Chapter XLVIII: Fish-Curing and Fruit-Preserving

It would probably seem to the casual observer that of all industries in which women are employed, none are less likely to cause injury to health than those connected with fish. Visions arise of the fisherman’s wife, who from the minute the fishing-boat grates on the beach relieves her husband of all labour, taking the burden of the active work and the sole responsibility for all connected with the fish and the nets; of the Newhaven fishwife, so familiar in the streets of Edinburgh, as she trudges from door to door bearing with apparent ease the enormous creel of fish, and her almost equally surprising burden of petticoats, and of everything one has heard or read of the fisher lass. These visions and traditions would seem to justify the view that whatever there may be in her life that is hard, and for which the dweller in towns might be found unfit, the woman who has from her infancy been accustomed to an outdoor life and to constant exposure to wind and weather, will, in this work, have fitness and endurance which it would be difficult to overtax.

Yet it is not inappropriate to give some space to this industry in a book on Occupation Diseases, and in order to arrive at the reason for its inclusion, it is necessary to look at the history of the development of the fish-curing industry and the conditions of work.

Far away in remote districts of Scotland and Ireland, there may still be found surviving the hand industry of wool-carding and spinning, carried on often by the crofter’s or shepherd’s wife as she sits, singing no doubt appropriate songs, on the hillside or at her peat fire, but in nothing can this be compared with the great wool-spinning industry of the Yorkshire mills. Similarly in the fish-curing trade, the work of the women who concern themselves only with the catch of one small fishing-boat is totally different from that of those who are centred round a fish market, who go from port to port, and to whom the trawler, the drifter, the steam liner, and a huge fleet of sail boats, bring in daily tons of fish.

In a country with such a coastline as ours, with its shores washed by many seas, it follows as a matter of course that all parts of the United Kingdom are industrially interested in fishing, but in Scotland chiefly it is a staple industry; and the Scots, in some parts of the country, might be called a nation of fisher folk, so large a proportion of the population depend, if not for their entire living, at least for the chief part of it, on the harvest of the sea. The figures given in the last published report of the Scotch Fishery Board show that almost 90,000 Scots were employed in connection with the various branches of the sea fisheries, of whom probably at least a fourth are women, constantly or intermittently engaged in fish-curing.

The industry, leaving out of account the packing of fish for sale fresh, which is done from the market, not the workshop, may be divided roughly into two varieties, the one dealing with herring, the other with haddocks, cod, and other white-fleshed fish. It is with the former I wish to deal chiefly here, although the latter has also a record of injury caused by overwork and bad conditions.

There does not appear to be reason to fear that the demand both at home and abroad for Scotch-cured herrings will diminish. The industry, while fluctuating yearly, both locally and generally, grows as a whole in extent, and is largely in the hands of Scotch workers, even in the ports in England in which it is carried on. There is a huge trade to foreign ports in cured or pickled herrings, for which there is apparently an unlimited demand in Russia and Germany; and an immense quantity are exported also to the Mediterranean ports. The women employed (if we consider, as the English curer does, that Northumberland is part of Scotland as far as the fishing industry is concerned) are practically all Scotch. They are engaged by the curer for the season as long as that lasts in one port, or may be engaged for a longer period, or indeed for the whole “herring” year by the same curer. At any rate, they find little difficulty in securing engagements, and, in May and June, we find them very far north: Stornoway and Thurso being the centres of the industry. In July, there is a move eastwards on the part of the herring, and consequently of the herring curers, and for two months Shetland, Wick, Fraserburgh, and Peterhead are the chief headquarters. Later, the same women may be found doing the same work on the Yorkshire and the Lincolnshire coasts, and in October they move to Lowestoft and Yarmouth, where their season probably ends about Christmas time. A certain number also may be found in Hull, kippering herrings in the early part of the year, before making their way home north for a sight of friends and home, before beginning the work of a new season.

The chief causes of injury to health in the industry are two: (1) long and irregular hours of work; (2) exposure. Uncertainty of supply, both of fish and of wind, are of course important factors in the trade; and, so far, little enterprise has been shown in overcoming the resulting difficulties by adopting even such methods as are known to a careful housekeeper, of keeping the fish, which undoubtedly, when left unprotected and piled in heaps, soon begin to deteriorate. The curer’s object is to have the fish dealt with as soon as possible after they are landed, both to prevent deterioration and in order to be ready for the next supply. Hence the long hours, the night work, the absence of regular hours or of intervals sufficient for meals.

The method of housing the workers adds to the discomforts occasioned by the methods of work. In Scotland it is customary for the curer to utilise for this purpose the sheds used in winter as stores, handing them over unfurnished, save for grates and rough boards put together to form bedsteads, in the proportion of one bedstead for one crew. The workers bring their own furniture, bedding, and cooking utensils, and live as they work, in crews of three; generally six, nine, or twelve in a room according to its size. It is not surprising that the frying-pan and the tea-pot fill a large place in their domestic arrangements, and that their diet is as a rule as expensive as it is indigestible. If they are not so housed, the probability is that their lodging is a long way from their workplace, too far to admit of them returning for meals, and they take these in the wet and unwholesome atmosphere of the fish-house.

