Sail loft in Thomaston. With thousands of sailing vessels to be outfitted in Penobscot Bay over the course of the nineteenth century, sailmaking was an important and popular trade. Note the tools used by a sailmaker in the end of the bench. Sail lofts needed much open floor space. One loft had a suspended wood stove in order to heat the space without losing continuous floor space.
The peavey is used to push and roll logs, both on land and in the water, during log drives. The peavey was invented in 1857 by Joseph Peavey, when he came up with this tool to help break out a logjam on the Penobscot River.
Mark Wadsworth was one of Rockport's herring weir fishermen in the 1950s. Here he is dipping herring into his peapod or double -ender (which he built) for transfer to the herring carrier. Penobscot Marine Museum has one of his peapods, built for a summer family, in its collection. Wadsworth also lobstered from his peapod using an outboard on a bracket to help tend his traps
Using a conveyor, ice blocks were moved from the ice house to the schooner. In the schooner, the ice was often insulated with sawdust or hay, to keep it from melting quickly.
The narrow gauge Rockport Railroad ran from quarries at Simonton Corners to Rockport Harbor. The cars dumped lime rock directly into the top of the kilns.
