Milford chronicle., 1958-05-30
LelUes Is N0tiOn's First
Fishing Port Surrey
ShOIUs
continued from page one)

k0OAtlh Al Jill P0e0 0ANJ
ors on a tonnage basis.
Too small to be considered a
sport fish and too oily and bony
for table use, the little publicized
menhaden is nevertheless in great
demand Its rich oil is widely used
in making soap, paint, and various
types of water-proofing com
pounds and for tempering steel
After oil extraction, the residue is
ground into meal for farm ami
mails and poultry feeds, and is also
used for fertilizer.
Averaging a foot in length and
less than a pound in weight, men,
haden are distant relatives of the
herring. Their value as fertilizer
was early recognized by Indians
who placed one flsh in each hill OF
corn at planting time; in fact, the
name "menhaden" is derived from
a Narragansett Indian word mean
ing ''enricher of the earth
In summer, at the height of the
'menhaden run, modern fisher
men, in specially-built menhaden
boats, S5 to 159 feet long, drag
1,200-foot purse seines around the
crowding fish, and have been
known to scoop up a half million
fish in single draught
At the long docks jutting out
from the towns two canneries, the
fish cargOes are sdrawned by sue
tion hoses into a continuous cook
ing process that yields drums of
oil and sacks of fertilizer. Most of
the fishing and much of the can
merry work is done by itinerant
crews who follow the fish as they
move northward along the Allan
tic Coast in spring and summer and
southwark in fall and winter.
Lewes is to Delaware what
Plymouth is to Massachusetts and
jamestown is to Virginia, for it
was near the site of present day
Lewes that the first white settle
ment in what is now Delaware was
established. In 1851, eleven years
after the landing of the English
Pilgrims at Plymouth, Dutch col
onists settled on the right bank of
the "Hoornkill River" (now Lewes
Creek and named their new COM
munity Zwaanendael, meaning
Valley of the Swans" This initial
effort at colonization, however, had
a tragic ending as hostile Indians
wiped out the colony within a year
of its founding.
In 1869, the Dutch built a fort
near the site of the previous ill
fated colony and a small communi-
ty eventually grew around this
fort. By 1878, the area, now under
English control, had developed into
a port for ships and of trade in
grain, meat and timber. Renamed
Deale in the early 1680's, the COM
became, in turn, Lewestown
and then Lewes.
During the Revolutionary War
and again in 1872, Lewes bore the
brunt of the British menace to
shore and shipping. Prior to the
of the Delaware Break
water, in 1897, the beaches around
the Point of the Capes were peri
strewn with wreckage of
storm beaten ships, and, down into
present times, have been the scene
of many exciting rescues.
From the community's earliest
days, Lewes menfolk have gone
n sea in ships" Many Lewes fam
lilies have supplied pilots down
countless generations and
Lewes men still pilot seagoing
craft from Lewes to Philadelphia
and other Delaware River ports,
and then down river and bay to
the Atlantic So perhaps it isn't
too surprising to find that Lewes,
first port of call from the Atlantic
on the northern water route to
Wilmington, Chester and Philadel
phia, should today also be the ma
tion's No. l Fishing Port, advises
the Development Department.