Lobster Factory At Cape Spry. Barney’s Roost in Gable End.

The wages were very low in those days. Most factory employees in the early 1900’s received five or six dollars per month. The hours were long, and the work was hard, but the food was good. One of the most important people at the factory was the cook. Their duties included preparing breakfasts and packing lunches. She often had to rise at 2 am. in order to feed the hungry fishermen and prepare breakfast for the factory workers.

Practical lokes were the main form of entertainment. One such prank was played on a local fisherman who was always the first to make it to the fishing grounds. The story goes that he would leap from his bed into his clothes and boots and rush to the boat before his bunkmates were fully awake. However one morning his progress was slowed considerably after he put on his boots. He discovered they were nailed solidly to the floor.

The lobsters were packed in half pound cans filled with brine, the cans were lined with paper, the lobster would be partly cooked before packing and the cooking process would be finished after packing. Cans were hand sealed witr a soldering iron. Nothing was wasted and a young girl’s first job, at the factory was usually “picking arms” or getting the meat out of the tiny legs on the bottorr of the lobster. Their second year they would work at cracking the claws anc splitting tails, and the veterans were allowed to do the packing. It appears that Jot Seniority existed in factories then just as it does today.

On a windy day when there were no lobsters, the girls had to polish the cans since they were not labelled.

The factory’s waste products proved to be a valuable source of fertilizer f0l the neighboring farmers. The shells were sold to farmers for fifty cents a cart

load in 1903. 20