Page FOURT^N
THE PILOT—Southern Pines, North Carolina
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 20. 1956
Catching Lobsters Is Great Fun
Sr PATRICIA H. STHATTON
A few weeks ago, when I was
staying with Katharine Boyd in
lovely Sorrento, Maine, I was
lucky enough to go sailing sev
eral times, in boats whose skip-
are made of wood slats and wire
mesh. Inside there is an intricate
arrangement of wire or cord,
which allows the lobsters to go
in but prevents them from get
ting out. Along with the lobsters
pers probably thought I was thci the fisherman finds plenty of
stupidest “crew*’ they ever had crabs, star fish, sea cucumbers
aboard. But I thought that I
would never get a chance to go
out on a lobster boat, just to see
how it was done during a whole
morning’s fishing. Early one
inoming Katharine called
“Hurry, Pat, the lobster boat’s
close by. Run down to the rocks
and see if he will let you go out
with him.”
I ran down and, standing on a
rock above the deep clear water,
waved and shouted to the fisher
man that I should like to come
aboard and watch him fish. I was
not sure that he could even hear
me above the noise of the motor,
but he turned and put in to the
very rock I stood on, and I
climbed down into the boat.
The fisherman was an ex-Ma-
rine named Frank Preble, a na
tive, of Sorrento. He could not
have been nicer or more obliging
about answering my many ques
tions. During the morning I
watched him “haul” about sixty
lobster pots. These pots, or traps,
are either rectangular or shaped
and, once, a big red Portuguese
Man-o-War. He was tangled in a
great bunch of kelp along with
the lobster buoy.
After removing his catch, if
any, the fisherman adds a bit
of fresh bait to the little net full
of herring with which the traps
are-rbaited. The bait itself is kept
in a big can about the size of a
garbage can. This bait is the one
really smelly item on the fishing
boat. Every fisherman has his
own style and color of lobster
traps were quite empty, but
usually there were two or three
lobsters. If large enough he toss
ed them into a heavy wooden
box. This was about three and
one-half feet long by two and
one-half feet wide by one foot
deep. It had rope handles and
was kept partly covered to keep
the sun off the live lobsters. At
the end of a full morning’s work
thp box was about two-thirds
full, for which catch the fisher
man would receive about $15.00.
Lobsters obviously too small
were tossed back, along with the
smaller crabs, star fish, and all
else o{ no value. Some he had to
measure, and nearly all he meas
ured were large enough to keep.
He put little plastic plugs in their
buoys Frank Preble’s were .claws, so they could not pinch,
painted, red and white. Each pot Before plastics became common
PINEHURST NEWS
is attached to its buoy by a half
inch rope about sixty fathoms
long. The fisherman catches this
line close to the buoy with a
boathook, and hauls it in until
he can hook it over a pulley and
around a winch. Using the winch
he can easily and rapidly haul
the lobster pot up onto the side
of the boat.
I was told that our mornings
catch was only fair, that 1956 has
been a below-average year for
cuts CiLllISl ACV»'C»-»»-6>4iOU. w- . « £
like .gmflil Quonst^ huts, ’They all kinds of fishing. Some of the
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all plugs were of wood, whittled
out by the fishermen. I was
shown one lobster which had lost
a claw and had grown a new one,
already half as largC as the re
maining old claw. He showed me
a seal swimming near the boat,
and Tidal Falls, and described
the many different kinds of
buoys; channel buoys, spar
buoys; cage buoys, and many
others. I thought how differently
a sailor and a land lubber look at
the water around them. This man
observed the wind and the set of
the tides and a thousand other
things I did not even notice,
while inwardly I kept marvelling
at the colors of the clouds and
the sky and the sea, and the dark
wet rocks against the shining
water.
I should like to have tried to
pull in one of the traps, but
didn’t ask for fear of being a
nuisance. Also, one really needs
the tough heavy gloves, and the
apron and sea boots these fisher
men wear for their work. Some
times the traps are replaced in
the same spot, sometimes moved
a short distance. But always they
must rest on a rocky bottom,
never on mud. Crabs will crawl
on mud, lobsters never. The pots
are examined each day, and
every third day the bait is Chang
ed.
At the Lobster Pound our
catch was weighed and sorted.
Here was a wooden float about
twenty feet long by fifteen feet
wide, and I don’t know how
deep.. But I was told there were
more than ten thousand lobsters
stored in the various sections of
this float. Also there was an en
closed pound into which more
By MARY EVELYN de NISSOFF
Enlerlain
The Rev. and Mrs. Marshall B.
