A piece that’s been on the hard drive a little too long…
That hot and humid day in August started like just about every other day that summer when I was twelve. It was mid morning and all that my cousin and I had on our minds was fishing. The mackerel were everywhere and we planned a day’s worth of jigging from one of Gloucester‘s wharves. We called ourselves the Hook, Line and Sinker Fish Company and along with a few of our other friends, we made some good spending money selling our catch for bait or to the old Italian fishermen who would grill them for dinner. However, that day in August it was just the two of us and we decided to try a new location at the State Fish Pier, a decent walk for a couple of twelve year olds from my house down the Fort. That one small decision would end up affecting my life much more than the bucket of mackerel we caught that day.
I cannot recall the exact time of day, but our fishing was halted as an impressive sight unfolded before us: a flotilla of police, fire and Coast Guard boats escorting a beautiful two-masted schooner painted a yachtsman’s white under full sail. The scene unfolded before us slowly, the great canvas mainsail, one of the largest in North America was at eye level due to the low-tide and so close I felt I could touch it. The tall ship was the schooner Adventure, the last of what in sailing circles is known as a “knockabout”, a schooner without a bowsprit. Known to her crew as the Old Lady, she was coming home at last, a gift from her last captain to the city that was once the world’s greatest fishing port, thanks to vessels such as this one. My sheer fascination was in direct contrast to my cousin’s disinterest, so while he continued to fish for mackerel I hauled in my line and made my way toward the most famous of the Gloucester fishing schooners.
Although my family had fished for generations, this was no steel dragger or even my grandfather’s old wooden side trawler, the Adventure was a link to Gloucester’s golden age. A time of “iron men and wooden ships”, when two men would row away from the relative safety of such a grand vessel in tiny wooden dories to haul codfish, haddock and massive halibut all by hand line. Many of these men would never return and so Gloucester’s thriving fishing industry was tempered by the harsh price the sea demands for such successes. The Adventure in her heyday was the last of her kind in both form and function; the last knockabout style schooner as well as the last to fish using dories and handlines. Even though her competitors, which included my family used nets to scoop thousands of pound of fish at a time, the Adventure, with her aging crew of dorymen out fished them all using their hands and hundreds of hooks.
Although I was only twelve, this sense of history was not lost on me as I first stepped onto her linseed-oiled deck and smelled that smell that only used and abused old boats have. It was on Adventure’s deck that I first met the author Joseph E. Garland, Gloucester’s historian and a man that would mentor me for years to come and encourage me to pursue my dreams. I was also lucky enough to meet Captain Leo Hynes, quite possibly the greatest fishermen of all time, a real Highliner that spent more time at sea than on shore in his life. That first visit to the Old Lady would lead to many others and before long, I was helping with her restoration. My first act in restoring Adventure happened the next day when I donated a few dollars of my mackerel money to become one of the original members of the non-profit organization, Gloucester Adventure.
Looking back on those times on board Adventure and the people I met makes me realize just how much it helped mold the person I have become. It was through Joe Garland and our long conversations onboard the Old Lady that I learned to appreciate my own Sicilian heritage and the importance of keeping traditions alive. Captain Leo reminded me never to forget how hard the fishermen in my family worked so that I could get an education instead of going out to sea. Of course there were many more people involved with the Adventure in those early days that positively impacted my life, but just being on the vessel gave me a charge and a sense of pride in my hometown that most twelve year olds never experience. When I think back, it still amazes that the simple act of going fishing one hot summer day led me down the path I now tread. In all the days of that I have gone fishing since, never have I seen such a catch.
