Yes, I remember my mother. She would come home sometimes in the middle of the night and sometimes they would come home early. They wouldn’t know. If they had one boat in, it wouldn’t take that long. I remember her getting up and going. Putting her apron on and her hat, getting her lunch ready the night before. But in the old factory there was a couple that would come over like … [Read more...]
The Last Sardine Cannery
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Through the middle of the 20th century there were as many as 75 canneries up and down the coast of Maine, providing employment and an abundant food source forMaine and the nation. That included feeding American troops through World War I and World War II. At the sound of the factory whistle, cannery workers came and packed fish, staying on the job until an entire boatload of fish was processed. By the 1970's the canneries we declining, and the last sardine cannery in the U.S., at Prospect Harbor, ME closed in April of 2010. This page contains transcripts of conversations with cannery workers who worked in the industry
Clell Genthner Damariscotta, ME
"...Well, once we got the boat loaded with fish, we’d steam into the plant. We’d get in to tie up, and one of the guys from the dock, the night watchman, would come down. If it was during, say, one or two o-clock in the morning, before the plants even started to open up, they’d start pumping the fish out. They’d have somebody there. They would put that pump in, and we’d put … [Read more...]
Cary Lewis Southwest Harbor, ME
"...Staying up, sometimes we’d be up all night.You’d have to go a long distance was. You might not even have hardly have any fish in your hold. This was like purse seining. [We’d go] purse seining at night. We would leave the factory and chase these seiners around. Several times it’s been all night long—Not see anything and not even have anything all day. You might be loaded, … [Read more...]
Al West Steuben, ME
"...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 … [Read more...]
Lela Anderson Corea, ME
"...First experience I had packing fish it was up to Snow’s; it was just a little small factory, and they had a lady that, you know, you had to check out your age and your birth - when you were born, she came in, and my twin sister and I were at the table...She said “You girls must leave the table, because you are not old enough to work”. And we said, “We are,” … [Read more...]