Salmon cannery
A salmon cannery is a factory that
Background
The "father of canning" is the Frenchman
Canning was used in the 1830s in Scotland to keep fish fresh until it could be marketed. By the 1840s, salmon was being canned in Maine and New Brunswick.[3] The commercial salmon canneries had their main origins in California, and in the northwest of the US, particularly on the Columbia River. They were never important on the US Atlantic Coast, but by the 1940s, the principal canneries had shifted to Alaska.[4]
The first salmon cannery in British Columbia began operating on the Fraser River in 1867.[5] Although this first cannery was short lived, many others soon followed. Salmon canneries eventually spread throughout British Columbia, along the Fraser, Skeena, and Nass Rivers, as well as along much of the coast.[citation needed]
North America
Native Americans
Long before the appearance of Europeans, Native Americans operated a dried salmon industry from the Columbia River, trading salmon to the
Settlers
Prior to canning, fish were salted to preserve them. Cobb claims that at the start of the 19th century, the Russians marketed salted salmon caught in Alaska in St. Petersburg.[4][7] Shortly after, the Northwest Fur Company started marketing salted salmon from the Columbia River. It then merged with the Hudson's Bay Company, and the salmon was marketed in Australia, China, Hawaii, Japan, and the eastern United States. Later, some salmon salteries were converted to salmon canneries.[4]
The first industrial-scale salmon cannery in North America was established in 1864 on a barge in the
The settlers learned the use of seine nets from Native Americans. By 1895, 84 seines were on the Columbia, and Robert Hume started hauling them with teams of horses. The seines were operated from daybreak to dusk around islands and along beaches. At
By 1889, the
In 1928, in an attempt to measure the escapement of salmon in
Cannery workers
People of many different nationalities worked in the canneries along the Pacific coast, thus creating an ideal atmosphere for the development of interracial relationships. First Nations people made up the majority of the workforce, though Chinese, Japanese, and Caucasian workers were also present. While at work in the canneries, each of these groups was housed in separate accommodations. The single men generally stayed in racially segregated bunkhouses, while First Nations families lived in small huts or in camps near the canneries.[10] The jobs that these different groups performed at the cannery, as well as the wages that they earned, were generally decided by their race.[11]
First Nations
While many of the foreign workers employed at canneries were single or married men trying to provide for their families back home, not uncommonly, entire First Nations families were present at the canneries.[12] Men, women, and children lived and worked alongside each other during the fishing season, before returning to their homes for the remainder of the year. First Nations men were valued as excellent fishers, as fishing had been a part of their economy since long before settlers reached the coast.[13] While First Nations workers were valuable assets to the canneries, they were not always reliable in the sense that they did not always return year after year. Most First Nations families had other means to provide for themselves, so they were not dependent on the income that the canneries provided, at least in the beginning.[14] In some cases, though, individuals or families returned to the same cannery year after year.[citation needed]
Chinese
Chinese workers originally performed many jobs inside the canneries. They made tins, butchered fish, and packed them.[13] The Chinese were seen as well suited to these more feminine tasks because many people viewed them as a feminine race.[13] These workers were a source of cheap labor prior to the introduction of the head tax in 1903.[15] Afterwards, many workers were replaced or reallocated with the invention of the iron chink, a butchering machine said to replace up to 30 Chinese workers.[16] The name of this machine demonstrates the inherent racisms present at the time of its creation, and it has since been renamed as the iron butcher. While European workers were generally hired on an individual basis, Chinese men commonly were hired through contractors.[17] These contractors, often called the China-boss, would agree on a set price with the cannery operators, and would then hire workers with that figure in mind. Individual Chinese laborers were then paid by the contractor who hired them, though the contractor generally kept a large portion of the money.[citation needed]
Japanese
Japanese workers were prized for their ability to repair boats, as well as their skills as fishermen.[13] These skills placed them in direct competition with European and First Nations fishers.[18] Due to the nature of the jobs they performed, Japanese men were not seen as feminine, as the Chinese tended to be viewed. Although they were still segregated from other workers, they were paid more, and they were higher on the social scale. The Japanese played an important role in canneries until World War II, when many Japanese men were interned for the duration of the war. At this time, many of their fishing vessels were also confiscated, making returning after the war difficult for them.[19] Despite this treatment, many Japanese men did return to cannery life in the aftermath of the war, though the return was slow, and was not welcomed by all.[citation needed]
Women
As mentioned above, many First Nations women came to the canneries with their husbands, fathers, or other male relatives. They were not idle during the canning season, but performed a number of important tasks within the cannery, similar to the tasks performed by the Chinese.[13] Women cleaned fish, packed them into tins, mended nets, and acted as nursemaids to the many children on site. They tended not to act as fishers, though some Native women may have accompanied their fathers on their boats, especially at a young age. Although women were paid for the work that they performed, their wages were among the lowest in the cannery.[20] Within the canneries, as many as 50% of the workers could be women, which suggests that the female labor force was necessary to the operation of many canneries.[20]
Although women of other nationalities were sometimes present at canneries, Native women were the most prolific. Japanese women reportedly worked on the canning with their babies strapped to their backs,[21] and records suggest that white women sometimes worked as cooks or assistant shopkeepers.[20] Aside from actively participating in the canning process, women helped to make the canneries into more than just work sites. With the presence of women and children, canneries became homes away from home for all of the workers on site.[citation needed]
Timeline
- 1795–1810: Nicolas Appert worked out how to preserve food in sealed jars and won a 12,000-franc prize.
