Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 50

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 50

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Rhode Island deep sea fishermen did not resort to the Banks as did the Gloucester and Salem men. While New Bedford and New London were both distinctively whaling ports, in the sense that whaling was almost the dominant industry in each, their combined interests were not larger than those of Bristol, Newport, Providence and Warren. The industry had been expanded from the pursuit of whales in small boats in the ocean waters adjacent to Rhode Island and in Narragansett Bay, to the fitting out of vessels for voyages to the more remote seas. The General Assembly offered bounties on whale oil and whale bone in 1731 as meas- ures to promote the fishery. Before the Revolutionary War the industry developed until a fleet of fifty vessels in 1775 had succeeded Benjamin Thurston's sloop "Pelican" of 1733, the earliest Rhode Island whaler of which there is a record. Whaling practically ceased during the period of the war, and revived slowly thereafter for two reasons principally, first, that the Hebrew merchants who had been promoters and owners of vessels in Newport had departed, and, second, that foreign trade and commerce with the Far East for the time promised much larger profits. A fresh interest in whaling appeared in 1820, when new vessels were fitted out for long voyages to the Pacific Ocean, and for a quarter of a century whaling was a most important part of the maritime life of Bristol, Providence and Warren. By 1840, the Rhode Island whaling fleet comprised over fifty vessels, most of them ships averaging 300 tons, com- pletely equipped for three-year voyages. Within ten years whaling had begun to decline, vessels lost were not replaced and others were sold. The ship "Lion," lost at sea November 10, 1856, was the last Providence whaler. The whaling industry lingered at New Bedford after it had been abandoned in Rhode Island. The promoters of New Bedford whaling included Rhode Islanders. The redoubtable Brown family of Providence established, before 1800, one of the earliest American monopolies through their control of the products of the whale fishery wanted for their spermacetti factories. For two centuries from 1636 fish were so abundant in Rhode Island that large numbers of citizens earned comfortable livelihood through fishing as an occupation, and the colony and state regarded the fisheries as natural resources so unfailing in plenteousness as to warrant little serious doubt as to perpetuity. As farming and fishing yielded, first, to commerce, and, later, to manufacturing, little attention was given to conservation of fisheries, particularly during the earlier years of the factory era.

OYSTERS-The purpose of protecting oysters from extermination appeared in legislation forbidding dredging principally for the purpose of burning the shells in the process of making lime. The evil lay not in the utilization of shells after oysters had been taken for food, which would not be objectionable, so much as in wanton disregard of food values and the destruction of fish and shells as both were burned indiscriminately. In later legislation dredging on open beds was forbidden, and free fishermen were limited to the use of tongs in water less than fifteen feet deep at mean low tide, and in the amount of daily catches. So early as 1822 a closed season during the months of May, June, July and August was established, to protect oysters during the spawning and setting periods; the closed season was adjusted later from time to time with reference to particular areas. Laws protecting the oyster fishery had been practically perfected in most details by 1844, later developments emphasizing only the strin- gency of restriction and enforcement. The beginning of the cultivation of oysters, by putting down shell to catch the spat and by replanting seed oysters for maturing and fattening, was indicated in 1799 by a legislative grant of an exclusive right to take shellfish from a prescribed area within the waters of the bay. In this grant was forecasted the development of a flourish- ing industry employing hundreds of men, the product of which, as "Narragansett Bay oysters," achieved a national reputation when the building of railroads made broadcast shipments pos-

90I

FARMING AND FISHING

sible. Narragansett Bay oysters are smaller in size than Chesapeake Bay or Louisiana oysters, and are eaten raw usually or stewed in milk and butter, whereas the larger oysters are fried. The distinctive flavor of Narragansett Bay oysters won them favor. At the apex of popularity oysters from other waters were shipped to Narragansett Bay to be replanted, thus to acquire the Rhode Island tang. With the exception of deep channels and shallow places close to shore, most of the tidal waters in Rhode Island are suitable for oyster culture, the range including Narragansett Bay and Providence and Seekonk Rivers, Little Narragansett Bay and the mouth of the Pawcatuck River, the salt ponds with unobstructed breachways along the south shore of Washington County, and the salt pond or inner harbor at Block Island. Early leases of oyster grounds* were at nominal rentals so low as one dollar per acre, and the purpose at the beginning was less the production of revenue for the state than promotion of the industry, because the assured control of particular areas made replanting of oysters feasible and profit- able. Commissioners were elected to lease oyster grounds and enforce the law in 1844, and a new office of Commissioner of Shell Fisheries was created in 1864; later five commissioners, one for each county, were appointed.

