Last of the New Jersey pound boats.

[nedL]

These are found all over the Chesapeake, and are hard to spot in the dark. In shallow water, the big boats can't get to them. I've had a couple of close calls. But I had no idea they used to be set up off the Jersey Shore. How did they withstand the wave action and traffic out there?

Certainly there was not as much traffic along the shore a hundred to 60 years ago. There have always been requirements to have lights on the pounds. They were often not lit and there were frequent “interactions” between the pounds and boats.
It was quite contentious, the pounds were supposed to be lit, but the pound fishermen claimed that lighting them just notified the sien net and other fishermen where the pounds were so they could come at night and deliberately damage them. I have all sorts of period newspaper articles (late 1800’s well into the 1900’s) about the problems back and forth between the different fishermen.

When storms were predicted the routine was to go remove the nets for the duration. I also have articles where unexpected storms came along and then the damage to the various pounds listed afterwards.

During the fishing season the nets had to be taken down about every two weeks to be dried, cleaned and re-tarred, then rehung. If this wasn’t done the nets would become so heavy with marine growth that the nets would begin to sink.

These boats were behemoths of open boats.

[Bruce Keefauver]

Thanks for all of the photos and info Ned. Great stuff. Looking forward to your book!

Your Spring Lake skiff must be one of the newer/last ones. Those boats had a hard life and they may have been left on the beach for a bit after they were no longer being used. I seem to recall seeing one upside down outside of the season but was rarely there after 1980 or so. Not really sure though.

Did they hand brail the net to load the Pound Boat? Whew, pre power block days. Must have been exciting when they had a shark in the net.

[Peerie Maa]

Out in the ocean the stakes were typically 50-70 feet long and set 15 feet into the sea floor. Chains were hung on the nets to carry them to the bottom.

Thanks, that makes sence.