The Light on the Hudson

by Dana Ferry

published by Ithaca Press

Gloucester, Massachusetts: Lighthouses and Culture

On any day in Gloucester, ocean scents waft on the glistening, salt-beaten wharves. Nets are being mended by fishermen donning yellow cotton, sailcloth hats. In addition to owning the distinction as the original seaport of America, Gloucester, Massachusetts is the second of the enduring settlements of the New World, welcoming immigrants from The Dorchester Company of England in 1623. The fishing village of Gloucester is a celebrated cultural feast and not surprisingly, home to several purposeful lighthouses.

The eight-foot tall figure of the prominent Fishermen's Memorial rests upon a granite base in the center of Gloucester. The memorial depicts a fisherman intensely focused on the sea before him, at the helm of his vessel. Because fishermen are the essence of Gloucester's history, lighthouses were paramount to the boats sailing in and out of the Gloucester area and its harbors. Read Dana Ferry's book The Light on the Hudson to learn more about the importance of a lighthouse. Thacher Island Twin Lights stand one hundred-sixty feet above the ocean, earnestly protecting the coasts of Cape Ann. The Lights were constructed in 1771 and actually reside within the boundaries of the town of Rockport. To indicate the entrance to the Annisquam River that joins Ipswich Bay to Gloucester Harbor, the Annisquam Lighthouse was erected in 1801. The 45-foot tower's clear light is discernible eleven miles away as its foghorn rhythmically sounds every minute. The Eastern Point Lighthouse was built in 1832 and with much acclaim debuted in the film The Perfect Storm, which was set in and filmed in Gloucester. The tower's blinking light radiates out to sea for twenty four miles. A meandering path beside the surf leads to the Dogbar Breakwater.

Attainable only by boat and situated in Gloucester's outer harbor is Ten Pound Island. A 57-foot tower announces the entrance to the inner harbor with a light that disperses its glow five miles out to sea. The note-worthy artist Winslow Homer would have been startled at first, to hear the fog signal's cadence every twenty seconds as he lifted his paint brush to stroke the canvas he had prepared. He and multiple other artists have graced this island to produce fine works of art. After all, the oldest art colony in America, Rocky Neck, is ensconced in Gloucester. Painters such as Maxfield Parrish, Milton Avery, Edward Hopper and more notably, Fitz Henry Lane, the famous seascape artist who was born in Gloucester, captured the maritime views. From his home on Duncan Point which he constructed in 1849, Lane had a gaping vista of harbor scenes and boatyard activities arousing his best work.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the fishing village was a telling place to a number of writers. T. S. Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, Hermann Melville and John Updike were visitors to Gloucester, drawing on its busy, yet placid environment, to weave gripping tales. These stories evolved into literature synonymous to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. One can imagine Hermann Melville resolving to write about a whale as he peered outside Gloucester Harbor. Rudyard Kipling's Captains Courageous was set in Gloucester. And Gloucester was explored by the Transcendentalists from nearby Concord, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Bronson Alcott and Margaret Fuller. Finally, the great poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was compelled to write a poem in 1840, following the great Blizzard of 1839 that insolently blasted the northeast coast for twelve hours. “The Wreck of the Hesperus” tells of the ship Favorite that smacked into the reefs of Norman's Woe, which sits just off Gloucester's coast. It is a timeless piece of poetry.

Gloucester, Massachusetts' past and present inhabitants are the true fiber of what the fishing village symbolizes. They are largely fishermen and artists. To exist and function properly, these inhabitants require what Gloucester possesses; access to the sea brimming with cod, haddock, swordfish and lobster, lighthouses to guide them and interesting, stunning panoramas to spark creativity and ideas.

For more information about Gloucester, Massachusetts' culture and lighthouses, visit www.DanaFerry.com.