The Jacinta (FD159) was a 615-ton stern-fishing distant water trawler, which until 2019, was preserved as a floating maritime museum in the old Lancashire port of Fleetwood.
Owned and run by the Jacinta Charitable Trust, the museum told the story of deep sea fishing and of the men and women who built a unique community in the town.
Timeline
The last Jacinta was launched in 1972 and cost £340,000 to construct and equip.
- 1972 - Jacinta is built at Swan Hunter's Wallsend yard for J Marr and Son Ltd. She is a 615 ton wetfish trawler of stern-fishing design based in Fleetwood, Lancashire, then the third biggest UK fishing port.
- 1975 - Sets a record for a Fleetwood-based wetfish trawler with a catch of 188 tons on a 19-day voyage to the Icelandic fishing grounds. Distant water trawlers like Jacinta fished at Iceland, off the coast of Greenland, along the Norwegian Coast and in the White Sea.
- 1982 - Transferred to Hull by the Marr Group, Jacinta becomes the top earning British trawler in 1986 with a catch worth £1.3 million.
- 1991 - Sets a British record for a single voyage when a 21-day trip produces 230 tons which sold at auction for £270,516.
- 1994 - Jacinta was again the top-earning British trawler with a catch valued at £1.9 million. If she had completed the 12 months she would have been the first to top £2 million in a full year.
- 1995 - Back in her old home port of Fleetwood Jacinta becomes a floating heritage centre owned and run by the Jacinta Charitable Trust. In less than 23 years she caught fish worth £17.6 million.
- 2003 - Jacinta returned to sea once more visiting maritime festivals and events around the coast of the UK.
- 2012 - The Trustees decided that, due to the age profile of the crew and the age of the ship, that Jacinta would retire from sailing and go back to her role as a floating heritage centre.
- 2019 - After 47 years of service as an active trawler and a floating museum, the Jacinta fell victim to a chain of events which meant she had reached the end of her life.
Jacinta was the third Marr trawler at Fleetwood to bear that name - a popular girl's name in Portugal. The first was a steam-powered coal burner built in 1915 at a cost of £10,000 which operated until 1953.
The second Jacinta began life in 1955. She was a diesel-powered sidewinder which cost £125,000 and sailed until 1971.
Take a look here for a more detailed History.
Facts and Figures
Jacinta was 50 metres long, 9.75 metres wide and needed 6 metres of water to float in.
At sea, she had a crew of 16: Skipper, Mate and Bosun (foreman of the deck crew), Chief Engineer, Radio Officer, Cook and 10 deckhands (able seamen including a teenage trainee known as a Brassie).
Listed on the British Register of Shipping as a motor trawler, her registered number was FD159 (the FD signifying Fleetwood).
