Oh, to summer where the water is warm in the winter and return to the charm of New England in the summer. Such is the dream of a friend of mine who would find a great deal to admire in the lifestyle of the Humpback whale.
Various species of whales patrol and frolic in the North Atlantic from March to November before swimming south for the coldest parts of the year. One of their summer feeding grounds is off Cape Ann in Massachusetts, the northern most shore of Massachusetts Bay, about twenty-six miles from the city of Boston.
Cape Ann was first settled by the English in the early 1600's, and the most well-known towns on the peninsula have always been Gloucester and Rockport. Gloucester is known as an industrial and fishing city while Rockport is known today mostly as a tourist destination full of summer homes. It was once, however, a major source of granite for construction projects from New York to California.
If you have ever eaten a fish stick, chances are it came from the Gorton's processing plant in Gloucester. If you have read the book or seen the movie The Perfect Storm, Gloucester was the setting. The names of the crew of the Andrea Gail, the fishing vessel at the center of the tragedy, are listed under the year "1991," on a memorial to fishermen lost at sea, located near the center of town. There are currently 5,368 names on the memorial.
Above: A Humpback whale surfaces for air and dives while feeding over Stellwagen Bank off Cape Ann.
Of the port cities I have visited during this exploration of the coast of summer in the northeast, Gloucester is the most commercially active. During a morning I spent on a whale watching vessel, about fifteen miles off shore, I saw constant traffic of large steel hulled fishing trawlers heading out to sea and coming back into port to unload.
To the north in Rockport, the scene is similar, but the boat traffic is dominated by sail boats and small private fishing boats. On shore, even in the middle of the Coronavirus lockdown, visitors shop in the small stores on Rockport's narrow streets and scramble over the many granite seawalls that guard the small harbor and make the town so picturesque.
The story of the European settlement of America begins largely in New England, and almost 400 years later, you can see that history today, both in the geography of the first settlements and the commerce and industry that has thrived here in the generations since.
Layers of boom, bust and boom again are evident everywhere you look. In many ways, nothing has changed. There are fundamental truths to living here. The sea is full of life and it still provides for the people of Cape Ann.
© Dean Pagani 2020
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© Dean Pagani 2020