Isabel Natti’s Herring Factory Print is incredible on many different levels. One is that it is visually gorgeous, but what the casual observer may not understand is how much detail and how accurate the entire scene is to how we actually did things back in the day. Isabel worked for Wally Maggot, a guy who rented a pier that no longer exists on our property. They did the same type of whiting, squid and herring packing that my Grandfather Captain Joe, and Father and Uncle’s company did.
Isabel Natti Herring Plant Print, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
If you look at the photo up in the top right corner she tells the entire story starting with the two pair trawlers catching the herring.
Next in the middle, the boats are offloading at the dock where the herring get weighed and go up a conveyor into the pen room. From the pen room they would travel down on conveyors down the packing lines where they would get packed into 45 pound cases. Then they would get covered, weighed and then placed on big freezer racks. Next along you can see the person making up the boxes on the same box stapling machine that we used where you would press down with your foot on the pedal and it would swing the arm to staple the corners of the cardboard boxes. Lastly they get loaded on the truck to head off to the freezer.
I can’t believe she captured the entire scene in one frame. It is all there- the story of many many people’s day on Gloucester Harbor. I can see it all and it will live on through her work even though the piers have long fallen into the ocean.
Part II of our interview will be posted at 9:00AM
Good Morning Gloucester 
i was one of those girls on the packing line one cold whiting season back in the early ’70s. still can feel that warm wet blast of fish tainted air that greeted me in the dark cold mornings after a very cold wind blasted walk from Sadler Street. I didn’t know my place on the line. The other women didn’t speak English, and I didn’t speak Portuguese. The women let me know my place by gently nudging me from the place i chose at the end of the packing line., One-by-one, the senior women nudged me up the packing line, until i was at the head, where the freshly gutted fish, sometimes dragging entrails and other matter hit the packing table. my job was packing, sorting and clearing the attached gook from the fish. it was the messiest place on the line! the bonus? i packed more shrimp into 8 pound boxes than anyone (shrimp came in with the whiting, we got to keep the shrimp). my freezer, nanna’s freezer, mom’s freezer and many, many friends freezers got packed. we ate shrimp for months.
do you know who Wally was? and how did the name maggots get attached to his name? don’t think i ever met him. i’m going to do a small art project ‘preserving’ wally maggots and the information will help.
I always loved Isabel’s independent spirit.
best,
deb
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