A cannery tender was a type of commercial

fishing vessel A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...

operated by salmon canneries in the early to mid- 20th century. Most commonly used in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

and

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, cannery tenders transported fish from cannery-owned

fish trap A fish trap is a trap used for fishing. Fish traps include fishing weirs, lobster traps, and some fishing nets such as fyke nets. Traps are culturally almost universal and seem to have been independently invented many times. There are two main ...

s to canneries. Cannery tenders also transported men and supplies to set up and maintain the fish traps and patrolled the area around fish traps to protect them from fish pirates. After commercial fish traps were banned in

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

in 1934 and in

in 1959, many of the cannery tenders were sold to private operators for use as fishing boats or

towing Towing is coupling two or more objects together so that they may be pulled by a designated power source or sources. The towing source may be a motorized land vehicle, vessel, animal, or human, and the load being anything that can be pulled. Th ...

vessels.Vulcan of LaConner WA
/ref>

Surviving examples

was one of two identical cannery tenders operated by Fidalgo Island Packing Company. ''Chacon'' can be visited at her permanent location in

Chugiak Chugiak is an unincorporated community in the Municipality of Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska, situated approximately northeast of downtown Anchorage. Geography Chugiak is located between Eagle River to the south and Eklutna to the nort ...

, Alaska.

References

External links

The Days of Salmon Traps & Fish Pirates
(video) Commercial fishing in Alaska Fishing in the United States Salmon Ship types {{Ship-type-stub