The Lobstermen of Penobscot Bay

By Gerald H. Lufkin

"Pull up that slack!" Jeremy yells, trying to be heard over the howling wind. "Snug it up! Snug it up!" he continues excitedly (as he is) trying to control the boat in the wild seas."
"Here she comes!" his son replies as a three foot lobster trap comes flying over the gunwale. "Never mind them now!" Jeremy orders, "Pull out the slack in that trawl line before it snags the propeller. We've got one more trap on this trawl!" Just then a wave crest breaks over the boat and then sucks the stern back over the trap line.
'Crack! Snap!' the line breaks sending Charley hurtling into the cabin bulkhead. He struggles to grab a handhold while the deck is awash with sea water."

The lobsterman and his son are "twelve miles off the mainland in outer Penobscot Bay. They are working furiously against the wind and icy cold ocean spray. Twelve foot ocean swells lift his 40 foot work boat up like an express elevator onto the wind driven wave crests and then the boat drops over the other side like a rock. (The) engine strains to keep headway and steerage against the swells---insulated rubber gloves and numb hands make it impossible to take up the slack in the lobster trap line strung out three hundred feet in the freezing water"

"This story is about these stout hearted men, their relationships among each other and the heart rendering fear suffered by their families. Most of all it is about their day-to-day danger, excitement and emotional encounters set in the midst of the most beautiful environment that anyone could want to live in."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 27, 2008
• ISBN: 9781462825349

Gerald H. Lufkin

The author was raised on the coast of Maine where lobster fishing was a major economic business. His childhood summers were spent on some of the numerous small islands in outer Penobscot Bay. As a boy, he rode along with some of the lobstermen, helping them while they hauled their traps. The author himself worked at lobster fishing for several years. He had a 30-foot workboat and a string of 300 traps. His territory was along a four-mile stretch of coast on Penobscot Bay. After being almost wiped out, he returned to work in electronics in the southwestern states and went on to become a Senior Electronics Engineer for a large corporation. There, he wrote an abundance of manuals, departmental polices, engineering specifications, operating instructions, test manuals, and new product descriptions. His writing reflects the unique style of an engineer. He gives greater attention to systematic story development and plots. His experience helps to provide more detailed descriptions of the story environments.

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Copyright © 2008 by Gerald H. Lufkin.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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46195

Contents

A LOBSTER FISHING DYNASTY

CHAPTER 1

The Legacy of the Lobsterman

The History

The Great Coastal Nursery

The Lobsterman’s Clan

CHAPTER 2

The Brewster Heritage

Charles Harrison Brewster

The Old Homestead

THE ADVENTUROUS

LIFE OF LOBSTERING

CHAPTER 3

Winter Haul Out

The Lobsterman’s Job Begins

Stocking the Larder

The Holidays

The Winter Work

Signs of Spring

Spring Set Out

Finishing the Day

CHAPTER 4

The Summer Workday

The Thrill of Lobstering

The Communication Network

The Hazards of Fishing

CHAPTER 5

The Rescue

A Perilous Task

The Trustworthy Coast Guard

The Shore Captain

CHAPTER 6

The Dealers and a Dream

The Role of the Dealers

Jeremy’s Dream

Supplementing the great coastal nursery

CHAPTER 7

The Lobstermen’s Association

The Meeting

Planning Ahead

CHARLEY’s ADVENTURES

CHAPTER 8

The Cruel World

New Found Freedom

The Lesson of Life

CHAPTER 9

Hard Labor

Getting the Job

Working on the Pound

Abandoned

Facing the Music

CHAPTER 10

The Contrary Kianna

The Meeting

Substitute Mom

The Clam Bake

CHAPTER 11

Hints of Subversion

Forces of Evil

Sabotage or Thieves

CHAPTER 12

The Trepidation

Storm in Brewster Cove

An Ill Wind

The Horror

Was it an Accident?

