Cape Ann is a granite knob
projecting into the Atlantic Ocean halfway between Boston, Massachusetts
and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Its one city is Gloucester, adjoined by
the towns of Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea.
Gloucester set the maritime character
of Cape Ann beginning in the 17th century when an English
company of "adventurers" set up the first year-round fishing
station in Gloucester harbor. The venture did not prosper, but
the pattern of fishing out of Gloucester harbor for a living had
been established.
In the 18th
century, merchant traders of Gloucester sent cargoes of fish and
mixed merchandise to the Baltic, Europe, the Mediterranean and
South America, until wars and financial crisis stifled that
trade.
When other Massachusetts trading ports
turned to manufacturing, Gloucester held fast to its maritime
heritage by turning to fishing on the nearby shoal banks that
teamed with cod, halibut and haddock. To haul great catches
farther and farther from shore, in every weather and season, the
Gloucester schooner evolved - a magnificent instrument for
speeding bountiful hauls of groundfish to market in record time.
There was a price to pay for challenging
wind and weather in these sleek greyhounds of the sea, and over
5,000 Gloucester fishermen were lost at sea, the greatest
numbers in the second half of the 19th century. Still, by the
end of that century, Gloucester was the dominant fishing port of
America's Atlantic coast.
The other communities of Cape Ann
shared the triumphs and tragedies of Gloucester's determination
to survive through commitment to the fisheries. Essex was most
closely allied to Gloucester commercially, because it was in the
shipyards of Essex that the greatest numbers of the proudest
Gloucester schooners were crafted, almost entirely of wood.
Gloucester's dominance in the fisheries
ended when the sailing schooners were replaced by engine-driven
vessels. But the Portuguese, and later the Sicilian, fishermen
setting out in beam draggers and seiners have sustained
Gloucester's historic role as a working fishing port.
Other maritime activities - whale-watching,
sportfishing, recreational boating - have provided welcome
infusions to the economy of
Cape Ann over the years. But Gloucester proudly continues to
identify - for better or worse - with the fisheries.
Notable institutions that celebrate
and keep alive the
maritime traditions of Cape Ann:
Gloucester Maritime
Heritage Center is a
working historic waterfront museum where wooden vessels are hauled and
repaired, vessels that trace the fishing history of Gloucester can be
viewed , and educational exhibits and programs are specifically designed
to appeal to family visitors.
Essex Shipbuilding
Museum. The great majority of the Gloucester fishing schooners were
built in the shipyards of the town on Essex. The Shipbuilding Museum
preserves the history of that wooden shipbuilding industry, and
maintains one of the best collections of the tools used in building the
great vessels that fished under sail. The traditions of the shipbuilding
trades are kept alive through courses on boatbuilding, and the
construction of modern-day schooners, Chebacco boats, and sailing
dories.
Gloucester Adventure,
Inc. is a non-profit group formed to preserve the schooner Adventure. Built along schooner lines in Essex in 1926,
Adventure
fished under power for years, and was later stripped of its power plant
and went on to a second career as a passenger-carrying windjammer along
the Maine coast. Gloucester Adventure, Inc. was formed to restore
the vessel and educate the public as to the important role of fishing in
American history
Cape Ann
Museum is home to a splendid
collection of Cape Ann art, most notably of Gloucester artist Fitz Henry
Lane. The Museum explores the connection between artists and place,
examining how Cape Ann affects the artists it attracts and how those
influences carry over in a broader sense to the history of art in
America. Also, in its Fisheries & Maritime Galleries, the museum
displays artifacts and displays of the fishing industry that has had
such a powerful influence upon the arts of Cape Ann.
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