USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > The story of Essex County, Volume I > Part 27
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43. Quoted from "Gloucester, by Land and Sea," by Charles Boardman Hawes.
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
of the boys could get down a morsel of it, so they filled the old man's plate and waited.
"He came down, grumbling as usual, and crammed a quar- ter of a pound of salt cod into his mouth. A curious expres- sion spread over his face. His eyes lighted. 'There!' he cried. 'That's what I call a nice corned fish !'
"There is another side to this business of fishing, which no one can forget who knows Gloucester. The men of Glouces- ter have paid for her fish with hundreds of lost vessels and thousands of human lives. There are many men living who remember the gale of February 24, 1862, when in one night fifteen Gloucester vessels and a hundred and twenty Gloucester men went down, 'leaving seventy widows and a hundred and forty fatherless children.' And, in 1871, Gloucester lost nine- teen vessels and a hundred and forty men.
"The tale of Howard Blackburn, who forty years ago was lost on the Banks in a dory, is still told in Gloucester, and the hero of the tale is still living here. On January 25, 1883, he put out from the schooner 'Grace L. Fears,' with his dory mate, Thomas Welch. When they tried to return, they could not find the schooner and anchored for several hours. At last they saw the riding lights of a vessel to windward, but a gale was blowing and they could not row against it. Black- burn lost his mittens overboard and his hands froze. All night, all day, and again all night, they lay to a drag they had rigged; then Welch became delirious and died, and Black- burn tried to take his mittens, but his own hands were so stiff that he could not get them on. He had kept his hands curved as they froze, so that they would hold the oars, and when the wind moderated, he pulled for land.
"The oars literally rubbed the frozen flesh off his fingers, but he rowed all day, saw land at nightfall, put out his drag until morning, began rowing at daybreak, again rowed all day, and again at nightfall had failed to reach the shore. Twenty- four hours later, still rowing with the hooks of frozen bone and tendon that had been hands, he reached a deserted fishing stage and an unoccupied house, in which he spent the night walking the floor and eating snow. Next morning he returned
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to the dory, and succeeded in gaining Little River where peo- ple saw him, and hurrying to his assistance, brought him ashore. He had been five days in the dory, and for three days he had carried with him the dead body of his dory mate. He lost the fingers of both hands, but by indomitable persever- ance he escaped with his life.
"There is a Gloucester story for you! No one knows how many men in lost dories fought for their lives as long as Howard Blackburn and suffered as much, only to die at sea in the end. Many a lost dory has never reached land."44
IMPROVEMENTS IN MERCHANDISING-Perhaps the first improve- ment in the merchandising of fish was the discovery that cod might have their bones removed before they were sold. The results of this discovery are described by McFarland :
"The preparation of boneless cod originated with the patenting of a process in 1868 by William D. Cutler, of Phila- delphia. The finished produce was known as 'dessi- cated fish.' At first the inferior grades of fish were used in the production of the article, but as an increased demand arose for the food, more attention was paid to the preparation of it for the market. So rapidly did the business increase that by 1875, over 500,000 pounds of boneless fish were prepared at Gloucester alone ; in 1879, about 12,000,000 pounds were prepared at Gloucester, and about 6,000,000 pounds elsewhere in New England. By 1898, the New Eng- land preparation of boneless cod was about 25,000,000 pounds, most of the fish being prepared at Gloucester.
"Practically all the fish thus prepared goes to the market under the designation of codfish. Of the total quantity of boneless fish, it has been stated that an average of 60 per cent. is prepared from cod, 28 per cent. from hake, 8 per cent. from haddock, and four per cent. from cusk."
There have, however, in recent years been many other improve- ments in the merchandising of fish. The manufacturer has taken on the quickened tempo of the fishing fleet. What these changes are
44. Quoted from Hawes and Hornby.
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have been described by Mr. Fitzgerald in a way that admits of no improvement :45
"After the first successful long-distance shipment of fish packed in ice in 1858 the age-old inhibitions of the industry were broken down. Naturally the fish business expanded rapidly as shipments in ice became a universal practice. Fish had now been taken out of the ultra-perishable class. Yet, except in the winter months, shipments beyond three or four hundred miles were rare. When transportation facilities improved and express companies provided a re-icing service, the distance a shipment could be made was doubled. How- ever, the markets near at hand absorbed the greater part of the New England production. That part not sold fresh was salted. Sales efforts were meager and unorganized. The advent of the commercial telegraph and telephone broadened the market considerably. Still, even in the winter a shipment as far west as St. Louis was rare up to very recent years. Although the progress of the industry followed closely the progress of other industries that provided improved services, the first really rapid strides in the history of the fish business have been due to radical improvements in methods of mer- chandising the fish itself.
