Swans Island In Quieter Days

These photographs were all selected from the Eastern Illustrating and Publishing Company collection. The company’s photographers captured images for postcard production and sought scenes depicting life in New England’s small towns and villages.

Swans Island has always been a fishing community (it’s presently the homeport to about forty full-time fishermen). As with many islands in Penobscot Bay, it’s a popular summer retreat — the population swells from just over 300 to about 1,000 beginning in late May.

In addition to its share of fishermen, there was a population of quarrymen on the island for a handful of decades. By the time these photographs were taken (circa 1920), the industry was in its decline.

WILLIAM BISBEE, the schooner shown in two of these views, was built at J.L. Snow’s in Rockland in 1902. She traded up and down the Atlantic coast from Nova Scotia to Central America for decades. Sometime near the date of these photographs, her crew mutinied and refused to lift a finger until a gale off Cape Cod threatened to sink the vessel if the sails weren’t shortened; the crew came to the aid of the captain, his mate, and the cook to save their own lives.