1876: The Fishermen & the Bay by Alice Le Plongeon

In 1876, young Alice le Plongeon wrote about living in Isla Mujeres with her archeologist husband. The town of Dolores had been established 26 years earlier, by ~fifty families fleeing the Caste War. She describes the bay as being lively, with large Cuban schooners, small island boats, and an occasional smuggler's sloop...
"The bay is generally animated, because many fishing smacks from Cuba frequent those waters, and the captains make the bay their headquarters, as the pirates did at the beginning of this century. These smacks are generally handsome schooners, of thirty to seventy tons burden, divided in three compartments. The central one forms a large tank whose sides are perforated with hundreds of holes, through which the sea water passes freely in and out. As soon as caught the fishes are bled by piercing them behind the right fin with a thin, hollow, cylindrical tube, then thrown in the tank, to be transferred to other large cages, also perforated, that are anchored near shore; these are closed with a padlock. When enough fish are caught to almost fill the vessel's tank, they are taken to Havana to be kept in other tanks till required for the market.

Besides the schooners from Havana, there are coasting sloops that carry on considerable contraband between British Honduras and Yucatan, stopping at the island for any cargo they can get.
As for the islanders' boats, they constantly come and go; some are exceedingly small. The fishermen handle them most skillfully, one alone easily manages rudder and sail; they frequently stand up-right in the smallest craft, apparently as much at ease as on land. To balance large boats they tie to the mast a rope with a long loop at the other end. In this a man sits as in a swing, his feet resting on the edge of the weather-side of the boat that is thus kept straight in a very strong wind, the man swinging himself backward over the water."
She also gossiped about the Cuban captains...
"In case of stormy weather or laziness, the captains remain at Mugeres Island for days together, never in a hurry to leave; for if in Spain (Spanish Cuba, probably) they have one family, here also there are blue-eyed children to climb on their knees and call them "Papa". This state of affairs does not seem to be out of the way there; it may be that few have preserved the right to point the finger at their neighbor."

The photo is from Here and There in Yucatan by Alice D. Le Plongeon

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