CHAPTER 13

The Investigation

The Guarantee

The Investigation

The Craft

Setting The Trap

CHAPTER 14

The Trial

A Confession

CHAPTER 15

The Healing

Defamation

The Pursuit

The Remedy

The Rehabilitation of Killian

THE WARM WINDS

OF CHANGE

CHAPTER 16

New Ideas

The Lobster Plan

CHAPTER 17

College Life

The First Registration

Academia & Social Struggles

The Junior Year

Shenanigans & Fraternities

The Senior Year

Success

CHAPTER 18

New Directions

A New Source

Jeremy’s Dream is Realized

CHAPTER 19

The Business World

Inventions and Innovation

The Engineering Business

The Great Lobster Farm

Marketing Methods

CHAPTER 20

A New Union

The Engagement

The Agreement

The Goals

The Uniting

The Ceremony

AUTHOR’S PROFILE

APPENDIX

A LOBSTER FISHING DYNASTY

CHAPTER 1

The Legacy of the Lobsterman

The History

The earliest inhabitants of the Penobscot Bay area were the Algonquian Indians who hunted and fished there for centuries.¹⁰ There are great mounds of clamshells on some of the islands as testimony of the Indians settlement.

What is now the coast of Maine and Nova Scotia, was also plied by Norsemen around the year 1000 AD.¹¹ These men were primarily explorers but there is evidence of Viking lodges along these coasts where they spent extended periods of time and no doubt took advantage of the abundant fisheries there.¹⁰

Commercial fishing along the coast of Maine started as early as the 1400’s¹⁰ when ships from Europe dropped fishing crews at selected spots along what is now the coast of Maine, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The crews salted and dried the fish that they caught and stored them for shipment back to Europe.¹⁰

This was long before the first communities were settled in 1607 in what is now Maine⁰⁸ and was more than 200 years before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

In 1820, Maine became the 23rd American state⁰⁹ and fishermen were deeded land along the coast if they would settle there.

46195-LUFK-layout.pdf

Chart of the Gulf of Maine

The Great Coastal Nursery

The coast of Maine is rocky and glaciated with thousands of islands and rocky outcroppings. There are many shoals and ledges providing shelter for the marine life there. Warm currents from the Gulf of Mexico meet the cold currents from Labrador here and cause upwelling of nutrients in the seawater along the coast providing concentrated nourishment for the many species of sea-dwellers there. The many harbors, coves and estuaries provide nurseries for fish and mollusks that are warmed in the shallow waters and reeds.

The Gulf of Maine, however, is also an incubator of wild storms from the mixing of these coastal currents making difficulties for the men who fish this area, whipping up rough water, waves and swells sometimes on a moments notice. Many of the fishermen use small boats and have to flee the storms for the safety of a harbor or cove to escape their fury. Many an unwary fisherman has been caught in these rapidly developing storms, causing damage and sometimes loss of life to himself and his equipment.

For years, fin fishing, mostly Cod and Haddock, was the principle market catch but Lobster, Crab and Clams were also taken for local use. In 1820 the lobster market was established¹⁴ and small 20-30 foot sailing sloops were found to be the best means of harvesting the Lobsters. This led to the rise of the independent Lobster Fisherman.

Lobster fishing area rights were largely controlled by property ownership but the state licenses do not restrict Lobstermen to any particular area and fishing boundary disputes have became common. Some Lobstermen were shot and their traps cut in these emotional boundary fights.⁰³ Finally, in 1920, an unwritten law was agreed upon, specifying the lobstering boundaries for each family. An outsider was generally prohibited from these areas that included offshore islands, unless he married into the family and was able to purchase land in the area to be fished.

Thus today’s Lobstermen are still bound by the unwritten law of boundaries and risk their lives as well as their equipment if they violate it.

The Lobsterman’s Clan

Along the New England coast there are unsung breeds of seafarers who risk their lives every day to harvest some of the most sought after delicacies of the sea. The fishing occupation on the Maine coast goes back more than 300 years and since the late 1700’s it has been passed down from generation to generation.¹¹ These fishermen have truly become a breed separate from the land dwellers who consume their product. These men of the sea thrive on the danger and perils of the turbulent waters off the rugged, rocky coast of Maine. The Lobstermen are independent businessmen, adventurous fishermen who are compelled by their heritage to seek their fortune from the fickle environment of the sea.

The faithful wives of these lobster fishermen are affectionately called ‘The Shore Captain’ and are responsible for, not only the home and children, but also for managing the business ashore.⁰³ They reveal that the sea is in their husband’s blood and that he is not afraid of the dangers of working there, that he enjoys his professional independence. The sea in turn yields its treasures in abundance and a friendship between the men and the sea has been long established.

