The Maddocks Packing Company, seen here with its crew sometime before 1903, was described by the Boothbay Register in 1901 as the biggest establishment of its kind in Maine, or maybe the country. Luther Maddocks was a pivotal figure in the construction of various kinds of fish processing plants in Boothbay Harbor in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Maddocks began construction on this Boothbay Harbor plant in 1878. By the time of this photograph, the plant's predominant product was canned sardines. Four company steamers, as well as independent fishermen, supplied the fish.