From Stump to Ship

1930 Documentary 30 minutes Directed by Alfred Ames

Open in new tab

About From Stump to Ship

Loggers in the Machias woods cut timber with hand tools and haul it on horse sleds over snow. In spring they break jams with peaveys and ride the logs down icy rivers to the mill. The mill changes a bandsaw and cuts shingles. Schooners then load lumber at Machias for New York.

Cast & crew

More about From Stump to Ship

Alfred K. Ames, a former Maine state senator and owner of the Machias Lumber Company, filmed the winter woods of 1930. Dr. Howard Kane of Washington, D.C., shot the mill interiors. Ames showed the silent 16mm reel with a typed script he read aloud.

Themes

  • Winter cutting with axes and horses
  • A spring drive on icy rivers
  • Mill work and a schooner for New York
  • logging
  • Machias
  • log drive
  • sawmill
  • peavey
  • 16mm

Look

Ames filmed the woods and the drive. Kane filmed inside the sawmill.

Music

The original shows used Ames reading a typed script. A recorded narration was added in 1985.

Preservation

Northeast Historic Film preserved the reel. The Library of Congress added it to the National Film Registry in 2002.

Notes

  • In 1985, with money from the Maine Humanities Council, a narration was recorded onto the picture.
  • Northeast Historic Film, in Bucksport, Maine, distributes the preserved film.
  • Footage was reused in the documentary Woodsmen and River Drivers.

Also available

  • Wikimedia Commons (From Stump to Ship (1930).webm)