Sardine Carrier Regina M

Sardine Carrier Regina M. .

Built: Perry, ME 1900 , Length: 41'5" , Beam: 13'2" , Depth: 5'4" , Weight: 9 tons

, Herring swim the eastern Maine coast in huge schools. This abundance, combined with the demand for herring and southern European sardines among immigrants from Europe, made the fish attractive to food carriers, who were looking for products they could pack in cans and sell throughout the U.S. After the fish producers began to can small herring as sardines at Eastport, Maine, in 1875 (and to preserve the larger herring with smoke), a major new fishery began. Fishermen trapped the herring in weirs, brush or net walls placed in estuaries, or in large seine nets set around schools in open water. Special boats were then used to carry away the herring to coastal canneries., Regina M. is one of these "carry-away" boats. Built in 1900, it had a large open hold for the fish and a small cabin for the two-man crew. The double-ended shape made it easy to build and seaworthy. By 1910 it had been fitted with an auxiliary engine, housed in a small cabin aft, that helped it work against wind and tide during its trips between the weirs and the canneries of Lubec, Maine., By the 1930s, motor-powered sardine carriers had replaced most of the sailing carry-away boats. More recently, changing tastes and environmental factors greatly reduced the demand for herring. From 117 coastal canneries when the Regina M. was built in 1900, the industry has shrunk to less than 5 operating herring canneries today., In 1941 when the Regina M. ended its career as a commercial vessel, it came to Mystic Seaport Museum and was restored in the 1950s. It was restored again in the 1990s to represent more accurately the appearance as an auxiliary-powered carry-away boat of the 1910-25 period.