsterman. He would throw the glass bopper and wooden buoy overboard as the rope went out during the circle rotation.

The boat rest on a wooden cradle and has been hauled up to the summer parking lot for the winter.

A Maine lobster fisherman worked on his traps as captured by photographer Willis H. Ballard.

Ballard was born in Portland in 1907 and moved to Southwest Harbor in 1934 where he was a scenic photographer for about 45 years. Mr. Ballard died in 1980. His photographs were featured in several popular magazines and were displayed at major exhibits.

This bait sponger was a homemade item used by lobster fishermen consisting of a wood handle and stainless steel rod. A notch was made in the rod using a hacksaw. The lobstermen would push the rod through the eyes of filleted fish onto the bait line of each trap. The line was nailed to the bottom of the trap and tied to the top holding the fish in place and the door shut. This was in use until herring bait replaced it.

1936 Ford truck on the left, and a 1940 Chevy truck on the right parked in front of the lobster trap mill in Steep Falls. Newly-made lobster traps are visible.

Ellery Ward and William Ward bought bolts of wood and sawed them into laths and pieces to make the traps. The laths were steamed so that they would bend like bows.

Part of the 4th of July celebrations on Swan's Island was to have a lobster bake. It was held in Atlantic near the ferry terminal.

Bruce Thurlow of Scarborough, at age 16, stands by a pile of his repaired lobster traps. These were 36-inch round wooden traps with nylon heads and rope, ready for spring setting in 1953. These traps contained three permanent bricks designed to hold the trap on the ocean floor. However, as each trap was initially set, another three loosely laid bricks were added, allowing the trap to sink. It would not be hauled for two to three days until it had "soaked up" and sank only with the permanent bricks in place.

Most boys who grew up in Pine Point in Scarborough followed in their father's trade, and it was quite common to become a lobster fisherman. Many learned the trade by hauling traps by hand and getting to strings (a string would be anywhere from 2-10 individual traps placed in a lucrative lobster territory) of traps in 16 foot skiffs propelled by outboard motors.

Lobstering wharf and gear, Bass Harbor.

Photo copyright W. H. Ballard

Willis H. Ballard is the photographer that took this image. He was born in Portland in 1906 and moved to Southwest Harbor in 1934 where he was a scenic photographer for about 45 years. Mr. Ballard died in 1980. His photographs were featured in several popular magazines and were displayed at major exhibits.

Maine lobster and lobster traps on a postcard.

This picture shows Sherman Jameson, the co-owner of the Jameson & Wotton Wharf, standing at the end of the wharf. According to the caption on the photograph, Jameson is in the process of buying lobsters that have been brought to the wharf on the lobster smack the Foster D. One of the first motorized boats in Friendship harbor, the Foster D traveled a regular route to offshore islands and coastal communities to buy lobsters for the Jameson & Wotton Wharf.

The lobster smack, designed by Sherman Jameson and named for his son, had a deep well that was perforated with holes for circulating of water, and it could hold up to 700 pounds of lobsters.

The Lobster Pound Restaurant in Lincolnville Beach began in 1926 as a shanty with an outdoor cooker. Indoor dining became an option about 1940. The restaurant closed during World War II but has operated continuously since reopening in the late 1940s.

A lobster dinner is a much-anticipated part of the Maine experience for many vacationers. When touring by automobile became popular, small roadside eateries lured travelers with lobster holding tanks, outdoor cookers, a few picnic tables, and a "lobster pound" sign.

At the back of the parking lot in the photo is the Lobster Trap Gift Shop, a true "tourist trap." It sold souvenirs in a disguised Quonset hut until it was washed out to sea in 1985 by Hurricane Gloria. When the restaurant was rebuilt after a fire in the 1980s, the lobster tanks and cooking equipment were moved indoors.

In 2014, the Lobster Pound still served lobster purchased from Lincolnville fishermen whose boats are just outside the restaurant windows.

In the 1930s, tourists traveling up Route 1 through Waldo County could buy fresh seafood at lobster pounds in Lincolnville Beach, Belfast, and Searsport. All were informal take-out places with outdoor picnic tables.