"One of the most important contributions of science to the New England fisheries has been the remarkable advance made since the latter part of the last century in the application of mechanical refrigeration. With artificial low temperatures came the realization that the gluts of the fish business could be absorbed by freezing the fish and storing it until the market improved. Of course many abuses crept in, and much fish was frozen that had been kept too long and really should have been thrown away. This means of preservation, however, was used to the fullest extent in the mackerel fishery, and through the subsequent stabilization of prices it has been the savior of that fishery. Production grew as the market for fresh fish expanded, but with the inroads of industrialism it became more difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of natural ice for the vessels. Artificial ice manufacture then began to
45. "New England's Prospect," 1933, pp. 263-69.
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play an ever more important part in the development of the fisheries. Except at a few small places along the Maine coast, practically all the ice now used in the New England fisheries is artificial. The ice plants are located on or near the fish wharves, and this in itself has increased efficiency.
"The fishing industry took the lead in the freezing of per- ishable food products. As far back as 1861 Enoch Piper received a United States patent for freezing fish by means of salt and ice. Such methods were used on a small scale between then and 1892, when the first ammonia refrigerating machine was introduced for freezing fish. Subsequently, and particu- larly since the beginning of the present century, the method of freezing in cold rooms has come into widespread use. More than a hundred million pounds of fish are so frozen annually in the United States today.
"In 1869 William Davis was granted a patent for freez- ing fish packed tightly in covered metal pans completely sur- rounded by ice and salt. This method was capable of produc- ing frozen fish of excellent quality and is still in use on the Great Lakes. In 1916 Plank46 and others set forth the scien- tific reasons why the rapid freezing of fish produces a com- modity of superior quality, and since about 1919 more serious and widespread attention has been given to the development of rapid freezing processes.
"Further advance was made upon the introduction of a new method of preparation of the fish itself when about the year 1919 Kenneth Fowler of New York conceived the idea of dressing fish ready-to-cook (as fillets, steaks, and pan fish), wrapping them separately or in small bundles, chilling them to just above freezing point, and shipping them in insulated (balsawood) boxes direct to the retailer. This was probably the first sanitary trade-marked package of dressed fresh fish ever used.
"In 1921, Dana Ward, a Boston fish merchant, developed a more economical package which was rapidly adopted by the
46. R. Plank. E. Ehrenbaum, and K. Reuter : "Die Konservierung von Fischen durch das Gefrierverfahren," Berlin, 1916.
Essex-21
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industry. The fish were filleted-that is, all bones were removed-and the clear-flesh sides of the fish brined, wrapped in parchment, packed in a wooden box, and shipped by express direct to the retailer. John C. Wheeler, one of Ward's Bos- ton competitors, improved on this method by packing the parchment-wrapped fillets in a tin box, which was then placed in a wooden box large enough to admit plenty of ice. Other dealers followed in quick succession. By 1924 there were 40 filleting plants ; this number was swelled to 85 in 1928, to 112 in 1929, and to 128 in 1930. In the latter year 33 species of fish were produced as fillets in about 25 cities in 15 different states. By far the greater part of this business is concen- trated in New England.
"A further advance was made by Clarence Birdseye, a New Yorker, when in 1923 he developed an apparatus for quick-freezing blocks of fish fillets, steaks, and pan fish. Sev- eral other quick-freezing apparatus for fillets were evolved shortly afterwards. By 1927 three important processes for freezing fillets were being employed in New England. Clar- ence Birdseye, who by this time had transferred the scene of his experiments to Gloucester, Mass., had now developed a newer method of far-reaching importance. The fillets were packaged, hermetically sealed, and then subjected to tempera- tures as low as fifty degrees below zero Fahrenheit. The packages were placed in a cold tunnel between two very cold heat-conducting surfaces-such as continuous metal belts- and the contents frozen in a remarkably short time without direct contact with the refrigerant. The patents on which the process is based were recently sold to a large food corpo- ration, and the system is now quick-freezing meats, fruits and vegetables, and is well on the way to revolutionizing the whole perishable-food industry.
