Crescent Porter Hale (1872–1937) was an American industrialist who was involved in the canned salmon industry in Bristol Bay, Alaska throughout his adult life.
Born in Santa Cruz, CA as the 7th child of gold rush pioneer Titus Hale, the family moved to a farm on the lower Sacramento River in 1880.
At age 21, Cress was named superintendent of the Bradford cannery, later renamed the Diamond BB after the company name, the Bristol Bay Packing Co. Hale caught the eye of competitors and in 1899 the Pacific Steam Whaling Company hired 27-year-old Cress to build a salmon cannery at Nushagak Point and serve as its first superintendent.
Hale was awarded patent 798,334 for his improvements to the machine in 1905, but eventually the design of Edmund Augustine Smith, better known as the "Iron Chink," became the industry standard.
In 1906, Hale married Mabel Eugenie Jackson, a dance hall girl from Rochester, New York and three years later, they had their only child, Elwyn.
1909 also saw publication of the first novel written about Bristol Bay, The Silver Horde by Rex Beach, and Cress Hale was assumed to be its inspiration.
He organized under the name Northern Fisheries and in 1918 bought the Union Fish Company, a major cod-fishing concern with roots that traced back to the acquisition of Alaska from Russia.
The 1920s were generally strong years for Bristol Bay salmon and Hale helped introduce popular culture to the region by showing movies at his Wood River cannery.
As the roaring 20s came to a close, Cress Hale was nearing age 60, and, after 40 years of canning salmon in Bristol Bay, he started thinking about retirement.
By July 7, midway through the season, Hale had packed 40,000 cases, but, after he made his daily afternoon rounds through the Pederson Point cannery and settled into his office to deal with paperwork, all hell broke loose.
In late February, 1937, Hale wrote President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning about reports of Japanese plans to fish for Bristol Bay salmon.
Mabel continued to court a buyer and finally in 1943, the two Bristol Bay canneries were sold to Alaska Pacific Salmon Company for $1.1 million.
Mabel Eugenie Hale invested the earnings from her husband's fishing business in oil and potash leases and did quite well, amassing a small fortune that afforded her a comfortable home and a Rolls-Royce.
The Crescent Porter Hale Foundation continues to this day and awards grants to Catholic schools and arts and education programs in the San Francisco area.
The Peralta and other World War I-vintage concrete-hulled ships remain afloat as part of a floating breakwater around a timber plant in Powell River, British Columbia.