The U.S. Coast Guard claims that more commercial fishermen died in occupational accidents per capita than any other group of workers in the United States between 1992 and 1998. You have to respect them for what they do, said Coast Guard Lt. Ted Lam. It takes a special breed to do this… he said.¹²

The State of Maine allows only a limited number of lobster and crab fishing licenses for these men, permitting them to ply their trade, but there is a much more feared unwritten law governing the fishermen. Each family’s area of harvest is passed down from generation to generation, the boundaries of which are respected by penalty of silent ruination through this ancestral law. It has been obeyed unquestionably from their ancestors time down to this day.

This story is about one of these clans, the fictitious Brewster dynasty on Penobscot Bay. It is about these stouthearted men, their families their relationships among each other and the heart rendering fear suffered by their families. Most of all it is about their day-to-day danger, excitement and emotional encounters set in the midst of the most beautiful environment that anyone could desire to live in.

46195-LUFK-layout.pdf

Chart of Penobscot Bay

CHAPTER 2

The Brewster Heritage

Charles Harrison Brewster

An old man sat in his comfortable captain’s chair with his coffee cup in hand. He was gazing out a long clear glass wall facing the harbor. The house was perched high on a cliff on the northern side of Eagle’s Head point in the center of Penobscot Bay.

The windows overlooked a spectacular panoramic view of Penobscot Bay with the Penobscot River to the north and Vinalhaven Island to the East. To the West he had a sweeping view of old Rockland harbor with its breakwater at the harbor entrance and the City of Rockland sloping up the hillside in the background.

The early morning air was clear and the sun danced across the blue ocean currents and sparkled like diamonds along the shipping channels. To the north, the Camden hills crest past the Mt. Battie monument up 1,385 feet to the summit of Mount Megunticook.

The State owned Vinalhaven Island car ferry was slowly making its way past the breakwater and lighthouse on its 15 mile early morning crossing, carrying trucks loaded with goods for the island merchants. A large container ship, riding the deep Penobscot River current, was making a slow turn eastward towards the open ocean. A little further up the river delta was a long black oil tanker, riding high in the water, on its way back to the East Canadian off-loading terminal.

Further to the west in Rockland harbor the old man could see small ships and sailing sloops making ready for the day’s runs. Along the Eagle’s Head shoals below, three small lobster boats were warping in circles while they hauled their traps from the ledges just below the surface. He could see more lobster boats working along the breakwater and around the little lighthouse at the end.

This stately man was intrigued by this breathtaking view and he began to remember the events of his life that had lead him to this point in his latter years. He had come a long way as the descendant of an immigrant family whose patriarch came to the coast of Maine in 1780 with a small land grant in his hand. Since then his family had been fishermen and sea captains, some owning their own sailing vessels trading goods on all of the oceans around the world.

The beautiful sailing ships of that era were long gone now and a burgeoning market for the delicacy of Maine lobsters promised riches for Charley’s father who had inherited a piece of that tract of land on the coast of Penobscot Bay.

This is the story of the struggles of Charles Harrison Brewster and his family, and the adventures of the lobstermen. This was where it all happened, on the rich fishing grounds in the coastal waters of Penobscot Bay.

The Old Homestead

Charles Brewster was born on this beautiful coast to Jeremy and Lorraine Brewster in the family homestead perched on a hill overlooking Brewster Cove. It was a typical cove along coastal Penobscot Bay where most of the families in this area were lobster fishermen. The coves give shelter from the dreaded Nor’easter storms that flood and damage this northern part of the US East coast each year. The coves also serve as a salt-water marine nursery and provide an abundance of fish and mollusks. The inside of a hooked peninsular on the north side of the cove provides a sheltered anchorage for larger boats. A long wharf juts out on the other side in the lee of the point. A gravel road along rolling fields leads up to the house past plots of vegetable gardens. Raspberry and blackberry bushes line the sides of the road and wild field strawberries grow on the hilltop. Groves of hardwood Oak and Maple trees stand among the predominant Pine trees in back of the house.

Five out of seven days a week in the summertime for the Brewster men was usually spent out on the family owned island. It is one of hundreds of little islands spread from 5 to 20 miles out from the mainland. Charley’s father shares it with three other fishermen from the family clan. These islands provide an abundance of larger deep-water lobsters as well as the shedding lobsters close to shore.

