Unloading At the Maine Central Railroad Wharf

With masts spaced widely apart and shipping a steam-driven loading boom, the schooner Annie & Reuben stood out from the other coasters. Her cargo was mostly granite, quarried locally. To retain stability under sail, the granite blocks had to be placed low. Here, at the Maine Central Railroad wharf in Rockland, the cargo is being hoisted out of her hold through the open hatch. Built in Bath in 1891, by the time this photograph was made she’d been working almost fifty years.