The second drawback to this work is the exposure. In early summer in Lewis (where the absence of any real darkness makes it easy to continue work all through the night), with the rain falling softly probably, as is its custom in the west, but none the less effectively; later on in the east, exposed to the scorching mid-day heat; and still later on, on the Norfolk coast in frost, wind, and rain, working far into the night, by the light of flaring torches, such is the yearly experience of the herring curer. The reason given for the present conditions in each place is that the season is short, a month or two out of the year only. True, the season is short for the town, but it is long for the worker, living a nomadic life for eight to ten months out of twelve, either in barracks or in lodgings, too often enduring the maximum of discomfort both in and out of her working hours. Since the work, unlike most of an outdoor nature, can be carried on in bad as in good weather, it is reasonable to expect that some covering should be provided, so that the worker shall not be wetted through and through, and compelled to stand in mud as she works. Should the occupation be ever transformed from an outdoor to an indoor industry, there would necessarily be a loss of those picturesque sights with which many of us have become familiar, but there would be a distinct gain in improved health to the workers, for the unsatisfactory health of many of the women is the direct result of the conditions under which their work is carried on. Rheumatism, bronchitis, and the pulmonary troubles, from which so many of them suffer, are consequent upon exposure to inclement weather, but the derangements of the digestive organs and the tendency for the workers to contract, often too in a severe form, epidemic diseases with which they are brought into contact, are the result of their generally lowered physical condition, due to their unhealthy mode of living. The very ground they stand on is often a menace to health, for in the absence of proper paving and drainage, the earth becomes impregnated with decaying organic matter, which “smells to heaven,” and creates a constantly foul atmosphere not completely counteracted by the open-air surroundings. The long spell of work, the irregular and hastily cooked and eaten meals, and overcrowded rooms, all tend to lower vitality and render the system an easy prey to disease. No one will deny that an allowance of 250 cubic feet of space for each person, in a room which serves as a living room, as well as bedroom, for six to twelve persons, is too small, yet a smaller allowance of space is frequently found.

I have spoken of the workers at the pickling or gutting and packing process, leaving out of account the numbers employed in kippering, who, while also nomadic, yet work on different terms as regards wages, etc. Each worker is engaged separately, not as part of a crew, and as a rule she has to find her own lodgings. The nature of the employment obliges the kipperer to work in a covered place, but she, equally with the “gutter” working outside, is injuriously influenced by the imperfect sanitary conditions dependent upon unpaved or badly-paved floors that cannot be _cleansed_ by simply being flushed with water. Only properly constructed floors with good means of drainage are of value here, and these are seldom seen. Ventilation and daylight are acknowledged to be desirable to maintain health, but the little kippering shop is too frequently without them. As a set-off against the unhealthiness of the trade, it is urged that the season is short, but if we take the interests of the workers into account, the season, as I have shown, is not short, and there can be no justice in depriving the woman who works in a trade which requires her to be in several places in a year, of those privileges to which she would be entitled were she working in one which permitted her to live always at home.

Among the minor ills from which the herring curer suffers, are the severe cuts which it is impossible to avoid, and which are rendered exceedingly painful by the constant use of salt, necessary in her work. This often causes sores which take a long time to heal. Cases of mild forms of blood poisoning are not infrequent, caused chiefly by the sting of the jelly-fish, which is often found with its tentacles wound round the herring.

In considering this question, it must be remembered that this branch of the industry is not one in which young girls work. I am of opinion that not more than 3 per cent. are under eighteen years of age. Were it otherwise, there would undoubtedly be a much darker picture to draw of ill-health, for the adult is able to withstand more than the young undeveloped girl, and the evil effects are not so rapidly apparent. The subject is one on which anything more than general statements are difficult to make, for only a little of the injury is discoverable at any one of the curing stations. When ill-health overtakes her, the thought of the worker turns to home, and it is to the little fishing villages, and among the crofters of the north, that one must go to learn the full record of the fisher woman’s life. It is impossible to doubt that the fish-curing industry has much to answer for, possessing as it does, in addition to the unfavourable surroundings of insanitary districts, evils peculiar to itself. The history of many a worker is one of steady deterioration of health during the time of her employment in this industry.

In the other branches of the trade, such as the curing and smoking of haddocks, cod, ling, etc., and the preserving and tinning of fish, the workers are drawn much more generally from the immediate locality. It is in these that young labour is found, especially and increasingly in the processes in which the hours and conditions are not regulated by law, the period of employment at times abnormally long, and the conditions of the workplaces far from satisfactory. Trying as these are to every one, it is to the young and undeveloped workers that they most often cause lasting injury. The employment of children, too, out of school hours and during school holidays, in these laborious processes, is not to their physical advantage.

