Yesterday the 'Cape Ann Beacon' newspaper reported that
"It has been a
long and arduous journey, but the Birdseye building has finally been purchased".
The new owner is Mac Bell, a real estate developer in Gloucester, MA.
But what is my interest in this large, dilapidated cold storage facility on the Gloucester harborfront?
Photo: Cape Ann Beacon / Jane Fosberry Enos
Well, the building is on a parcel of land located between the Fort neighborhood and office space I occupied in
the 1990s at the historic 'Tavern on the Harbor'.
An overall redevelopment plan for the harborfront, in view of the continuing decline of the fishing industry,
has been under "discussion" for the past 10-15 years.
Most recently the Marriot Corporation had presented a proposal for an upscale hotel on the Birdseye parcel. But this
became a highly contentious issue, especially with
the Sicilian fishermen's families living in the nearby Fort enclave since the 1920s.
But more importantly this is the building in which, starting in 1925, Clarence Birdseye (1886-1956) assembled
and perfected his dual-belt freezer. This patented machine used cold brine to chill a pair of stainless steel belts carrying
fillets of fish, contained in a small greaseproof cardboard box, very quickly freezing the fish.
Birdseye, an avid naturalist, had carefully observed
the eskimos in Labrador freezing their freshly caught fish under natural conditions - at up to 40 degrees below zero!
At these temperatures only very small ice crystals formed within the frozen flesh, and thus the freezing process did not
degrade the texture of the flesh or the taste of the fish. At any time later, when it was thawed and cooked it was like eating "fresh fish".
Birdseye's machine simply replicated the eskimo's fast freezing process.
Following the rapid acceptance of the packaged frozen fish, Birdseye's company - General Seafood Corporation - began
fast freezing all manner of produce, including green peas.
A few years later Birdseye sold his patent and company to a
group of investors and it eventually became the General Foods Corporation.
Evidently the socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post, a daughter of this corporation's founder, had become quite excited when she was
served a luncheon using Birdseye's frozen fish, while putting into Gloucester aboard her sailing yacht - 'Sea Cloud':
This yacht, commissioned in 1920 and built in Germany, is still maintained as one of the most beautiful sailing vessels in the world. But we digress..
In 1930 General Foods began promoting its frozen products with the name changed to 'Birds Eye' - once a viable refrigerated
cabinet, which required both space and electricity, had been designed for the grocery stores carrying the product. This is
generally accepted as the birth of the frozen food retail business and Birds Eye products are still well recognized worldwide.
In 1943, General Foods merged with a giant European company - Unilever -
and in the late 1940s their famous fish fingers were launched with Capt. Birdseye advertising:
At the same time, Unilever was rapidly expanding their frozen foods product line and they contracted with a relatively small
company in the Hawkes Bay region of New Zealand - Wattie Canneries Ltd. - to supply high quality
frozen green peas. Based in the city of Hastings, on the agriculturally fertile Heretaunga Plains, James Wattie had already
established a booming business in Europe for his company's canned peas.
In the 1950s this company had more than 1000 employees, some of which were involved with
harvesting fresh green peas using specialized farm equipment. Having some experience driving a tractor on the family farm in Masterton, I applied for a job at
Wattie's plant during the school holidays to help fund my upcoming studies at Victoria University in Wellington. These were high paying jobs,
especially for the infamous night shift that worked from 4pm to 4am. I well remember how excited I was to be accepted as a
member of one of the 'field gangs', and for this particular shift, to drive a big harvester. However, it was a little tough on a social life - we worked seven days a week, if the weather permitted.
But my harvester actually followed a mower which cut the pea vines at ground level and formed heaped rows
for pickup.
Now - one of the mower drivers was a real nice fellow by the name of Newall Lange, and he happened to have a sister
- Jennifer - and it came about that .... Well, that's a story for another time.
A long and winding road... But maybe you can now enjoy, as I had recalling them, just a few of the interesting CONNECTIONS
within this ol' world and the times that we have lived through!
PS. 'Uncle' Newall with two of my daughters - Wendy and Karen:
Photo: May 2009 (Hastings, New Zealand)