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Message: <blockquote data-quote="guywhofishes" data-source="post: 324116" data-attributes="member: 337">• When the first European settlers reached North America, lobsters were so plentiful that they would reportedly wash ashore in piles up to 2 feet high. Their bounty made them a precious source of sustenance during hard times—and gave them a nasty reputation as the poor man’s protein.• Native Americans used lobsters to fertilize their crops and bait their fishing hooks. They also ate the abundant crustaceans, preparing them by covering them in seaweed and baking them over hot rocks. According to tradition, this cooking method inspired the classic New England clambake.• At first, lobsters were gathered by hand along the shoreline. In the late 1700s, special boats known as smacks, which featured tanks with holes that allowed seawater to circulate, were introduced in Maine for the transport of live lobsters. The workers who operated these shellfish-friendly vessels were known as smackmen. It was not until the mid-19th century that lobster trapping, also first practiced in Maine, became a more popular way to collect the sea creatures.• Dirt-cheap because they were so copious, lobsters were routinely fed to prisoners, apprentices, slaves and children during the colonial era and beyond. In Massachusetts, some servants allegedly sought to avoid lobster-heavy diets by including stipulations in their contracts that they would only be served the shellfish twice a week.</blockquote>

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