the Island. There were quite a few factories still running in my time. I recall the Eastern Canneries (also called the Company Factory), the Southern Packers, the Llewellyn factory, the Hewitt’s factory and the ‘Do-Dads’. The Company Factory was located on the east side of the Island and run by MacDonalds’ from Georgetown. It closed in the mid 1930’s. The Southern Packers, which we also called “Pennywinkles” was on the South side. I believe it first started with ten independent fishermen: James (Jim)) Hayter, Frank Marchand, Philip Burke, Victor Rafuse, Fred Walker, Joe (Mac) Allen, Dan Martell, Bill Martell, Angus MacLean and Mike Burke. There was also Grahams and Llewellyns but in my day it was run only by Chester Llewellyn who “smacked” his lobsters to his factory in Georgetown to be packed. By “smacking” I mean hauling in a larger boat. The factories also used these larger boats to “smack" other goods like fishing gear and supplies for the cookhouses back to the island.

There was also the Hewitt factory. They had cook houses to feed their fishermen and although at one time they packed their lobsters on the Island, in my day they also “smacked" their lobsters to their factory in Lower Montague.

The “Do-Dads" factory was on the North side of the Island. It was also run by independent fishermen, among them my father, Dan King, and his brother Murdock who was from Sturgeon Bridge. That factory was later sold to Albert Griffin who ran it for years. It was the last factory to operate on the Island.

There were other factories too, but before my time. In some cases the remains of the buildings were still showing. My Uncle Archie King and the older Dr. Macintyre from Montague had a factory on the east side of the Island. MacPhees had one on the South side. That building was still standing when we were small and we used it for a change house when we went swimming.

The government build a large building on the North side alongside the Island‘s only small wharf. This ‘fish building" was used to salt fish. Many others like it were built all over PEI in 1937 or 1938, one of which was still in use in Grand Tracadie Harbour until the late 1990’s when it was burned by vandals. The one on the Island was still very new when it was floated by Albert Griffin to Sturgeon Bridge. He used it as a lobster factory for some time. It later burnt to the ground and Albert then went to live in Souris.

The Island way of life changed quite a bit when fishermen and 68