Flat Corrin sees lots of interesting stuff laying around

These are corks. They are made of real cork from trees. In the old days, fishermen used them to float the tops of huge nets they used to catch herring in.

Over 100 years ago, men called tinsmiths used to go to canning factories to make cans out of tin and lead solder. This is a tool they used to make the cans for the clam factory.

This is called a mooring ball. It floats on the water and has a rope which is tied to a chain that goes down to a huge rock under the water called a mooring. The lobstermen tie their boats up to it, and the rock works like an anchor. The rusty metal thing is called a grappling. It is used to tow along the bottom of the ocean and find things the fishermen lose, like lobster traps, scallop drags, and mooring chains.

These are two kinds of old fashioned lobster traps. One is round, and the other is square. (It's really a rectangle, but the fishermen called them square traps). On this island, they used the round ones more than the square ones. These traps are very old and broken down.

This is an old broken scallop drag. It used to have a long bag made out of heavy net and large rings. At the bottom there were two wooden and iron bars that kept it closed as the boat towed it along the bottom. Then, when it was full, the scallop men pulled it out of the water with a mast and boom and opened the bottom so the scallops could fall out into their boat. If you are ever in Maine, the word scallops rhymes with "ball ups". If you say scallops the way they do in New York, the fishermen will laugh at you!