The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-19
PURSUIT OF THE SOFT SHELL CRAB
RemuneratiVe Industry of the Ches.
aPeaI1e Fishermen.

Remunerative Industry of the Ches-
apeaI<e Fishermen.
From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
| Soft shell crabs are becoming more
plentiful in local markets, though they
are still sElall and the price is high.
Part of the supply comes from Jersey
water, but the whole country east of
shell crabs from the lower part of the
| Chesapeake. The warm and shallow
| sounds and inlets of the bay fairly
swarm with crabs from the middle of
May to the middle of September, and
from 1000 to 1900 boats and from D.
500 to 5000 men are engaged in catch
ing crabs for market. Fully 500 crab
bling boats hail from the little amphib-
| ious port of Crisfield, Nd, and there
are other shipping points all up and
down the bay in both Maryland and
Virginia waters.
Grabbing has been reduced to a
science in the Chesapeake, and it is
one of the most profitable forms of
fishing. The fishermen usually own
their boats and outfits, and even those
who work for wages are paid in pro-
portion to the catch. The shadows of
the bay are whitened all day long by
the slowly cruising crabbers. Some
fishermen use lines, but the drag is
most commonly used. 1t is a light
iron cage or scoop, which is cast over
board as the boat cruises in water
from two to four feet deep. Dragging
over the grassy bottom the scoop takes
up crabs, mud and grass. From time
to time it is drawn up and unloaded.
When the season opens, about the
first week of May, boat does well
to catch 200 crabs a day. At the hight
of the season, in July and August,
however, a catch of 1000 crabs a day
is not unusual.
The sight of the grabbing fleet going
out at sunrise and returning about
sunset is one of the most picturesque
of the Chesapeake. The boats are usu-
staunch, some with small cabins, 9TH
ers without, and all with centerboards
Each has at least two men aboard
| The crabbers earn fully the wages OF
skilled mechanics in their own region
! and no industrious and sober crabbeI
need long be any ones hired man. for
the waters are free to him, and he
can easily save enough out of his earn
ings to buy a boat and the necessary
outfit.
The Chesapeake crab packer may
have an Office ashore, but always has
a little house and yard out in the shall
lows of the bay. The house is to re-
ceive the newly crabs. The
yard is a lightly-pil Enclosure where
hard-shell crabs brought in by the
fishermen are placed in order that they
may shed their shells and thus make
themselves ready for market. The
crabs thus Gagged are placed in fiat
Slated frames, whence they cannot
escape, and immersed in the waters OF
the piled Enclosure. From day to day
the Slated frames are examined, In
order that the packer may know what
crabs have shed their shells. Those
which have are taken out for packing
and shipment, and the others are re-
turned to the water. 1t may be any
where from a month to a day before
a captive crab sheds his shell.
The soft-shell crabs are graded &C
cording to size, packed in the familiar
shallow crates with plenty of damp
seaweed, and shipped North by the
thousand and tens of thousands. Shall
low draft steamboats, which come
down into these waters from Balti-
more call at the little crab-packine
stations and carry away the laden
crates. Others are sent in sailing
craft to the mainland for shipment by
rail. The Chesapeake soft-shell crabs
are known in the markets of hundred
cities as far west as Denver and as
far north as Buffalo.