The sardine carriers MIONE and LAWRENCE WAYNE tied up in Southwest Harbor. Photo: Courtesy Penobscot Marine Museum, Atlantic Fisherman Collection
JONESPORT – One of the consistent visitors at Jonesport Shipyard is Isaac Beal of Beals Island. It is great having him around to answer questions, whether it is about boatbuilding, boat repairs, or just the history of the area, he is a wealth of information. He and I were talking about sardine carriers a couple of weeks ago and he started telling stories about his time on them.
When asked which was the first carrier he went on board, he said, “Let’s see, I was probably 10 years old and I went with a neighbor, who was running the sardine carrier the ATRYPA for Jonesport Packing. This was Marshall Kelley, and everybody called him Pop and his mate was Ronald Faulkingham. We left and went to Southwest Harbor, and we went uptown to the movies. We must have left just at the peak of daylight because we were over to Vinalhaven looking around for some fellows that had some fish shutoff. We found one guy that was drinking straight vanilla out of those little rectangle bottles. He was feeling pretty good so, they wanted me to get down there and Marshall said, ‘No, I can’t let you down there with him.’ So, he hailed a lobster fisherman that was going by, and he came in and helped him seine it up. He had just a purse seine and he shut off the narrow hole between some ledges…just like they had them in a pocket.
ATRYPA was 28 tons with dimensions of 60.4 x 13.5 x 5.6 and was built in East Boothbay in 1920. In the 1940s she was running fish for Jonesport Packing Co. and in the mid-1950s she was owned by Bartlett Small of Jonesport. She made the news in the 1960s when she lost one of her crew members while going over Bass Harbor Bar.
“So, I don’t think we had a whole load out of it,” continued Isaac, “but we had a pretty good jag on her when we came back. I went with him a few other times, Marshall and him and his boy. His son was named Paul, and I went with him. One time we went up to the Mussel Ridges and I can’t remember what the other little town was. We got a load of fish and back home we come. We were in the cabin asleep, and Marshall said we almost got run over by the ferry coming out of Bar Harbor.”
Another of the carriers Isaac remembered was KINGFISHER. He said, “I remember Charlie Stevens’ factory had the KINGFISHER, which ended up under a pier over in Alley’s Bay. I went down and looked at that stern so many times where they planked that, that was amazing to me. She was long. I don’t know how long she was, but she was long and skinny.”
KINGFISHER was built at Quincy, MA in 1908. She was 49 gross tons with the dimensions of 74.5 x 17.4 x 7.2 and powered with a 140-hp engine. In the early 1930s she ran fish for William Underwood of West Jonesport and in the mid-1950s she was owned by Addison Packing Co. of Bar Harbor.
“Charlie Stevens tended a lot of the weirs down in the bays here, all around Roque Bluffs, over in Eastern Bay,” added Isaac. “Some of the carriers were KENNETH D. I think she sunk over around Double Shots somewhere. The Middle Factory had the WILLIAM UNDERWOOD and the HENRY UNDERWOOD. Then they bought ARTHUR S. WOODWARD. That was sold to Wyman’s of Milbridge, because it was a lobster smack, and they had to plug all of the holes in her as they didn’t need any circulation for the herring.
KENNETH D. was built in Cutler in 1906. She was 9 gross tons but later increased to 15. Her dimensions were 34 x 12.5 x 4.8 and later 43.4 x 12.4 x 5.3 and could carry 34 hogsheads. Her owners included Jasper Wyman & Son and Seacoast Canning Co. Some of her masters were: Charles Richardson, Horace W. Gardner and Vernal Woodward. In 1961 she hit the ledge off Boot Head and sank. She was raised by the U. S. Coast Guard who then grounded her on Bailey’s Mistake. Vernal Woodward patched her up, raised and took her to Dennysville to be repaired.
WILLIAM UNDERWOOD was built in Dorchester, MA in 1941. She was 42 gross tons with the dimensions of 72.0 x 15.6 x 7.3 and could carry 72 hogshead. She was owned by William Underwood and later Stinsons, who changed her name to MARION H. She would later be converted into a yacht. The rebuilding started at Atlantic Boat in Brooklin, but her owner passed away and later purchased by Taylor Allen of Rockport Marine, where they finished her rebuilding.
HENRY O. UNDERWOOD was built in Rockland in 1949. She was 43 gross tons with dimensions of 63.9 x 16.2 x 7.2 and carried 72 hogsheads. She was owned by William Underwood and later Jasper Wyman. Her first skipper was Roger Beal, John Beal’s son. She was rigged to pump herring directly into her hold with flush decks and no conventional hatches and house forward. Her name was changed to JASPER WYMAN in the mid-1980s.