Whether because the end of the Civil War had terminated a distraction or because of the efficiency of the new officer, receipts from oyster leases rose in the year from $61 to $737.72. At ten-year intervals thereafter oyster rentals yielded $1527.65 in 1870, $8190 in 1880, $5616.20 in 1890, $20,793.08 in 1900. Receipts were $47,373.20 in 1905, and the apex was attained in 1909, when $106,839.48 was paid into the treasury as income derived from the taxation of the shell fisheries. After 1909 there was a steady decline to $84,089.97 in 1919, and $51,302.07 in 1929. The receipts from rentals are not an accurate index of the area leased, inasmuch as rates varied. Thus, in 1905, 3338.6 acres were leased at ten dollars per acre, 2767.7 acres at five dollars, and 148.75 acres at one dollar, leases of the last to be renewed in the following year at the new legal minimum rate of five dollars per acre. The rentals afford, nevertheless, a reasonably accurate measure of the status of the industry, as indicated by its prosperity and its ability to yield tax revenue.

The decline in revenue in the past twenty years has accompanied the abandonment of oyster grounds in the upper reaches of Narragansett Bay, because of deleterious effects upon shellfish of the pollution of waters. Oyster growers have in some years suffered losses because of the depredations of starfish and other pests that prey upon shellfish and prefer oysters because oysters do not dig into the bottom sand as do clams and quahaugs. Increasing foul- ness of waters has affected the market for shellfish because of common dread of bacterial diseases, and has reduced the productivity of oyster grounds. Particularly, the spawn or spat of the oyster, which in the cycle preceding the set rises to the surface of the water before descending to attach itself to shell or rock on the bottom, may be destroyed by oil or other noxious substances which interfere with its life processes or prevent access to the atmosphere in the period during which the oyster is a surface-floating animal. Oil or other petroleum products coating the surface of water smother the spawn of oysters as certainly as they do the larvae of mosquitoes. In consequence of pollution near the head waters of Narragansett Bay oyster culture has been restricted to the lower reaches, involving a lessening of the acreage of oyster grounds available and withdrawal from the industry of many who have been dis- couraged by diminishing returns. Oyster grounds forty years ago included the Providence River up to Fox Point, and the Seekonk River, besides the upper part of Narragansett Bay ; in 1930 no oyster grounds were rented north of Nayatt and Conimicut Point. The possibility of rehabilitating the industry rests principally upon the success that may attend the effort of the Board of Purification of Waters in enforcing laws requiring treatment of sewage before its discharge into public waters and in suppressing other pollution nuisances.

*Held constitutional as not an invasion of the free fishery reserved for the whole people. State vs. Coz- zens, 2 R. I. 561.

902

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

Concern as to the effect of pollution of waters upon the oyster fishery was reflected in a statute enacted in 1860, which forbade the discharge of coal tar or spent lime into the waters of Rhode Island. Bays, rivers and ponds suitable for oyster culture were surveyed and platted in 1879 with reference to triangulation base lines established on shore with bronze and granite markers, thus to assure accuracy in the location of rented areas and in marking them by poles and buoys. A steady decrease in the yield of oyster beds in Point Judith Pond having been noted, Professor G. W. Field of Rhode Island State College, investigated. His report in 1900 suggested that the clogging of the breachway, by decreasing the flow of water through the pond, had permitted a deposit of detritus and silt by river drainage, which had covered and smothered the oysters. To dredging of channels, filling of flats, scow dumping and other dis- turbances of the bottoms of rivers and bay have been attributed similar changes of conditions in oyster grounds unfavorable to oyster culture. More serious, because more certain, has been the condition arising from pollution of waters by the discharge into them of raw sewage and other deleterious substances.

