A few months ago, I wrote an article about the famous Skipper’s Dock seafood restaurant once located on Front Street in village of Noank in Groton. In that article it was relayed that Sidney C. Wood, the founder and owner of the restaurant, which was in business from 1929 until 1954, had developed the business which catered to the rich and famous.

One of the contributors to the success of Skipper’s Dock was Wood’s decision to employ Howard “Doc” Smith as the chief chef for the restaurant. Smith, who had been raised on a Georgia plantation, and cooked since he was about 12 years old, brought with him many unique and tasty southern dishes from old plantation and family recipes.

Although the menu at the restaurant featured fresh seafood, much of which was provided by Wood’s own fishing fleet, probably the most popular and sought-after entres were Chef Smith’s flavorsome lobster Newberg sauce and clam bisque.

Customers savored these items so much that they began placing “take out” orders for them. Interestingly, at the time, which was just after the end of World War II, plastic containers did not exist and the sauce and bisque orders were placed in cardboard-type containers similar to those used today for Chinese take-out.

The take-out requests became so numerous that Wood could not help but recognize the business potential of producing and selling the products in a concentrate form. Thus, began the birth of the Skipper’s Dock cannery company in Noank.

Much of the details being relayed in this article about the cannery were conveyed to this author by Sydney Wood Hall, the daughter of Sidney Wood. Hall, who began working at Skipper’s Dock as a “hat-check girl” when she was about 7 years old, became an important part of not only the restaurant business but also the cannery operation.

One of the first considerations for starting the business was its location. For years, the Wood family had raised thousands of chickens and rabbits in a large building and hutches in the back yard of their house on Front Street in Noank. The rabbits, chickens and chicken eggs were used to supplement the menu at the restaurant.

Ultimately the decision was made to convert these structures into facilities for the canning operation.

With the help of O. Pomeroy Robinson, then general manager of the Electric Boat Company and a friend of Wood, arrangements were made for an engineer and the American Can Company to review the facilities and provide the guidance and equipment necessary for the new business.

Within a short period of time, the business was in full operation and running like a well-oiled machine. Wood was the business manager and overall “last word” in the decision-making process. Chef Smith was the only person to oversee the recipe and was also responsible for directing the cannery workers which, at times, numbered up to five. Edna Wood, Wood’s wife, managed the very large take-out and mail-order business which was a major part of the cannery.

Young Sydney Wood, who was then in her late teens and early twenties, worked the labeling machine along with her brother Brainerd. As the business grew to unbelievable levels throughout the United States, she, along with Chef Smith would become “sales representatives” for the company which was named Sid Wood’s Products.

The Skipper’s Dock Restaurant season ran from Mother’s Day through Labor Day. Because “all hands” were needed to operate the restaurant, very little canning took place during that period.

However, during the off season, the canning operation was in full swing. When the business first began, the cannery produced about 2,500 8-ounce cans a day, five days a week for a total of approximately 12,500 cans a week. Then, as the business grew, the cannery became a seven-days-a-week operation, producing almost 25,000 can per week. With the cannery in daily operation for a seven-month period, the total production was roughly 700,000 cans a year.

The Sid Wood’s Products line grew to include clam bisque, lobster bisque, lobster Newburg, Newburg sauce, clam cakes, scallops a la Newburg and au gratin fish sauce.

At first the products were sold at the restaurant. Small orders from customers leaving the restaurant were filled immediately.

The idea of selling “Gift Packs” of either four or six cans was initiated and became an immediate success. The purchaser would fill out or mail in a form indicating which items were desired and providing a mailing address. Edna Wood, working from her home, would process the orders, often numbering into the hundreds per week. After filling the orders she would take them to the small Noank post office for mailing.

Sidney Wood, always a business entrepreneur, took the Wood’s Product line to the next level by setting up and giving presentations at various food tradeshows and at gourmet-foods departments. Ms. Wood and Chef Smith, and often Sidney Wood, would provide the “first hand” presentations and tastings, and it wasn’t long before the products were being sold by large commercial stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Wanamaker’s, Gimbels and Bloomingdales, to name a few.

In 1954, due to health issues, Sidney Wood sold the Skipper’s Dock Restaurant; however, the cannery remained in the family for another three years. In 1957 the Sid Wood Product lines and cannery were sold to Abbott’s Lobsters and Abbott’s Sea Foods Inc. in Noank. They continued the cannery until 1979 when Abbott’s Sea Foods was sold to an individual in New London. Very little is known as to what happened to the business after that.

The Skipper’s Dock Restaurant and the Sid Wood Products cannery are memories of the past but will certainly live on as an important part of Groton’s history.

Jim Streeter is the Groton town historian.