Fish flakes in Friendship, Maine. After processing, cod were salted and dried on fish flakes or drying racks. These racks were a common feature in Maine fishing towns. Once dry, the fish was packaged for shipment. Dried salted cod could keep for well over a year.
These flakes are near the water's edge. There is a lobster car (float with compartments to hold live lobsters) pulled up on shore next to it as well as a small boat pulled up on a ramp. Like most coastal towns in the late 19th century most of the tree cover had long since been cut down.