The Commissioners of Shell Fisheries in 1904 entertained and heard a complaint "that shellfish in the upper part of the bay were being impregnated with a strong flavor of gas, which rendered them worthless. . ... Oysters and quahaugs" were exhibited to the Commissioners "which were materially affected by some gassy substance which could easily be discovered by both the taste and smell. Letters were produced from those having purchased shellfish obtained from the upper part of the bay, complaining strongly of those fish as being worthless. Many complaints came also from the free fishermen as affecting their industry." The com- missioners referred the complaints to a committee, which was assisted by a chemist. Investi- gations were conducted, and the committee gathered evidence which tended to establish the source of pollution as the discharge from gas works into the rivers of an oily substance rejected in the process of manufacturing gas. The nuisance was abated. Since the develop- ment of Providence River as the largest New England petroleum port, recognition of the effects of oily drainage through the tank leakage and bilge discharge from tankers has led to stringent regulation, but the area of the bay devoted to oyster culture has tended to recede steadily southward, nevertheless.

OTHER SHELLFISH-To the Commissioners of Shell Fisheries is committed also the regu- lation of clam, quahaug and scallop fisheries. The Rhode Island clam is soft-shelled with a protruding snout, and thrives luxuriantly in most tidal waters between high and low water marks. This clam, baked in Indian fashion with seaweed on hot stones, brought fame to Rhode Island shore resorts for excellence of "shore dinners." Experimental investigation of the life of the clam conducted at the state hatchery reveals the possibility of increase in pro- duction by culture ; in practical experience it has been found that an occasional closed season is sufficient to enable the clam of itself to renew its reproductivity and plenteousness. The clam, as other fish, suffers from pollution of waters, and many beds, once prolific producers, no longer are fertile because impregnated with substances which are poisonous to clams. In earlier years almost any tide-flowed shore between high and low water marks would yield clams in abundance; with foulness of waters the habitat of the clam recedes and tends to become limited. The unrelenting pursuit of the clam by commercial fishermen and by occasional vacationists gives the clam little opportunity to multiply. The clam fishing has been a free fishery throughout the three centuries of Rhode Island.

The quahaug is a hard-shelled clam which prefers to live in clean sand below low water mark; it is taken by treading and raking in shallow water, and by tongs or dredges in deeper water. A quahaug of small size, called also "little neck" or "cherry stone," is eaten raw as an appetizer. Larger quahaugs are used for chowder, pies or fritters. Because of its stronger flavor, the quahaug is preferred by some for "clam" chowder ; in some chowder recipes clams and quahaugs both are used. Rhode Island quahaugs are the base for a canned chowder, made

.......

A VIEW OF OLD PROVIDENCE

The open space in front is Market Square. The horsecar shows that the picture was taken about 1890, after the removal of the street car station, which stood on spiles over the river. On the same site now stands the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company Building. The horses, which show at both ends of the car, were moved during the long exposure of the camera plate.

903

FARMING AND FISHING

in Rhode Island, which has a national sale and reputation. Quahaug fishing from boats is under license issued by the Commissioners of Shell Fisheries, and daily catches are limited. As in the instance of the clam, a productive quahaug bed threatened with exhaustion, may be renewed by a closed season or transplanting.

The scallop is most uncertain in its entrances and exits, being plentiful in some seasons and practically not to be found in others. The Rhode Island scallop has an attractive crinkled shell, and is sought only for the strong white muscle with which it flaps its way through the water by alternately opening and closing the shells. The muscle is a delectable morsel when fried to golden brown. Scientific studies of the scallop reveal no reason for the irregularity of seasons other than the uncertainty of the "set." The effect of pollution of waters appears in the southern limit of the scallop fishery in the twentieth century to waters below Nayatt Point, whereas a half-century ago scallops were taken in the Seekonk River. The four major shell- fisheries-oyster, quahaug, clam and scallop-promise continuance and plenteous supplies for the future, provided that the waters of Rhode Island are redeemed from pollution, and that reasonable restrictions upon catches are imposed, with protection during spawn and setting periods and occasional closed seasons to permit restocking. In the instance of two, the oyster and quahaug, markets beyond the state afford opportunity for ready sale at satisfactory prices. Rhode Island oysters, packed in sanitary containers, are distributed over the United States and Canada.

