The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-02-08
THE MENHADEN FISHERY
THE PLANT AT FORT ANDERSON TO
COST THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS
Erected for the Factory n Two
prise VIII Employ $50 Men and Have
a Pay Roll OF So, 900 a Month.

The Messenger has heretofore al
luded to the fact that the Atlantic
Fisheries Company is establishing a
menhaden fishery on the Cape Fear and
ia erecting an extensive oil and fish
scran mandatory at Fort Anderson.
Yesterday one of the company's
steamers, the Clara Ellen, came up to
the city Cor supplies. and Captain j. +.
Bussels. general manager of the COM
pany, was also here on business. He
was at The Orion last night and gave
The Messenger some interesting infor-
nation about the extensive enterprise
which his company is establishing in
our midst.
The mpa has purchased for its
plant al Fort Anderson. sixty acres or
the Minner tract fronting on the Cape
Fear and adjoining Colonel K. NJ.
Murchison's Orion plantation. The
first step taken was the constructor
OF the factory plant for manufacturing
oil and guano from menhaden fish and
nj this work a large force Of carpenters
n Iaborers are engaged. Already a
dozen buildings nave been erected, in
Guiding a warehouse 65 feet by 100 feet
in dimensions. a tanking house "a by
65 feet, another building 55 by 65 feet
for machinery. a boiler and engine room
So by As feet, a two story store house
20 by 80 feet, a large mess hall. four
residences. a sein and boat house, a
carpenter shop. a blacksmith shop, etc.
The, large amount of mateial needed
for these improvements has made traf-
f1c lively on the river from the city tc
Fort Anderson and the work at the fac
tory has given employment to 80 car
penters Of Wilmington and Brunswick
county.
The plant will be operated by two
steam engines of fifty horsepower
each. supplied by two boilers of 100
horsepower each. The machinery for
manufacturing Oil and fish scrap will
be on an extensive scale. The process
and the machinery are the inventions
OF Captain Bussells, and this is the
only company using his valuable inven-
tons.
Captain Bussell's inventions more
than doubly discount the old methods,
as they are On a continuous automatic
scale. and are largely labor-saving. The
process of manufacture in continuous
from the unloading of a vessel. For
instance. when a vessel load of men,
baden arrives at the wharf, the fish are
dumped from the vessel into a drag
cOnveyor that carries them inc the
cooker. The cooking is done by steam
as the fish pass along without a halt
into a cone-shaped curb. in which re-
wolves an augur conveyor that carries
them down n curb as it graduates
anto continual smaller space until the
great pressure congresses the oil and
water from the material, leaving only
40 per cent. of moisture in it. From
the cone the progress of the material is
continuous into a drying apparatus in
which there Is a revolving cylinder ad-
uniting hot aid to pass through with
the material. At the intake end of the
drying apparatus the material comes
in contact with 5000 degrees of hot air,
and the material, now dry, discharges
at the end under a heat of PIP degrees.
The material. which now becomes the
commercial commodity known as fish
scrap" is automatically dumped into
the warehouse where 1t is bagged On
loaded in bulk into vessels for ship
ment. AS the material passes down the
cone n oil is compressed and flows
out through Stats in the curb. From
the time the menhaden are taken from
a vessel until they are into
oil and a only 20 minutes elapse.
This Is the only company in existence
which employs the Bussells process,
anu We learn hat his inventions have
only come into use in the last two
years The company first put in a plant
at Cape Charles. lear Norfolk, Va, 50
that Wilmington is the second place
at which such a factory is established
The factory plant alone absorbS a
capital OF $50. O00. and will employ so
men. The fishery to be operated in
connection with the factory will employ
a hundred more, making $50 employees
in all The pay roll will amount to
5000 a month. 5 that it can be seen
what this industry means for Whining
ton.
The eompany's fishery to be operated
In connection with the factory will en-
ploy two steamers for fishing on the
high sea The fishing will be done
entirely On h outside. One of the
steamers. the Clara Ellen, 80 tons bur-
then has already arrived and the
Beatrice, another steamer of 140 tons,
is expected here in a short while. The
intention is to have the plant COM
pieted and the fishery in operation by