Camden had a major business in forging anchors of all sizes for boats and large ships. With waterpower to operate the hammers and forge, and easy access to water to transport incoming iron and the finished anchors, it was a niche metal working business, but a vital one for supplying anchors for the Maine shipbuilders. Without anchors, no sailing vessel put to sea. The business was best known as the Alden Anchor Works; by 1900, it had become the Camden Anchor -- Rockland Machine Company, according to the Maine Register.
Camden's Knox Woolen Mill made felts for Maine's growing paper industry and other industries. It was located to take advantage of the waterpower available in Camden. This photo shows some of the employees of the company. In the 1890s the company expanded greatly and built the building now visible in Camden.
With the frames in place, the shipbuilder is laying out where the keelson will be placed, along the centerline of the ship, on top of the frames. Note the auger used to drill holes for treenails. These were generally made by having a auger bit welded to a iron crank shaped handle. Two men have are boring, while the others are posing for the camera.
The Brewer waterfront from the Bangor shore or from a boat in the Penobscot River. The large building to the right is an ice house. Next to it lies the Barbour shipyard with a steamboat, probably the Sedgwick under construction.
Lilly Pond in Rockport was an important source of ice. After scraping snow from the ice and letting the ice get to be about 18 inches thick, cutters sawed the ice into blocks. Another large source of ice was Lake Chickawaukee in Rockland.
Schooners like the Annie & Reuben carried most of the granite quarried on the Maine coast during the nineteenth century. Though not as dangerous a cargo as lime, granite was so heavy that its weight could wear down a vessel, shortening its life and opening its seams.
Annie & Reuben was built in 1891 in the backyard of lumberman Reuben S. Hunt's house in Bath and named for his two children.
She was bought by John I. Goss & Co. of Deer Isle for their Crotch Island quarry, to carry stone primarily to Boston.
Tug Bismark off Odom's Ledge, Fort Point, towing six schooners up the Penobscot River to Bangor.
The 103' Bismark was built in Philadelphia in 1888 for the Ross and Howell Penobscot RIver fleet, by the Chas. Hillman Company, with a compound (two cylinder) engine by well known engine builder Neafie and Levy. She was the most popular towboat on the Penobscot, powerful and smooth. Her career ended in New York Harbor after being sold in 1910 along with a number of other Penobscot tugs.
Tern schooner (3-masted schooner) with a load of lumber, including a large deckload. Since lumber floated, masters were not as concerned about overloading as they were with other cargoes. Schooners like this one were frequently loaded so that water was almost at deck level. Lumber came into Belfast for shipbuilding, building construction, and for the Matthews Brothers business of making doors and windows.