A 1960s image of the Canal Freezer Plant, Cape Cod Times, Sept. 18, 2016.
By Doreen Leggett
Fisherman Steve Torrey was born in 1958, near Scorton Creek in Sandwich. He spent a lot of time in the creek, clamming, striper fishing, and when he got older he often found himself down at the Sandwich Marina, which looked very different than it does today.
There were no finger piers. There were pilings, a makeshift dock and a lot of commercial fishermen moored in the middle of the basin or rafted up next to the dock.
“There would be eight to 10 boats rafted together,” Torrey, now the captain of Time and Tide, remembered. “If you left you would have to tie all the other boats back up. It was crazy.”
Torrey worked on a lot of boats, a sea clammer named the Donald Stewart Ross among them. The harbor was busy with fish packing businesses, a freezer plant, and retail companies.
“Tuna seiners were unloading hundreds of thousands of pounds of tuna. The freezer plant was selling bait,” he said. “It was a regular little fishing community.”
All the activity prompted the US Army Corps of Engineers as well as the town and state to look at upgrading. The Sandwich Marina, obtained by the Army Corps in 1928 when it purchased the Cape Cod Canal, had first been established as a harbor of refuge but in the early days was described as a “little hole in the canal.”
According to R.A. Lovell Jr., in his book ‘Sandwich: A Cape Cod Town’, a freezer plant existed at the site before the Army Corps purchased the canal. It closed in 1921, but the spot was booming in the 1930s after being bought by United Cape Cod Cranberry Company which used it to freeze and store fish, primarily whiting and hake. The plant was later owned by Balfour Bassett and called Canal Marine Fisheries.
The basin itself is man-made, originally 8 acres, doubling in 1963 when the area was dredged.
In summer the port was so crowded, infrastructure inadequate, that some boats would leave and unload at another port. Off-season, the port was popular too.
“On Halloween night there would be a city of lights,” said Torrey.
In the late 1970s, the Sandwich Board of Selectmen hired Tibbetts Engineering Corp, out of New Bedford, to do a “Feasibility Study for East Boat Basin” as the spot was called, funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, through the state’s Coastal Zone Management, CZM.
“The realization of this project will be a great economic opportunity for not only Sandwich fishermen, but also the Cape Cod fishing industry and the residents of the town of Sandwich,” Robert Verkade, vice president of Tibbets, said in his final report.
State officials said there was a “pressing need” to develop industry beneficial to region and the “commercial fishing industry is compatible with the traditional character of the region and also lends support to tourism.”
The report drew on comments from then-Governor Michael Dukakis who said there was an unmet need for dockage and berthing space as well as for improved offloading and land for fish processing.
The study stated that “the main purpose of the expansion project is to provide facilities for the commercial fishing industry.”
A list of vital facilities included off-loading, fire protection and sanitary facilities as well as processing, vessel service industries, ice plants, freezer storage, and fueling docks. Authors also noted the need for “reasonable” dock fees, electric power at the docks and a railway to repair boats.
Two plans were developed after public hearings – Plan A would cost $16.6 million, Plan B $18.2 million. The federal government was picking up the tab. Local spin-off benefits were estimated to be $7.7 million annually.
Plan A created infrastructure to increase space for existing commercial boats from six to 100, increasing recreational spots from 71 to 368. This open basin plan increased the usable water area from 7.8 to 19.4 acres.
The alternative plan split the basin into two sections with a smaller footprint, increasing commercial dockage to 81 total. The basin would be split by a concrete “peninsula” that would be leased for fish unloading and processing, as well as other uses.
The study said approvals and construction could take 15 years, which was more or less accurate. The final plan resembled a slimmed down Plan A – there are only about 140 recreational, 25 transient and 40 commercial slips in the marina today, for example.
When the report was published, Sandwich was the fifth largest in the state, second largest port on the Cape, behind Provincetown. Sandwich’s 1977 catch was 15.3 million pounds valued at $5 million; Provincetown was listed at 17.9 million pounds.
The report stated that from 1975 to 1979 fishing trips in Sandwich doubled, the catch tripled and value quadrupled. In 1976 the Magnuson-Stevens Act had passed which pushed foreign fleets 200 miles offshore and fueled local effort.
Twenty-five percent of landings were from Sandwich-based boats. The report also zeroed in on the increase in pounds, 198 percent, and dollar value, 344 percent.
Yellowtail flounder was highest value at $1.37 million, sea scallops second at $1.1 million, black back flounder third; the top three made up 70 percent of revenue. The inshore mobile gear fleet was very active fishing for haddock and flounder and there was also still a healthy cod fishery. The study stated that 33 otter trawls, with a combined crew of more than a 100, used the port.
The study said growth was expected as New Bedford’s fleet had grown by 32 boats in the past two years with 12 to 15 more boats on their way. Squid, whiting and mackerel were noted by the National Marine Fisheries Service as underutilized species and Sandwich was already landing them.
Adding to the economic punch were the nearby marine industries, including Canal Marine, a freezer facility with a capacity of 3.5 million pounds that focused on menhaden, hake, mackerel. Atlantic Coast Fillet specialized in finfish from otter trawls, packing fish including whiting and scallops. Fish buyers and retailers like Hyannis Seafood and Joe’s Lobster Mart added to the mix.
Land surrounding the basin was a blend of private and town ownership, the rest owned by the federal Army Corps. Canal Marine, since demolished, had a lease with the Army Corps beginning in 1962 for $1. The freezer plant, where Fishermen’s View restaurant is now, is private property. Fishermen say the spot could have been filled with condominiums if not for the Colberts, the family who owns three commercial vessels in the basin, who bought the property for a market and restaurant.
Published reports said in 1985 work began on 88 new slips. Around the same time, figures published put the number of boats homeported in Sandwich at 57. A ribbon was cut on the new concrete floating system in 1992.
Twenty years earlier, when the project was being discussed, members of the selectboard said that because the federal government covered 100 percent of upgrades of commercial ports and only 50 percent for pleasure boat ports, fishermen were the ones making the project possible.
“This is one of the few things we can do enhance the job climate where we are not consuming land in the process. Commercial fishing is compatible with our number two industry which is tourism,” said Selectman Eugene Carr in The Village Broadsider in July of 1978.
Although federal government funding for ports has diminished greatly, the Army Corps has invested in the commercial fleet by fixing a bulkhead near Fishermen’s View and installing a new take-out crane. The work finished up this month.