like sardines in a can

[Barnhart]

OED: 1911 packed like sardines in a box

OED: 1922 [Dialect Notes]  However, if one fishes around in the electronic
edition, there is _packed like sardines_ in Harper's Magazine (April 1887).

But, I stumbled across the following:

We passed a most miserable night.  We lay down as best we could, and were
packed like sardines in a box.  All wanted to sleep; but if one man moved,
he woke half a dozen others, who again in waking roused all the rest; so
seelp was, like our supper, onlyu to be enjoyed in imagination, and aall
we could do was to wait intently for daylight.
J.D. Borthwick, _To California Via Panama_, London: 1857, in _Pictures of
Gold Rush California_, Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1949, Chapter 2 p 49

For me, sardines come packed in a can.  So, the expression ought to read
for modern contexts "[packed] like sardines in a can."  It's not in OED.

The earliest quote I've found so far for this is:

"Butrning cotton is one of the most stubborn fires to extinguish," said
assistant fire chief W.B. Cooper.  "And that boxcar was packed like
sardines in a can."  _Daily Journal_ [Commerce, Texas], Sept. 16, 1957, p 1

Regards,
David

barnhart at highlands.com