"Crab Crab any Crab" in the flat basket from 1688 Cryes of the city of London . A second street seller with a wheel-barrel "Crabs! Crabs Alive!" in 1850 City Cries of Philadelphia (where a crab has caught a boy). How a monkey catches crabs, crabs from Norway, and British crab-pots...
Crabs are taken in various modes—some very simple, and others on a
large and more complex scale, for purposes of commerce. The West Indian monkey
inserts his tail in the hole of the Crab, and the latter grasping it, the
former jerks out his tail, and so secures his prize. The children of fishermen
often catch Crabs, by thrusting into their retreats a stick, with a hook on the
end of it, which the animal instantly seizing, is drawn forth. This, however,
and the like methods, can take but few, and those not the finest in quality.
Crab fishing, as generally conducted along the British
coast, is pursued by two men going out in one boat. Besides their boat, they
require a capital of about ten pounds; one half for creels, cruives, or crab
pots, the other half for lines. These Crab-pots are made of dry osier, and
resemble basket-work. They are framed on the principle of the wire mouse-trap
the aperture being at the top, instead of the side. Within the pot the bait,
consisting of thornback, or skait, is fixed at the bottom, and the pot is then
dropped in some favorable location, three stones being fastened inside of
weight enough to sink it. Sometimes the pots are sunk twenty fathoms deep,
under certain conditions of weather and ground. In fine weather, they are
dropped in from three to five fathoms, but Crabs are found chiefly where the
bottom is rocky.
A line is fastened to the pot, and at the upper end of the line is
fixed a cork, which floats on the surface. Thus the place is known where the
pot is sunk, and usually from forty to fifty pots are set at the same time. The
bait being suspended about the middle of the pot, can readily be seen by the
Crabs, which, entering the aperture, find, like a mouse in a wire-trap, that
escape is impossible. Lobsters, Prawns, and Shrimps are often found captured
with the Crabs.
After setting all their pots, the fishermen have still some time left
to go further seaward for other fish, before it is necessary to visit them.
Crab fishing, therefore, while a valuable addition to their means-of gaining a
subsistence, does not preclude their pursuit of other fish at the same season.
Crabs are brought to market both raw and boiled. If the market be distant,
they are placed in a well box, attached to the outside of the fishing vessel
and thus are brought to Billingsgate even from far off Norway. May, June and July are the months in
which it is generally out of season, though, even then Crabs may be procured,
which are perfectly fit for the table. … The usual length of boiling is from
one fourth of an hour to two hours, either in sea water, or water saturated
with salt.
Frost, John. Grand
Illustrated Encyclopedia of Animated Nature… New York: 1856
The cryes of the city of London drawne after the life in 74 copper plates [London: 1688?] from The British Museum.
CRABS! CRABS ALIVE! 1850 Philadelphia
Our supply of crabs comes mostly from the
Chesapeake Bay. In the summer months they ascend the Patapsco as high as
Baltimore; but those seen in our markets are generally taken some
fifteen or twenty miles below that city. Hampton, a village near Old
Point Comfort, Virginia, is the most famous place for crabs. It has
often been tauntingly said the people subsist on them, and even that
some of the inhabitants have fins. They
have been jeered so much on account of their fishy location, that
strangers landing at the wharf, have found it prudent to say as little
as possible on the subject of crabs.
The hard-shelled crabs are most common, and they are sold very cheap. The soft-shelled ones, which are so abundant in Baltimore and the other southern cities, are very rarely offered in our [Phila] market, although the keepers of the best hotels and eating-houses take care to obtain from Baltimore a supply for their tables, when they are in season.
Here is
the old Crab-man, with his wheelbarrow, calling out with might and
main, "Crabs! Crabs alive! Buy any Crabs? Here dey are, all alive! Werry
nice and fresh!"
But see! there is a young gentleman who has caught a crab, by just putting his hand among the live contents of Cudjoe's wheelbarrow; or rather, to speak more accurately, the crab has caught him. See how he "jumps about, and wheels about, and cries Oh! Oh!" ...
City Cries [of Philadelphia]… designs by Croome. Phila: 1850
©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
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