Gloucester Harbor was a sea of masts as more than 20 schooners paraded in a celebration of the city’s rich maritime history.
The 42nd annual Schooner Festival hosted by Maritime Gloucester has been four days of activities devoted to Gloucester’s fishing past and the types of vessels once used by the city’s fleet.
Starting Thursday and ending Sunday, events included deck tours of the 23 participating schooners, several daytime and sunset sails and the final day schooner parade, among a variety of other activities.
During the parade, Stacy Boulevard was filled with people from both near and far eager to watch each vessel take a lap around the harbor while learning about their history.
Leading the parade was Gloucester’s flagship Adventure, which is turning 100 years old this year. Event commentator Daisy Nell Collinson said Adventure was the “highliner of the fleet back in her day as a fishing schooner.”
Collinson explained when Adventure was used as a fishing vessel, it would be packed with dories, a small, flat-bottom boat, which were used to set out fishing lines about a half mile long.
“After a while they’d come back and pick them up and take off every single fish by hand, bring them into the dory then put them over the side with a pitchfork, and that’s how the fish came to Gloucester,” Collinson said.
Adventure would continue to fish this way until the 1950s — after other fishing schooners had retired. Eventually the schooner became a windjammer in Maine, taking people out to sea as a passenger vessel, before returning to Gloucester in 1987. Today, Adventure’s preservation is overseen by the Schooner Adventure nonprofit.
Also in the parade were seven other schooners home-ported in Cape Ann as well as a host of vessels that traveled from outside the region to participate.
One such vessel as the 98-foot long Denis Sullivan, formerly ported in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it sailed the Great Lakes. It is now docked in Boston where it is used by the World Ocean School, a nonprofit providing a hands-on experience teaching youth seamanship.
Collinson said one feature making the Denis Sullivan stand out is the vessel’s three masts and its upside-down triangular sail known as a raffee.
An area vessel from outside Cape Ann that participated was the 63.5-foot When & If which was designed by famous naval architect John Aldean and built by F.F. Pendelton in 1939 for World War II Gen. George Patton of Hamilton.
“Patton asked Aldean to design him a boat and said ‘when and if’ he comes home from war, he and his wife could sail around the world,” Collinson said.
For most in attendance, the marvel of seeing the schooners sail around the harbor was the highlight of the day.
“I think it’s a lot of fun and I really enjoy seeing all the historic ships,” said Dale Gillette of Gloucester. “I think we’re blessed to have three or four boats here almost every night and it just makes such a spectacle seeing them all at once.”
Much like Gillette, Heather Sullivan and Geoffrey Gunner of Buffalo, New York, said their first experience seeing the schooners was “amazing.”
“We went out on the (schooner) American Eagle yesterday and did their four-hour lunch sail — it was phenomenal,” Sullivan said. “And this parade of boats is so special.”
“It feels like you’ve walked into an impressionist painting,” Gunner added.
The two come down from Buffalo every September for an annual camping trip, but typically miss Labor Day weekend, which might not be the case in the future.
“We love Cape Ann in general and (the Schooner Festival) is just the icing on the cake,” Gunner said.
Lanesville local Marc Reiss said that while the event was “gorgeous,” it’s important to remember the difficulties associated with commercial fishing.
“It’s always been an ordeal but today was a stunning representation,” he said.
Staff Writer Bobby Grady may be contacted at 978-675-2714 or bgrady@gloucestertimes.com.