In Belfast, Bud and Belle Young opened Young's Lobster Pound as an extension of the family's fishing business. They sold steamed lobsters and clams from a small retail building next to their house in East Belfast.

The Youngs' business did well and, with Perry's Nut House, became a Belfast attraction.

In Searsport the popular Parker's Lobster Pound, "where thousands eat lobsters," had an outdoor cooker built of stones from the beach and a large picnic ground. In the early 1950s it was replaced by Kobs Lobster Pound, which bought lobsters from the Youngs.

In 1959 Bud Young built a wharf on the east side of Belfast Bay for his fishing business. He kept it going while the chicken plants were fouling the bay, bringing in clams from Thomaston.

Young's opened a new restaurant by the wharf in 1980, then expanded it with a second floor and stone patio along the water. It lured customers with shore dinners, an aquarium with a capacity of 30,000 lobsters from which diners could choose their own meals, and seating that could accommodate 500 diners.

Lobster traps such as this were used on Islesboro for decades. It is made of wood, and has two compartments, a "kitchen" and a "parlor." The lobster crawls into the kitchen, attracted by bait, and then passes into the parlor, where it is trapped by a net. The trap is weighted at the bottom by bricks.

Lobster men on Islesboro used to construct their own wooden lobster traps, and used nets made on the island to secure the lobsters. Today, they buy metal traps.

The buoy shown is from the 1940s.

Fred G. Milliken, the photographer wrote, "Regulation lobster traps used by Frontier Maine fishermen at Eastport. Very few Eastport boatmen take to lobster fishing and less than 100 traps are owned at 4 mile island seaport. These traps are valued at $2.00 each."

This is part of the Atlantic Fisherman collection, which includes correspondence, photographs and news articles related to the publication "Atlantic Fisherman," a journal concerned with commercial fishing.

Fred Truner and Dave Morris are in their dories. The dory in front has tubs used in trawling and the dory in the back has a lobster trap.

Son of William Bainbridge “Uncle Ben” Davis and Martha Jane West, Walter Davis was a well-known Monhegan Island fisherman. Born on the Island in 1865, Walter became Monhegan’s “king” of lobstering at the peak of his career in the mid-1930’s.

Behind Davis on the right is the old Trefethren store, run by the Lane family in the early 1900s. Walter and Virgie Davis' house, "Snug Harbor," is visible in the background on the left.

This photograph shows people looking down at the water at low tide after having a shore dinner at the Lobster Pot restaurant.

What might have been a leisurely dining experience for patrons is remembered differently by a Friendship octogenarian who worked there as a waitress. When asked what it was like to work at the Lobster Pot, she gave a one-word response: "tense."

Fisherman Alphonso Speed (1868-1948) tended his oak lobster traps in the field below the Island Inn and the Sidney Baldwin house on Monhegan Island.

Speed's buoy colors were white with red stripes and his boat was named, Gem.

Anchored off the end of Stenger's wharf is the Foster D, a lobster smack designed in 1901 by Sherman Jameson. Jameson was one of the original owners of Stenger's wharf. The Foster D plied the waters of Muscongus Bay for over 45 years, picking up lobsters from off shore locations and lobster boats, to be sold at the wharf. The boat had a large perforated well for holding lobsters so that water could circulate.

A lobster dinner in Augusta in about 1900 drew a crowd of men in military attire and women in their finery.

The photo is part of the Jewett Family Collection. George H. Jewett (1867-1962) worked for Gannett Publishing Company in Augusta.

In 1867 the Paris Exposition awarded a medal for Portland Packing Company's star lobster products. Much of the appeal was due to the company packing all the parts of the lobster together in one can.

This series of five drawings illustrates in a humorous way the steps of canning lobster.

This booklet was produced for the Portland Packing Company, one of the first companies to perfect the canning of fish, fruits and vegetables.

Skowhegan native Senator Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995) tends to the coals at the lobster and clambake area built on her lawn for President Eisenhower's visit.

