Matteo Martinolich

Mateo Martinolich was born in 1861 at Lussinpiccolo, Croatia, to Francisco Stanislaus ‘Frank' and Maria Martinolich. The couple, with their two sons, Matteo and Frank, arrived in America circa 1883 aboard the sailing ship PLOD, landing in New Orleans. Not long after their arrival, Matteo moved to the village of Wolftown, located along Bayou Delisle. He found work in the shipyard of Italian immigrant Antonio Pavolini. In 1885, Martinolich married the shipbuilder’s eldest daughter, Johanna, and together, they would bear eleven children.

In 1887, Martinolich was asked by Henry Lienhard to help finish building a new freight schooner at the Handsboro shipyard. Although Matteo’s intentions were to return to Delisle to open his own shipyard when the job was completed, Lienhard made

him a grand offer to move to Handsboro and work in his shipyard next to the company’s sawmill. The young family moved to Handsboro, and Martinolich Shipyard was formed along Bayou Bernard.

Matteo Martinolich built his first freight schooner for Lienhard in 1889. The vessel, named EXCEL, was a typical two-masted gaff rigged, centerboard schooner, very similar to a Biloxi schooner. Over the next fourteen years, Martinolich would build many freight schooners including the COQUETTE, MABEL E. JUDLIN, MALVINA S. ANDERSON, JOSEPHINE MESTIER, INDEPENDENT, ALBERT BALDWIN, ALERT, TRAVELER AND VIOLET.

However, Martinolich would not be limited to building freight schooners only, but also those working in the seafood industry. In 1896, he built the steamboat VERA and schooner

JOSEPHINE LOPEZ for the Lopez cannery. For the Dunbar Dukate cannery, he built the TEMPEST and TORNADO, and for the Gorenflo cannery, the APACHE, COMANCHE and the PAWNEE. In 1905 and 1906 respectively, he built the ALTHEA for the Peerless cannery and the schooner MARYLAND for the Pass Packing Company.

During World War I, Martinolich worked for the John Francis Stuard Shipyard and sawmill located up from the Lienhard mill. There he designed and built two large ocean-going, four-masted schooners, the ROSEMARY and the JOHN FRANCIS STUARD.

Following these many proud accomplishments, Martinolich retired himself to building mostly small boat with his last skiff being built around 1931. Matteo Martinolich passed away in 1934, after a very impressive career in shipbuilding.