The hopeful feature is that the evils are avoidable. The exemptions from Public Health and Factory and Workshop Acts, which the fish-curer has been allowed, have not been for the benefit either of the worker or the consumer. With definite enactment and administration, with regulated hours and sanitary workplaces, impetus would be given, I believe, to better regulation of the industry itself, and there being nothing necessarily unhealthy in the work, we should gradually find our fisher population becoming what with their ancestry and industry they ought to be--worthy successors of those who, in the annals of history, have never been found wanting in strength and endurance.

_The Preserving of Fruit._

The preserving of fruit has only of recent years become an industry of any importance. The costliness of sugar made jam formerly a luxury for which the demand was small, and the great bulk of it used was made not in the factory or workshop, but in the domestic kitchen. Few housewives would, in those past days, admit the use of bought jam; now its reduced price has brought it within the reach of all who are without the appliances or knowledge to make it, or space in which to store it. The industry is carried on in all varieties of workplaces, from the large country factory in a fruit-growing district, to the little dingy workshop in a crowded city street, and largely by women and young girls. Jam-making is not an intricate process, whether made outright in the fruit season, or only partially, to be completed as required during the remainder of the year; it is simple and easily carried on, for the most part, by unskilled workers. Still the work is not light, and although there are many appliances which help to render it less hard and exhausting, these are not in general use, and the workers are exposed, as a rule, to danger both to health and limb. Burns and scalds from the boiling mixture, and injury from falls on slippery floors, may not be wholly unavoidable in this trade; but the risk from them can be reduced greatly by using proper means of pouring and conveying jam, and by limiting the amount which a worker shall be allowed or expected to carry. One cannot but view with concern the increasing number of youthful workers now employed, especially during the summer months, when, owing to a relaxation of the Factory Act, the industry is largely outside the sphere of legislative control. Long hours, too, go, as is often the case, hand in hand with bad conditions.

In quite a number of industries among which jam-making may be included, wetness really forms the chief menace to health. In the textile industry the danger from this cause has been so much recognised, that by means of the Cotton Cloth Act and by Special Rules, provision is made for the health of the workers where they are exposed to moisture. In the law relating to steam laundries, the removal of steam is specially provided for. In jam manufacture, there is of necessity the production of moisture. Where the means for removing it are effective, little discomfort or injury may result, but unfortunately in the rapid development of the industry, buildings unsuitable for the purpose have often been chosen; disused factories, intended primarily for quite other purposes, and not easily adaptable to their present use. In these, consequently, the work is done at a risk to health.

When you enter the boiling-room of one of these factories, you are often conscious only of steam, steam which cannot be seen through, which envelopes you, wetting and chilling at the same time. As you penetrate it you find that there are workers there, young girls often, thinly clad, thin and pale, and as you stand and talk to them, the condensed steam drops down on you and them from the roof, so that you are not surprised that the thin cotton dresses they wear are saturated, and even their hair is dripping wet. In the resigned manner characteristic of this class of worker, they admit that it is “a bit steamy,” possibly assuring you at the same time in husky voices, which go far to belie their words, that it has never done them any harm. Under foot there is again wetness, partly due to the steam, partly to the water, hot and cold, which must be used with some lavishness, and which in factories, not constructed with a special view to such an industry as this, lodges in pools, lies between the flags and bricks of the floor in crevices, to which much of the refuse of the factory finds its way. There it lies decomposing, affecting injuriously the health of the workers, and hastening the deterioration of the fresh fruit.

Jam-making is classed as a season trade, and although employment for the permanent workers is usually continuous throughout the year, it is in the summer months that there is the greatest pressure, and large numbers of casual workers are employed. To meet this pressure, the usual limits set by the Factory Acts have been relaxed, and long spells of work, with shortened meal-times, are further elements in rendering the worker less efficient and more liable to contract disease. The effects of these conditions are not seen at once, they are gradual and insidious in their action, but it is only the constitution much above the average which can withstand them. The prevalence of bronchitis and other chest diseases, and of rheumatism and lumbago of a chronic character, although often not of a specially severe type, is due to causes which are, or should be, preventable.

The two industries, fish-curing and fruit-preserving, have many points in common, notably that in both: (1) the material dealt with is of a perishable nature, liable to deterioration; (2) the pressure of work is not continuous throughout the year; (3) the industry is not fully controlled by the Factory Acts. To the effects from these causes all that renders these trades at present dangerous or injurious to health may be attributed. If the economic value of the health of the worker is recognised, it will not be impossible to secure conditions which, being primarily intended for her benefit, shall incidentally tend also to the improvement of the industries.

_Note._--This chapter was written before the Factory Bill of 1901 passed into law. It should, owing to the provisions of that Bill, be possible in future for H.M. Inspectors to exercise some control over some of the conditions relating to health in these trades.

MARY M. PATERSON.