Vashon Island news-record. [volume] (Vashon, Wash.) 1919-1954, 1921-05-20
DOCKTON FISH HOUSE
IS BUSY PLACE
A Visit There Opens Eyes Of
Editor Who Gets First
Hand Information

A visit to Dockton last week
opened our eyes to number OF
new things. We saw the Stuckey
ways-which are the finest type
in the U. S. No wheels to col
lapse, no springs to sag, and no
axles to break-they are marine
railways on rollers. Set in con-
crete the whole affair is built to
handle big or small boats with
safety and ease. While there a
large gang of men under direc-
ton of A. j. Stuckey was engag-
ed in making ready to dry dock
the Virginia III which lay off
port, and it must have been short
work putting her in repair for
on Monday of this week we rode
her to and from Tacoma.
One of the first men we met
at Dockton was the new store
keeper, Mr.. N. Nelson, who join
ed the News-Record family of
subscribers and he was followed
by the postmaster and other store
keeper there, Theo. Barry who
did likewise. We visited the
greenhouse of Claude Petersen
and found him busy among his
tomatoes and cucumbers both of
which will soon be on the mar
ket. He has just finished har-
vesting his crop of lettuce. After
moseying around a bit, we saun-
tered down to the
Dockton Fish House
There we grabbed the subscrip-
ton of B. f. Scanlon and found
nearly everyone else there were
already taking the paper. A brief
interview with Mr. Knute Ander-
sen, manager of the plant, gave
us some very valuable informa-
ton.
This little plant will ship this
season over 200 tons of the fin
ished product and has just COM
menced to get busy. The variety
of fish is the Behring Sea cod
and they are caught by hand in
the waters of the Behring sea.
The company operating the plant
is mostly composed Of Seattle
men with L. Mikkelsen as presi-
dent of the corporation and gen
eral manager. Their boats start
out in the early fall for the north
and as the fish are caught they
are dressed and dry sailed. From
the Behring sea the boats come
into Dockton laden with these
finely favored pick of the ocean,
and there they are unloaded into
huge watts at the fish house and
put in brine to cure. After about
fourteen days they are taken out
of the brine, and stacked into
round piles about the size and
shape Of cock of Pennsylvania
hay and allowed to drain for
four days. They are carefully
washed, and distributed to the
skinning boards. Seven men are
permanently employed to skin
the fish and the skill with which
these men work is as interesting
to novice as a small boy watch
ing three ring circus all at the
same time. From the skinnerS
they go on roller trucks to the
bone pickers. There are sixteen
bone pickers, each with pincherS,
who carefully bone pick by hand
each fish, turning it over as free
from bones as an cel-if cells are
homeless. The cutters then take
charge of the fish and cut the
meat into symmetrical shapes
and sizes. There are two expert
cutters, one of these being Mr..
Mass a man who can make seem
ingly shapeless pieces of fish
look like thing of beauty and
art. These pieces are then sort.
ed into two grades-the fancy
and extra fancy and are careful
ly weighed and packed into neat
acknowledging one and two
pounds respectively. The one
pound cartons are the extra
fancy and the two pound cartons
arc the fancy, The brand is
known as the "1cy Region
Brand" and the neatly lined and
attractively packed boxes made
our mouth water to get at one
but we delayed the attempt