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 he Island's modern
fishing industry is founded on the tin can. Without the tin can
and commercial-scale canning technology, lobster would never
have found its way from Island waters - where it was
despised - to markets in Great Britain and the United
States, where it was considered a delicacy.
Before canning, the only way to get a lobster to market was as
a live catch. Lobster defied pickling or drying - the only
available methods of food preservation. Pioneered in Europe,
efficient and safe canning technology developed in the United
States and by the 1850s was spreading north into the Maritimes.
The first known cannery on Prince Edward Island opened around
1858.
In 1871 there were only two canneries on the whole Island. They
packed mainly salmon and other finned fish and were a very minor
aspect of the provincial economy. But ten years later, thanks to
the lobster fishery, the number of canneries had exploded to over
100. In 1881 the lobster fishery accounted for over 25% of
the province's income. Although their impact declined over the
following years, the canneries had become an important part of
the Island economy.
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Part of the crew at a Murray Harbour lobster
cannery, ca. 1900
Half of the jobs in a typical cannery were filled by women. Before the
lobster industry their was virtually no way for rural women to earn
wages close to home. The cannery became an alternative to leaving home
to find a job in domestic service or in the factories of the New England
States.
(Collection: Public Archives and Record Office, Prince Edward Island)
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On entering the first thing you see is the immense round
boilers, built around with brick and cement. Into these boilers
the lobsters are plunged when they come from the boats...
(Charlottetown Examiner, 1890)
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Long tables are provided, on which they are placed when taken out
of the boiler, and after the 'cracker' has done his work, the meat
of the tails and claws is picked out by girls and placed in cans
of different sizes; but usually they hold about one pound. The next
operation is to put the top piece on the can and solder it, leaving
an air hole in the centre. Then the cans are taken into the next
apartment and placed on a large perforated tray, hung on bales which
suspend it over another boiler. Here the cans are bathed, that is
boiled until almost all air is excluded. Then they are taken out and
hermetically sealed, after which they are again boiled.
(Charlottetown Examiner, 1890)
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Date Created: May 18, 2001 | Last Updated: April 30, 2010
