“…You see, back then the boats fished every night unless there was no market. With the cannery, if the cannery was going well, we’d generally work Monday through, well, with the cutting machines, we had to cut a day ahead to have production. We cut Sundays for Monday’s production. We cut Monday for Tuesday’s production, and so forth and so on.
So, I always had to time it with the boats so they would land fish all on Saturday night. Which we got delivered to the plant Sunday morning, which was then cut so that production would start Monday morning. Timing was always an issue especially working around the weather or if the boats were fishing in New Bedford vs New Prospect Harbor, then you had a sixteen-hour trucking issue. Logistically for me it was fun. It was a nightmare, but it was fun.”
Al West was a supervisor at the Stinson Cannery in Prospect Harbor, ME.
Listen to the full interview .
September 10, 2012
Steuben, ME
Interviewer: Keith Ludden
Recommended citation: West, Al, Oral History Interview, September 10, 2012 by Keith Ludden, Page #, Oral History and Folklife Research. Online: https://www.oralhistoryandfolklife.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Al-West-.pdf.
Permission to quote from this transcript must be obtained from Oral History and Folklife Research. Please contact OHFR for further information.