The Inner Harbor After the Launching, Rockport, Mass., c. 1920

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

An earlier post here showed the launching of the “Evelyn and Ralph,” a reminder that shipbuilding was once common on Rockport’s Bearskin Neck. Another postcard showed a ship under construction on the Neck. This postcard, by the Rockport Photo Bureau, shows the scene in the harbor just after a newly constructed ship was launched. The hull, not yet fitted with masts and gear, is in the center of the picture. From this and other postcards, it is clear that these launchings were popular events, with onlookers lining the piers and watching from boats.

I do not know whether the vessel launched here was the Evelyn and Ralph. In the earlier post, I had estimated the Evelyn and Ralph to have been launched around 1923. I have since found a reference to it sailing into Boston harbor in 1921, so I would say it was more likely to have been launched around 1920.

As I noted in the earlier post, the Evelyn and Ralph was wrecked off the coast of Nantucket on Dec. 6, 1924. The Boston Daily Globe of Dec. 11, 1924, reports:

The Evelyn and Ralph was speeding home to Nantucket with a good catch of fish from Georges Bank, when she ran into a heavy sea and fog, and was driven ashore three miles from Tom Nevers Head. The craft was in command of Capt. Matthew Richards who had a crew of six men. When the boat struck the crew were thrown into the surf and nearly drowned before they were able to swim or crawl ashore. The stove in the forecastle was tipped over and the forward part of the boat burned.

Another news report said that a companion fishing vessel, the sloop Inez, part of the same fleet, also ran aground at about the same time and place as the Evelyn and Ralph. Both ships were abandoned as total losses, the report said.

To the right in this postcard is the Ervin J. Luce, a two-masted schooner owned by the Rockport Granite Company. She was built in 1892 in New London, Conn., and was used for many years to transport granite. A 1924 news report tells of her running ashore in a fog at Hyannis, loaded with tons of curb stone. Subsequent reports of her arrivals and departures suggest she survived this incident.

Artist Bill Hubbard, a Gloucester native now in Florida, depicts the Ervin J. Luce in several of his paintings. A recent post at Good Morning Gloucester shows another granite-hauling schooner, the Flora Condon.

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How a Rockport Fire Spawned Gorton’s of Gloucester

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

By way of Parlez-Moi Blog, I learned of this great little video about Gloucester produced by seafood giant Gorton’s of Gloucester. It reminded me of a tidbit I came across about how a disastrous fire in Rockport led to the founding of Gorton’s. I explain below, after the video.

An earlier post here talked about the 1882 fire that destroyed the Annisquam Cotton Mill in Rockport. As I wrote then, nearly a quarter century later, the one building that remained from the mill became the George J. Tarr School. That building is now the town library.

An 1899 ad for Gorton's fish balls.

When the mill burned down, its superintendent, Slade Gorton, was out of a job. At his wife’s urging, Gorton found a new occupation, packing and selling salt codfish and mackerel in Gloucester, according to an entry in Wikipedia. (Wikipedia puts the date of the fire as 1874 but news reports I found said it was 1882.) He called the company Slade Gorton & Company. In 1899, the company patented the Original Gorton Fish Cake.

Later, the company became the Gorton-Pew Fisheries and then, in 1957, Gorton’s of Gloucester. In 1953, it introduced the first frozen, ready-to-eat fish stick.

Today, one of Slade Gorton’s descendants, Nathaniel M. Gorton, is a U.S. District Court judge in Boston. Another descendant, Slade Gorton, spent 18 years as a United States senator from Washington state and is now a partner with the international law firm K&L Gates. As for the company Slade Gorton founded, it is now owned by the Japanese marine products company Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd.

But if not for the tragic fire that destroyed Rockport’s old cotton mill, Gorton’s might never have opened its doors.

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Thatcher Light, Thatcher’s Island of Cape Ann, Mass., c. 1905

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

This postcard has an undivided back, which indicates it was produced sometime between 1901 and 1907. It shows the famous Twin Lights of Thacher Island. This card was published by The Metropolitan News Co., Boston, Mass., and printed in Germany.

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The Old Lane Down Pigeon Hill, Pigeon Cove, c. 1925

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

What goes up must come down. Yesterday’s post featured the old lane up Pigeon Hill. Here is the same lane, looking down the hill. If you look carefully, you can see the ocean and, to the right, the Rockport coast. Walking up the road are three children, a girl and two boys. In the field at the center of the picture, cows are grazing.

This photo, like yesterday’s, is by Charles Cleaves of Rockport Photo Bureau. Whereas I estimated yesterday’s picture to be around 1915, I put this a few years later — around 1925. I base that on the back of the card and its similarity to other cards I have that are dated around the mid-1920s.

