Tall Ships

One of the joys of life in Gloucester is the Annual Schooner Festival that has been taking place on Labor Day weekend for 21 years now. This year the festival was blessed by three of the most glorious days you could ask for - brilliant skies, glittering water, lovely breezes and air that was delightfully warm in the sun but had a slight nip to it.

Ships during the schooner race with The Bishop's Palace in the background.
Photo by Dun Fudgin, see more at Photography Forum.

What is it about tall ships? I have lived within walking distance of the ocean for close to twenty years now and my heart still skips a beat when I look up and see sails on the horizon. Some years back when I still lived in Marblehead we were on a boat out just past Nahant watching tall ships arrive for a festival in Boston when we spotted the Alexander von Humboldt with its misty green sails arrive over the horizon. It looked like a ghost ship and I think that is part of the mystique.

In this time of speed, efficiency, faster-faster-faster those magnificent ships are a reminder of a time when grandeur was more important than efficiency and life moved at a pace to be savored, not to be rushed.

I have gradually grown accustomed to the schooners that come and go from the harbor. The Thomas E. Lannon, the Ernestina, the Fame, and the Lettie G. Howard are beautiful sights to see as they drift around the breakwater. But the big, square-rigged ships - I don’t think you ever get used to seeing them. This year the Gazela was here and every time I turned my car down Duncan Street and saw the tall masts towering over the buildings lining the harbor I thought of Fitz Hugh Lane and imagined him hurrying down there with his paints.

A lot of ships have come and gone from this harbor - the Rose makes periodic visits and when I see her winging her way through the outer harbor like a great, gentle angel it is easy to just drop everything that seems so important and just watch what water and air can be used for. Some years back the Mayflower II was refurbished out at the Railways and attracted a lot of attention and Salem’s Friendship is a periodic visitor.

Last summer when the Picton Castle was here, selling exotic goods from far away places, Mark and I met two of the senior crew members in Halibut Point one night and got the chance to talk to them about life aboard a tall ship. Mark, having a captained lobster boats for nearly twenty years, tends to be less awed by the great beauties but the guys from the Picton Castle still had tales to tell that left us both slightly envious.

What would it be like to run away and go to sea? In my book and some stories my characters have been known to do that - Baptiste in The Old Mermaid’s Tale, Johnny in My Last Romance and Stash in The Haven all spent years as rootless mariners living their lives at sea. Did I once dream of that when I was a girl? I don’t remember.

Summer is almost over. It was a summer that got off to a slow start but more than made up for it in the beauty of the months that followed. I am blessed - by Gloucester, by writing, by glorious days and sweetly dreamy nights. Basically it is all about savoring. That is a gift we give ourselves if we are smart. Life keeps happening but giving yourself the luxury of stepping back, breathing deep, and just savoring - the air, the light, the moment a tall mast glides up over the horizon. Tall ships remind us of that. They are not practical or efficient or even particularly useful but, oh, they are a delicious treat to be savored.

Thanks for reading.