Current:Home > StocksBefore lobster, Maine had a thriving sardine industry. A sunken ship reminds us of its storied past -Bright Future Finance
Before lobster, Maine had a thriving sardine industry. A sunken ship reminds us of its storied past
View
Date:2025-04-18 19:30:40
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — An 83-foot (25-meter) motor boat that was one of the first refrigerated sardine carriers during the heyday of Maine’s sardine industry is going to be scrapped after a recovery operation to retrieve the sunken vessel.
The Jacob Pike fell victim to a storm last winter.
The 21-year-old great-great-grandson of the vessel’s namesake wants the historic wooden vessel to be preserved, and formed a nonprofit that would use it as an educational platform. But the U.S. Coast Guard doesn’t have the authority to transfer ownership of the vessel. And any new owner could become responsible for repaying up to $300,000 for environmental remediation.
Sumner Pike Rugh said he’s still hoping to work with the Coast Guard but understands the vessel’s fate is likely sealed.
“It’s an ignominious end to a storied vessel,” said his father, Aaron Pike Rugh.
Around the world, Maine is synonymous with lobster — the state’s signature seafood — but that wasn’t always the case. Over the years, hundreds of sardine canneries operated along the Maine coast.
The first U.S. sardine cannery opened in 1875 in Eastport, Maine, with workers sorting, snipping and packing sardines, which fueled American workers and, later, allied troops overseas. On the nation’s opposite coast, sardine canneries were immortalized by John Steinbeck in his 1945 novel “Cannery Row,” which focused on Monterey, California.
Launched in 1949, the Jacob Pike is a wooden vessel with a motor, along with a type of refrigeration system that allowed the vessel to accept tons of herring from fishing vessels before being offloaded at canneries.
When tastes changed and sardines fell out of favor — leading to the shuttering of canneries — the Jacob Pike vessel hauled lobsters. By last winter, its glory days were long past as it sank off Harpswell during a powerful storm.
In recent years there’s been a resurgence of interest in tinned fish, but the historic ship was already sailed — or in this case, sunk.
Sumner Rugh, a senior at the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York, was halfway around the world on a tanker off the coast of South Korea when he learned that the vessel he wanted to preserve was gone. No one else seemed interested in the vessel, he said, so he started the nonprofit Jacob Pike Organization with a board that includes some former owners.
He said he hoped that the Coast Guard would hand the vessel over to the nonprofit without being saddled with costs associated with environmental remediation. Since that’s not possible, he’s modifying his goal of saving the entire vessel intact. Instead, he hopes to save documentation and enough components to be able to reconstruct the vessel.
The Coast Guard took over environmental remediation of fuel, batteries and other materials that could foul the ocean waters when the current owner was either unable or unwilling to take on the task, said Lt. Pamela Manns, a spokesperson based in Maine. The owner’s phone wasn’t accepting messages on Tuesday.
Last week, salvage crews used air bags and pumps to lift the vessel from its watery grave, and it was sturdy and seaworthy enough to be towed to South Portland, Maine.
While sympathetic to Sumner Rugh’s dream, Manns said the Coast Guard intends to destroy the vessel. “I can appreciate the fact that this boat means something to him, but our role is very clear. Our role is to mitigate any pollution threats. Unfortunately the Jacob Pike was a pollution threat,” she said.
veryGood! (65)
Related
- Paige Bueckers vs. Hannah Hidalgo highlights women's basketball games to watch
- How Life Will Change for Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis After the Coronation
- Revamp Your Spring Wardrobe With 85% Off Deals From J.Crew
- Today’s Climate: June 25, 2010
- Biden administration makes final diplomatic push for stability across a turbulent Mideast
- 2 shot at Maryland cemetery during funeral of 10-year-old murder victim
- How Biden's declaring the pandemic 'over' complicates efforts to fight COVID
- A box of 200 mosquitoes did the vaccinating in this malaria trial. That's not a joke!
- Opinion: Gianni Infantino, FIFA sell souls and 2034 World Cup for Saudi Arabia's billions
- Zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 and monkeypox will become more common, experts say
Ranking
- Romantasy reigns on spicy BookTok: Recommendations from the internet’s favorite genre
- Today’s Climate: June 4, 2010
- Shoppers Praise This NuFACE Device for Making Them Look 10 Years Younger: Don’t Miss This 67% Discount
- So you haven't caught COVID yet. Does that mean you're a superdodger?
- The Super Bowl could end in a 'three
- Whatever happened to the Indonesian rehab that didn't insist on abstinence?
- Telemedicine abortions just got more complicated for health providers
- World Hunger Rises with Climate Shocks, Conflict and Economic Slumps
Recommendation
Realtor group picks top 10 housing hot spots for 2025: Did your city make the list?
How to behave on an airplane during the beast of summer travel
Joe Biden says the COVID-19 pandemic is over. This is what the data tells us
Here’s How You Can Get $120 Worth of Olaplex Hair Products for Just $47
How to watch new prequel series 'Dexter: Original Sin': Premiere date, cast, streaming
4 ways to make your workout actually fun, according to behavioral scientists
Today’s Climate: June 4, 2010
66 clinics stopped providing abortions in the 100 days since Roe fell