“I fished over in Pigeon Hill in 1960 until ’72,” continued Isaac. The carriers came to a weir called Hilton Head where I was. They caught fish about every day. It was one heck of a weir. I went up there, helping them build weirs. William McGough he owned Petit Manan Point. He had that weir and then he had one down to Wood Pond Cove. My uncle was helping operate it and then I remember my uncle got tired of it and I went and helped him. You couldn’t catch no fish there. I don’t know why. They were always in there, but you wouldn’t get a thing in the weir. It was a waste of time. Leon Alley had one just as you swing to go down to Pigeon Hill. I don’t know who’s that one was. The one that was on the west side of the bay belonged to Everett Strout and Warren Strout. They came down to Addison, summered down there, every summer and tended the weir and things.
“They were supposed to take up the stakes,” continued Isaac, “but nobody ever did. I know they didn’t in Alley’s Bay or Pigeon Hill either. The weirs were never taken down. They just waited until the stake ate off on the bottom and fell over. It was a dangerous area really, in both of them bays. Growing up as a kid and going on the boat with Dad, I counted 32 weirs in Eastern Bay.
“I got done Pigeon Hill in ’72,” added Isaac, “I was up there 12 years, I graduated in ’60 and I came back down this way to fish. I started gathering up my own nets and all the things so I could go on my own. What I did, I got them to buy my twine and take 10 percent out of me every time they brought fish. That gave me a little extra money. If you had fish they would come take them off you so they could get their money back. I did it for about 10 years and then the factories started closing and that wasn’t good. The first one to close, I think, was Underwood’s, and I think Charlie’s was the last one. The Middle Factory was the second one. Mansfield had one over in here (Sawyer’s Cove), but I don’t know where. It wasn’t big, and they were on posts right on the cove. I’ve seen pictures, but I don’t remember it.”
Isaac mentioned some more carriers: MIONE, LILLIAN and BESSIE L.
MIONE was built at Bayhead, NJ in 1911. She was 27 tons with the dimensions of 56.9 x 13.3 x 5.7. She was owned by Jonesport Packing Co. and later B. F. Small. One of her masters was Aston Alley.
LILLIAN was one that was built by Maurice Dow of Rogues Bluff in 1904. She was 15 gross tons with dimensions of 53.0 x 12.8 x 5.5. Her owners were Seacoast Canning Co. of Lubec and Milbridge Canning Co. of Jonesport.
BESSIE L. died up the road from Jonesport Shipyard. She was built in Lubec in 1905. Her dimensions were 27 gross tons, 51.4 x 14.5 x 6.2 and carried 56 hogsheads. She was owned by E. A. Holmes Packing Co., Riviera Packing of Eastport, Myron Crowley, John Collora and Mariam Peabody. In the 1970s was rigged for scalloping. In April 1973 she broke a piston and was taken into the creek in Sawyer’s Cove and left to die by Adien Smith. Isaac added, “I took my scow in there with that boom on it and picked up the shaft and stuff.”
The skippers of these boats did a lot of jumping around from boat to boat. However, there were others that stayed with one boat for long periods of time. It is very difficult keeping track of them. Isaac said, “Over in Milbridge in the Ray factory there was the GARY ALAN and the LAWRENCE WAYNE and Clarence Beal used to run them. I rode with him. When I got out of school for the summer my mother took me up there and I got aboard and went to the Mussel Ridges. I can’t remember which one it was though.
GARY ALAN was built by Sim Davis at McKinley, now Bass Harbor, in 1950. She was 29 gross tons, 52.4 x 14.8 x 7.2 and was powered with a 165-hp engine. She was owned by Leroy Ray and one of her skippers was Ernest Beal.
LAWRENCE WAYNE was a sistership, built by Sim Davis in 1948. She was 35 gross tons, 54.0 x 16.8 x 7.7 and carried 59 hogsheads. She was owned by L. Ray.
“I think Reggie Alley had the JACOB PIKE,” said Isaac. JACOB PIKE made the news last summer when she was raised after sinking in Cundy’s Harbor during the winter. Unfortunately, she was towed to South Portland where she was crushed. She was built by Newbert & Wallace of Thomaston in 1949. She was 59 tons, 72.3 x 18.6 x 8.6 and powered with a 330-hp engine. She had a number of owners who included Holmes Packing Corp. of Rockland, Dana Rice, Winter Harbor, Taylor Allen, Rockport, Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport, J & J Lobster, Rockland, Robby Begin, Boothbay Harbor and a person in Cundy’s Harbor was her last owner.
I asked Isaac if he remembered any of them being built. He said he did remember the ones his wife’s (EVA) family built, who included Riley, Elihu and Adrian Beal. Riley was her grandfather and Adrian and Elihu were his sons. The four big boats they built were ARTHUR S. WOODWARD, MAINE QUEEN, BOFISCO III and BETSEY & SALLY.
Here is the start for filling in the information on the sardine carriers of the coast of Maine.
