By: Rénald Fortier
Ingenium – Canada's Museums of Science and Innovation
It was indeed one heck of a brand: Fred Magee, Fred Magee Limited of Port Elgin, New Brunswick, and their Mephisto brand products – not to mention a few words on the Canadian lobster industry, part 1
A typical advertisement for the Mephisto brand lobster of Fred Magee Limited of Port Elgin, New Brunswick. Anon., “Fred Magee Limited.” Le Prix courant, 4 June 1909, 11.
Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Mein lesender Freund. Ami(e) lectrice ou lecteur. My reading friend.
Even though the core of this issue of our delectable and delicious blog / bulletin / thingee will not be the American / Atlantic / Canadian / Maine / northern / true lobster, yours truly would be remiss if I did not point out that, in North America, that crustacean did not gain critical acclaim before the 1870s – and the development of passenger rail transport, a development which brought forth the need to feed people over long distances and gave a serious leg up to the North American tourism industry.
You see, posh people who did not know that lobster was trash food tasted well cooked fresh lobster in New England – and loved it. Once back home, they wanted to renew that epicurean experience but the canned stuff was no longer up to snuff. Transporting large numbers of live crustaceans soon began. Those perambulating lobsters cost more, way more, however. They were no longer trash food. They were now a luxury, enjoyed by millionaires and their bejewelled lady friends.
While yours truly does not know for sure how those lobsters perambulated, it looked as if the first attempt to ship live lobster from Canada to the United States took place in 1872. A schooner was the means of transport used. It travelled from Nova Scotia to Boston, Massachusetts.
Even though some deliveries took place from 1878 onward, the live lobster export market remained small until the creation, in 1882, of Arcadia Lobster Company of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.
Incidentally, yours truly came across an unreferenced statement to the effect that the first person ever to can lobster was a New Brunswick gentleman by the name of Noble. That devout person saw to it that excerpts of sermons and the Bible were printed on the labels of the cans. Would you by any chance know if that story is true, my reading friend?
Anyway, back to the history of lobster and its newfound popularity, or absence thereof.
You see, things were very different in earlier days. In the 17th and 18th centuries, there were relatively few lobster fishermen. Those crustaceans were in fact so plentiful near the shores of British colonies like Massachusetts that well off people with servants to feed simply told those to grab the ones which washed up on said shores, or bought them from people who did the grabbing. Mind you, lobsters were also on the menu of slaves, prisoners and… children.
Would you believe that those beached lobsters were sometimes used as… fertiliser? I kid you not.
Incidentally, many of those lobsters were big. I mean, some very old (100-year-old? 120-year-old?) individuals could weigh up to 18, if not 20 kilogrammes (approximately 40 to 44 pounds), but I digress and you do not believe me, now, do you, my reading friend? Sigh… Well, ye doubting Thomas / Thomasina, feast your visual sense organs on that…
A lobster of almost 17 kilograms (37 or so pounds) caught off the coast of Maine. Anon., “The World’s Largest Lobster.” Le Globe illustré, 19 February 1905, 114.
The catch with all that cheap, if not free food was that cooking a lobster which had ceased to be, expired, kicked the bucket, passed on and shuffled off its mortal coil, a lobster which was no more, had gone to meet its maker and joined the bleeding choir invisible, all the while pushing off the daisies, did not result in a tasty morsel. (Hello, Monty!)
You see, the typical North American chef had yet to twig to the fact that a tasty lobster was one which had its life stolen by being put in boiling water. That quick action prevented the decapod’s stomach enzymes from seeping out into the rest of its body, which made the meat go bad quickly.
And yes, many people had twigged to that fact long before the 19th century. A cookbook authored by one or more Roman chefs, as early as the 1st century of the Common Era, De re culinaria / De re coquinaria, contained crustacean recipes which seemed to proceed along that line, for example.
As was pointed out earlier, however, the core of this issue of our delectable and delicious blog / bulletin / thingee will not be Homarus americanus. Nay. Let us therefore proceed toward that core.
Our story began in Baie Verte / Bayvert, a community in the southernmost region of New Brunswick, on the shores of the Northumberland Strait which separates New Brunswick from Prince Edward Island. It was there, in late May 1875, that Fred (Frederick?) Magee came into this world.
Magee’s early years were presumably typical of a youth of that time. This being said (typed?), he attended the University of New Brunswick, in Fredericton,… New Brunswick, in the 1890s. Magee seemingly dropped out before completing his studies, however.
Magee might, I repeat might, also have attended a commercial college during the 1890s.
