18th and 19th Century: Two Centuries of Oyster Carnage John McCabe

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The 18th and 19th century are sometimes referred to as "the golden age of oysters". It is not unlikely that more oysters were harvested in these two centuries than in all of the prior millennia of man's existence combined!

By the time the 20th century dawned, the damage by unbridled over-harvesting had already been done - in many regions irreversibly. A number of oyster species stood at the brink of extinction. Europe was struggling to keep the once vastly abundant European oyster (Ostrea edulis) alive in commercial quantities. Many oystermen in the American Atlantic Northeast reminisced about the days when the Eastern oyster seemed infinitely abundant. In the Pacific Northwest, the unbridled harvesting of billions of Olympia oysters in the course of less than five decades had left this species almost at the brink of extinction. This scenario applied not only to culinary oysters, but also to the distantly related pearl oysters. The ancient pearl oyster grounds of the Persian Gulf had been largely exploited. By the end of the 19th century, the once fabulous pearl oyster resources off the coasts of Venezuela and also the Pacific side of the Americas had vanished. Almost 400 years of unchecked European greed for pearls had taken a terrible toll on the pearl oyster beds and had brought unimaginable suffering to Native Americans.

European oystering equipment was in short order adopted by the settlers in the new colonies of the Americas. Exhausted oyster beds in Europe had left many an oysterman penniless. The lure of the "New World" brought many skilled oystermen from various parts of Europe to America. Opportunity abounded in America and oysters were still most plentiful. By the time the 20th century rolled around, oyster dredging in the 19th century had irreparably damaged or destroyed countless formerly grand oyster beds in Europe and the United States. Amazingly enough, the oyster carnage in the famed Chesapeake Bay was allowed to continue to rage largely unchecked clear into the first half of the 20th century.

The 19th century brought vast improvements in transportation to both Europe and the United States. In 1804, an English engineer by the name of Richard Trevithick built the first steam-powered locomotive. It failed more or less initially, as the rails couldn't support its tremendous weight. By the second half of 19th century, however, railroad transportation was nearly perfected and oysters were shipped all over Europe and the United States.

The 18th and 19th century also produced great minds in many areas of natural science. Just about everything imaginable was being studied and catalogued with great care - and often at great expense. Frequently, the beautiful drawings of plants and animals were nothing short of artistic masterpieces. Likely, the most famous naturalist in the area of bivalves was a Swede by the name of Linné (1717-1778; also known as Linnaeus). Not only did he intensely study bivalves and other sea creatures all his life, in 1758 he even patented a method for producing cultured pearls in a particular freshwater mussel (species Unio pictorum).

Two more significant developments, most critical to the trade with oysters, were also nearly perfected in the 19th century: Canning and refrigeration.

We owe canning to the Emperor Napoleon, the French chef François Appert and the English scientist Peter Durrant. Napoleon's military campaigns often left his troops in far flung, hostile places without a decent meal. Any soldier, past or present, will attest to the fact that being fed the same "slop" day after day will certainly not enhance the fighting morale of the troops. Napoleon knew this also. In 1795, he offered a large cash prize to anyone who could devise a method of preserving various types of food for an extended period of time. In 1806, François Appert managed to come up with a method, which would allow a variety of foods to be preserved for a long time by sealing them half-cooked in a glass jars. The jars were sealed with corks which were tied down with wires (similar to the way Champagne corks are secured). He collected his reward in 1810. By then, the Englishman Peter Durrant was already canning food in a tin-coated can. A few years later, the English Royal Navy was delighting in canned meats and fruits during their colonial excursions. Canning in the US became popular during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Subsequently many large and small American cannery operations started springing up, the most famous (and infamous) in terms of oysters being the "Cannery Row" in Baltimore, Maryland. Today, old oyster cans and oyster glass jars have a big following among many collectors.

Great advancements in refrigeration technology also came to pass in the 18th and 19th century. The French had already been chilling and freezing their beverages very effectively in the 1600s by rotating the bottles in a saltpeter and water solution. In 1799, ice produced in New York was being shipped to South Carolina. Selling ice soon became a most lucrative business. In 1842, a brilliant American physician by the name of John Gorrie built a primitive "air conditioner", designed to cool his patients afflicted with yellow fever. His basic method of compressing gas and then letting it vaporize in special coils for heat absorption is, in principle, still used today in most conventional freezers and refrigerators. In the later part of the 19th century, insulated ice-houses started vending large amounts of ice to both the business and private sector. By the end of the 19th century there were well over a thousand commercial ice production facilities operating in the U.S. (by 1909 more than 2,000). Highly perishable products such as fish and shellfish could now be shipped virtually anywhere. Upon arrival, refrigeration could also extend the shelf life of these products.

By the 19th century, oysters were synonymous with "big business"! The tasty bivalves had become the foundation of an enormous industry. The front line consisted of the oystermen. Initially they were the the pickers, dredgers, tongers. By the second half of the 19th century, a new class of oystermen, the oyster growers, emerged in France, parts of the U.S. Northeast, and Japan. Right behind the oystermen stood a formidable army consisting of shipwrights, riggers, sail makers, blacksmiths, shuckers, coopers, tinners, packers, ice manufacturers, dealers and various types of shippers.