"For the first time in its history, the industry has a product easily adapted to branding and trademarking. Both fresh and frozen fillets are merchanised wholly under special brands and trademarks, and this business is growing at a very surpris- ing rate. With particular brands of fish to advertise, mam- moth programs of association and individual advertising are
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being undertaken. The year 1930 was marked by the first use of radio for advertising nationally a private brand of fillets.
"The older method of freezing in cold rooms, called slow or sharp freezing, appears simple enough but causes a great deal of irremediable damage to the fish. Quick freezing, on the other hand, introduces a perfect product. On defrost- ing, the cells retain their natural fluids, while the tender juiciness and natural flavor are returned unharmed. Fresh
GLOUCESTER-A BIT OF WATERFRONT Showing fishing vessels tied up at the wharves Courtesy of the Gloucester Chamber of Commerce
fish, fresher than one ordinarly obtains even in the Boston market, is the result, because it is quick-frozen within only a few hours after leaving its habitat, the sea.
"Quick-frozen fillets, which can be frozen so much faster than whole fish, enhance the quality of resulting product. They can be packaged economically and so protected from desiccation and oxidation during storage. The final step appears to have been already achieved. It is the method developed by Clarence Birdseye, wherein the fillets are packed
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and hermetically sealed before freezing in neat trade-marked packages which go directly to the consumer without ever being exposed to contamination, desiccation, or oxidation at any place or any time while en route. Because of its pliability fish conforms nicely to the shape of the package, assuring excellent contact with the freezing surface.
"The outstanding economy of filleting is the reduction of shipping weight by elimination of the waste portions of the fish at the point of production. This amounts in all cases to more than 50 per cent. and in the case of flat fish to as much as 75 per cent. The outstanding economy of freezing is in the adaptability of the preserved product to storage, whereby the peaks and valleys of production and demand may be leveled to stabilize the industry. The result is price stabiliza- tion in an industry that has heretofore had tremendous price fluctuations even from day to day. Moreover, a quick-frozen fillet is not perishable while protected at a properly low tem- perature. So protected it can be shipped anywhere. New markets are being opened that never before sold a pound of New England's fish except salted, canned, or pickled. The demand is now greater than the supply. New England fish- eries are in the midst of revolutionary changes, an economic development all-embracing and without precedent in the fish- ing industry.
"The quick-frozen fillet has placed the New England fish- ing industry on a high business plane. Packing-house methods are now employed. The business is gradually becoming amal- gamated into larger units, where all the economies of large- scale production can be enjoyed. Even the relatively small producers have increased their efficiency by improving their production layout and by including labor-saving equipment, such as mechanical hoists, conveyors, and packaging machinery. For those who cannot afford to own their own quick-freezing equipment, public cold storages have provided this facility at a reasonable tariff. Stocks are now prepared ahead in times of plenty to be sold in times of scarcity. Market gluts are a thing of the past, and the business is on an even keel and forg- ing ahead rapidly.
"It was mentioned above that in filleting more than 50 per cent. of the round weight of fish consists of inedible parts.
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With the reduction of this amount in weight comes a cor- responding saving in cost of transportation that can be handed on to the consumer. This is borne out by the fact that in 1929 the cost of transportation, icing, etc., was paid on but 84,000,- 000 pounds of finished product, representing over 200,000,000 pounds of whole fish which would have been handled under the old system. With car-lot transportation of quick-frozen fillets to storage in market areas comes an additional saving over the old single-order express shipments of the past. Here is a further economic advantage for the consumer. The result is that the housewife gets her fish at no greater cost than for- merly and is relieved of the unpleasant necessity of cleaning it and preparing it for cooking. She now receives it in a neat package or waterproof wrapping on which are printed several recipes for tempting dishes.