INLAND FISHERIES-Commissioners of Inland Fisheries were appointed in 1871 to "introduce, protect and cultivate fish in the inland waters of the state." The jurisdiction of the commissioners extends to all fisheries save those of mollusks, which are under the super- vision of the Commissioners of Shell Fisheries, but the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries have directed valuable studies of the life of mollusks under statutory authority to "make expe- riments in planting, cultivating, propagating and developing any and all kinds of shell fish." In one of their earliest reports the Commissioners of Inland Fisheries recommended the build- ing of fishways for salmon, shad and alewives where rivers had been dammed, thus to permit return of these fish, with the fry of which the commissioners had begun to restock Rhode Island streams. The commissioners had undertaken also to restock Rhode Island fresh water brooks and ponds by liberating fry purchased from fish hatcheries outside of Rhode Island. Within a short time, however, the commissioners established a fish hatchery at Ponegansett, and there hatched fry of salmon, shad, black bass and trout for release in inland waters. The commissioners expressed regret at the practical extermination in Rhode Island of herring, once swarming in such quantity that the supply seemed inexhaustible, and suggested a threat to the cod fishery with the disappearance of the herring. Except with salmon, which prefer colder waters than those of Rhode Island, the commissioners have been successful generally. Alewives and shad have returned to certain rivers, and fresh water ponds and brooks reward amply with good catches fishermen who visit them. The Goose Neck Spring hatchery, near Wickford, replacing the Ponegansett hatchery, besides other fish produces annually 200,000 fingerling trout, which are liberated in brooks and ponds to replace those taken by 15,000 licensed fresh water fishermen.

An alleged scarcity of good fish in Rhode Island markets, and much higher prices than had prevailed in yesteryears, precipitated, in 1887, a legislative investigation of salt water trap, fyke and pound fishing. The committee of the General Assembly in charge of the inquiry returned majority and minority reports, and no action to restrict commercial fishing was taken. The committee had disagreed as to the fundamental proposition-the actual decrease of fish in upper Narragansett Bay because of the large numbers of fish traps of various kinds that had been placed in the Seaconnet River. There was no doubt that the trap fishers were catching fish in large quantities, and that most of the catches were sold in New York or in other markets outside Rhode Island. The majority of the committee of three favored regulation or restric-

904

RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY

tion of trap fishing ; the minority, sturdy Captain George N. Bliss, who as a cavalry trooper in the Civil War had charged a Rebel regiment alone, himself a fisherman as well as a jurist, believed that a fish belongs to the first fisherman who catches it, and opposed interference. The fish involved in the controversy were part of the migratory hordes which pass in and out of the waters of Narragansett Bay from and to the Atlantic Ocean, as their ancestors did for centuries ; the trap fishers had found effective methods of capturing them, and established a new source of wealth. The remedy for possible interference with fishing further up the bay and with the access of fish returning to Rhode Island waters to spawn was found in legislation establishing closed seasons for trap fishing, and forbidding fishing in certain localities.

The Commissioners of Inland Fisheries at the time condemned the methods of menhaden fishermen, particularly for alleged neglect to throw back into the water food fish caught in seines with menhaden. Menhaden, sometimes called "bony fish," resembling herring and alewives, are edible if cooked within a short time after capture, but spoil very quickly. They were used as fertilizer by Indian farmers before white men came to Rhode Island, and by white farmers who learned the Indian methods of planting corn and potatoes. Menhaden are sought for oil, which is obtained by pressing, and for commercial fertilizers obtained by ren- dering. Menhaden travel in large schools near the surface usually, pursuing fish on which they prey, or fleeing from large fish which prey upon them. Modern menhaden fishing is in power trawlers, which surround the fish with seines. The volume of a prolific menhaden fishery in Narragansett Bay is revealed by statistics of catches for five years, thus: 1886, 232,47I barrels; 1887, 175,667 barrels; 1888, 377,607 barrels; 1889, 508,482 barrels; 1890, 560,086 barrels. In connection with the menhaden fishery, a fish rendering industry was established in Little Compton. In recent years menhaden seldom visit Narragansett Bay and the menhaden fleet is seen only occasionally. Squeteague and Block Island or snapper bluefish, the latter of which follow and feed upon menhaden, have been much less plentiful. The rea- sons for the disappearance of menhaden, aside from the activities of the menhaden fleet in Long Island Sound and other waters adjacent to Rhode Island, are not known; they are related to phases in the lives of migratory fishes which have not been revealed to man.

