Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-09-11
A MAINE FISH FACTORY.
The Process of Canning the Porgy Into
Oil and s.Chum."

Back in the seventies one of the
greatest industries in this section of
the country was the porgy fisheries.
says a Boothbay (Me,J letter in the
Lewiston J0u1:3al The converting of
those fat fish into oil and that very
odorifer0uS though by no means fra
grant substance known as .'chum"
gave labor, and paying labor too, to
hundreds Of men, The oil then sold
as high AS dollar per gallon. and the
chum was also in great demand. 1t
was so profitable a business that fac
tories sprang up all along the coast,
and as a result of the great slaughter
of their number the porgies held some
sort of an assembly and resolved to
boycott the New England coast for
awhile. This resolve they kept to a T
till the summer of SO, when small
schools came north to see what had
become of their old destroyers. They
found most of the factories rotten,
tumble-down old buildings. the steam
ers turned into tugboats, and the ma
jority Of the owners bankrupt by their
porgyships freeze out. Evidently
those porgies that visited Maine in 'SS
were satisfied that they were forgotten
in these parts, for last year they came
again in such numbers that it seemed
as though the whole porgy kingdom
had come down to Maine to spend the
summer and to swim around in the
waters where so many of their grand
parents had lost their lives.
As soon as the first shiny school
came along in 'SS, Church, Hathaway
& Co. began to build over and to fit up
into one monstrous factory the two
factories at Linekin's Neck, formerly
owned by the Gallup Bros. They did
not get into shape to do much that
summer before the weather got too
frosty for the porgy's comfort, and he
started south again. Last year they
did considerable business, but their
works were not fully completed till
this spring. Now everything has been
prepared and gotten into perfect trim
to give those porgies who will summer
in the waters in this vicinity the warm
est kind of a reception. Eighty men
are employed in the factory, not count
ing the carpenters and men who are
still building and repairing. Three
steamers and one sailing vessel, each
with twenty-five men aboard, are run
by the company besides countless 9th
er craft will 90 ''a-porgving on their
own hook But with all the fleet
after them. the fish are not forth COM
inc.
There is capacity to use up 3, 900 or
1000 barrels of fish daily, but as yet
only ), 900 barrels have been rec eiyed
all summer. This is. to be sure, rather
early III the season, but fishermen say
all along the coast that there aren t
nearly as many porgies here now as
there were last year at this time and
what there are are very wild.
The process of changing the porgies
from handsome fish into oil and chum
is very simple. They are carried from
the wharf to the top of the factory.
where they are first boiled and then
pressed with Il 1O0-ton pressure. The
oil and water are run Off together and
by passing through ten or Il dozen watts.
placed one below the other like a flight
of stairs, the oil "skims itself - as it is
called. When at the bottom of the
factory the oil is drawn off from the
last vat into barrels it looks for all the
world like maple sirup. The oil is used
a good deal by tanners and soap makers
and sometimes for paints. 1t is worth
from 20 to 80 cents per gallon.
After the oil and water have been
pressed out the chum, or scrap, as it is
sometimes called, is burned with sui
phuric acid. Then it is ready for ship
ment. The old process of driving the
churn is done away with. and one of
the greatest causes of that unearthly
stencil of the factories of Il dozen years
ago has been removed. The chum is
worth about $l4 per ton. and is sold to
manufacturers of fertilizers.
The proprietors claim that there will
be no disagreeaDle odor about the
works this year. They say that the
only other thing besides the Drying
chum which caused the ten-mile stencil
of former factories was the waste wa
ter, off which the oil had been
drawn. This was allowed to stand in
the watts and ferment, but now it is
drawn off while fresh. Later in the
season this same waste water is to be
used to make fertilizer by the Phoso-
Ammonia company, who are putting
up large building for that purpose
just south of the factory. They use
some chemical process, and are said to
have mine of wealth in their scheme.