46195-LUFK-layout.pdf

Drawing of Brewster Cove

Charley’s father, Jeremy would sometimes take his family with him to Brewster Island during the summer where they stayed in a small house they called a cottage. There was no electricity except for a small gasoline generator that they only used for an hour or so in the evening. A tank of propane gas supplied heat for the kitchen stove and gas lights in each room. Water was obtained from a hand operated pitcher pump on the kitchen sink connected to a well outside. The out-house toilet was located a short walk down the hill from the cottage.

Map of Brewster Island

Charley, as a boy had always enjoyed the lazy summers on the island investigating, with his buddies and cousins, the long forgotten quarries, caves and the remnants of storm damaged foundations. They liked to fish for flounder off the end of the dock and they all went swimming at the beach on the lee side of the island. On a sunny day he liked to just to lie in the field chewing on a tender stalk of grass and look up at the puffy white clouds floating overhead. It was a wonder experience to Charley on those warm, lazy afternoons engulfed in the sweet fragrance of wild roses that grew in abundance all over the island.

There was always plenty to eat on the island but lobsters were the featured part of the meal that was often eaten on a table outside in the cool breeze. The boys would haul up weather worn lobster traps placed just off the shore with a rowboat. Those traps would yield a dozen or so lobsters and a bucket of crabs on a daily basis. For breakfast they would have lobsters and baked beans or a lobster omelet. For lunch they would have grilled lobster rolls and hot dogs. For supper they would have steamed lobster dipped in melted butter with fresh field strawberry shortcake. For a bedtime snack they would have lobster meat nuggets fried in country butter.

After a long day in the fresh ocean air, Charley was usually willing to go to bed early out there on the island, because everyone got up before sunrise in the morning and after doing the chores he was ready to go, doing all the things that boys in their formative years like to do best.

Our story opens after those wonderful formative years. Charley is seventeen now and it is late summer. Charley has spent most of the summer working aboard his father’s boat helping him each workday to haul the working lobster traps. Charley is now a typical area teenager, seriously learning the lobster fishing profession from his parents. His mother is training him in the financial side of the business but the exciting part of his training is on the ocean aboard the powerboat.

His father has encouraged Charley to perform each task of the lobster fishing profession himself, with emphasis on maneuvering the big boat in all kinds of situations. It is hard work for a teenager but Charley will be taking over the business in a few seasons and Jeremy knows that Charley’s success, and more importantly his very life, depends on how well he trains him.

THE ADVENTUROUS

LIFE OF LOBSTERING

CHAPTER 3

Winter Haul Out

The Lobsterman-’s Job Begins

It is late fall and the leaves are turning color. Bursts of bright orange on the Maple trees among the brown leaves of the Oak and evergreen of the Soft Pine can be seen across the rolling hills along the coast of Maine. The ocean swells are getting higher and they are crested with white caps. Winds across the water are blowing salty spray obscuring the channel buoys. While nature is taking a pause from the production of its abundance, the lobsterman is taking a cue from nature and beginning his winter restoration.

This is the beginning of the lobsterman’s job. Winter haul out is not about winter. It is about boat and trap maintenance and planning ahead. It is about building and rigging new traps and installing new equipment. It is about budget pinching with a lot of money being spent and little or none coming in. It is the essential of lobster fishing, getting ready for the coming fishing season in the spring and preparing all the fishing equipment to make it last through another summer season.

Special emphasis is given to his workboat because it is in the hands of this boat that he will place his life. If the boat fails him, he will be at the mercy of the unforgiving sea.

In October on Penobscot Bay lobsters are getting scarce. The winter storms are getting more severe and now the ocean undertow is dragging the traps and buoys out of sight into deeper water. The loss of lobster traps is getting out of hand. It is time to haul out.

We find Lobsterman Jeremy and his son twelve miles off the mainland in outer Penobscot Bay. They are working furiously against the wind and icy cold ocean spray. Twelve foot ocean swells lift his 40 foot work boat up like an express elevator onto the wind driven wave crests and then the boat drops over the other side like a rock. The 400 hp gasoline engine strains to keep headway and steerage against the swells.

Working with insulated rubber gloves and numb hands make it impossible to take up the slack in the lobster trap line strung out three hundred feet in the freezing water and the winch head is turning too slow to be of much help.

