JACOB PIKE Sardine Carrier

JACOB PIKE Sardine Carrier

The JACOB PIKE carries ocean herring to a sardine factory in Penobscot Bay in 1957.

"The JACOB PIKE is a wooden sardine carrier, built in Thomaston, Maine by Newbert & Wallace for the Holmes Packing Corporation’s Rockland cannery in 1949. She spent most of her career carrying sardines from American and Canadian fishing grounds to canneries along the Maine coast. In the late 1950s, she was purchased by Sardine Carriers, Inc., and based in Bath, Maine; she returned to the Holmes Corporations ownership by the early 1980s. In 1988, the JACOB PIKE was bought by the Port Clyde Canning Co. of Rockland, and continued to bring sardines to that port until the cannery closed in 1997. With the sardine industry in decline, the JACOB PIKE found a new career in the booming lobster industry, carrying menhaden to be used for lobster bait. She was briefly owned by the Penobscot Marine Museum in 2007, before being returned to commercial use by J&J Lobster of Rockland. As of 2019, the JACOB PIKE was being refurbished by new owners in Boothbay, with the goal of returning the vessel to use as a bait carrier."
Penobscot Marine Museum. (2020). Inventory for Manuscript Collection PMM 45 JACOB PIKE Records 1982-1999.

When Photographer Eliot Elisofon was not traveling the world taking photos for LIFE Magazine, he came to Vinalhaven, Maine to rest and recoup. Eliot bought a farmhouse near Crockett Cove on Vinalhaven in 1941, built by Joel and Mary Jane Philbrook in 1843.
Daughter Elin writes, “My father always said his favorite place on earth was Vinalhaven and he meant it. Wherever he was, he was counting the days until he could return to the island. Here he would 'recharge his batteries' from grueling trips to Africa, Asia, the Pacific, or from battles with the publishers and editors he had to constantly prod into sharing his passion and understanding his vision. In Vinalhaven he could relax, soak up the beauty of the place, plant trees, flowers, and vegetables, paint in his studio, cook, and develop the lifelong friendships he treasured."
Elisofon, Elin. FEAST. (Vinalhaven, Maine: April, 1992)
These images are personal photographs taken by Eliot Elisofon on Vinalhaven and were not published during his lifetime.