Magee went into business in 1897, by opening a general store in Port Elgin, a New Brunswick community located on the shores of the Northumberland Strait, not too far from Baie Verte.
Being the smart and ambitious young man that he was, Magee soon realised there was dough to be made by selling canned seafood.
By the spring of 1903 at the latest, Magee’s firm was producing Mephisto brand smelts in mustard, spices or tomato sauce, and this in one of the most modern factories in Canada, or so he claimed, a factory located in Port Elgin. Experiments in that regard had begun no later than in early 1902.
The young businessman claimed to have agents in the largest cities in Canada, Montréal, Québec, and Toronto, Ontario. He also claimed to have agents in two important American cities, Boston and New York City, New York.
Magee added canned herring to his list of products at some point in the 1900s.
By May 1905 at the latest, Magee’s firm was producing Mephisto brand lobster. At the time, it employed 200 or so people, but not 12 months a year of course, and could count on the services of 50 or so fishing boats.
Sadly, yours truly has been unable to discover when, or if, Magee decided to put aside the production of canned smelts and herrings. Indeed, his firm was still selling smelts and herrings as late as 1920.
Mind you, it was perhaps around 1905 that the advertisement you saw at the beginning of this article made its appearance.
To paraphrase the lead singer of the American new wave band Talking Heads, in its 1981 (!) hit song Once in a lifetime, you may ask yourself why Magee chose the word Mephisto as a brand name. I for one did ask myself that very question. There was of course nothing wrong with Port Elgin or Magee (brand) lobster. Those trademarks were, however, well, insipid.
It so happened that Magee loved music. Indeed, he loved opera. It so happened, again, that, in March 1859, an opera by the French composer Charles François Gounod (music) as well as Paul Jules Barbier and Michel Antoine Florentin Carré (text) was seen for the first time, in Paris, France. That opera, one of the best-known French operas, was, you guessed it, Faust.
One of the main characters of Faust, besides the eponymous philosopher / metaphysician, of course, was a familiar spirit of hell known as Mephistopheles, a moniker often abbreviated as Mephisto.
While yours truly cannot see the convergence between a demon and seafood, unless one simply loathes sea creatures perhaps (Hello, EG!), Magee certainly saw something. The Mephisto brand label, with its red demon standing upright on the left, soon became known far and wide.
The truth was that Magee also sold Purity brand lobster. Indeed, both brands actually coexisted for some years. Even so, it was Magee’s Mephisto brand lobster which rightfully became famous.
Business being good, Magee opened a second factory, in Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1906. And in case you do not believe me, here is proof…
A typical Fred Magee advertisement for Mephisto and Purity brands lobster. Anon., “Fred Magee.” Canadian Grocer, 15 January 1909, 62.
And yes, I do realise that the advertisement said Picton and not Pictou. Picton was, and still is, a community located in Ontario, to the west of Kingston, Ontario. Advertisements published after the one you just saw corrected the typo. Given that Canadian Grocer was a weekly magazine published in Toronto, said typo was perhaps understandable.
From the looks of it, Magee’s firm officially became Fred Magee Limited of Port Elgin in 1912.
Magee might, I repeat might, have operated a third factory in Campbelltown, in the northernmost region of New Brunswick, on the shores of Chaleur Bay, no later then the spring of 1913.
Indeed, it looked as if his firm operated no less than 4 canneries at some later point, a single one in Nova Scotia and 3 in New Brunswick, including one in Caribou. By 1921, Fred Magee, yes, the firm, also had a (short-lived?) facility in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.
Mind you, Magee also set up a factory in Port Elgin around 1920 to make the wooden boxes and barrels needed for his herrings and smelts. The wooden wastes which came out of that factory were used to heat the nearby cannery.
The firm had set up a factory to produce the cans needed to can its lobster no later than 1914.
Interestingly, Magee came to supply the cans used by several small size lobster canneries located in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Would you like to know how big Canada’s canned lobster industry was in 1913? And yes, that was indeed a rhetorical question.
For starters, there were 720 or so canneries, located in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Québec, in 1913. Those facilities employed thousands (14 000 or so?) of women and men. Thousands of fishermen (10 000 or so?) supplied those workers, thanks to more than 1 600 000 traps scattered in countless nooks and inlets.
Approximately 26 140 metric tonnes (25 730 or so imperial tons / 28 820 or so American tons) of lobsters were caught in Canada’s coastal waters in 1913-14.
The Nova Scotia lobster industry accounted for 60 % of the total market value of the lobster caught in Canada around 1912, a value which hovered, it was said, around $ 5 000 000, a sum which corresponded to approximately $ 135 000 000 in 2024 currency. New Brunswick’s share of that value was approximately 4 times smaller.
