water, and also made other needed improvements throughout the boat
to adapt her especially for carrying lobsters alive. The changes I
made in her proved so successful in keeping lobsters alive, while
it increased the capacity for carrying, that I have since adapted
the same principles on all my boats. The well I had put into the
_Grace Morgan_ is what is termed a "box well," that is, without
any well deck. The well is built from the sides of the steamer
directly to the hatch on the main deck, with bulkheads forward and
aft and tops running directly to the deck. . . . You will see at
once that this well has many advantages over the old style with
flat well decks, like those of sailing vessels: (1) It affords a
much larger carrying capacity in same space of vessel. (2) The
priming-out pieces are much higher up on sides of vessel, giving
more room for boring hull, which affords much better circulation
of water in well, which is a great advantage in keeping lobsters
alive while on long trips. (3) Every lobster can be easily bailed
out of the well without grounding the vessel, which is necessary
with all vessels having the old-style well. (4) In all steam
and well smacks the after part of the ship is always steadiest,
consequently the well being located aft, as in my smacks, the
lobsters contained in them are not subjected to the hard pounding
while running in seaway that they are in the old-style wells,
where there is no chance to relieve themselves other than to be
forced against the well decks by the upward force of the water
when the vessel settles into the sea, and which results in killing
many of them.

Both of my steamers have box wells aft, and from my experience,
compared with all other steam and well smacks afloat, I am
convinced that this well, for all practical purposes, is the best