Holy Mackerel!

This illustration, done during the peak years of the mackerel fishery in the last quarter of the 19th century, shows the various steps in processing the catch onboard ship. The blunt bladed plows would have been utilized for cleaning; those with sharp blades for plowing. The latter would have preceded salting. (See Goode, The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, Sec. V, Vol. 1, p. 287.) |
by Marius B. Péladeau In most dictionaries a "plow" is defined as a farm implement "for turning up the soil in preparation for planting." Only by reading further do we discover that it can also mean "any machine that works in a similar way, by cutting, shoving, furrowing, etc." So why would anyone want to "plow" a mackerel with a mackerel plow? 1 To best answer that question it helps to learn a little about the mackerel, a once popular market fish along the northern Atlantic coastNova Scotia, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Most everyone knows the history and background of weathervanes, scrimshaw, Nantucket baskets, and other manifestations of folk art. Since mackerel plows are a very regional item and are rather unknown esoteric objects, the reader will please indulge this author while he provides a little background context. Mackerel winter in the south, along the coast of the Delmarva Peninsula and Chesapeake Bay. As they migrate north in the spring to their feeding and breeding grounds off the New England coast, they are thin and leathery, not ideal for eating. After a summer in the Gulf of Maine, the fish became fat and meaty. As these plump fish were split open, the flesh of the belly would crack open and swell up spontaneously when the fish were cleaned. Obviously, the fattest fish commanded premium prices in the marketplace. Before the days of refrigeration most mackerel were salted, so it was impossible to tell when in the season they were caught. To make the thin spring mackerel (called "leather bellies") more presentable they were "plowed" with a special tool. Plowing the cut open fish furrowed the meat, causing it to look plump and fat, in other words, more like the fish caught later in the season. Up to the second quarter of the 19th century mackerel were caught by lowering and raising hooks (jigs) in the water onto which chum or toll had been tossed to attract the school of fish. By the 1840's purse seining started to replace jigging, and the large resultant catches made mackerel a valuable market item. Ten to 12 men in a two-masted schooner could catch a considerable number of fish. To this end, any efficiency in the catching, processing, and bringing to market of the catch assumed important economic implications. Thus, fishermen developed a tool that immediately became known as a mackerel plow.2 Once the seine net full of fish had been brought to the side of the vessel, the mackerel were thrown onto the deck. The first fisherman split them lengthwise with a large knife, the operation performed with one sweep of the hand. The next fisherman then cleaned (eviscerated) them. 
The pointed oval (or "football" shaped) handle is fairly common. It fits the hand easily and was simple to carve. A long, slender shaft demanded the use of hardwood. Initials are common; the top example was owned by "T.D.A." and found in Massachusetts. The blunt blade is simple pot metal (lead). With inlaid bone heart and diamonds, the second plow, also from Massachusetts, appears to be of a light mahogany. Notice how the slender groove gracefully leads into the ferrule that holds the blade. This is one of the few ferrules that seems to have a high tin content and can be considered "pewter." Ninety nine percent of others are merely common lead. The smallest plow might be for a teenager or for someone with a small hand. It is nicely carved and has the initials "W.C." on the reverse. 
Folk art results when the creator breaks away from the mundane and predictable. Here are a smiling sea serpent, a fish, and an eagle. The former comes from the Kittery, Maine, area, while the other two also bear Maine provenances. Plows are rarely found painted, but the fish bears an original coat of grungy green paint, and it's clear that the textured "scales" were made with a drift punch. A trio of excellent examples. 
The outstanding plow at top is of maple, nicely chip carved around the edges, and bears a well proportioned two masted schooner on the handle. There are two openwork diamonds on the reverse. The metal inlays are extremely fine. There are endless variations of the openwork handle in these four knives, all somewhat different as the maker fitted them to his hand. One is initialed "E.H.P." and has a star. On the back is another star and "IXL" ("I Excel"), a common marking found on mid 19th-century bowie knives. The last two plows show slight variations in the handle; one is set apart from the other with a blunt bone blade. 
"F.E.D." may not have carved the most graceful woman's leg, but he certainly spent some time studying her openwork shoe with its two straps. The second and fourth legs are clearly related, and it is not surprising, therefore, to find they were both discovered in Maine. The third leg may be a little clunky, but it is interesting because the blade is made from an English two pence coin with some of its design still visible. 
