In 1917, ANNA EVE was built as part of a group of four identical “spoon bowed” schooners by Jacob “Jacky Jack” Covacevich at the Biloxi Shipyard and Box Factory (owned by the Brander family). The other schooners built in the group were: I. Heidenheim, H.E. Gumbal and L. Goldman.
The schooners dimensions were as follows: length 54.5 feet, breadth 18.8 feet, depth 4.4 feet. It weighed 28 gross tons. A builder’s half model of this vessel is included in the National Watercraft Collection of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum and was donated in 1937 by Covacevich.
Despite the aesthetic beauty and characteristic speed, schooners like H.E. Gumbel were built as working vessels, used to harvest the cash crop and backbone of Biloxi’s economy, seafood.