Wyatt entertained a number of
friends Friday afternoon at their
Linden Road home.
Brief Mention
Maj. Gen. and Mrs. I. T. Wyche
leave Tuesday for Boston, Mass.,
where they will visit their
daughter and son-in-law, Mr.
and Mrs. Henry Flory. General
Wyche and Mr. Flory plan a
hunting trip to Canada and Nova
Scotia.
Mr. and Mrs. John M. Reeves
and Miss Anne Reeves left early
in the week for a two months’
trip to Europe where they will
visit Spain and Italy.
Mrs. William Tufts, after
spending the summer in Rock
land, Me., returns to her home
here on Sunday after a stopoff
for several days at the York Club
in New York City.
Miss Elizabeth Horr leaves to
day to return to Swarthmore
College in Pennsylvania. Week
end guests at Halfway House
were Geirge Stevens and John
Berlin, en route from Florila to
their Connecticut homes.
Mr. and Mrs. H. Arnold Jack-
son are expected shortly to oc
cupy their cottage on Village
Green East after summering at
Fisher’s Island, N. Y.
Returning home Tuesday from
New York City were Mr. and
Mrs. Richard Tufts and Mr. and
Mrs. Peter Tufts.
Mrs. John E. Friday of Florida
is making a short visit here in
the home of her sister-in-law,
Mrs. S. Davidson Herron.
Kenneth C. Kennedy is back in
Knollwood after a vacation on
Cape Cod.
Fay Neville leaves Monday for
a short stay in New York City.
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Gamier,
who spent the summer in Kenne-
bunkport. Me., have returned to
Pinehurst.
Miss Rosemary Woolston ar
rived today from Boothbay Har
bor, Me., and is staying at the
Ruggles’ cottage.
“Sandy” Cook is back at the
University of North Carolina,
after spending a few days here
opening his mother’s home. Gar-1
ren Hill.
Mr. and Mrs. S. Donald Sher-
rerd. Miss Lynn Sherrerd, and
Edward King are due in today
from their ranch at Jackson
Hole, Wyoming. ‘
Mrs Aletha N. Greenwood and
Mrs. Bertha L. Harwood spent
lasti weekend at Windy Hill, S. C.
. Mr. and Mrs. John Tuckerman
are returning home this week
following several months in
Maine.
General and Mrs. Stuart Cut
ler are expected this week alter
spending the summer months at
Union Springs, N. Y.
Frank McCaskill returned
home Monday from the Essex &
Sussex Hotel in Spring Lake, N.
J.
Robert Barrett, Jr., entered the
University of North Carolina last
week as a freshman.
Mr. and Mrs. Carl Bradshaw
flew their plane to Nashville,
Tenn., last weekend lor a meet
ing of the 99’ers, National Wom
en’s Flying organization of
which Mrs. Bradshaw is a mem
ber.
James Marold, who is station
ed in Norfolk, Va., spent last
weekend with his great-grand
mother, Mrs. Estel Miner, and
■with Mr. and Mrs. Paul Miner in
the Whitney cottage.
Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Carter,
after driving .their daughter.
Miss Mary Anne Carter, to
Washington, D. C., where she is
at the National Cathedral School,
are • spenling the balance of the
week with his mother, Mrs. H.
M. Adams, in Somerville, N. J.
Demand for many farm prod
ucts in this country by 1975 may
be 40 to 45 per cent more than
in 1953, estimates a U. S. Depart
ment Of Agriculture researcher.
Use of livestock products is ex
pected to increase more than
use Of crops. 'The estimate is bas
ed on assumptions of a growing
population, labor force, and em
ployment. It also assumes that
the world trend is toward peace.
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Bottled by C. D. Distilling Company, Nicholasvlile, Ky,
Distributed by Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc., New York, N.Y.
thousands of lobsters were turn
ed. They are fed, mostly on her
ring, until they are large enough
and their shells are hard enough
to bring a good price in the mar
ket. When the shells are hard the
meat is sweeter and there is
more of it.
Frank Preble fishes only in the
summer, but he says that many
others fish the year round, and
quite a bit of the fishing is done
in the open ocean. Imagine how
cold it gets up there on French
man’s Bay in the winter! There
must be a thousand easier ways
to earn a living than fishing for
lobsters off the coast of Maine in
winter. There is certainly noth
ing soft or easy about such a
life; nevertheless one can readily
understand why it might hold,
for those men bom to it, a very
great appeal.
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