Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-07-08
The First of its Kind and Most Singular
Industry in the W0rld-Catching
and Canning the Hard-shell
Crab.
TFor the SPECTATOR. !

Mr.. EDIToR:-We doubt if the same
opportunity ever has, or will present itself
to one of your correspondents, to have in
formed himself as we have, about this
unique industry. The nearest and. most
intimate neighbors of it's inventor, in a
stones throw of the factory, in the person
Of one of them, was an intimate friend of
ours.
Mr.. McMenamin, on being introduced,
said it was unsolved if he first saw the
light in 'sOuld Ireland" on the briny deep,
or in Norfolk. There his earliest days
were spent, and Col. John B. Whitehead,
his earliest friend, with whom he was as
sociated, until few months ago. Mr..
Phoebus of the Hygeia is in his place.
Two or three years ago, he conceived the
idea of adding to the list of canned articles
Of food, the greatest of delicacies,-
crab. We should have said he is young
man, and at the beginning of the war, a
child
To conceive with him was to execute.
His good Judgment utilized the best spot
he could have found in radius of twenty
miles, aye, the world. On the South
bank of Hampton river, nearly opposite
Gen. Armstrong; school, he put in piles to
support his factory, over $50 feet long, 40
to 70 wide, and just high enough to escape
inconvenience from high tide. Hampton,
at the beginning of the war, deserted by
the whites, was at oLce crowded with the
contraband. 1t lis their Paradise, now
1t is just the kind of labor he desired, al
ways abundant, reliable and cheap.
Providing small tug and dozens of the
canoes or pugs, holding, say, a hundred
bushels of crabs, or less, the ordinary small
cord, smaller than BEDFORD, with short
lines of foot, at close intervals, looped to
it, 900 or 700 feet long, anchored at both
ends, one marked with buoy, and balted
at intervals with tripe, he was ready for
the catch. The tug starts out about two
A. NJ, with his squadron of tugs, and
they drop off at the lines, reaching, say,
for miles around through the mouth of the
river, the Pt., and contiguous waters.
Each pug, with four persons, one to row,
the others taking up the first end of the
line, dexterously slips under the crabs as
they near the surface, a small hand-net,
holding on most tenaciously, as they do,
until out of the water, drop into it, and are
speedily shoveled into the boat. As it is
relieved of it's toothsome treasures, it falls
back, and is ready for repeating the pro-
cess next morning, some re-baiting with
tripa being attended to. When the lines
are gone over, the tug returns, gathering
in his conveys, at every step. Moored
around the factory, with their squirming
loads, the earliest return possible to the
factory is desired, so that the great steam
chest at the end of the factory in the water
may at once receive, say 1000 bushels, at
once shoveled in. Here, thoroughly cooked,
they are distributed to the phalanx of col
ored "biddies," IN their acAite turbans and
aohite sleeves, of all ages, from the venera-
BILE matron of smiling or stern visage, of
sixty years, down to the pert missy of IA
summers, each with a yellow porcelain
bowl, holding, say two gallons. Round ta-
bles in rows, with hole of foot in the
center, under which half-barrels are placed,
into which the refuse is swept, are provided.
Eight stand around, armed with small
knife or fork, as soon as the steamed mass
is cooled, by the pipe carrying cool water
which is run over it, work begins. The
process is one requiring skill and dexterity,
and perfect order, system, and cleanliness
are observed. Near the center of the room,
inside of railing, stern and consequen-
tial copper-colored dame, who, in counte-