"PORGY” FACTORIES
WHALES RENDERED DOWN PROFITABLE BUT SAVOURY. Back in the early ’Bo’s finback whales were found in great abundance off the New England coast of the United States. Shooting them from tugs and steamers was a regularly organised businessA veteran New York fish dealer used to recall that the tugboat William H. Clark once towed four whales at one time into a Maine port. The whales averaged about 65 feet in length and were utilised by the factories that converted porgies and other varities of fish into fertiliser. These plants were in their heyday half a century or so ago and scores of New Zealand coast ports maintained from one to half-a-dazen of them. The porgy factory owners estimated that each whale netted then about 400 dollars in fertiliser and oil. One factory handled more than 100 in three months. These fish-rendering works were a highly profitable, though unsavoury industry for many years-
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Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20190, 5 July 1928, Page 12
Word Count
154"PORGY” FACTORIES Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20190, 5 July 1928, Page 12
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