"The retailer is no longer a loser because of fish spoiling from overbuying or poor trading conditions. He keeps the products frozen in his mechanically refrigerated show case, where it remains in excellent condition for two weeks or more if necessary. His profit on a given quantity of fish is now a certainty. He is able to handle fish on the same margin of profit as is common for less perishable merchandise. Again the consumer is benefited.
"In preparing fishery products for market many problems arise relative to the handling of fresh fish; in the freezing, salting, smoking, and canning of fish; and in the manufacture of fishery by-products. Various ones of these problems are receiving study at the technological laboratory in Gloucester. This laboratory, which is the largest of the bureau's field tech- nological laboratories, is equipped to conduct research on chemical, bacteriological, and engineering fishery problems. The laboratory has a corps of six technologists devoting full time to research. During the year 1932 this research has developed a new method of preventing moisture evaporation from frozen fish held in cold storage, has developed control methods for smoking fish so that a product of uniform quality can be prepared, has shown the detrimental effect of water ice in leaching minerals from fresh fish, has shown the effect of forking fish in accelerating bacterial decomposition, has shown
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THE STORY OF ESSEX COUNTY
the germicidal effect of smoke on fish, has determined the chemical and physical properties of haddock-liver oil, has developed experimental methods for manufacturing ground fish meal, and, in addition, various other studies are still in progress at the laboratory.47
INTERESTING LOCAL PREFERENCES FOR FISH.
"In selecting and packing salt fish for different parts of the country and different parts of the world, the Gloucester companies reflect in a singularly revealing manner social and economic conditions. For Cuba, Porto Rico, and other tropi- cal markets, heavily salted fish, dried hard, are packed, under pressure in the big drums. Hundred-pound boxes are easier to store, but customers who are used to buying fish in drums prefer them. In Baltimore, where the negro population buys quantities of fish, they want the cheapest sorts, and there is good market for hake. Philadelphia calls for fish dressed and skinned, but not boned-a little better grade than Baltimore, but not the best. The New York buyers demand the best fish that is packed. Washington, in which the extremes of popu- lation range from the White House to the negro section. buys both the best and the cheapest. Nine-tenths of the fish that goes to the Western States, where there is a large Scan- dinavian population, which knows fish and can judge accu- rately its quality, is of the best 'fancy' grade.
"In a curious way, too, other matters affect the fish busi- ness. Prohibition for a time destroyed the market for bone- less herring, which the saloons had used in large quantities as a 'free lunch'-an ingenious generosity, as every one knows who has experienced the thirst a single boneless herring can create! During the last year herring have been gaining ground as appetizers, and the wholesalers believe that at a reasonable retail price they would soon come back to their own. But the delicatessen shops, which buy herring at fifteen or sixteen cents a pound, wholesale, or at most twenty cents a pound with all charges for transportation included, and sell them for sixty cents a pound, retail, severely handicap the busi- ness by their zeal for three hundred per cent. profit.
47. "Report on the Marine Fisheries," 1932.
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"There are people here and there throughout the country who still insist on buying the whole salt cod, such as used to hang in many cellars a generation ago, but the products of the Gloucester fisheries have advanced far beyond that primitive form of sea food. There are many brands and many grades of boneless fish in cartons and boxes. There are prepara- tions of codfish and haddock, lightly corned and canned. There is 'salad fish,' which closely resembles flaked fish, so prepared for salads that it tastes like the more expensive crab meat. There are clam chowders of various kinds-a 'Down East' chowder made with milk; a 'Manhattan Style' flavored with tomato and made to dilute with water. There are finnan had- dies and smoked boneless herrings in wooden boxes and glass jars. There are soused mackerel in cans. There is canned roe, which has a large sale in the South, but a very small sale in the North."48
UTILIZATION OF WASTE PRODUCTS-There was yet another step to be taken to increase the efficiency of the industry, and that was the utilization of the waste products of the fish. This process began with the codfish skins. Orra Stone, in his "History of Massachu- setts Industries," has credited the discovery of how to produce bone- less codfish to George W. Smith, a Civil War veteran. Whoever originated this branch of the business unconsciously revolutionized the salt fish industry, with the result, as Mr. Stone says, that within two years
"all the Gloucester dealers had added skinning lofts to their plants, and were offering boneless cod in boxes to the trade. Small mountains of codfish skins accumulated in the sheds, and the disposal of them became a problem. Some were hauled to nearby farmers to be employed as fertilizer.
