The Portland daily press., 1869-07-24
Letter from HarpswelI. 500.
'''~ s' HARPswELL, July 22. 1859.

HARPswELL, July %. 1859.
THE DECLINE OF sHIPBUILDING.
No citizen OF Maine needs to go to Harps-
well to learn that the people there are mar
itime race and that Shipping, for many years
king In Maine, as cotton fornerly was In the
South, stll bears sway and knows no rival.
Harpswell is a maritime land from necessity,
since tits literally allacoast. But the old
monarch is deerepit, and no longer sends out
his fleets Of ships, barks and sehooners. He
devotes himself chiefly to the relatively incon-
siderable fishing I can learn Of only two
vessels above the rank of boats now In process
of construction within the limits of the town.
Both of these are at what is known as athe
Neck One is built by Jacob Merryman and
is bark Of about 500 TONS 1t win be finish
ed by the middle Of September; the other,
built by Sylvester Slower, isla sloopi Of 12S
tons and will be ready for sea in October. On
Harpswel ISLAND considerable business Is
done under the direction Of Mr.. William III.
Coombs in building "dories," a ready market
being found in Boston and in your city for the
work Of, this skillful builder. s '...s- '''t
i-e 30 CONCERNING THE PoRGY. if
But undenIably the great central fact m
Harpswell at the present time is the poryy.-
or IF you Iike him better by the more
euphonious alias which has been given
him by more than one solemn legislative
enactment, the menhadea. This fellow, in
deed, hath almost as many names as there
are scales on his rather handsome body-as
many asl if he were a burglar suspected by
the fshy police, instead of the honest cit
| izen of the ocean that he IS, going about in
\ a,rdiculDusly ,gregarious way, and allowing
himself 10 be taken with barrels of his III
starred comrades, an easy victim ottne arts
ofeunning man. He is perhapsas well-known
as the porges as by either of the names neu-
toned above. Anon you find this Proteus OF
our modem seas degraded. by the wonderfully
ill-souuding word peggy. But he Is dignihed
again when the man OF science comes With
his archaeological nomenclature, assigning
our humble friend his proper placeas togepus
and species, and pronounces him Pagas ar
gyropsi Nor is the dignity a new one; tor in
| times past the Indian. not unconscious OF The
worth OF the sfisb, called him Mishcuppano9.
Wonderful are the things that are done with
the porgy'on the shores Of 'the bIlowy seaF'
The sorrows Of the unfortunate John Barley
com are alone com parable with his. The
grand origin Of all his woes Is that hs is oily,
as unctupusu as. a.. turtle7eatins alderman,
There areauthorities, and weightys ones. too,
that could cite. you, 10 the effect that the
porgy is good to eat. IL Bntthe sjnd'ci,us epi-
cure would ha dly confirm this dogmanof the
theorists, though there be thoseanoEg praeti-
cal men who stoutly mamtaina the same
| doctrine. d But this controversy we shun.
All the world knows how moderns seek
the porgy Ior his oil; hov they ''sliver"
him, taking the proper part Of his body
for bait to be, used In catching other
but we will not say worthier, fish; how the
remnant is boiled down. in huge portable ket
ties and now the air round about is polluted
by the ,ioul odors arising from the worse char
witches eaidrons, and finally how theunsav
ory mass Is taken from the kettles and placed
in presses for the purpose Of separating tb'
oil, the final residuun being much sought b!
intelligent farmers for dfessing. ~Ta sAA
Such Is the private life and PERSONAL histol:
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llttse Miss Elite in the Court OF Chancey- =
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