The 'Lobster Plug Story'
West Pubnico, Nova Scotia - Pombcoup (Indian name), is a small Acadian community of a mere 2000 people, has supplied
millions of lobster plugs for nearly 100 years. This tiny village of which 95%
of its' ancestors arrived from France in the 1650's, only to find hardship and
deportation, became the "lobster plug capital of the world".
The Acadians came back and are still here today. This group of hardy, ambitious
people were always finding something to do if they could find spare time.
The descendants of these early Acadians settlers were and still are today
mostly fishermen and farmers with the entire family pitching in to help with
the chores and activities around the household.
In the late 1800's, these Acadians started on a very small scale to fish lobsters
mostly for their own food. I recall my grandmother telling me that her
grandmother used to walk out on the flats (when the water - tide - goes
out) knee deep in the harbor and fill an apron or bucket with lobsters in no time. At this point in time, lobsters
were classified as a poor-man's food because this was part of their diet during
most of the year.
As the lobster market developed in the early
1900's, our fishermen started to ship lobsters live to the U.S. markets (Boston
and Maine) on small freights (on ice which they have saved from the ponds
during the winter) for a mere 5 cents to 10 cents per lb., if they made it to
the U.S. alive.
At this time our very unique industry of
"wooden lobster plugs" (pegs) started to take shape. Lobsters normally have
two claws and bite each other to destroy of kill the other lobster. The wooden
lobster plug became the tool used to keep the claws of the lobster shut after
they had been caught in a trap and ready to ship to factories or the live
markets. Normally when a lobster has been severely bitten by another will die
from its wounds. Therefore, the wooden plug (peg) was used in the millions, as
the lobster industry started to expand throughout the regions and the wooden
peg reduced the mortality rate tremendously.
With the growing development of U.S. markets,
Canadian Maritimes started to open factories and buying stations. Our Acadians,
eager to find employment, worked at these factories. They saw the need for the
tremendous volumes of lobster processed and shipped live to their destinations
and began to produce millions upon millions of these lobster plugs to supply
the entire East Coast lobster fishery from this small village of West Pubnico.
Acadians supplied the entire Canadian Maritimes, Quebec, Maine, Massachusetts,
New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York... simply millions of plugs.
In the early 1930's this little Acadian
village of West Pubnico, became the "lobster plug capital of the
world". Work and money was scarce in those days, but the village bustled with people making wooden pegs. The entire
village, every household, corner store, shacks like the Red Roof, la Shoppe a
Smile, la Shoppe a John, Liar's Club; gathering spots for yarning, became, a
center of activity pursued by young and old, male or female. They usually
gathered around a lamp near the kitchen stove.
Plugs are whittled by hand with a small
homemade knife and a thumb leather, with seven precise cuts to give its' shape
and effectiveness. The wood used was local clear pine cut by the men while they
were logging their firewood. This was usually in the fall and winter while the
lake and harbor were frozen.
Our villagers would make and package these
pegs in bags of 1000 and after they had accumulated several 100,000's they
would sell them to local or outside lobster dealers or to other buyers dealing
in pegs. The price was a mere 30 cents to 50 cents per 1000. In most cases
these pegs would be taken to the general store and bartered for commodities
they couldn't raise or didn't have, like flour, sugar, spices, molasses, cloth,
tobacco, and thread for sewing, etc... It's a very important stage of our history
and culture.
We still have residents in the village today
that have used this extra money to install the electricity in their homes, put
oil cloth (linoleum) on their floors, bought a bicycle, paid for their food,
make payments on their house at the Credit Union (bank), buy paint for the
house. Just about anything you could imagine was purchased from the sale of
lobster pegs.
In the 1950's the lobster fishery continued
to expand with better boats, gas engines, mechanized haulers, etc... and the
demand for these wooden pegs increased. At this time, a brilliant Acadian from
the region successfully designed some machines to mass-produce these wooden lobster
pegs. What makes this so special and historical is that he got this idea from
watching my mother make pegs as a pastime one Sunday while visiting our family.
This brilliant gentleman made three different designs of these machines,
improving on quality and production each time as his inventions grew into a
factory. The latest machine was made in the summer of 1972. He and his wife
made pegs for their living for a few years and I had the opportunity of owning
and operating this factory until 1984. This factory was able to produce up to
400,000 pegs in one day, each made one by one by two machines. This factory was
able to mass-produce pegs very efficiently and in the year 1978, we
manufactured and sold over 75,000,000 pegs, distributing to Canadian and U.S.
markets, all from this small Acadian village of West Pubnico. According to our records, Vernon d'Eon
Lobster Plugs Ltd. made and sold, over the nine years we operated the factory
(1975-1984), close to 500,000,000 pegs to the lobster industry and plus the
handmade pegs produced in our own village. (However, they were on the decline
in the 80's)
In 1984 the industry made a change to elastic
bands. With lobster markets beginning to develop all over the world in Europe,
Asia and U.S., lobsters were being shipped over long distances via planes.
Rubber bands proved to be more suitable toward this changing market for live
lobsters.
As you can see Acadians have been the only
people to share this part of the history of the lobster industry. I feel
confident saying that the village of West Pubnico has truly been the
"lobster plug capital of the world" for almost 100 years.
At present, the lobster peg industry is
history; rubber bands are used throughout the entire lobster industry, both
Canadian and American. The landings for lobsters: Canadian - 40,000,000 lbs (approximately), and American - 40,000,0000 lbs. (approximately). There
are variations in some years due to weather and lobster cycles. For the future
the lobster plug factory will be set in the form of a museum, as a learning
experience, to show people how our Acadians used this very unique industry to
their advantage. This will be depicted in different scenes, to show the
evolution that took place in our culture and heritage. From the pine log, to
family kitchen, the gathering around the lamp, and the groups yarning (tall
tales), then bartering in the general store, to the actual visiting of the
factory and machinery "still able to make pegs today". About eight
scenes would tell the whole story.
I am very proud to be part of this valuable
heritage and our history; very proud to be Acadian and this is why our company
is called Vernon d'Eon Lobster Plugs Ltd.
I hope this has explained briefly what
lobster plugs are all about. I would like to hear your comments, as this will help
to get this museum off the ground, please write:
Vernon d'Eon
Vernon d'Eon Lobster Plugs Ltd.
Box 70, Middle West Pubnico
Yarmouth County, N.S.
BOW 2MO
email: vernon@vernondeon.com
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