Here’s just one of the number of incredible exhibits to see at the Cape Ann Museum. This is what the flake yards looked like. The cod would be split open , de-boned and laid out in triangle shapes flat on drying racks.
When I was about 12 years old at our dock we were splitting and salting cod for a Norwegian company. Frank and my job was to pull off any globules of blood or liver after the cod got split and de-boned. We had a big stainless steel tank and the triangular shaped cod would come down the conveyor to us and plop into the stainless tank. Usually up around the nape of the cod rack there would be a liver still attached that we would need to rip off and give the rack a good washing to get nice and white before salting.
After that we would lay the whale cod split flat onto pallets, pour the salt over them and stack them up. I can remember the whole cooler being stacked up with pallet upon pallet of salted cod waiting to dry and then for the trailer truck to pick them up.
Exhibit at Cape Ann Museum, originally uploaded by captjoe06.
Good Morning Gloucester 
My Great Grandfather, George Byers, worked in the flake yards. One of the things I found interesting is ….he had a photo ID card! just like we have today for our jobs – of course his photo was in black & white – but it was the same size and everything…..
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