History of Islesboro, (Waldo County) Maine United States of America

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Joseph William Collins, statistician, was born at Islesbore, Maine, Aug. 8, 1839; son of David, Jr., and Eliza (Sawyer), grandson of David and Elizabeth (Barter), and great-grandson of John Collins, who was born at Castine, Maine, about 1765. He was brought up a fisher-boy and had few educational advantages. He early went to sea on a fishing craft and there gained the general knowledge that fitted him for his life work. He studied mathematics and the higher English branches on shipboard. In 1879 he was employed by the U.S. fish commission on statistics of New England fisheries and in 1880 was sent by the government to the International Fischere Ausstellung at Berlin on the staff of the U.S. commissioner. In December, 1880, he was ordered to Washington to prepare reports on the fisheries of the country which were published in Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States. In 1883 he attended the International fisheries exposition in London. He designed the U.S. fish commission schooner Grampus, and her advent in 1886 was the signal for a radical change in the construction and equipment of vessels engaged in the fishing industries. His practical suggestions led to the establishment of the New England halibut fishing industry off the Iceland coasts, to the protection of oyster beds from the depredations of star-fishes, the establishment of a profitable ocean fishery at Tampa, Fla., and many improvements in the Pacific coast fisheries. He commanded the schooner Grampus, 1886-88, and in 1887 he discovered and secured a larger collection of the bones of the Great Auk than were before possessed by all the museums of the world. He was an expert adviser of the American commissioners in the International fisheries commission at Washington in 1887-88. He was appointed in 1888 chief of the division of fisheries of the U.S. fish commission and the same year he had charge of the commission's exhibit at Cincinnati, Ohio. He organized a section of naval architecture in the U.S. national museum and was honorary curator from 1884, and was also made curator of the section of fisheries in 1891. President Harrison appointed him in 1890 representative of the U.S. fish commission on the government board of management and control at the World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, and after completing the exhibit for the commission he resigned this position and his connection with the Fish commission in December, 1892. He was chief of the department of fisheries of the World's Columbian exposition from February, 1891, to the close. In 1898 he was U.S. commissioner to the International fisheries exhibition at Bergen, Norway. He was elected an honorary member of various scientific and fisheries societies of Europe and the United States. He came to be recognized as the historian of the American fisheries, and as a fisheries statistician. He edited the Fishing Gazette, and in addition to reviews in Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, he wrote History of the Tile Fish; The Introduction of Gill Nets in the American Cod Fishery; The Beam Trawl Fishery of Great Britain; Reports on the Fishing Grounds of the Gulf of Mexico; Suggestions for Improvements in Fishing Vessels; The Construction and Equipment of the Schooner Grampus ; Report on the Cruise of the Grampus to Newfoundland, labrador and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in 1889; The Fisheries of the Pacific Coast; Statistical Review of the Coast Fisheries of the United States for 1887 and 1888; Report upon the Fishing Vessels and Boats of the Pacific Coast; Notes on the Oyster Fishery of Connecticut; Fisheries of the United States; Decadence of the New England Deep-sea Fisheries; Evolution of the American Fishing Schooner; and many other papers.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Islesboro, (Waldo County) Maine

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