In this image provided by Aaron Pike Rugh, the retired sardine carrier Jacob Pike, which sank last winter off Harpswell, Maine, is seen after a salvage company raised the vessel in this photo taken, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024, in waters off South Portland, Maine. PORTLAND, Maine — An 83-foot 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.
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. 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.
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.