“The “Lou Ann” was built in 1947 in Thomaston, Maine to be used as a sardine carrier. She was 85 feet long, had a round stern and would carry 101 hogsheads of herring. [1 hogshead (hhd) = 17 ½ bushels or 63 U.S. gallons.] She was built to carry herring to the Stinson Canning Company in Bath, Maine.
The “Lou Ann” was rebuilt at Robin Hood Marina near Boothbay and converted into a purse-seiner. Her pilot house was moved forward to make more room down aft for the seine.
…[She] was [later]re-converted to a sardine carrier … She now carries 75 hogsheads of herring and was still in use until the 1991 season…
Early in the 1991 season, the “Lou Ann” was on her way to the factory at Prospect Harbour with fish aboard when she was steered to the wrong side of the buoy and struck a ledge. [She] sank in 75 feet of water and was later floated and towed to shore to assess the damage. It was decided that she would be put up for sale by tender “as is, where is,” on the beach at Prospect Harbour. She was sold and was rebuilt to work in the windjammer trade.” - “Masts and Masters: A Brief History of Sardine Carriers and Boatmen” by John D. Gilman, published by John D. Gilman, 1993, p. 100-101.
She is 68’LWL x 17’6” x 8’4” with call letters of WC3444 and is #253584. An October 27, 1989 survey states that a fake funnel serves as access to her engine room. She has hard pine planking on 4” sided sawn frames x 6” at the keelson with white pine decking. She has a double hold, one measuring 46 hogsheads and the other measuring 56. “Lou Ann” struck the Old Woman Ledge just east of the R”2” GONG off Bunker Harbor on the east side of Schoodic at 3:30 am in black tick o’ fog on Sunday, July7, 1991 on her way from Seal Island towards the Stinson factory at Prospect Harbor. She had a belly full of herrin’ when she hit the ledge. He under water was hurt badly and she was hauled at Hinckley in Manset while her new owner Capt. Pagel re-built her into a 2-master as a sister ship to the schooner “Nathaniel Bowditch”. - “Sardine Carriers and Seiners of the Maine Coast” compiled and written by Paul E. Bennett, The St. Pierre Doriman, p. 25, 1992.