Along with eagles and sea serpents, mackerel plows with depictions of fish are always desirable. This nicely balanced plow with the fish's head, fins, and scales incised into the wood is extremely attractive and made more so by the inlaid German silver Masonic square and compass design. It was found in Maine. The middle plow is of walrus bone decorated with different colored waxes and chip carving along the edges. At the bottom is a fairly common shaped handle but with good chip carving and incised scrollwork. 
The top plow is the only one found by Stanley that originated outside New England. It came from Long Island with documentation as to its use. Nicely carved with floral motifs, it bears the name of "A.J. Jewett." The second example shows a plow made of pine that needed reinforcement with lead inlays, which were both functional and decorative. 
A large collection of these plows was found some years ago in the Bath, Maine, area. Made of thin hardwood (approximately 3/16" thick), the material reminds this author of the grapefruit and orange crates used to ship fruit from the West Coast 50 to 60 years ago, which children loved to knock apart so they could make airplanes and other things with their jackknives. Not substantial enough to plow mackerel, it has been conjectured these were made to plow smaller fish, like herring and alewives. Notice that the shapes of the handles are unlike any of the mackerel plows illustrated in this article. Maine Maritime Museums; Burden collection. |
The next step was to "plow" the mackerel. As it was described, "two or three deft slashes less than an eighth of an inch deep parallel to the backbone open the flesh in such a manner that it looks like a superabundance of fat had burst the mackerel.
"3 The final steps were to wash and salt the fish, so they could be stored in the schooner's hull ready for a return trip to port. We know that men who went to sea relieved endless hours of boredom by doing scrimshanding, carving, whittling, nautical macramé or ropework, and so forth. It is logical that men on board fishing schooners, like other sailors, had long periods of down time, and that while making their mackerel plows they were liable to carve them with initials and various symbols or decorate them with pewter, bone, ivory, or wax inlays. The vast majority were handmade by the fishermen, although toward the end of the 19th century some were manufactured and sold commercially (at a cost of about 25¢ each). Mackerel plows are rather unusual objects to collect, and while this author knows of a few in museums devoted to maritime history, it is always rewarding to find a person with a single-minded focus who has searched the northern Atlantic coastline for these unusual, uncommon, and unrecognized folk objects. And they are just thatworks of folk artthat fall into the same category as anything else that is carved and decorated in a naïve or primitive manner. What is the difference between a scrimshawed whale's tooth and a mackerel plow? Basically nothingone is a carved, colored, and inlaid item made of whalebone or a tooth; the other is a carved, colored, and inlaid wooden object. Fortunately, a collector of these plows, Gordon R. Stanley of Sedgwick, Maine, is willing to share his collection through this article in M.A.D., augmented by a few others from museum holdings. An examination of any number of plows shows that no two are alike, although all are variations to a basic design since they all had to be made to fit into the fisherman's hand in a certain manner. Although they were all held in the same way, the opening for the hand could vary in size depending on the hand size of the man, and, as Stanley believes, some were made to fit the hands of women and children who helped out the menfolk. Just as anything else that can be called folk, naïve, or primitive, the hallmark of mackerel plows is their individuality, befitting the artistic outlook of their creators. Each reflects some intellectual need in the maker's psyche. One may carry the initials of himself and/or a loved one; another may bear a Masonic or other fraternal symbol; another may simply bespeak the maker's love of color through wax or metallic inlays; and some may be symbolic in other ways-a woman's leg, a sea serpent, an eagle, or a simple fish. Like anything else in the broad (and poorly defined) world of folk art, there is a broad range of sophistication or lack of it. Some fishermen lavished a great deal of time and attention on their plows, laying out the design in a pleasing and symmetrical manner; others quickly made a plain utilitarian object and did no more than carve their initials into it. Some show a pleasing sense of design and color; others look as if they were made with no forethought at all. Obviously, these latter will be passed over here, and only those with redeeming features of design, color, or some other hallmarks will be illustrated. Like any other serious connoisseur, Stanley has refined his collection so that only the finest examples survived periodic reexaminations. While not all are equal in merit, all have some features that set them apart from others. The geographic range of the plows is the northern Atlantic coastline from southeast Massachusetts, northward to New Hampshire and Maine, and across the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundy to Nova Scotia in the Canadian Maritimes. Boothbay Harbor and Swans Island in Maine hosted the largest commercial mackerel fishing fleets. Stanley has found mackerel plows in all these areas except Nova Scotia, although he has seen examples from that area in provincial museums, most notably at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.4 Allow the illustrations and captions to speak for themselves. Plows in the photographs have been grouped according to several general styles or types of design. The better quality plows are made of a hardwood, such as maple or birch, although most are of pine or poplar. Occasionally, a more exotic wood can be found, like black walnut or mahogany. Some plows are made with blunt blades that would be used to clean out the entrails, while those with sharper blades were used to plow the flesh. 
