Days Gone By

Remembering the Doxsee Clam Factory

By Betsy Perdichizzi

Published: Thursday, October 16, 2008 10:50 AM CDT

A recent reunion of old-time families stirred up long-forgotten memories of what is was like living on Marco Island in the early days.

The Marco Island Historical Society has been working since May to collect stories, pictures and family histories from the old timers invited to come to our program. This material will be part of the museum archives.

The new Marco Island History Museum will have a room devoted to pioneer history and we have nothing to put in it!

I hope this article and others will inspire people who used to live here to send in their old stories and pictures for the museum.

Sandi Bronson Quesenberry gave me permission to use this material as I see fit. She submitted this story written by her cousin, the late Pete Parker, a geologist, who wrote about his grandfather, Capt. Alex Scott and the boats he ran for the Doxsee Clam Factory.

Hauling boats

"My grandfather, Capt. Alex Scott, operated the clam hauling boats while we lived at Marco. For a portion of this period, my dad, Henry B. Parker, was the engineer on the Sea Belle and some on the older boat, the Clara, although Gordon was the Clara's original engineer.

"The Clara and later the Sea Belle would make the run down the coast from the factory at Marco through the Big Marco River channel, through the railroad bridge near Marco and then the highway bridge near Goodland. After passing Coon Key and the light, where the boats usually churned up mud from the shallow bottom, they entered Gullivan's Bay with the open Gulf on the right.

The dredge

"The clam dredge usually worked the shallow sea bottom some 20 to 25 miles on down the coast near Pavilion Key, where the richest clam beds were. The dredge, which was a large barge with a ramshackle looking wooden structure covering the whole barge, had both a cookhouse, eating hall, and a bunkhouse on the upper deck. So while one crew was working the other crew slept, ate, or played poker. The crews during the clamming season did not seem to be locals but were apparently mostly young men recruited from North Carolina.

"After moving the dredge and setting the huge anchor it would be allowed to drift downwind to the end of its big hawser. It would then start to winch itself forward while the teeth (later water jets were used) on the continuous belt elevator ramp would plow thru the soft mud bottom and throw the clams on the belt. This belt ramp sat in a well inside the dredge.

"As the ramp brought the clams, starfish, mud, turtle-grass, etc. up, it was sprayed with jets of water, which washed the gummy grey mud off the clams. The two men who were pickers sat on either side of the ramp and tossed the clams into bushel baskets.

"The baskets of clams were stacked at the back of the dredge until the Clara or Sea Belle arrived to take the load. The clams were then dumped from the baskets onto the deck of the boat. They carried about 400 bushels.

Swarms of catfish

"The broken clams, conchs, starfish and other debris that fell off the end of the belt provided a fall of food that was gobbled up by swarms of catfish that lived under the dredge. Sometimes, the catfish were gobbled up by huge tarpon lurking under the dredge.

The hauling boat

"The clams came in at night on the hauling boat by the hundreds of bushels from the dredge down the coast. In the early morning at 7 a.m., the factory whistle blew and the hot steamed clams came pouring out on moving rubber belts. The empty shells were tossed out the large windows into a truck. When it was full, it was taken away and dumped on the roads for fill and topping.

"The clam meat was dumped onto another moving belt to be sorted according to size, little necks to be minced and quahogs for chowder. The clam juice was bottled and shipped to the New York Central Railroad for tired business executives. On chowder day, the chowder was made in 50-gallon kettles Manhattan Style.

"You could take a pot home for the noon meal. It was usually eaten with hot bread, cold slaw, and iced tea.

"Supper at five sometimes would be round steak (was there any other kind?) pounded, salt and pepper, floured and fried. Cream gravy was made from drippings and eaten over biscuits with wilted lettuce. Someone always had a pie or cake and coffee.

"No one had any money in those days but everyone ate the same, which was the best the land had to offer. There were ducks, curlews, stone crabs, fish, clams and oysters. People only hunted for food, no one killed for sport.

"The clam dredge and factory were shut down during hurricane season every year. The dredge was towed to a safe harbor and repaired to get ready for the next season.

"Everybody started fishing commercially then. The pompano fishermen could go for a long time after making a good catch, as long as a year. Mackerel fishermen did quite well at times. Then there was the hook and line trout fishermen, which was a mom and pop operation. It was mostly tourists doing it to make expenses."

 

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