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PORT Essington is a ghost town located on a rugged peninsula west of Ecstall River, about 30 kilometres away from the mouth of the Skeena River. In 1883, Robert Cunningham, the founder of the village, established the first fish cannery. Subsequently other merchants went there to set up different kinds of businesses. During its heyday Port Essington had a bank, two hotels with bars and saloons, restaurants, meat and butcher shops, several general stores, a drug store, a dress shop, and a laundry shop, an employment office, and a medical clinic where a doctor and a dentist practiced their professions in the community. There were three newspapers, The Port Essington Loyalist, The Port Essington Star and The Port Essington Sun. However, it was a small village with narrow streets of wooden boardwalks, and 30 or more buildings that included two churches, two schools and a community hall. The chief industries consisted of sawmills and fish canneries. During the fishing season this village boasted a population of approximately 2,000 people, but only about 500 were year-round residents.(f.1)
THE ROLES OF THE CHINESE WORKERS
The Chinese workers formed the major labour-force in the fish canneries although each cannery also employed Europeans, Native people, and Japanese in their operations. The Europeans were the administrators, clerks, mechanics, engineers and fishermen. The Native men went out to fish in the rivers or in the open sea while the Native women made and mended nets, and then worked with the Chinese workers in the canning plant. The Japanese carried out maintenance work on the wharves as well as in the cannery plant. A great majority of the Chinese and the Native people were seasonal workers who went to canneries at the beginning of the salmon run.
Before canning began the Chinese workers were the first to arrive as they were required to make cans. They cut out strips of tin metal, rolled them on a cylindrical mold and soldered the sides together to form a round cylinder. They punched off round discs from other metal sheets to fit the opening ends of the cylinder. Then they soldered a disc to one end of the hollow cylinder to form an open can. All the work was done by hand and required...