Up to about 1865 it was the custom to set the traps singly, and two men were usually employed in the fishery, one to haul up, empty the pot, rebait it, and drop it overboard, while the other handled the boat.  In the latter year it was discovered that by setting the pots on trawls more pots could be set and only one man would be required to work them.  This invention, which was claimed by several different persons, proved quite successful for a while, but after a time, when the supply of lobsters began to drop off, better results were secured by scattering the pots over a greater area and shifting their position each time they were fished, which was very easily done.  As a result of this the use of trawls decreased very rapidly.

The following facts regarding the early lobster fishery of Maine are from the Fishery Industries of the United States, section v, vol.  II, pp. 700, 701: 

In 1841 Capt.  E. M. Oakes began to carry lobsters from Cundy’s Harbor and Horse Island Harbor, Harpswell, to Mr. Eben Weeks, at East Boston.  He was then running a well-smack, named the Swampscott, of 41 tons, old measurement.  The season extended from the 1st of March until about the 4th of July, after which time the lobsters were supposed to be unfit for eating; the black lobsters, or shedders, were even considered poisonous.  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,