"Isaac Stanwood, having occasion to cross a field follow- ing a prolonged wet spell which was succeeded by one of excessive heat, picked up one of these sun-cooked skins, and found that it clung to his flesh. He told of his discovery of glue in the parched codfish skin, and an ambitious young man employed in making tin cans in a local factory attempted to
48. "Gloucester, by Land and Sea," by Charles Boardman Hawes, Boston, 1923.
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capitalize the refuse, but as the glue decomposed, his ship- ments were returned. He promptly sought a Boston chemist, who recommended a preservative formula of carbolic and boracic acids, perfumed with checkerberry, and the commer- cial success of his experiment was effected. Soon the demand for codfish skins advanced to $20 a ton, and they now stand at $90 a ton."
From this discovery developed the famous Le Page's glue, manu- factured by the Russia Cement Company of Gloucester. As Mr. Stone tells us the company was founded in 1876, the product origi- nally being called Russia belting cement, from which the company derived its name. In 1881 the glue was packed in household sizes and christened's Le Page's, a name which is today a household word in every civilized country. Today the Le Page line includes more than twenty internationally known commodities, and the company main- tains branches in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and London, being capitalized for $1,100,000 and employing two hundred and fifty operatives.
Next came the use of these skins for tanning purposes, and the utilization of the product for cigarette cases, bill folds, and all sorts of souvenirs, the demand being so great as to make it necessary today to draw on the codfish centers of Norway for tanned skins to supply the souvenir manufacturers with the raw material.
A further economy which may be seriously considered for the first time is the utilization of the waste of filleting plants. The table below shows the great increase in waste utilization since the advent of filleting. This has been possible only through the accumulation of waste at central points. The outlet for the dry fish meal is for animal feeding.
PRODUCTION OF FISH MEAL IN NEW ENGLAND.a
YEAR.
Tons Produced.
Factory Value.
Production Increase (Percentage).
1924.
1,600
$80,000
1925.
2,800
145,000
75.0
1926.
3,100
165,000
10.7
1927.
4,500
290,000
45.2
1928
8,800
580,000
95.6
1929.
13,000
880,000
47.7
1930.
11,500
701,000
-II.5
a Based on private communications from U. S. Bur. of Fisheries for years 1924-28. See also "Fishery Industries of the United States," 1929, P. 755; 1930, p. 161.
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The figures in this table indicate an increase of 618.7 per cent. in production and 776 per cent. in value of fish meal made from fillet- ing plant waste in seven years. Thus the New England fishing indus- try is now operated like our large meat-packing establishments. The present outlook indicates that the industry may go still further and put its packing plants afloat to operate on the fishing banks several hundred miles from land.49
Of the firms which have helped to make Gloucester the greatest fishing city in America a few should be mentioned. Their descrip- tion is taken from Orra L. Stone's "History of Massachusetts Industries" :
"The history of the Gorton-Pew Fisheries Company, Ltd., may be said to go back to the first days of Gloucester, for there is little question that ancestors of the present officers of the company were among the settlers in 1623. Their descend- ants have been engaged in the fishing business directly or indi- rectly ever since.
"Early in the 19th century the great-grandfather of one of the present directors came from Virginia to engage in the fisheries. Incidentally, this man, though he served with Washington's army, lived to the ripe old age of 107 years, a living testimony to the theory that a fish diet produces health and longevity. The present organization dates definitely from IS49.
"At the age of 18 years, Nathaniel L. Gorton began as a salesman of Gorton's codfish, and within a few short years, after studying and analyzing the field of distribution and the needs of the business as he saw them, he urged the concern to intensively advertise boneless codfish, the sale for which soon reached unheard of proportions. Admitted to the firm of Slade, Gorton & Co., young Gorton saw that economies could be effected by bringing about a merger of that unit with John Pew & Co., David B. Smith Co., and Reed & Gammage, and the Gorton-Pew Fisheries Co. was formed.
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