PEGGY RAE

MICHAEL S and PEGGY RAE

MICHAEL S was the second boat purchased by Mato Anton Soljan, a Croatian immigrant who settled in Biloxi in 1923. He named this boat for his youngest son, Michael. Soljan had first been employed to work on the schooner JULIA by Captain Frank Kovacevich, a friend from the old country. The Hurricane of 1947 wiped out Soljan’s boats, his home and his livelihood.

Years later, after his retirement, Soljan was able to purchase a 38-foot Biloxi lugger, the BETTY ANN. He renamed this vessel PEGGY RAE, after his granddaughter. Soljan left a measurable mark on Biloxi’s seafood industry after forty-five years of service in the Mississippi waters.