Lubec, Maine - McCurdy Herring Smokehouse

In partnership with the Maine Memory Network Maine Memory Network

McCurdy Herring Smokehouse

(Page 4 of 4) Print Version

Part II: A Little Museum of Smokehouse Tools and Implements

Dip nets at McCurdy's Smokehouse, Lubec
Lubec Landmarks

When McCurdy’s closed, traditional tools and implements were left behind. Now they are helping visitors to Historic McCurdy’s understand the process and the hard work involved. Also left behind was example of an “improved” item, a wheeled cart. For although the process remained traditional, and so did key tools and implements, some innovations were introduced. This second part of the exhibit, then, is a little “museum” of some items important in the smoking process. It is also provides a demonstration of how tradition can accept innovation.

Dip nets:
Three examples were left at the site when McCurdy’s closed. Hall talked about them when describing “stringing,” calling them “ordinary dip nets” and noting they were also called “wash nets in this locality.” (P. 459). He observed dip nets used to take the fish out of the brine, so they could be taken to the benches where “stringers” were working.

“Spudger” in the Brining Room in 1990Frank Van Riper, photo

“Spudger:"
A very important type of artifact not in the collection of Lubec Landmarks. Hall saw them in use to “break up” the salt and fish in the brining tanks. Van Riper’s photograph of the Brining Room shows one ready to use. Sharley Fitzsimmons had laid the “spudger” down for a moment.

Herring sticks at McCurdy's Smokehouse, Lubec, ca. 1991
Lubec Landmarks

Herring sticks:
Hall’s first words about these are “the only equipment used exclusively in a smokehouse.” The next sentence was an understatement: “A large number of these are necessary in the larger houses.” Left in the Skinning/Packing Shed were literally thousands of them, dark and oily from the millions of herring that had been strung and smoked on them.

Miller Family Smokehouse, Lubec
Lubec Historical Society

Herring horse:
Another important artifact not in the collection of Lubec Landmarks, for good reason. When Landmarks acquired McCurdy’s, the horses had long since been replaced. No doubt the old ones at that time were worn out from hard use and being outdoors in all sorts of weather. Hall described one as “an oblong wooden frame having four legs, the sides extending far enough beyond the end to serve as handles.” (P. 456).

Hall was not correct when he said herring sticks were the “ only equipment used exclusively in a smokehouse”. The herring horses come under this category, as well. Old photographs of smokehouses in Lubec and elsewhere commonly include herring horses, indicating how important they were. The photograph of the Miller Smokehouse ca. 1910 with owner and workers posed is one example.

Herring boxes and shooks at McCurdy's, Lubec, 1998
Lubec Landmarks

Herring boxes:
The photograph shows several items important for the sixth step of the process in an exhibit at McCurdy’s. All were important in a world where wooden boxes were used instead of cardboard. This was Hall’s world. At the back of the bench are some of the many same-sized boxes left in 1990. To the left are “shooks,” the pre-cut bottoms, ends, sides and lids for boxes, as they came from a local “box mill.” On the bench is a jig with box ends and sides shown in assembly with nails and hammer. The size of the box is different than the several Hall recorded, but there is nothing here that would have been unfamiliar. (P. 456).

Wheeled herring cart, Lubec, ca. 1970
Lubec Landmarks

Wheeled herring cart:
Left under cover when McCurdy’s closed was this cart, now on exhibit in the Skinning/Packing Shed. The two wheels allowed one person to move the herring easily, in the manner of a wheel barrow. It was an innovative replacement for the traditional herring horse that required two men to lift. Jacob Pike’s photograph of many of them outdoors on the wharf on a rainy day is helpful to give idea of how many carts were needed.

McCurdy's PumphouseJacob B. Pike, photo

Herring pump house:
On the end of the Pickling Shed housing for another innovation was constructed. Pike’s photograph shows the housing for the pump, the flexible hose that extended down into the hold of the sardine carrier, and the exterior part of the sluiceway.

A Traditional Fishery Industry
This exhibit takes an historical approach that may be unfamiliar to some, looking at the industry as an example of folk culture with deep roots. Smoking herring was a traditional process. That does not mean “old-timey” or “easy to do,” by any means. McCurdy’s in Lubec serves as the example to demonstrate what was involved, and the tools and implements used. The industry could not have carried on without the accumulated understanding that was passed from generation to generation, a major theme of the exhibit. Another major theme is continuity, persistence of old patterns of buildings, tools and technique.

Looking at Material Folk Culture
As long ago as the late Sixties, Henry Glassie called upon historians, folklorists and geographers to look at things from the past in a new way. High style architecture and the decorative arts had their place. But to really understand the world, it was necessary to look at traditional culture, the ordinary houses and barns, the chairs and tools that ordinary people created, worked in and with. The patterns in material folk culture needed to be uncovered. One way to uncover the patterns was to look at what people had made in the course of farming, fishing, making furniture, cooking and preserving food; things they thought were “traditional.” The complementary way was to look for evidence of continuity in “early reports in print” of the things and activities. (Pattern, p. 4). Much of my work through the years has been guided by this approach. For this exhibit, Ansley Hall provided the evidence of continuity in the traditional culture of preserving herring by smoking.

Herring Sticks: Chicken or egg?
“The size of the sticks as they come from the mill is one-half inch square . . .. After being cut into lengths of 3 feet 4 inches each, the edges taken off, and one end sharpened, they are ready for use.” (Hall, p. 455). To us they present a classic chicken and egg problem. Which came first: The traditional length of the sticks, 40”, or the width of the “bays” in smokehouses? Hall stated that the bays were 38 inches wide without raising the origin problem.
(P. 455).

John McCurdy Remembers
In 1969 Arthur McCurdy bought some of the carts on the Canadian island of Grand Manan where there used to be many herring smokehouses. Thereafter, he and his son had them fabricated at their smokehouse. Approximately twenty-five were needed when the brining tanks were full, and “stringing” was going on full tilt. John McCurdy had the pump and hose installed in 1974, along with a requisite three-phase electrical service. It was a system used at canneries, and he found it wise to adopt it. The herring carriers could be unloaded quickly and back to the weirs for another load. The increased amount of fish necessitated rebuilding the sluices so they could handle the volume. [phone interview, 4/2/09].