Given that total market value and the number of fishermen and cannery employees, the average earnings of each of those hard-working individuals was ridiculously small. This of course meant that those same people needed to have at least one other source of revenue to make ends meet.
Incidentally, would you believe that only a tiny fraction of each lobster made its way into a can? Given a typical example of that decapod weighing a single unit of weight (kilogramme or pound, your choice), 75 to 80 % of that animal was thrown away, according to a contemporary authority on the Canadian lobster industry, Richard H. Williams. Wah!
Incidentally, only 40 % or so of a typical steer ends up as meat, but back to our story.
From the looks of it, consumers in 4 European countries consumed approximately ⅔ of the canned lobsters exported by Canada around 1913, that is approximately ⅓ for consumers in the United Kingdom and approximately ⅓ for consumers in Belgium, France and the German Empire. American consumers consumed approximately ¼ of the production, with most of the remaining 1/12 going to 4 European countries (Denmark, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden).
Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the largest exporting port for lobster on planet Earth.
There was, however, something rotten in the state of Canada. You see, there were concerns about the future of the lobster. The size of the catches was decreasing, for example. Indeed, the 1913 catch was much smaller (3 times smaller?) than the one of 1904. The average size of the lobsters caught also declined over the years. The seemingly inexhaustible stocks of lobster in Canada’s waters were under threat.
And yes, you are quite correct, my astute reading friend. The value of a unit of weight (kilogramme or pound, your choice) of Canadian lobster was multiplied by 4 (!) between 1880 and 1914. Wah!
It went without saying that the earnings of the average fisherman or cannery worker were not multiplied by 4 between 1880 and 1914. Dare I suggest that the people at higher levels of the food chain grabbed most of the dough, as usual. Too controversial? All right, I shall not dare.
As might have been expected, the onset of the First World War changed everything. Deliveries to Europe came to crashing halt in August 1914, with only half of the year’s production on its way or already delivered. Warehouses filled with cans for which no buyer could be found.
Understandably enough, the Royal Navy prevented any and all deliveries to the German Empire.
In Canada, there were concerns that the governments of the important European countries toward which Canada’s lobsters could still be sent, namely France and the United Kingdom, might not be too keen at the idea of allowing the unrestrained importation of a luxury product like lobster in a middle of major conflict.
With no end of the fighting in sight, representatives of the canneries of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island met in Halifax in late 1914 to figure out their next move. Said move turned out to be a decision to keep their canneries closed in 1915 and send delegates to Ottawa, Ontario, to have that decision approved. The North American market was simply too small to make it worth opening the canneries.
Both fishermen and cannery employees were understandably concerned by that announcement.
This being said (typed?), some observers pointed out that fishermen would be able to turn to other types of catches, namely fish. They also pointed out that the stocks of lobster could use a year of rest. In any event, if fishermen slogged as hard in 1915 as they had done in previous year, the canneries would be inundated with lobsters which could end up further clogging their warehouses, something which could drive down prices and further reduce the already ridiculous earnings of the fishermen and cannery employees.
What actually happened is unclear but it looked as if the closure required by the canneries did not meet with the approval of the federal government.
It also looked as if the fishermen of Nova Scotia made as much money in 1915 as in previous years, which came as a pleasant surprise to them. The French and British markets had seemingly not collapsed as predicted. No information could be found regarding the sums of money made by New Brunswick fishermen.
In mid-May 1916, however, the French government decreed that lobster was a food item which would no longer be allowed in France. There was a war on, after all. In one fell swoop, the Canadian lobster industry lost about 25 % of its export market.
In late July, that same French government reversed its position. Yours truly has a feeling that industry representatives had put pressure on the Canadian government so that it would, in turn, put pressure on its British counterpart, so that it would, in turn, put pressure on its French counterpart.
Mind you, said French government had seemingly concluded that cutting imports of canned Canadian lobster might force families who sent such products to loved ones fighting at the front to switch to other types of meat, French meat in fact, which could have led to price increases due to the scarcity thus created.
Oddly enough, even though lobster would continue to flow toward France, not too many Canadian families actually bought lobster. At 55 if not 60 cents a can, a 455 or so gramme (1 pound) can, a sum which corresponded to approximately $ 13.50 and $ 14.75 in 2024 currency, that critter was deemed to be too much of a luxury.