The crème de la crème of mackerel plows is this magnificent woman's leg with chip and incised carving of flowers, leaves, starbursts, and other symbols. The large lead cap is excellently done. This view shows two crossed American flags on the thigh, and the reverse depicts a basket of flowers surrounded by several circles of tendrils and leaves. They do not come any better, and it certainly takes no back seat to any piece of scrimshaw. Maine Maritime Museum; Burden collection. 
Who was "F"? In any case he personalized his plow with his initial and leaves on a branch. The tip has a graceful upward sweep. Maine Maritime Museum; Burden collection. 
The top plow, marked "Samuel," is conjectured to have been made for a young boy because of its small size. The purpose of the two teats at the rear may have been to center a small lanyard to attach the plow to a slicker or belt. The bottom plow is a rugged example with lead and red and blue wax inlays and an incised anchor and the initials "J.P.R." 
The plows at the left are maple with a slight tiger and bird's-eye grain. At top right is an unusual example with a full rounded handle, while the one at bottom right was merely cut out of a plank and is as simple a hand-hold as one can imagine. This illustration shows the great variety in the shape, size, and cutting depths of the blades. 
The tips of the better mackerel plows show a close attention to design, detail, and craftsmanship. The lead inlays are created not only to hold the blade and strengthen the tip, but also to provide an artistic touch to an otherwise utilitarian instrument. 
Two more variations. The top plow is inlaid with lead stars, diamonds, hearts, and the date 1875 (the peak of the mackerel fishing industry). Notice how the lead ferrule is dovetailed into the handle to give it a good purchase in the wood. The graceful knob on the bottom plow is a pleasing touch. The wood appears to be black walnut, a popular furniture wood of the late 19th century. Maine Maritime Museum; Burden collection. 
Commercially made plows entered the market toward the end of the 19th century as the fishing industry grew. Of little interest to collectors, they are shown here merely to illustrate the type. 
Lest the reader think that all mackerel plows are the epitome of good design and craftsmanship, it should be pointed out that not all fishermen, maybe not even the majority, made plows that were anything more than basic and elemental. Here one sees that even the crudest plows could accomplish their purpose. |
ENDNOTES1. These objects were also called rimmers, reamers, splitters, fatters, or fatting knives, but "plow" is by far the most common appellation. The author, and the owner of the collection, Gordon R. Stanley, thank the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine, and the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath for their assistance. 2. The introduction of the plow is uncertain. Some sources date them to the years after the 1840's when purse seining replaced jigging, while others date their widespread use to the 1870's. For the latter date see "Mackerel Plow Useful Article," an article from a Boston newspaper reprinted in the Lunenburg (N.S.) Progress Enterprise, December 22, 1909. 3. ibid. A very thorough and detailed report on how mackerel were caught, cleaned, and brought to market is found in the sections titled "The Mackerel Purse Seine Fishery" and "The Mackerel Hook Fishery" to be found in G. Brown Goode, The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States... (Washington, D.C., G.P.O., 1884 87, 8 volumes, Sec. III V, specifically pp. 267, 289 92). Goode was one of those who tends to date the introduction of plows to the early 1840's. 4. Not only is this museum of the highest quality, but those who have not visited Lunenburg itself (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) are missing a wonderful experience. Originally published in the July 2009 issue of Maine Antique Digest. (c) 2009 Maine Antique Digest
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