The Underwood Canning Plant in Bass Harbor has been a major part of the history of the Bass Harbor community since 1912. William Underwood was a British pickle maker that started the William Underwood Company in Boston in 1821. He began by processing a variety of fruits and vegetables. Later, he added meats and fish to the repertoire. In 1844, he opened a new plant in Harpswell Maine for processing lobsters and clams. In the late 1800s two more canning factories were added for canning fishery products, one in West Jonesport and the other in Southwest Harbor at the site of what is now the Coast Guard station. These two Maine plants proved so successful with their easy access to fresh fish and a willing labor force, the operation was expanded to Bass Harbor. In 1912 the state-of-the-art brick factory building was built, and it still stands today.
Herring was abundant off the shores of Mt. Desert in those days, and the Bass Harbor plant was primarily a sardine canning operation, although during the harsh winter months, clams and mussels were also processed there. Sardine carriers would come into the wharf and the fish would be hauled up by hand onto a raised platform. Then the fish would be sluiced down into the factory where they'd be cut, cleaned and washed. Next, after they were dry, they'd cook the fish in oil. While the cooked fish cooled, the women would go home and wait for the big steam whistle to blow, telling them it was time to come back and pack.
Several generations were linked to the Underwood Factory. There were few families living on the southwestern side of Mount Desert Island whose personal histories were not in some way linked to the history of the fish plant. A list of almost 200 employees, written in 1917, reads very much like today's telephone directory. Many of those same names appeared in another employee list written over 30 years later. Just about everyone in the community depended on the company in one way or another.
Alvin Walls, one of the names of the list, captained the big sardine carriers that the company used to collect the herring from the local fishing boats. The Fishhawk, the Roamer, and the Curlew are the names of some of the boats Captain Walls remembers taking out of the harbor to meet the fishing boats. On a good day he'd take 900 bushels on board. Howard “Bud” Merchant started working at the Underwood Factory on April 1, 1948. He began as a packing room foreman and later worked as the Assistant Superintendent in charge of the working crew. He stayed with the company until it was sold in 1966.
In the late 1940s and 50s the herring and sardine population began to dwindle. The fish that populated the local coves and bays were disappearing. Other factors contributing to decline included the higher cost of cooking the sardines before canning and higher transportation expenses. In 1966 the Underwood Company was sold to Jasper Wyman, a local blueberry baron. Wyman used the plant for processing blueberries, fruit fillings and jams. Eventually, he then began to diversify by manufacturing mouse food for the laboratory mice at the Jackson Lab in Bar Harbor. Today the building has been converted to high-end condominiums.