Could the girl in this picture be Cleaves’ daughter Virginia? As I’ve mentioned in other posts, Cleaves’ postcard business was later taken over by Virginia. Virginia was born in 1912. If this picture was 1925, she would have been 13. The girl looks to be around that age.

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The Old Lane up Pigeon Hill, Pigeon Cove, Mass., circa 1915

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

An earlier post here featured the view from the top of Pigeon Hill. Once described as a view “excelled nowhere on the New England coast,” it can no longer be seen, now obstructed by trees. This postcard shows the road one would take to reach that view, Landmark Lane. The road still exists, but it is now paved and dotted by houses and driveways.

The photographer, Charles H. Cleaves, owner of Rockport Photo Bureau, lived not far from Landmark Lane, on Pasture Road, and took many photographs of the area. This postcard has no date. However, it was printed in Germany, which indicates it was produced sometime prior to 1917. That was the year the U.S. entered World War I and declared war on Germany, putting an end to U.S. publishers’ use of printers there.

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Bearskin Neck and the ‘Yellow Bowl,’ Rockport, Mass., c. 1929

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

Compare this view of Bearskin Neck with the lower one in this post. Both are by Rockport Photo Bureau and appear to be from the same time period. Who knows, they could have both been shot the same day.

This one is postmarked Aug. 2, 1929. The bowl-shaped sign advertises the Yellow Bowl, but I have not been able to find anything about it. A restaurant, perhaps?

Of the two men walking towards the camera, the one on the right has a old-fashioned, flat-top straw hat.

The card was printed by The Albertype Co., Brooklyn, N.Y.

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The Original Cape Hedge Inn and Annex, Rockport, Mass., 1953

Posted on April 11, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

This is the original Cape Hedge Inn, at the very end of South Street, just above Cape Hedge beach. (A different hotel, a bit further up South Street, uses that name now.) This postcard was published by Virginia Cleaves Little. The date “5-19-54” is typed on the back.

Of the building on the left, all that remains are traces of its foundation. I can find no reference to what happened to it. I recall being told once, but I can’t remember whether it was a storm or a fire that destroyed it. The annex building on the right is still there, now used as a private home.

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Haskell’s Camp and Loblolly, Rockport, Mass., c. 1925

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

I went driving around one day trying to find this view. As best as I can tell, this appears to be on Penzance Road, just about where it intersects with Eden Road. That is Loblolly Cove just beyond the cars, Emerson Point across the cove, and the Twin Lights of Thacher Island off in the distance.

This postcard was published by Rockport Photo Bureau. It has no date. Judging by the cars, I am estimating it is from around 1925.

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The Harbor, The Headlands and Straitsmouth Point, c. 1920

Posted on April 8, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

In the nearly 90-plus years since this picture was taken, little has changed. Different boats were moored there then, there is no light on the end of the jetty, and close inspection would no doubt reveal changes in the houses along the distant shore. To the casual observer, however, this view remains the same today as it was then.

This postcard is postmarked July 1921. It was published by Rockport Photo Bureau and printed by The Albertype Co., Brooklyn, N.Y.

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Fleet and Breakwater from Hill, Rockport, c. 1907

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Robert Ambrogi

The caption of this card, “Fleet & Breakwater from Hill, Rockport, Mass.,” is barely legible, printed in white in the lower left corner. I have another version of this card with the same photo and from the same publisher, but with the caption printed in black in the upper left. Neither card is dated, but the other one is postmarked 1907.

I’ve posted other images of these warships (here and here) and described how the town celebrated the fleet’s arrival. As I’ve noted, the U.S. Navy’s North Atlantic Squadron was a regular late-summer visitor to Rockport in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The warships came here to engage in war games and naval maneuvers. A report in the Aug. 20, 1902, New York Times, gives a taste of what this was like, under the headline, “The War Game is On”:

Some time between midnight and sunrise war will be declared on the North Atlantic Coast and all of real war lacking will be the absence of solid shot and bloodshed. Every requirement of actual war, scout ships and all, is to be used in the contest incidental to the manoeuvres of the North Atlantic squadron between the home fleet, commanded by Admiral Higginson, and the attacking squadron, under Commander Pillsbury, who ranks in the manoeuvres as a foreign Admiral.

The strictest of discipline is being maintained, and to all intents and purposes the vessels off Cape Ann and the defenses along the coast are on a war footing.

To-night Admiral Higginson’s squadron is lying in Rockport Harbor some distance out. Not a light shows on any of the vessels, save an occasional signal flash. From the funnels of the battleships huge volumes of smoke are issuing, which indicates that Higginson is preparing for action, The actual whereabouts of Pillsbury are unknown.

The smaller boat that can be seen entering the harbor was, I believe, a sort of water taxi used to ferry visitors from vessels to shore. It shows up regularly in old views of the harbor.

The postcard was published by The Rotograph Co. of New York City and was printed in Germany.

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