From collection Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company Collection
Typical Maine Scene at Manset, Maine C65
Scene on wharf at Manset, Maine. Man working on nets, stacked lobster traps. This photo of the J. L. Stanley Fish Wharf in Manset dates from c. 1941, but, except for the cars, the scene is timeless. The man in the photo is mending trawling nets at the storage shed, from which barrows of ice and fish were wheeled to trucks. The weathervane is on a smokehouse, where haddock and perhaps cod were smoked. Behind the lobster traps in another postcard view are codfish in the sun on fish flakes. John L. Stanley started a fish wharf in 1878, after he retired as a sea captain. His sons later joined him in John L. Stanley & Sons, a retail and wholesale business selling salt, fresh, and smoked fish and offering cold storage. Many fishermen brought their catch to the Stanleys, and the business grew to be one of the largest fish dealers on the Maine coast. Unfortunately, a huge fire on December 2, 1919 destroyed the Manset fish industry on the waterfront, Including the Stanley wharf and buildings, John Hopkins' fish packing house, and the general sore of Leslie King. John's sons rebuilt the wharf and constructed new buildings. In J. L. Stanley's days, large schooners frequented the wharf. In the 1930s and '40s fish came in trawlers. When photo was taken the owners of the business were John Noyes, who was John L. Stanley's grandson, Bill Sklaroff, and Al Cockcroft. The buildings burned in the late 1960s.
