Mystic Seaport

View of seine boats and a striker boat on the water. Identified as taken by Frederick Clarner of Somerset, Massachusetts while aboard the Noank-built menhaden steamer Leander Wilcox under Captain Roland (or Rowland) Wilcox out of Mystic.

Title supplied by cataloger. Mounted on card 4 1/8 x 6 in. Seine boats carried the seine nets in which the menhaden (fish) were captured for offloading to the larger vessel. The striker boat's role was to keep the fish from escaping the net. Leander Wilcox was a screw steamer built by Robert Palmer & Son of Noank, 1903. She was owned by Leander Wilcox & Co. (later Wilcox Fertilizer Company) and was part of the Wilcox Co. fleet into the second decade of the twentieth century. The Palmer family's Noank shipbuilding and repair facility, in operation from the mid-19th century until 1914, was one of the most prominent on the east coast. It was incorporated under several names and experienced substantial growth in the second half of the 19th century, specializing in the production of utilitarian barges and floats. At the time the Leander Wilcox was built, the yard employed 400 men on average. The Wilcox Fertilizer Company (Leander Wilcox & Co. from 1876-1895), founded in 1865 by Elias Wilcox, was a Mystic area family business that processed menhaden (fish), producing oil and fertilizer. Elias's sons were also active in the business, with several serving as captains of menhaden sloops and later steamers. "Captain Roland" is possibly Elias's son Rowland H. Wilcox. The Wilcox company had several steamers and sloops, some Mystic- or Noank-built. The menhaden industry (and the shipbuilding activity it sustained) was of great economic importance to the Mystic area economy, especially in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Wilcox Fertilizer Company was a successful enterprise, and remained in business until 1935.

1905 - 1908

Mystic (Conn.)
Noank (Conn.)

Menhaden fisheries
Fishing boats
Boats and boating

photographs

Source extent: 1 photograph : gelatin print ; 2 5/8 x 4 1/4 in.

Reproduction and copyright information regarding this image is available from The Photography Department, Mystic Seaport, Mystic.

Accession number: 1982.21.34
ms_m022800.tif

http://hdl.handle.net/11134/70002:5228