Searsport, Maine 224

Searsport, Maine 224

Shown is the cooperage in Mechanic's Hollow. Several workers stand on the loading dock extending along the clapboard building. Neat piles of split lumber and barrel staves stand in the right foreground. Wood shavings thickly cover the ground. The yard was one of the many manufactories which supported shipbuilding, Searsport's primary industry in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The cooper's shop produced the barrels which contained shipped goods. A spool shop nearby produced wooden spools used to wind marlin for wrapping a ship's standing rigging.