Actually, when the Pilgrims first landed, the Indians were using them as fertilizer for the fields. They were considered that lowly. They were also fed to those in debtors prisons. In fact, indentured servants in Mass once rebelled and had it specified that they wouldn't be forced to eat lobsters more than three times a week. Only when canning and freezing processes were improved around the mid-1800's did their popularity pick up...especially during WWII when they were considered a delicacy, and as such, weren't rationed. The consumption picked up because of the desire for protein-rich food, and people could more easily afford it.
Sparky, when my family jumped ship in Boston to escape the indentured servant status and wandered about in the 1640's they ended up on this river on the Maine side and settled in.
They were then called River Rats as they survived on what ever came out of the river. The Lobsters, clams oysters, fish of all kinds were so abundant that one only had to walk to the waters edge to gather and feed a family protein-- with the Berry's and nuts that grew wild.
Herring was a big one for nutrition, cod and eels that were caught in wearers, nets strung out at high tide that caught whatever as the tide went out. Soon the fish was dried on lines in the yard [ I have photographs that show this being done in the 1900 era on the front lawn of the family homestead.]
Way back, most every meat was salted to keep for winter. Fat was a problem and came from bear meat that made people ill.
It was years later that the first dairy cows came here, the first in America, up the river with 20 or so milking maids, sheep and milk goats,.
Once the cows and Oxen came in, people were able to farm, plow fields , uproot tree stumps, and build roads of a sorts.
However the river was the choice of going here or there, the farmers would load their rafts with their produce and head down the river to Portsmouth to sell, then go home on the tide.
The farmers became wealthy, as their produce was allways in demand.
It took a couple hundred years before some Frenchman accidental put Lobsters and other sea food together with melted butter and a lime or lemon.
I love that river Sparky, it is my heritage and my Mom stills lives on the land grant from Mass.
This was a lazy river as there was a small island at the mouth of the river that some one decided to blow up, now this river is the 2-3 fastest navigable river in the country