Pull up that slack! Jeremy yells, trying to be heard over the howling wind. Snug it up! Snug it up! he continues excitedly.

Ease off now! Don’t break the warp! That’s it. Be careful. Keep your sea legs! Jeremy is directing his son while trying to control the boat in the wild seas.

Aye, aye Cap’n. Here she comes! his son replies as a three foot lobster trap comes flying over the gunwale. We’ve got some keepers in this one! he exclaims as he throws the trap onto a well-worn bench attached to the gunwale.

Never mind them now! Jeremy orders, Pull out the slack in that trawl line before it snags the propeller. We’ve got one more trap on this trawl!

Just then a wave crest breaks over the boat and then sucks the stern back over the trap line.

Crack! Snap! the line breaks sending Charley hurtling into the cabin bulkhead. He struggles to grab a handhold while the deck is awash with seawater.

You okay? Jeremy yelled. Grab that cleat and hang on! We’re heading in to shore! Jeremy revved up the powerful engine and swung the boat around. Riding a wave crest toward the coast, the engine is straining to hold the boat in position.

We’ve had enough for today! We’ll try it again tomorrow. Jeremy said.

Amen to that! Charley said heaving a sigh of relief. Can I take this life line off now?

Better keep it on till we get to calmer water. Jeremy said. Grab that hand pump and pump some of that water out of the bilge before we swamp.

The little boat was struggling at a 30-degree declivity to stay on the back of the wave crest like a loaded pickup truck going up hill.

Why don’t you keep her on the front side of the wave so we can ride the wave like a surfer on a surfboard? It wouldn’t take so much power and it would be easier like going down hill? Charley asked.

Charley was seventeen years old last spring and still had a lot to learn about handling boats in rough weather. Jeremy knew Charley would have to learn by doing and now was the best time while he could keep his eye on him.

Here! Grab the wheel while I spell you on the hand pump. Keep a good grip on it and hold her steady just back of the crest! Jeremy said.

To answer your question, look at the bow. Now look at the stern. Which end do you think would be better able to take on a wave full force?

Charley thought for a minute. Yeah, I see. If we were on the front of the wave we would have a following sea and if we slipped back a little, with the stern loaded with traps like it is, the wave would wash over the stern.

That’s right! Jeremy assured him, and another thing that I hope never happens to you, is that the following sea has a tendency to push the stern to the left or right. When that happens, you’ll lose rudder control and the stern will swing the boat sideways to the wave. At that point you will have lost control and are just a moment away from broaching the boat. If that happens, your boat is minutes away from either flipping over or filling with water. Ether way you are sunk!

Okay, okay, dad! I get the picture! I was just asking! Charley protested.

That’s okay. Jeremy assured him. Never hesitate to ask me questions. I don’t mind and I enjoy answering them. That’s the way to learn, Charley.

Jeremy finished hand pumping the bilge. There, the main bilge pump should be able to take care of it now. he said. Let me take ’er now. You get those lobsters out of that last trap and stack that trawl. Then start sweeping and wash down the deck.

Okay, okay! You don’t have to order me around, dad. I know what to do. We agreed that this would be a partnership, remember? Charley protested.

Sorry! Jeremy said, I’ve been ordering you around all your life. It’s hard to change now.

The swells were smaller now as they rounded Cinder Island and into the Mussel Ridge channel. They tied up to Luke’s Wholesale Lobster wharf and unloaded the day’s catch.

’Bout time to haul out, ain’t it Jeremy? Luke was worried for Jeremy and his son.

Yeah! The lobsters are already headed for deep water for the winter. We’ve only got one more string of old traps to pull out. It’s hard to see ’em with the heavy sea the way it is and we lost a bunch today. I may just let ’em go. They ain’t really worth it. They’ve only got a month or two before they rot out and release any keepers anyway. I was going to use ’em around the cove next summer but I ain’t willin’ to risk my boat for ’em." Jeremy said.

Luke scratched his head. Well I was thinking… My railway is free tomorrow. Maybe you’d want to haul your boat out then, say nine or ten o’clock?

Jeremy thought for a minute. That okay with you Charley?

Charley nodded his head and started hoisting off the traps that were piled high in the stern of the boat.

The next day Charley and