During this season of four months Captain Oakes made ten trips,
carrying in all 35,000, by count. He continued in this trade
about six years, taking the combined catch of about five or
six fishermen. At this same period the smack _Hulda B. Hall_,
50 tons, of New London, Conn., Captain Chapell, was carrying
lobsters from Cape Porpoise, Gloucester, Ipswich Bay, and
occasionally Provincetown, to Boston, making 15 trips in the
season of four months, and taking about 3,500 lobsters each
trip. Captain Chapell was supplied with lobsters by four men at
Cape Porpoise, and by the same number at both Gloucester and
Ipswich Bay. For four months following the close of the lobster
season on the Maine coast, or from July 4 until November,
Captain Chapell ran his smack with lobsters to New York,
obtaining most of his supplies at Provincetown.

In 1847 Captain Oakes purchased the smack _Josephine_, with
which he began running to Johnson & Young's establishment, at
Boston, in 1848, buying a portion of his lobsters in the
Penobscot Bay region, where this fishery had just been started.
The quantity of lobsters carried by him that year was 40,000.
The prices paid to the fishermen for smack lobsters was as
follows: During March, 3 cents each; April, 2-1/2 cents; May
and June, 2 cents. In 1850, he began to obtain supplies from
the Muscle Ridges, leaving Harpswell entirely, on account of
the small size of the lobsters then being caught there. At
this time the average weight of the lobsters marketed was about
3 pounds, and all under 10-1/2 inches in length were rejected.
The traps were made of the same size as at present, but were
constructed of round oak sticks, and with four hoops or bows
to support the upper framework. A string of bait, consisting