Lobster War

What price lobster? So valued are the tasty crustaceans that two U.S. states are in a boiling dispute. Last January a New Hampshire lobsterman was arrested by a Maine patrol boat for fishing north of the rather vague boundary separating the two states' ocean waters. New Hampshire's Governor Meldrim Thomson Jr. promptly hoisted the colors. He suggested that Maine Governor Kenneth Curtis drop the charges. Curtis ignored him, and the lobsterman was convicted and fined.

Then, Maine struck again. Angered that 200 lobster pots had been cut from their moorings, a patrol flagged down New Hampshire Lobsterman Edwin Capone. He allowed his boat to be taken in tow, though only after a Maine warden reached for his gun. "Maine has declared war on us!" cried Governor Thomson hyperbolically. He told his state's lobstermen: "You are soldiers in an important battle for the future of the state." But he promptly moved to disarm the crisis before the two states reach their Lobster Thermidor and start shooting, by filing a claim in the U.S. Supreme Court to an additional 2,400 acres of lobstering water.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.