June 2010 MAINE COASTAL NEWS Page 5. THE LAST AMERICAN SARDINE FACTORY CLOSES
PROSPECT HARBOR – For almost 135 years Maine has been the home for the sardine business in the United States. It began as an experiment to find a fish that could compete with the sardines of Europe, which were be- ing imported into the United States. From a humble beginning in a small shop it grew to dozens of factories up and down the coast of Maine. Unfortunately, the one cannery that was left, Stinson Canning Company of Pros- pect Harbor has ceased operation and is now awaiting to see what the future will bring. Very few people knew what they want to do as a child, but Peter Colson, plant manager of the Stinson’s Prospect Harbor facility did. “I grew up in the business. My father was in the business for 46 years by the time he retired. He was in charge of all the boats and ended up being vice president of operations of all plants along the coast. We moved to Southwest harbor in 1950 and he was the plant manager there. In 1955 I was born and I started right away. When I was about eight years old I was running around in the plant doing odd jobs, getting a feel of the business. I would help clean up and help case the product. Back then we put a key on the can and put the cans in the boxes, and I would help the ladies do that. I always wanted to be around the factory. However, if my grades weren’t where they were supposed to be, I couldn’t go down there. That forced me to buckle down and start studying because I wanted to get down over that hill as soon as I got off the bus. So, I knew what I wanted to do.”
The Southwest factory can be traced back to Jonas Wass, the owner of the Addison Packing Company, who joined Calvin Stinson in operating the plant in the late 1920s and then Stinson would become sole owner in 1931. The name remained Addison Packing Company, until it was changed to Stinson Canning Company in 1978. Over the years they packed sardines, fish steaks, clams, mussels and flaked fish. Colson said that they lived right up the hill from the factory next to Andy’s Restau- rant. “I had one excursion where I was going out the next day and they let me spend the night on the boat right there at the plant,” said Colson. “I woke up the next morning and there was blood everywhere. Somehow I had banged my nose on the f’c’sle and got a nosebleed. Another time I was on the CON- TINENTAL and we were going to Deer Isle to get fish from Andy Gove. We got a few fish, a lot of dogfish in those days and I helped take the dogfish out of the net when they were pumping them aboard.”
For Colson, he enjoyed being around the plant more. He added, “One summer I bought the dents, the defected cans that they had. I’d buy them for eight cents and turn around and
sell them for $.10 to the tourist that came down to the plant. I would also sell mack- erel. I would get the mackerel and cull them out of the fish take them over to the fish wharf and sell them for $.10 a pound. I got my school clothes money that summer from that. Colson was buy- ing fish, shipping room foreman for a few years, retail oper- ator for a few years, as he moved his way up through the opera- tions. He added, “I was the assistant plant manager for while, and then I be- came plant manager
A view of the Stinson Factory in Prospect Harbor. (Eastern Illustrating Collection)
when the plant closed in 1987. I then moved over here to be plant manager on day shift in 1987 and I have been plant manager ever since.
There was a sardine factory at Prospect Harbor operated by Alfred Hamilton back in the 1890s, but he sold out to The Continental Sardine Company. Jonas Wass was running a factory in Prospect Harbor, but it was in financial trouble and went bankrupt in 1927. Calvin Stinson bid and got the property and reopened the factory under the name of Wasson & Stinson. In 1934 the name was changed to the Stinson Canning Company. Over the years Colson has been through three different ownerships. He started with Charlie Stinson and the family, and then it went to a group made up of Richard Klingaman and Woodman Harris, it then went to Connors Brothers of Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada and finally to Bumblebee, who would also purchase Conners Brothers at a later date. Over the years Colson said that the most impressive changes was in the automation of the plants. He explained, “There’s been a lot of automation done from the time they use to cut by hand. Now the sardines are cut by machines and even packed by them. In 1987, that is when they automated this plant here in Prospect Harbor and that allowed them to shut the plant down in Southwest harbor. We were losing people at the Southwest Harbor plant to other summer jobs on the island. The island was getting more tourism and people were making beds for more than they could packaging fish. Between that and the condi- tions of the buildings and the upkeep, like the wooden boats, we just couldn’t keep it up.”
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At the time this plant closed there were 130 people employed there. There were 100 packers and the rest was support help. The fish was coming from all along the coast and when the quota was changed Bumblebee decided to close the last remaining plant in the United States. There was no question that the market is there, but to be successful they had to purchase their fish within a certain cost window and with the quota, it was thought that the price would go above that making it difficult to stay in business.
There has been discussions about an- other company coming in and running the
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Prospect Harbor plant, but nothing definite has materialized. Colson was hoping that they could close the deal soon, because he wanted to maintain the buildings and keep the employees. There is a lot of pride amongst these workers, some who had been there more than 50 years.
The future is in question, but hopefully someone will step to the plate and open this facility again. However it is very sad to be a witness to the closing of the last American sardine factory, I can not imagine how it feels for the former workers there.
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