W.F. Tidmarsh and the History of Lobster Canning in Prince Edward Island

Liam Mather, HistorySupervised by Prof. Suzanne Morton

Methodology

This study is a social biography of William Francis Tidmarsh, a prominent PEI lobster packer. Importantly, I do not present Tidmarsh as the most decisive force for change in the industry. Rather, I use his career to examine wider trends in the commercial development of the Canadian lobster fishery and the government's failed efforts to protect the stocks from overfishing. Highlighting one individual in this manner allows for an investigation of local level developments and interactions between members of the industry while avoiding generalizations based on class or occupation.

Sources

For this study, I consulted the Charlottetown Guardian, PEI's most popular daily, which was digitally archived by the Robertson Library at the University of Prince Edward Island. The Guardian frequently reported on the state of the lobster fishery, the proceedings of Royal Commissions that investigated the fishery, meetings of the Charlottetown Board of Trade, and on Tidmarsh’s business operations. I also studied the reports of the Royal Commissions themselves, other government documents, and the secondary literature on the lobster fishery.

Lobster Canning

Canned lobster was first marketable form of the Atlantic Canadian crustacean. In pre-Confederation days of slow transportation, no artificial refrigeration, and limited curing technology, there was no method of keeping lobsters alive or preserving cooked lobster meat for shipment to markets in America and Europe. The resource generated no economic value. The introduction of the canning process in the 1870s solved these problems, causing a commercial boom. From 1869 to 1881, the value of the lobster fishery grew from a mere $15,275 to $2.9 million in 1881. After the Second World War, new technology caused the market for canned lobster to be replaced by live lobsters and the industry declined.

Who was William Tidmarsh?

Tidmarsh was the PEI manager of the U.S-based Portland Packing Company, the largest lobster canning company in the Maritimes. The growth of the fishery in the 1870s was fuelled by American companies like Portland, which had developed

the caning process and relocated to Atlantic Canada after exhausting New England lobster stocks. During his career,

Tidmarsh managed numerous canning factories throughout the province and employed thousands of fishermen and

factory workers, directed large sums of capital. He entered the industry in the 1870s and retired in 1935; his career

spanned most of the period when canned lobster was King.

The Truck System

Under the helm of Tidmarsh, the Portland Packing Company used the truck system to prosper at the expense of the fishermen he employed. Since fishing was a seasonal occupation, the majority of fishermen did not own their gear, and the cannery loaned the supplies to them on credit. Due to low wages, however, fishermen often failed to pay back the cannery at the end of the season and became tied to that merchant in an endless cycle of indebtedness.

The Tragedy of the Commons

In response to the commercial boom in the 1870s, the federal government introduced measures to protect the supply of lobsters, including a size limit, a close season, and a ban on canning egg-bearing lobsters. However, these were unsuccessful: in Prince Edward Island, the total annual catch began to plummet in the mid 1880s and it did not rebound to the boom levels of the 1870s until 1983 – a century long slump. Tidmarsh provides a good case study in why these regulations failed. I found that the government did not have the resources to enforce the regulations, and Tidmarsh, along with other canners, frequently broke the laws at no penalty. It was not until the 1920s that Tidmarsh began advocating for better enforcement of the laws in response to significantly lower annual catches and profits, but overfishing continued to be rampant.

Portland Packing Co. Lobster Label

A cannery in Souris, PEI

Lobster factory crew at Annandale Cape