- 1810: Peter Durand patented his more robust method of using tin cans, instead of breakable jars.
- 1824: The first recorded time salmon was canned, in Aberdeen, Scotland.[4]
- 1839: Salmon first canned at Saint John, New Brunswick.[4]
- 1864: First commercial salmon cannery was established on a barge in the Sacramento River.[8]
- 1866: The cannery was relocated to the Columbia River, where it triggered an important industry.[4][8]
- 1867: James Symes preserved Fraser River salmon experimentally in hermetically sealed cans in his home kitchen.[22][23]
- 1870: The first commercial canning operation in British Columbia opened on the Fraser River.
- 1878: The industry spread to Alaska, with a cannery on the Prince of Wales Island.[4]
- 1890: Commercial-scale operations started in northern Japan.[4]
- 1906: Siberia established its salmon-canning industry.[4]
- 1936: International production peaked at about 300,000 tonnes for the year.[4]
- 1980: The Columbia River's last major cannery closed.
Historical images
See also
- Alaska Packers' Association
- Alaska salmon fishery
- Alaskeros, salmon workers in Alaska
- Canned fish
- Canned sardines
- Cannery Row
- Columbia River Indigenous peoples
- History of fishing
- History of Sacramento Cannery Industry
- List of canneries
- List of canneries in British Columbia
- List of salmon canneries and communities
- List of seafood companies
- Rogue River Commercial fishing
- USS LCI(L)-1091
References
- ISBN 0-415-19399-0.
- ISBN 978-0-313-34745-0.
- ^ Newell, 1990, p. 4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Jarvis ND (1988) Curing and Canning of Fishery Products: A History Marine Fisheries Review, 50 (4): 180–185.
- ^ Salmon Canning. http://knowbc.com/limited/Books/Encyclopedia-of-BC/S/Salmon-Canning. Accessed Sept. 25, 2017.
- ^ a b Smith, Courtland L Seine fishing Oregon Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 March 2012.
- ^ Cobb JN (1917) Pacific salmon fisheries. Government Printing Office, Bur. Fish., Doc 1092. 297 pages.
- ^ a b c d e f Columbia River History: Canneries Northwest Power and Conservation Council. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-295-98788-0.
- ^ Muszyinski, Cheap Wage Labour, 164.
- ^ Mawani, Colonial Proximities, 45.
- ^ Mawani, Colonial Proximities, 46.
- ^ a b c d e Mawani, Colonial Proximities, 40.
- ^ Muszyinski, Race and Gender, 110.
- ^ Muszyinski, Race and Gender, 105.
- ^ Mawani, Colonial Proximities, 49.
- ^ Muszyinski, Race and Gender, 113.
- ^ Muszyinski, Cheap Wage Labour, 135.
- ^ Muszyinski, Cheap Wage Labour, 172.
- ^ a b c Cassiar Payroll, North Pacific Cannery Archives
- ^ Muszyinski, Race and Gender, 119.
- ^ Lyons, Cicely (1969) Salmon: Our Heritage: The Story of a Province and an Industry Mitchell Press Limited, Vancouver.
- ISBN 9780968679906
- ^ Kaserman, Rebecca and René Horst (2008) "Aleuts in American Society: 1867-1941" Appalachian State University.
Further reading
- Blyth, Gladys Young (2006) Salmon Canneries: British Columbia North Coast Trafford Publishing. ]
- Budd, Robert and Imbert Orchard (2010) "Voices of British Columbia: Stories from Our Frontier" Douglas & McIntyre. ISBN 978-1-55365-463-6.
- Campbell, K. Mack (2004) Cannery Village: Company Town Trafford Publishing. ]
- “Cassiar Payroll, 1946,” Ledger, in MS 32 vol. 15, North Pacific Cannery Archives, Port Edward, BC.
- Crutchfield JA, Pontecorvo G (1969) The Pacific salmon fisheries: a study of irrational conservation. Johns Hopkins Press.
- Friday, Chris (1994) Organizing Asian American labor: the Pacific Coast canned-salmon industry, 1870-1942 Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-56639-139-9.
- Hume RD (1904) "The first salmon cannery". Pacific Fisherman Yearbook, 2 (1): 19–21.
- Mawani, Renisa (2010) "Colonial Proximities." UBC Press.
- Muszyńska, Alicja (1996) Cheap wage labour: race and gender in the fisheries of British Columbia McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-1376-1.
- Newell, Dianne (1990) The Development of the Pacific salmon-canning industry: a grown man's game McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-0717-3.
- Radke AC and Radke BS (2002) Pacific American Fisheries, Inc: history of a Washington State Salmon Packing Company, 1890-1966 McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-1185-6.
- Sisk, John (2005) "The Southeastern Alaska Salmon Industry: Historical Overview and Current Status" Southeast Alaska Conservation Assessment.., Chapter 9.5.
- Smith, Courtland L (1979) Salmon fishers of the Columbia Oregon State University Press. ISBN 978-0-87071-313-2.
- Yesaki M, Steves H and Steves K (2005) Steveston Cannery Row: an illustrated history Mitsuo. ISBN 978-0-9683807-1-0.
External links
External videos | |
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Work in a cannery YouTube |
- "A Brief Overview of the History of Fish Culture and its Relation to Fisheries Science" Gary D. Sharp, Center for Climate/Ocean Resources Study, Monterey.
- Cannery Workers and Their Unions, from the Waterfront Workers History Project.