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About Gorton's
Glimpse of Gloucester
One of the earliest settlements, Gloucester, Massachusetts, is famous for being
America's oldest seaport and the cradle of our country's fishing industry. In
fact, there are plenty of us who have family lines going right back to colonial
America, with parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who were anglers,
shipbuilders, sailmakers, candlemakers (it gets dark on those ships at sea!)
and packers.
It was 1606 when the French explorer Samuel de Champlain sailed into what
is now Gloucester Harbor and marveled over the beauty of the land, and of course,
the profusion of fish in the water. Later, English Captain John Smith, following
Champlain's earlier voyages, reached Gloucester, filled his hold with cod, dried
40,000 of the fish, put them in flakes and sent them to Spain for sale. He had
so many cod left over that he pickled them and took them back to England with
him.
News of the incredible, even inexhaustible supply of fish, and the ease with
which they could be caught, spread quickly. A few years later, a group of men
of venturesome spirit (not to mention money-making ambition) sailed to Gloucester
and established a settlement right here on Cape
Ann.
Just west of Gloucester is Essex, what was once the largest shipbuilding town
in the country. You can still find the schooner Adventure (better known as "The
Old Lady") moored at a Gloucester pier - one of only five fishing schooners remaining
from the more than 4,000 that Essex shipbuilders built.
The early settlers were content to fish close to shore in small, frail boats.
But it didn't take long before their pioneering spirit dared the elements and
moved farther and farther from the home shore.
And thus began the famed New England shipbuilding industry. The lush, nearby
forests of the North Shore provided the timbers, planking and the faultless
masts to help fishing vessels grow in size and numbers. By 1720, the small early
boats had evolved to fore-and-aft rigged craft, later to be called schooners.
Each new development created a new need and solution. The larger the boats,
the larger the facilities needed at port. Ice in great quantities was essential
to maintain the quality in the catch, now coming longer distances from sea to
port. Sufficient salt was demanded aboard to help lower the melting point of
the ice and keep low the temperature in the ships' holds.
As the fishing
industry expanded, coastal and foreign
trade developed too. But all this expansion did have many costs. While the
proud, fast sailing vessels brought home millions of pounds of fish, the price
in human life was paid as well. From 1830 to 1886 alone, Gloucester lost, through
storms at sea, 419 vessels and 2,249 men.
The Arts
It's not all fishing here
Since the mid-nineteenth century, wind-weathered Rocky Neck, a small peninsula
across the harbor on Cape Ann, has been one of America's oldest art
colonies. Here, with the breathtaking views of the sea and town, famous
painters like John Singer Sargeant and Winslow Homer came to work in the many
buildings that date back to the Civil War. The dozens of galleries, studios
and a traditional air of authenticity keep Rocky Neck a veritable working art
colony.
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