🚤 ⚓️WIN A HANDCRAFTED BOAT! Each year, the nonprofit St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum has a drawing held on Luminary Night (December 6, 2023) for a wooden watercraft made on site by volunteers in the Heritage Boatworks Program! The Beach Peapod is on view in the gift shop area and drawing tickets are available. PEAPOD HISTORY In the mid-19th century, Maine’s lobstering industry was in its infancy. Lobster, once common cuisine for the poor and even picked from the beach by prisoners for their meals, did not evolve into a delicacy until the early 1800s. By the 1840s, Maine had established its first commercial lobster fishery. With the birth of this new industry came the need for vessels capable of harvesting the crustaceans from Maine’s waters, as picking them from the shore could no longer meet the growing demand. Thus, the state’s iconic workboats were born. One of those boats was the peapod. Peapods were developed around 1870 as nearshore lobstering and fishing boats. One...