Woods Hole Historical Museum Weekly Dispatch

From the Collection

Part 1: Stinky Woods Hole

One of the more recent donations to the museum was discovered by a diver in Great Harbor back in the 1980s among the ruins of the old Pacific Guano Company (PGC) pier pilings.

The museum sent the above rock for analysis to museum member and maritime archaeologist, Ray Hayes, who found it to be sulfur rock (aka brimstone), probably from the Mediterranean, most likely Sicily. Dr. Hayes wrote this “was used to generate sulfuric acid for macerating Menhaden scraps and seabird guano mixture to produce fertilizer pellets. The noxious fumes that were emitted from the PGC Factory toward Woods Hole …constituted a human health hazard, stripped leaves from trees, and removed paint from buildings .”

Pacific Guano Company with schooners at the dock, stony shoreline in foreground

Nowadays, the aromas around Woods Hole will more likely be salt air or enticing aromas from the village’s numerous eating establishments. Prior to the 20 ^th century, it was a different matter. The fish packing and dried fish business on the edge of Little Harbor must have sent some pungent smells into the village’s homes on the prevailing southwest wind. Then, in 1828 another business, whaling, brought more odors to town.

Woods Hole had the only deep-water port on Cape Cod and, with the construction of a better road and bridge to span the Eel Pond channel, the lower, western section of Water Street became the new center of business in Woods Hole. Not only was the Bar Neck Wharf Company housed there, but numerous businesses that served the whaling industry as well.

There was a try-works for processing whale oil, a candle manufacturing building which used spermaceti, a waxy substance found in the head cavities of sperm whales; a cooper’s shop for making barrels to house oil tryed-down on whaling voyages, and a bake shop which manufactured the dry biscuit (hard tack) which was taken on the average 3-year whaling voyage.

Candle House with try house and rocks along side Eel Pond

In the mid nineteenth century, another business took on the role of causing nasty smells to waft over Woods Hole after the decline of the whaling industry. Some of the whaling ships’ owners and captains as well as investors from Boston and New York created a new company which would utilize their idle ships and those returning empty from the Orient - the Pacific Guano Company. This factory would remain in operation until 1889.

Painting by Franklin Lewis Gifford of the Pacific Guano Company with three masted ships and tug

Pacific Guano Company factory complex with annotations on pr int

In late 1949, a plant for reducing trash fish into fish meal was proposed for the Woods Hole waterfront. The planner claimed “the entire operation is performed in a vacuum. There is no objectionable odor. The plant would have the capacity of one ton of fishmeal an hour…and turn out 144 tons of fish meal a day. For each ton of meal, five tons of fresh trash fish would be required. It comes out of the plant an off-white powder which smells not at all like fish, more like the smell of a hay and feed store. The other product of the plant is the excess of the liquid part of the fish, which is drained off into a tank. This has several uses, among them for glue and as a base for paints and varnishes. The gases formed in the reduction process are burned off. All that is left is water, clear and odorless, clean enough to drink”

Columbus Iselin, the director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, thought it would be an economic benefit to the town but others strongly disagreed. One Falmouth Enterprise reader wrote “I spoke with a man who spent years in and around Monterey (California). He tells me that the fish meal plants there do not smell – they stink”. Another reader worried about the “risk of changing the character of the village by letting a plant establish itself on the main street...a factory on Main Street would be no addition…to the charm of Eel pond and its surrounds nor the beauty of Great Harbor. I am old enough to remember that the smell from the old guano factory on Penzance was obvious and unpleasant on Nobska road when the wind was westerly. It is easier to shut the barn door to keep the horse than to catch him after he has escaped.”

From the Collection

Part 2: A Mystery from the Museum

This brass item above was found recently among the Norman T. Allen Collection and we have no idea what it is or what it was used for. Norman Allen was a part-time archivist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. This cylinder is four inches long, two inches in diameter and is encircled with pointed tines.

The ring at one end of the cylinder (see below) is inscribed with the numbers 27,42.5 50, 64, 65 and the other end reads J.Litterer New York Made in Switzerland.

If you know what this might be or if you want to keep this challenge going, email a photo of an artifact of local interest with a description to [email protected] .

We’ll do our best to help solve the mystery!

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Woods Hole Historical Museum

579 Woods Hole Road (P.O. Box 185)

Woods Hole, MA 02543

Phone: 508-548-7270

Email: [email protected]