The fact that a sizeable proportion of the lobster catch, and of other foods produced in Canada, was feeding people overseas did not sit too well with some, if not many people in Canada. To quote a July 1916 issue of The Daily Standard of Kingston, which mentioned an article from a well-known Montréal daily, The Gazette,
The worst of it is that this export of food does not apply to lobsters only, if this were so, there might not be cause to kick much, but reports are frequent, as to large exports of other foods, the prices of which have gone up, and are going up. It is a matter for the government’s consideration.
Did yours truly mention that a 455 or so gramme (1 pound) can of lobster exported to France might, I repeat might, have been sold there for 50 cents, or approximately $ 12.30 in 2024 currency? Yes, yes, Canada’s lobster might, I repeat might, have been cheaper in Paris than it was in Montréal or Toronto. The mind boggles, but I have my doubts. Anyway, let us move on.
All in all, the lobster industry did well in 1916. The catch was 60 % larger than it had been in 1915 and sold at above average prices.
Incidentally, would you believe that the value of Canada’s 1916 lobster exports to the United Kingdom was 60 % higher than that in 1915?
The Canadian lobster industry did not do as well in 1917. You see, in late February of that year, the British government decreed that lobster was one of the many items which would no longer be allowed in the United Kingdom, unless such imports were approved by the Controller of Import Restrictions. There were not enough merchant ships to carry the countless items needed for the war effort, and lobster was hardly a priority item. In one fell swoop, the Canadian lobster industry lost a sizeable percentage of its export market.
Representatives of the canning industry quickly set a meeting in Halifax to come up with a plan of action. A delegation soon went to Ottawa to meet the Minister of Trade and Commerce, the professor of classics / temperance lecturer Sir George Eulas Foster. Telegrams also went to the Prime Minister, a lawyer, Sir Robert Laird Borden, and to the Minister of Marine and Fisheries, the professional politician John Douglas Hazen.
And yes, you are correct, my assiduous reading friend, Borden was mentioned several, if not many times in our astounding blog / bulletin / thingee, and this since September 2017.
Industry leaders were seemingly informed in early March that Canada’s lobsters would not be barred from entering the United Kingdom. Nay. The amounts imported would be cut in half, however.
Yours truly does not know if that change, if it occurred at all, was brought about by Canadian pressure or if the restrictive measures had been misread.
Incidentally, one of the pearls of wisdom put forward by the British Ministry of Food around May 1917, possibly in some sort of handbook, read as follows: “Rich people who make their dinner of lobster salad are good patriots. The rich man who eats neck of mutton and bread is not.” The idea being that well off people should leave cheaper foods to the poor.
I would have thought that making food accessible to everyone would have been fairer, but what do I know?
Other pearls of wisdom, possibly pasted on walls as posters, read as follows:
“Eat slowly and you need eat less. Five people out of ten are digging their graves with their teeth.”
“The woman who wastes a crust of bread wastes a bullet.”
“The dust bin swallows the food of millions.”
That last quote sounded familiar, did it not, my reading friend? You have undoubtedly heard about the report released by the United Nations Organization in March 2024, according to which about 19 % of the food produced on our big blue marble in 2022 was wasted. Pretty appalling, is it not? Especially given that, in 2024, 700 to 800 million people suffered from undernourishment.
On another note, the French government might have decreed yet again that lobster was one of the many items which would no longer be allowed in France.
Given all that, and at the risk of repeating what was said (typed?) above, the Canadian lobster industry did not do well in 1917. For some reason or other, its catch shrank by 55 % compared to that of 1916.
Even so, countless cans of lobster gathered dust in warehouses as twitchy buyers stayed away from canners until they were certain that their purchases would actually make it to overseas buyers.
In the spring of 1917, a number of canneries were sold at auction, with sites, buildings and contents going for a fraction of their prewar values.
Topping that off was the fact that officials of the Commission on Fisheries and Game of Massachusetts were buying thousands of small lobsters legally caught by Nova Scotia fishermen, and this in order to rebuild the stocks which had been all but obliterated in recent years.
As you might well imagine, that contraband effort did not go unnoticed. The Commission of Conservation of the Department of Marine and Fisheries was apprised of the situation. Whatever its members did, if anything, was unclear.
Mind you, fickle markets were not the only source of worry for Magee and other Canadian businessmen. German submarines were prowling the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
You may wish to note that what follows is tragic.
One only needs to mention the sinking of the British cargo ship SS Rappahannock, 130 or so kilometres (80 or so miles) off the Isles of Scilly / Enesow Syllan, England, in October 1916. Even though the German authorities claimed that the crew was given the time to man the ship’s lifeboats before the latter was sunk, none of those 37 men made it to shore.
With your permission, yours truly will now bring to a close this first part of our article on Magee. See you later.
Rénald Fortier
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