Oyster Pirate
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300px, Oyster pirates on the Chesapeake Bay in 1884 An oyster pirate is a person who poaches
oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but no ...
s. It was a term that became popular on both the
West Coast of the United States The West Coast of the United States, also known as the Pacific Coast and the Western Seaboard, is the coastline along which the Western United States meets the North Pacific Ocean. The term typically refers to the Contiguous United States, contig ...
and the
East Coast of the United States The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard, is the region encompassing the coast, coastline where the Eastern United States meets the Atlantic Ocean; it has always pla ...
during the 19th century.


San Francisco Bay oyster pirates and the works of Jack London

The term "oyster pirate" appeared in several literary works by
Jack London John Griffith London (; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors t ...
. London usually used the term without explanation ("I wanted to be where the winds of adventure blew. And the winds of adventure blew the oyster pirate sloops up and down San Francisco Bay"). Writers about London also use the term without explanation ("he was a sailor, seal-hunter, tramp, fish warden, oyster pirate, cannery worker, jailbird, boxer, and gold digger"), as if everyone knew the meaning of the term. In the context of Jack London's life, it refers to a specific set of conditions peculiar to the oyster industry in
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
in the 1880s. While San Francisco Bay had a native oyster (the same species found elsewhere on the Pacific Coast), it was never very abundant. By the early 1850s, entrepreneurs began importing oysters from Shoalwater Bay (now
Willapa Bay Willapa Bay () is a bay located on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state in the United States. The Long Beach Peninsula separates Willapa Bay from the greater expanse of the Pacific Ocean. With over of surface area Willapa Bay is the ...
), Washington Territory. Native West coast oysters were much smaller and had a different flavor from those from the East coast. When the
transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...
was completed, large fishery companies in the east sold juvenile oysters to San Francisco entrepreneurs who purchased submerged land from the State of California and grew oysters from transplanted Eastern stock. By the 1880s the handful of competing oyster companies began consolidating into a single
monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...
. Their harvest of a private commodity from a public space, the San Francisco Bay, led to an opportunity for oyster pirates. Pirates raided the oyster beds at night and sold their take in the
Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...
markets in the morning. The public disliked the Southern Pacific and the oyster growers, and liked cheap oysters. As a result, the oyster pirates had considerable public sympathy and police were reluctant to take action against them. Jack London described oyster piracy in his autobiographical "alcoholic memoirs", ''
John Barleycorn "John Barleycorn" is an England, English and Scotland, Scottish folk song. The song's protagonist is John Barleycorn, a personification of barley and of the beer made from it. In the song, he suffers indignities, attacks, and death that corres ...
'', in the form of romanticized juvenile fiction in ''
The Cruise of the Dazzler ''The Cruise of the Dazzler'' is an early novel by Jack London, set in his home city of San Francisco. It is considered a boy's adventure novel. In the novel, Joe Bronson, dissatisfied with his dull life at school, runs away and joins the crew o ...
'', and from the opposing point of view of the California Fish Patrol in "A Raid on the Oyster Pirates," from '' Tales of the Fish Patrol''. Oyster pirating was also listed as one of London's first occupations, after leaving a cannery at the age of fifteen, by Abraham Rothberg in an Introduction to ''The Great Adventure Stories of Jack London'' (1967) and by Eric Hanson in ''A Book of Ages'' (2008). London owned a boat which he used as an oyster pirate, whose purchase was funded by a loan from his black nanny Virginia Prentiss.


East Coast and Chesapeake Bay oyster pirates

Oyster pirates also operated on the east coast of the United States beginning in the 18th century. These disputes often focused on increased
privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...
of what had been public rights, providing an obvious inspiration for later West Coast activities. Oyster pirates also appeared in the
Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula, including parts of the Ea ...
, especially from the second half of the nineteenth century into the twentieth century during the Oyster Wars.


See also

* Oyster Wars *
San Leandro Oyster Beds The San Leandro Oyster Beds in San Leandro, California, were the origin of the oyster industry in the U.S. state of California. During the 1890s, the oyster industry thrived until it became the single most important fishery in the state. According ...
* Albert W. Hicks (New York Oyster Pirate)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oyster Pirate History of fishing Maritime history of California Maritime history of Maryland Maritime history of Virginia Pirates Oysters Poaching Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing Gilded Age