Before lobster, Maine had a thriving sardine industry. A sunken ship reminds us of its storied past

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — An 83-foot (25-meter) motor boat that was one of many first refrigerated sardine carriers through the heyday of Maine’s sardine trade goes to be scrapped after a restoration operation to retrieve the sunken vessel.

The Jacob Pike fell sufferer to a storm final winter.

The 21-year-old great-great-grandson of the vessel’s namesake desires the historic wood vessel to be preserved, and shaped a nonprofit that will use it as an academic platform. However the U.S. Coast Guard doesn’t have the authority to switch possession of the vessel. And any new proprietor might turn out to be accountable for repaying as much as $300,000 for environmental remediation.

Sumner Pike Rugh stated he’s nonetheless hoping to work with the Coast Guard however understands the vessel’s destiny is probably going sealed.

“It’s an ignominious finish to a storied vessel,” stated his father, Aaron Pike Rugh.

Around the globe, Maine is synonymous with lobster — the state’s signature seafood — however that wasn’t at all times the case. Over time, a whole lot of sardine canneries operated alongside the Maine coast.

The primary U.S. sardine cannery opened in 1875 in Eastport, Maine, with employees sorting, snipping and packing sardines, which fueled American employees and, later, allied troops abroad. On the nation’s reverse coast, sardine canneries had been immortalized by John Steinbeck in his 1945 novel “Cannery Row,” which centered on Monterey, California.

Launched in 1949, the Jacob Pike is a wood vessel with a motor, together with a kind of refrigeration system that allowed the vessel to simply accept tons of herring from fishing vessels earlier than being offloaded at canneries.

When tastes modified and sardines fell out of favor — resulting in the shuttering of canneries — the Jacob Pike vessel hauled lobsters. By final winter, its glory days had been long gone because it sank off Harpswell throughout a robust storm.

Lately there’s been a resurgence of curiosity in tinned fish, however the historic ship was already sailed — or on this case, sunk.

Sumner Rugh, a senior at the USA Service provider Marine Academy at Kings Level, New York, was midway world wide on a tanker off the coast of South Korea when he discovered that the vessel he needed to protect was gone. Nobody else appeared within the vessel, he stated, so he began the nonprofit Jacob Pike Group with a board that features some former homeowners.

He stated he hoped that the Coast Guard would hand the vessel over to the nonprofit with out being saddled with prices related to environmental remediation. Since that’s not potential, he’s modifying his aim of saving your entire vessel intact. As an alternative, he hopes to avoid wasting documentation and sufficient elements to have the ability to reconstruct the vessel.

The Coast Guard took over environmental remediation of gasoline, batteries and different supplies that might foul the ocean waters when the present proprietor was both unable or unwilling to tackle the duty, stated Lt. Pamela Manns, a spokesperson based mostly in Maine. The proprietor’s cellphone wasn’t accepting messages on Tuesday.

Final week, salvage crews used air luggage and pumps to raise the vessel from its watery grave, and it was sturdy and seaworthy sufficient to be towed to South Portland, Maine.

Whereas sympathetic to Sumner Rugh’s dream, Manns stated the Coast Guard intends to destroy the vessel. “I can recognize the truth that this boat means one thing to him, however our position could be very clear. Our position is to mitigate any air pollution threats. Sadly the Jacob Pike was a air pollution risk,” she stated.