Paul Stubing indicated that this picture of the vessel "Sylvina W. Beal" was taken during wartime. The hull ID # is 208896. The lettering "R. J. PEACOCK CANNING CO." appears on her port bow beneath her name. Two Gulf gas pumps are visible off her starboard side. "Baby Rose" is tied up alongside the "lower town dock". Two lobster boats are tied up to the floats off Sylvina's bow.
According to John D. Gilman's , "Masts and Masters - a brief history of Sardine Carriers and Boatmen", the "Sylvina Beal" was built in 1911 at East Boothbay for Charles Henry Beal of Jonesport, Maine, to be used as a banks fishing schooner and later used as a lobster freighter from Nova Scotia to Boston. She was 71 feet 7 inches in length. In 1917, she was bought by the Seacoast Co. and converted to a sardine carrier and repowered with a 100-horsepower Chrysler gasoline motor. In 1926, she was repowered with a straight eight Chrysler marine engine and a wheel house was added to her in East Boothbay under Peacock and Pike ownership. In 1929, she was bought by R.J. Peacock Canning Co. for $5,000. When the R.J.Peacock Canning Co. closed, she was sent to Southwest Harbor to "die". Eventually, the Beal was sold to Captain John Worth of Belfast in 1980 to be reconverted to her "original form" and used as a windjammer in the coastal schooner trade. After an idle season in 1989, she was sold to Captain Geoffrey Jones who sails her out of Greenport, Long Island, N. Y.
Ballard, W.H., “"Sylvina Beal" during Wartime,” Mount Desert Island Historical Society, accessed April 29, 2024, https://mdihs.digitalarchive.us/items/show/12934.Item 13300
