The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1903-12-25
THE SCIENCE OF GRABBING.
Attained by Men Who Take the Tooth
some S~Oft-Shells In Chess
apeake Bay.

Soft shell crabs are becoming more
plentiful in local markets, though they
are still small and the price is high. Part
of the supply comes from Jersey waters,
but the whole country east of the Mis-
sissippi gets more of it's soft shell crabs
from the lower part of the Chesapeake,
relates the Philadelphia Ledger. The
warm and shallow sounds and inlets
of the bay fairly swarm with crabs from
the middle of May to the middle of Sep
TENDER, and from 1900 to l 500 boats and
from $500 to 5000 men are engaged in
catching crabs for market. Fully 5Oo
grabbing boats hail from the little am
phibious port Of Crisfield, Md, and there
are other shipping points all upanddoWn
the bay in both Maryland and Virginia
waters.
Grabbing has been reduced to a sci
ence in the Chesapeake, and 1t issone OF
the most profitable forms of fishing.
The fishermen usually W their own
boats and outfits, and wen those who
work for wages are paid in proportion
to the catch. The shadows of the bay
are whitened all day long by the slow
ly cruising crabbers. Some fishermen
use lines, but the drag is most common
ly used. 1t is a light iron cage or scoop,
which is cast overheard as the boat
cruises in water from two to four feet
deep. Dragging over the grassy bot
tom 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. a boat does
well. to catch 200 crabs a DAY. At the
height of the season, in July and Au-
gust. however, a catch OF 1900 crabs q
day is not unusual.
The sight Of the grabbing fleet going
put at sunrise and returning about sun
set is one. of the most picturesque OF the
Chesapeake. The boats are usually the
"bug-eye," long, narrow and stanch,
some with small cabins, others without,
and all with cen%terboards. Each has at.
least two men aboard. The crabbers
earn fully the wages Of skilled mechan-
les in their own region, and no indus
trious and sober crabber need long be
anyone's hired man, for the waters are
free to him and he a easily save
enough out Of his earnings to buy q 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 shadows
of the bay. The house is to receive the
newly-caught crabs. The yard is a
lightly piled Enclosure where hard shell
crabs brought in by the fishermen are
/ - . - ~ - r3 ~. fh a ~ nov M q n 6 ii an fhnir
| ssiiiisiiiss and this 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 ex-
amined in order that the packer may
know whatcrabs have shed their shells.
Those which have are taken out for pack
ing and shipment and the others are re-
turned to the water. It may DO any
where from a month to a day before a
captive crab sheds his shell.
The soft shell. crabs are graded accord
ing to size, packed In the familiar shall
low crates with plenty Of damp seaweed
and shipped north by the thousands and
tens of thousands. Shallow draft steam
boats which come: down into these wa
tiers from Baltimore call at the little
crab-packing stations and carry away
the laden crates. Othersare sentinsail-
ing craftsto the mainland for shipment
by rail. The Chesapeake soft shell crabs
are known in the markets Of a hundred
cities as far west as Denver and as far
north as Buffalo.
Easily ExpInined.