Gloucester - Saturday

We had a quiet night on our mooring in Gloucester's inner harbor. We called for the harbor launch and took it to Jacob's Landing to begin our exploration of downtown Gloucester. Our first stop was the Cape Ann Museum which has a wide range of exhibits covering local and maritime history, culture and art. The museum director gave us a ride to the White-Ellery House which was built in 1710 and is now a museum holding. We were fortunate in that the house is usually not open to the public but a few times a year and the day we arrived there were several experts on old homes and their restoration. We had a great tour of the home with experts explaining features of this house which makes it a particularly valuable historical structure. We could not have asked for a better opportunity to learn about the early settlers and the buildings they constructed.

Lobsters $10 Each

We walked from the White-Ellery House to the Cape Ann Museum where we had a docent lead tour of the Davis House which was built in 1804 for Captain Elias Davis and today contains period pieces from the museum's collection of early American furniture and decorative arts. The museum has an impressive collection of American portrait and maritime paintings from various artists. One of the most famous among them is Fitz Henry Lane (1804 - 1865) who was a Gloucester native and renowned for his marine and landscape works. Additionally, the museum has interesting exhibits on the industries which fueled the growth of Gloucester - fisheries and granite quarrying. We voted this one of the best local museums we have encountered. We spent most of the day at the museum.

White-Ellery House

Two interesting residents of Gloucester we learned about were Alfred "Centennial" Johnson and Howard Blackburn both of which sailed across the Atlantic Ocean solo in small boats. In 1876, the centennial of the American Declaration of Independence, Alfred Johnson became the first person to sail alone across the Atlantic Ocean. He did so in a modified fishing dory which was is now on display at the Cape Ann Museum. Howard Blackburn, "The Man of Iron", survived a winter storm during which the dory he and a mate were fishing from lost contact with their schooner. Blackburn rowed the boat for 5 days before finally reaching shore. His shipmate died and Blackburn lost his fingers and toes to frostbite. Despite this handicap, he sailed solo across the Atlantic twice. His sloop, Great Republic is also on display at the Cape Ann Museum.

Alfred "Centennial" Johnson's Dory, Centennial and Howard Blackburn's Great Republic

We went to the Blue Collar Lobster Company for dinner. Boiled lobsters, corn on the cob and beer were our feast. You can get fresh lobster in Glouster for $6 a pound at the docks. Our cooked lobsters were $10 and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to help out the local economy. We sat outdoors overlooking the inner harbor and watched the boat traffic which included a couple of schooners.