Launch of the JACOB PIKE, April 28, 1949. Courtesy of Rockland Historical Society

Built in 1949, the JACOB PIKE was one of six beautifully crafted sardine carriers built by the much-respected Newbert and Wallace shipyard of Thomaston. Two of the six were commissioned by Moses Pike for carrying sardines to his Holmes Packing Corporation plant in Rockland and were larger and heavier-built than was customary: 83 feet long and of sawn frame construction. JACOB PIKE was improved over her sister MARY ANNE of the previous year with more sheer, a balanced rudder, radar, and propulsion and refrigeration advances. Long passages from the herring-rich Eastport area to the Rockland plant were anticipated for both vessels.

Upon sale of Holmes Packing Corporation in 1979, the PIKE went on to transport herring for Connors Brothers of New Brunswick, then returned to Maine where Dana Rice became owner, then she went to Taylor Allen who donated her to Penobscot Marine Museum for their educational program.

When that proved unsuccessful, the JACOB PIKE went back to work hauling fuel, bait, and lobsters back and forth across Penobscot Bay for another decade. In 2019, the vessel changed hands once again, repurposed in Boothbay Harbor for carrying menhaden (aka pogies). When the State of Maine outlawed that use and once again rendered the PIKE out of work, she changed hands but sat idle, moored in a sheltered Harpswell cove.

In early 2024, one of the “100-year winter storms” that hit the Maine coast that year sent the JACOB PIKE to the bottom. Months later, sadly, Maine’s most iconic sardine carrier was raised and broken up.