|
|
|
|
The Consolidated Weir Company wharf with the ice house in the background. Notice the trapboat tied up to the wharf on the left. The Consolidated Ice House was converted to the Ice House Condominiums. |
|
Trap fishing — a vanished industry
Laurel Guadazno
BANNER CORRESPONDENT
At the beginning of the 20th century Provincetown had a brief flirtation with industry. Five cold storage buildings, or ice houses as they are called locally, with tall chimneys puffing smoke lined the waterfront. Local resident and historian George Bryant wrote an article about the cold storage era in Provincetown in 1977.
Describing the cold storage buildings he says, “No two cold storages were alike in size, appearance or equipment and they tended to become more dissimilar as the years advanced. One aspect that they held in common was that they employed a lot of people. Provincetown would have become a ghost town during the early decades of this century without the jobs that they furnished. They also turned out a corps of thoroughly trained plumbers for the town. Beyond providing substantial employment, the traps, the boats and the freezers helped to reduce the taxes for all townspeople. For 50 years they paid about a quarter of Provincetown taxes.” Fortunately, the now inactive Provincetown Historical Association documented the industry in a small out-of-print booklet, “Provincetown Trapboat Fishing: The End of an Era.”
Associated with the ice houses or freezing plants were fish traps called weirs. The use of weirs flourished around the turn of the century to supply bait to the fishing schooners trawling on Georges Bank. Provincetown was home to a score of these fast schooners that raced into Boston to sell their fish fresh, the first boat to reach the market getting the highest price. It was only natural for them to pick up bait, mostly herring and mackerel, in their homeport before heading out to the banks. The demand for baitfish led to the development of the cold storage plants. Surplus catch from the traps could be frozen when it was plentiful and sold later. After World War I, fishing methods changed and demand for bait declined. The traps were still used, however, to catch fish for food. This fish was either frozen to be sold when the market price was high, or shipped fresh by railroad directly to the big markets in Boston and New York.
Until 1975, according to an article in the National Fisherman by Kathie R. Florsheim, you could still hear the weir boats putt-putting out to empty the traps every morning in Provincetown.
Trap fishing followed a rhythm tied to the seasons. In the spring the traps were set. From the shore the trap looks like a bunch of poles stuck randomly in the water. However, they are arranged in a careful plan designed to catch fish based on the theory that when fish encounter an obstacle they will head for deep water. Each trap has three sections: the leader, the heart and the bowl. When fish encounter the leader they try to head for deep water and end up swimming down the leader and into the heart. The heart, named for its shape, leads to the bowl, a circular area in which the fish are able to swim about freely until the trap is drawn.
Once the traps were set they had to be checked and emptied every day. The trap boats would head out to the traps early in the morning and be finished work before noon. All summer and fall the fishermen would maintain and empty the traps. After Christmas they would pull up the trap poles and remove the nets. Equipment was stored in the trap sheds built on the weir company’s wharves. Winter was spent mending the nets and cleaning them of sea life. Each year the nets were tarred to give them added strength and weight.
It was a good life for the fishermen. Trap fishing was one of the safest forms of fishing. They made a decent living. The men often had free afternoons and were home with their families in the evening. Winters were easy, with only repair work to do for three months.
Many reasons are given for the decline in fish and the demise of the industry: natural changes in migration patterns, pollutants, overfishing by “factory boats,” the Cape Cod Canal, the dragger fleet disturbing the bottom, pleasure boat owners running through the traps. Whatever the reason, all the ice houses are gone now, except the Consolidated, which has been turned into the Ice House Condominiums. All that remains of the Consolidated Weir Company’s wharf and trap shed are a few picturesque pilings in the sand in front of the Ice House Condominiums.
[Laurel Guadazno is curator of education for the Pilgrim Monument & Provincetown Museum.]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 5th, 2004