Crown Pilot Crackers

by Nabisco

1792 – 2008 GONE FOREVER

Gone. Kraft confirmed in June 2008 that it no longer made the crackers and had no plans to bring them back. The 1792 date belongs to the recipe, credited to Newburyport baker John Pearson; when the Crown Pilot name itself began is not recorded.

A plain, unsalted ship's biscuit, barely a step up from hardtack, that New Englanders crumbled into clam chowder for generations. Nabisco tried to kill it in 1996 and lost; Kraft tried again in 2008 and won.

🧾 One more thingThe 1996 attempt failed because of Chebeague Island, Maine, whose residents led a campaign that sent Nabisco roughly 3,500 calls and letters. The cracker returned in 1997, and a company executive admitted they had thought they were discontinuing a cracker and found they were interrupting history.

Filed under: Snacks & Chips · the ’70s & earlier

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