For all you linguists out there, it is ” Glau Stir”, not “Glau Chester”. End of lesson. We have left Maine and are now plying the coastline of Massachusetts.

It was cloudy, quite cool and very breezy as we arrived at 7:30 AM in the harbor. ‘Tis definitely sweater weather today. In fact the weather so far has been darn right cool. We should have brought our puffy jackets. This part of the country may have shorter summers than Seattle!

It will be a short visit as our ship will leave right after lunch so there is only time for a quick bus tour of the city.  The weather is bad enough that they are even cancelling the other offered tour-a ride on a lobster schooner out in the sound.

This was to be the first port where we were to actually be at a dock, but when we arrived we found the dockage space was being used by another local boat so guess who had to dock off shore…again! This then threw off our tour schedule for the morning and we had to rush through our visit to the local small maritime museum which focuses on the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Preserve off shore. There were also sections on the history of Gorton seafood (remember those fish sticks you ate when you were young), and the evolution of methods to protect boat bottoms, which ultimately led to the development of bottom paint here in Gloucester. The museum also is restoring the 1849 marine railway, which was and still is used to haul ships out of the water for maintenance. The “sled-like”structure is powered by a steam engine located in the building next to the rail system.

We then had a bus tour of the local area. We learned that although Gloucester is a famous name it really is a blue collar town that relied heavily on the fishing  industry. In the early 1900s there would have been over 400 fishing schooners moored on the harbor, working the offshore fishing banks and having lucrative careers. Today there are about 20 active fish trawlers. The fishing industry here is a disaster.

We stopped at the famous statue dedicated to seafaring men and those who died at sea. There are plaques naming the some 5,400 men who have died at sea over the years. Of the 1,000 ships that have been lost, 265 lost all hands on board. From the period of 1860-1906, 660 ships sank with a loss of 3,880 men. A single storm in 1862 claimed 15 schooners and 120 lives. Another storm in 1879 took the lives of 159 men. The life of a fisherman is a dangerous one.

We saw the local establishments that were part of the story of the “Perfect Storm”. The trip then took us through a neigborhood of more expensive homes on the seashore, a quick visit to the town of Rockport and all its shops, and then back to the ship so we could depart.

Late yesterday the captain indicated there was to be yet another change in our itinerary. Turns out New Bedford could not give us moorage space so now we will be headed to Fall River, MA after we leave Gloucester.