News/Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30 , 2003

BATON ROUGE, LA (July 30, 2003) - As the 47-foot, 40-year-old Chandeleur lugger slowly navigated the bend at Tchefuncte River's landmark lighthouse, the casual observer might have dismissed such a sight as commonplace along the bustling Lake Pontchartrain estuary. For wooden boat devotees, however, the Doris M"s arrival in Madisonville signals a new melding of south Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast maritime history.

The Madisonville docking of the Doris M, a customer entertainment venue for Hancock Bank and a classic model of mid-twentieth-century wooden boat building, coincides with Hancock's agreement to serve as corporate title sponsor for the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Maritime Museum's 14th annual Wooden Boat Festival in Madisonville this October.

Jimmy Rogers, a vice president and manager of Hancock's Covington financial center, said that the 104-year-old bank - itself identified with a familiar Ship Island lighthouse logo - funded a scale replica of the historic Tchefuncte lighthouse erected at the museum entrance last year. Rogers reiterated that this ongoing partnership between Hancock and the museum reflects Hancock's commitment to fostering an appreciation of community heritage throughout the company's Gulf South markets.

"The Doris M represents one of the types of wooden boats integral to the maritime trade, fishing, and travel industries from which many of our Gulf South economies evolved, particularly along the Gulf Coast and Lake Pontchartrain. We at Hancock Bank are honored to share in celebrating St. Tammany's legacy and the time-honored traditions of wooden boat building," Rogers said.

Hand-built by veteran Gulf Coast shipbuilder Joseph D. "Joe" Martinolich for Hancock Bank chairman Leo W. Seal, Jr., and named for Martinolich's daughter Doris before the craft's 1963 maiden voyage, the single-screw (single-engine, single propeller) yacht exemplifies the pride in craftsmanship among the brotherhood of accomplished boat builders to whom museum displays pay homage.

The Doris M will remain in Madisonville until August 29 and will return for the Wooden Boat Festival October 24-26.

The Doris M: A Legacy of Boat-Building Excellence

Joe Martinolich was the son of Matteo Martinolich, an immigrant of Austrian descent who mastered the art of shipbuilding and design and established Martinolich Shipbuilding Company on Bayou Bernard in Handsboro, MS - an historical Coast community named for native New Yorkers whose early South Mississippi ventures included forging grillwork to complement New Orleans' French and Spanish inspired architecture.

At his Handsboro shipyard, Matteo built the John Frances Stuard, the first vessel over 1,000 tons constructed on the Coast, and he was the first designer to introduce Mississippi pine in building sea-going vessels. His son, Joe, began to hone his shipbuilding expertise at his father's side during the 1920s and 1930s and eventually joined Ingalls' Pascagoula shipyard to build vessels for the United States Maritime Commission during World War II. The young Martinolich remained at Ingalls after the war and advanced to a highly regarded supervisory capacity. When the U.S. Navy awarded Ingalls the shipyard's first submarine contract, Ingalls executives selected Joe to study the intricacies of submarine construction at the Electric Boat Company in Groton, CN, and appointed him to supervise building of Ingalls' first submarine.

Joe also independently built fish class sloops for the Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis-Waveland yacht clubs in Mississippi. Coaxed back to boat building in the early 1960s after his retirement from Ingalls, he built the Doris M for Seal as well as two sister vessels: the Rebel, for Pat Harrison, Jr., and the Sans Souci, for Milton Buckingham. Although slightly different in size and design, the three crafts were known as "Martinolich Cruisers." "Mr. Joe," as he was known along the Coast, remained a consultant for Doris M maintenance until his death on August 10, 1983.

About Hancock Bank

Hancock Holding Company (NASDAQ: HBHC), the parent company of Hancock Bank, has assets of $4.1 billion. Founded in 1899, Hancock Bank consistently ranks as one of America's strongest, safest five-star financial institutions. The company operates 102 branches and more than 135 automated teller machines in South Mississippi and Louisiana, corporate trust offices in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Jackson, MS, and Gulfport, and bank subsidiaries such as Hancock Investment Services, Inc., Hancock Mortgage Corporate, Hancock Insurance Agency, and Harrison Finance Company.

Additional corporate information and online banking and bill pay services are available at www.hancockbank.com.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION
R. Paul Maxwell, Corporate Communications Manager
800.522.6542 (ext. 5252) or 228.214.5252
paul_maxwell@hancockbank.com