After giving a speech and leaving the Skowhegan Fair Grounds, President Eisenhower, his entourage, Governor Muskie and his wife, and the Press Corps. were invited back to Senator Smith's Skowhegan home for a steak and lobster dinner.

Pine Point Boatyard in Scarborough showing a boat with cabin in the foreground owned by Harold Snow who managed the Snow's Canning Company. Notice the gasoline pumps out front and the sign at the back. One could come up by boat or by car to get fuel.

These buildings were torn down and the Googins' Lobster Pound took that space.

Heavily salted cod fish were spread on lobster traps to “cure” in the sun. Cured fish was sold at markets in Portland, or stored to eat in the winter.

William Studley built this fish house in 1845, and Andrew Peterson used it as a fish market in the early 1900s. By 1930 the building had fallen into extreme disrepair and the owner, Frank Pierce, had it torn down.

David Thurlow used this buoy off the coast of Scarborough between 1953 and 1972. The rope is made of sisal, an organic material. Following World War II, nylon products were available and rope and twine for lobster trap nets were made from a synthetic product. Nylon was much stronger and did not rot, while the sisal decayed over time. The buoy was made from a cedar log turned on a lathe. In the same period of time styrofoam buoys and bobbers began to replace other products.

At Castine Lobster Pound, October 30, 1931.

This is part of the Atlantic Fisherman collection: correspondence, photographs and news articles to and from the Atlantic Fisherman, a journal concerned with commercial fishing.

This shuttle, or needle, is a typical example of those used on Islesboro to "knit" lobster nets. It made one inch mesh openings, a standard size for lobster nets.

Netting was a cottage industry on Islesboro from 1888 to 1938, employing up to 100 people. 100 pound bales of twine would be shipped to Islesboro and distributed to "knitters" who could work in their own homes and were paid by the pound. The enactment of the Federal Minimum Wage and Hour Law put an end to the $5,000 island industry.

A group of well-dressed young people prepare for a clambake on Squirrel Island as part of the Island's Semicentennial celebration on August 19, 1921.

Flashlight photograph of George Felt, A.W. Cole and C. Hartford at the Club Cottage at Higgins Beach. The three men sit at a table, each with a large lobster.

This netting stand was constructed by Yeaton Dodge for his daughter Faustina in the mid-1800s. It has metal hooks at the corners where "knitters" would secure their twine. Chairs were placed around the stand, allowing several knitters to work from the same stand.

Netting was a cottage industry on Islesboro for over 100 years. Twine was shipped to the island and distributed to knitters who would produce a variety of netted objects on demand. The industry closed with the passing of the Federal Minimum Wage and Hour Law of 1938.

Carl Rowe, using a dip net, is catching herring used for lobster bait around 1930.

The herring are being transferred from the dory into a “smack” probably for lobster bait. At work here is Russell McFadden working in Lubec.

The Portland Packing Company processed corn, lobster, clams, meats, fruits and vegetables.

In 1867 the company won three medals at the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia for the quality of its products.

Alfred Stanley on the left, and Sherm Stanley in front of the window, painted wooden lobster buoys while Steve Rollins watched from a nearby stool.

Alfred and Sherm Stanley were brothers who shared the Horn fish house that they bought from Robert Palmer. Palmer was a summer friend of their father, Dwight Stanley. Alfred was captain of the lobster boat Dorothy M., and Sherm was captain of the Phalarope.

Monhegan Island fishermen Alexander "Lexi" Krause and Sherman D. "Shermie" Stanley spent the summer of 1988 tuna fishing together.

Eventually, Krause took a hiatus from lobstering to focus on tuna. As of 2019, Stanley continues to lobster in the winter and run his fish market in the summer.

The Portland Packing Company produced clams, lobster, fruits, vegetables and meats.

This label includes directions for cooking chowder, stews, fritters, pie and patties.

The company won awards at the Paris Exposition of 1867, the American Institute of 1870 and the Vienna Exposition of 1873.

Normie Burns took Swan's Island residents and visitors to Stonington for dinner/sunset cruises during the summer months. Most other days he was hard at work lobstering.