Using chains and inflatable lift bags, the U.S. Coast Guard raised an 83-foot, historic fishing vessel from the bottom of the New Meadows River in Harpswell last month. The 75-year-old sardine boat Jacob Pike had been leaking fuel there since sinking in a January storm.
With the Pike gone, Maine’s Bureau of Submerged Lands has now identified five other abandoned or derelict craft at four locations it wants to see cleaned up next. To that end, the bureau has begun the application process for a $685,000 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant to get the work done.
Bureau Director John Noll said there are several other forsaken ships and boats dotting Maine’s coast, but his NOAA grant wish list includes the five vessels that would be the most expensive to remove.
“I sure hope it’ll pay for all four sites,” Noll said.
Some of the vessels, like the Jacob Pike, sank or were abandoned recently. Others have been a problem for decades. Whether new or old, derelict boats are a pricey, growing headache for Maine harbormasters.
“Abandoned and derelict vessels generally have negative impacts on the environment and on the public trust rights of fishing, fowling, and navigation,” Noll said. “It’s a lot of garbage that shouldn’t be there.”
In August, Noll wrote a letter of intent to NOAA’s Abandoned and Derelict Vessel Removal Grant Program, which is administering $7.5 million in federal funds to coastal and marine areas of the United States.
If federal officials think Maine’s preliminary grant request has merit, Noll will be invited to move forward with an actual grant application, due in December.
Noll said he should know if Maine has been selected to go ahead with the process by mid-September. Grants are expected to be awarded some time next year.
Here are the vessels listed in his letter of intent.
FV Roamer, Hampden
The 57-foot Roamer became stranded in the Penobscot River in July 2011, just six months after a previous instance in which it sank at a Rockland pier and was salvaged. It’s been in the Penobscot, sitting in the mud and filling with water on every high tide, ever since.
At the time it ran into trouble, the Roamer’s owner, Josh Mizrachi, was attempting to moor the vessel when a line got caught in the propeller, disabling it. In 2013, the Roamer was declared abandoned and made available for salvage, but nobody stepped up to take care of it.
Clearly visible from Route 1A, the 1940s-era wooden sardine carrier has since become an item of curiosity, with photographers and Youtubers flocking to its easily accessible carcass.
FV Columbia, Louds Island
This 97-foot, former commercial fishing vessel was constructed in 1985 and was likely the last wooden scallop dragger ever launched in New England. The Columbia broke its mooring chain in November 2016, then came to rest on the island’s northeast shore, in Muscongus Bay.
The Columbia had already been in the area for several years.
According to the Lincoln County News, it was first abandoned in Pemaquid Harbor in early 2014. The Columbia was then acquired by Doug Wood in November 2015 and moved to the Greenland Cove in Bremen.
However, town officials there denied Wood a harbor mooring permit. Wood then moved the enormous boat to a less protected mooring off Louds Island, where it broke free about a year later.
Today, Columbia’s remains are easily visible on satellite maps.
Sans Peur, Wiscasset
This 66-foot, wooden minesweeper built in England during WWII sank in the Sheepscot River during a January 2018 blizzard, not far from the town dock. Today, the boat whose name translates from French as “Without Fear” is still there, in 30 feet of water.
According to the Wiscasset Newspaper, the vessel was owned by Chris Morrison of Wiscasset and had between 30 and 40 gallons of diesel fuel on board when it went down.
The Sans Peur now rests not far from where Maine’s most famous abandoned ships — the Hesper and the Luther Little — once rotted in scenic glory for most of the 20th century.
Car ferry and lobster boat, Roque Bluffs
A hulking, 95-foot unnamed former car ferry and a 38-foot lobster boat both sit abandoned in Pond Cove, well out of sight from any road but clearly visible in satellite imagery.
The rusting steel ferry has been there for at least 20 years.
“I don’t really know much about that but I’ve heard stories that it was used to haul logging equipment to an island,” said Roque Bluffs Harbor Master Prentiss Harmon, 35. “It’s been there as long as I can remember. Someone left it there in the mud and there she sits.”
The derelict lobster boat, plus a skiff, were left in the cove next to the ferry by Harmon’s predecessor, Avery Kelly. Harmon said Kelly beached the boat when health issues forced him to quit fishing. Kelly has since died.
Harmon said the boats aren’t a hazard to navigation, but it would still be good to get them — and an associated field of marine debris — disposed of properly.
“That’s what I’m hoping for,” Harmon said.