Even before the lobster fishery had been taken up to any extent, the coast of Maine was visited by well-smacks from Connecticut and New York, most of which had been engaged in the transportation of live fish before engaging in the carrying of lobsters.  These vessels sometimes carried pots, and caught their own lobsters; but as this method was not very convenient, the people living along the coast took up the fishery, and sold the lobsters to the smackmen.  About 1860 the canneries began to absorb a considerable part of the catch, and they employed vessels to ply along the coast and buy lobsters.  As these vessels would only be out a few days at a time, wells were not necessary, and the lobsters were packed in the hold.  In the summer great numbers of them were killed by the heat in the hold.  After 1885 the canneries rapidly dropped out of the business, the last one closing in 1895.  In 1853 there were but 6 smacks, 4 of them from New London, Conn.  In 1880 there were 58, of which 21 were dry smacks, while in 1898 there were 76, of which 17 were steamers and launches and 59 sailing vessels.  These were all well-smacks.  A few sailing smacks also engaged in other fishery pursuits during the dull summer months.  In 1879 a steamer which had no well was used to run lobsters to the cannery at Castine.  The first steamer fitted with a well to engage in the business was the Grace Morgan, owned by Mr. F. W. Collins, a lobster dealer of Rockland, who describes the steamer as follows: 

The steam and well smack Grace Morgan was built in 1890, by Robert Palmer & Son, of Noank, Conn.  At that time she was a dry boat, but the following year, 1891, the Palmers built a small well in her as an experiment, but I am of the opinion that it did not prove very satisfactory or profitable; consequently they offered her for sale and wrote to me in relation to buying her.  I went to Noank and looked her over and came to the conclusion that by enlarging the well and making other needed changes she could be made not only a good boat to carry lobsters alive, but also to do it profitably; consequently I bought her and brought her to Rockland, had the well enlarged on ideas of my own, and differently constructed, so as to give it better circulation of water, and also made other needed improvements throughout the boat to adapt her especially for carrying lobsters alive.  The changes I made in her proved so successful in keeping lobsters alive, while it increased the capacity for carrying, that I have since adapted the same principles on all my boats.  The well I had put into the Grace Morgan is what is termed a “box well,” that is, without any well deck.  The well is built from the sides of the steamer directly to the hatch on the main deck, with bulkheads forward and aft and tops running directly to the deck. . . .  You will see at once that this well has many advantages over the old style with flat well decks, like those of sailing vessels:  (1) It affords a much