VOLUME OF FISHERIES-Of the actual volume of Rhode Island fisheries little is known beyond the general facts related to abundance, and the large numbers of vessels engaged and of men who have earned their livings by fishing. Estimates of the amount of fish shipped from Newport by regular transportation lines in the years from 1887 to 1904 reveal generally a consistent and steady acceleration over the period, from 16,657 barrels to 62,160 barrels. The figures are valuable only relatively. They included probably the greater part of the Block Island catch, which was marketed through Newport, though some reached its destina- tion through Providence, New London, or Montauk Point and the Long Island Railroad. They did not include the product of the oyster fishery, marketed and shipped principally through northern towns and cities; nor did they include large catches of menhaden converted into fertilizer at Little Compton, nor tons of non-edible and unmarketable fish used for baiting lobster traps. Besides the shipments listed, 1508 swordfish and 415 tuna fish were shipped from Newport in the years from 1896 to 1904. Similar statistics for recent years are not available, although the increase in the number of traps of various kinds placed in favorable fishing waters indicates that prosperity continues, and that the amount of fish taken has not diminished. The development of New England fisheries to supply metropolitan markets has been such that fast express trains are operated by railway companies to assure delivery in good condition. The General Assembly in 1928 enacted legislation requiring the licensing of fish traps by the Harbor Commission, with the purpose of regulating the fishery, and adjusting disputes as to rival claims for favored locations. Enforcement of the law in 1930 precipitated what promised to be a "fish war"; belligerency ended with a show of force by officers, but

905

FARMING AND FISHING

fishermen are reported as "organizing" and an appeal to the General Assembly for revision of the statutes will be made in 1931.

LOBSTER FISHERY-The reports of fish shipments referred to above did not include lobsters, records of which were kept separately. These showed, with the exception of 1887, 1888 and 1898, when catches were far below normal, and the exception also of bumper years from 1899 to 1902, a general average annually of 2000 barrels or 400,000 pounds. In each of 1888 and 1898 shipments were less than 1200 barrels; from 1899 to 1902 they were, respec- tively, 4143, 4793 and 4342 barrels. The Commissioners of Inland Fisheries had already undertaken projects for restocking Rhode Island waters with lobsters brought from other places, and for research study of the life and culture of lobsters at the salt water hatchery established at Wickford in 1900. The first lobsters liberated by the commissioners were brought from Nova Scotia; as the work at the Wickford hatchery was developed the commis- sioners were able to place in Rhode Island waters 1,000,000 small lobsters annually, which had been grown from eggs at Wickford. The Wickford hatchery has the distinction of being the only institution which has been successful in raising lobsters from eggs through the swimming stages, until the lobster has become a bottom-crawling creature after the fashion of the adult. The lobster by that time is a formidable crustacean and no longer prey for fishes which find small swimming lobsters very delicious food. Other factors contributing to the increasing catch of lobsters have been statutes penalizing the capture or possession of lobsters less than nine inches in length, and the purchase by the state of egg-bearing lobsters for supplying the hatchery or return to the waters of Narragansett Bay. In five years from 1904 the lobster catch reported increased nearly 1,000,000 pounds, or 5000 barrels, from 376,994 pounds to 1,342,983 pounds. In the same period the number of lobster pots in use were increased from 8000 to 23,000. The catch in 1925 was reported as 1,740,277 pounds, and the income of lobster fishermen for the year reached $750,000. In 1930 probably 35,000 pots were in use, and the catch reached 1,750,000 pounds, although the figures reported officially were smaller. Legis- lation in 1929 included provision for purchase by the state of egg-bearing lobsters at market prices, and also for records of lobster catches, the latter "for the purpose of determining whether the number of lobsters caught in the waters of this state are increasing or decreasing during any period."

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II, Part 50

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716