Contributed by Penobscot Marine Museum
Description
Rice Brothers, formed in the 1890s at the end of School Street in East Boothbay, was a shipbuilding company. In the early 1900s the sizable plant was one of the largest and most modern in the village. It built government boats, large yachts, sailboats, powerboats, steel boats, and even engines.
In 1919 its projects included some lifeboats for Harvard, seen resting on the shore.The Rice-designed passenger steamer "Bainbridge" and 152-foot steel beam trawler "Harvard" were under construction.
Local shipyards of the 1800s were usually outdoor operations, with small workshop buildings for tasks such as spinning oakum (a highly flammable operation), blacksmithing, or bench work. Rice Brothers had a meteoric rise from the 1890s. By 1916 the company had three two-story buildings as well as three one-story buildings.
Fire destroyed Rice Brothers on July 10, 1917, and its 100 employees were idled. The brick machine shop remained, shorn of its wooden superstructure, until torn down after another shipyard fire there 91 years later. In 1917 East Boothbay's horse-drawn hand-powered pumper saved the Frank Rice house, seen behind the foundry; it was saved from fire again in 2008.
About This Item
- Title: Rice Brothers shipbuilding plant, East Boothbay, 1919
- Creator: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Creation Date: 1919
- Subject Date: 1919
- Location: East Boothbay, Boothbay, Lincoln County, ME
- Media: Glass Plate Negative
- Dimensions: 12.7 cm x 17.8 cm
- Local Code: LB2007.1.100567
- Collection: Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co.
- Object Type: Image
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Boat & ship industry
- Boothbay (Me.)
- Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Company
- Photographic postcards
- Postcards
- Scaffolding
People
Other Keywords
- Boats
- Fires
- Lifeboats
- Shipbuilders
- Shipbuilding
- Shipyards
- Steamboats
- Steamers
- Steel boats
- Trawlers
- Yachts
For more information about this item, contact:
Penobscot Marine MuseumPO Box 498, 5 Church Street, Searsport, ME 04974
(207) 548-2529
Website
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. No Permission is required to use the low-resolution watermarked image for educational use, or as allowed by the applicable copyright. For all other uses, permission is required.
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