TRIP #5, 2014--Historical Enlightenment

Historical Enlightenment
When we checked out this morning, we immediately realized how Rockport keeps its taxes down for the people who live here and why this was the most costly motel of our trip.  The city tax is more than the state tax and is added on after the state tax. Rather ingenious for a small town that attracts lots of tourists.

Lobster pods piled on the dock line the Rockport Harbor.

Rockport was quiet at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday morning.  It could have been the time--all the shops were still closed.  It could have been the date--tourist season was over and this is not a spot for leaf viewing.  It could have been the weather--a cold, damp mist blanketed the world here.

Early in the morning a cold wind whips
 across the water in Rockport.
 

Regardless, we stopped on both sides of the Rockport Harbor for pictures of the docks, the boats and the Motif #1 at Bradley Wharf.  This humble fishing shack, built in 1884, is called "the ultimate artist's subject of the New England Coast."  Artists began painting this shack in the mid-1800's, and it was dubbed Motif #1 by Lester Hornby.  When it was destroyed by a blizzard in 1978, the town of Rockport, owners since 1945, rebuilt it.  Even the distinctive red paint, no longer available at the time, had to be reformulated to retain the character of the building.

This shack, dubbed Motif #1, is "the ultimate artist's subject
of the New England Coast."

Bradley Wharf, where Motif #1 is located, is the former site of a schooner boat building yard.  We photographed the area when Drew and Tara were very young.  It will be interesting to compare the shots when we get home.
The towns here are all lovely and quaint--Gloucester, Rockport, Manchester, Beverly--and the commuter rail line even connects to Boston.  Huge estates line Route #127 in Beverly.  There is definitely money in this town.  We stopped for a student to cross the pedestrian walkway at a private academy and then passed Endicott College.  What a gorgeous campus!  We drove around the grounds admiring the manicured landscape and beautiful buildings.
Salem, once the nation's sixth largest city, challenged my navigational skills with one-way streets and road-closing detours.  It rained lightly and turned to a fine mist, as we found a spot to park near the Salem Custom House.  We put money in the meter and walked around the block.
Friendship of Salem, the replica of a merchant vessel moored at Derby Wharf, only offered tours on Saturdays. It is the full-size replica of a three-masted square-rigged Indiaman, the name given to a ship that can sail to China, but we couldn't board.  The Custom  House and two nearby buildings could only be visited by tours at 2:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon to a limited group of 25 who obtained tickets several blocks away.  How things have changed in Salem!  Many years ago I sat in Nathaniel Hawthorne's desk in the Custom House, looking out at Derby Wharf, and imagining ships like the Friendship coming and going when Salem was the sixth busiest port in the U.S.  Hawthorne worked as Surveyor of the Port in Salem for three years, and it was at that desk that he wrote The Scarlet Letter.  Now we couldn't even get into the building.

The statue of Roger Conant
pays tribute to Salem's
first citizen.

Salem's infamy started in 1692, when nearly 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft.  Nineteen were hanged and one man, Giles Corey, was crushed to death.  These individuals were victims of fear, superstition and a court system that failed to protect them.  Today the Salem Award Foundation works to reduce intolerance and social injustice through education and awareness so the lessons of 1692 are not forgotten.  At Halloween time, the "imaginary witches" of Salem haunt the town.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's
statue honors one of
America's great writers.

But Salem was much more than witchcraft.  A statue of Roger Conant outside the Witch Museum honors the founder and first citizen of Salem from 1626.  In another part of downtown a statue of Nathaniel Hawthorne honors the American writer (1804-1864) who worked at the Custom House and made Salem his home.
We walked through the Scales Building, that housed scales that were carted to the wharves when ships arrived in order to weigh and tax the goods, and the Public Stores Building of 1819, that received and stored up to a thousand chests of tea from a single ship before they were distributed for sale elsewhere.  Here products like spices, coffee, silks, India cotton and gold dust were kept temporarily.  The warehouse is small since enormous profit could be made from high-value, low-bulk luxuries.

The lighthouse at the far end of Derby Wharf still guides boats
into the harbor at Salem.

When the sprinkles let up, we walked back out on Derby Wharf to the Lighthouse.  It had been constructed in 1871, long after the original 800-foot wharf of 1762, and the 1,300-foot Derby Wharf extension of 1806.  The lighthouse still operates, but only a little remains of the once-busy wharves and buildings. They are remnants of the shipping industry that prospered in Massachusetts Bay's oldest seaport until well into the 1800's. 
Noon was a perfect break for coffee across from the Custom House, and we still had time in the meter.

The storage building on Derby
Wharf retains the flavor of
a sailing era long gone by.

"Let's go back out on Derby Wharf to get more pictures now that it's not raining," suggested Andy.

Derby Wharf extends into the harbor from the Salem Custom House.

The square-rigged replica Friendship, moored at the wharf,
stands ready for the next sail to far-off ports.

The wharf was named for Captain Richard Derby Jr. and his son Elias Hasket Derby, Salem's most prominent ship owner and probably America's first millionaire in the mid-1700's.  Elias Derby was one of the few merchants to emerge profitably from the Revolutionary War.
Imaginative and demanding, he evoked loyalty from his ship captains and was respected for his knowledge of ship building and sailing. He expected his captains to return from a voyage with 100 percent profit, but he also gave them total trading freedom.  Ships sailed with cod, nails and fish hooks "to the farthest port of the rich East," Salem's motto.  It earned Salem the reputation of the Venice of the New World. 
But no sooner than we walked outside, the dribbles started again. I kept the camera protected in a plastic bag.

Winter Island Lighthouse still guides boats into Salem Harbor.

After the War of 1812, Salem couldn't compete with New York and Boston for western markets because it lacked an inland transportation network.  The last square-rigger cleared Derby Wharf in the early 1890's and Salem as a port declined.
Winter Island Lighthouse, built in 1871, still guides vessels into Salem Harbor.  At an adjoining park and campground labeled Waikiki Beach, people had pitched tents.  "This doesn't strike me as camping season," said Andy, as the light rain started again.  "I wonder if they are homeless."
Could be, I thought.  At one site with bikes and a cooking set-up, a middle-school-age boy poked his head out from behind an awning.  It was 58 degrees.

Reconstructed Saugus Iron Works give visitors a glimpse
of a world long past in Massachusetts.

"We must have a constant supply of iron," insisted Governor John Winthrop in the 1630's.  Saugus Iron Works in Saugus, Massachusetts, supplied that need from 1646 to 1670. The "blast," once started, would burn for weeks.  Here was the birthplace of the American iron industry.  Park Ranger Gregg welcomed us in the Visitor Center and offered a map for the self-guiding tour of this National Historic Site.  We watched the video and read the information in the museum.  Puritans in the 1630's had come by the thousands to purify their church and build a deeply religious society.  Their governor, John Winthrop, took a personal interest in the development of the Saugus Iron Works north of Boston.  He promoted legislation to encourage the discovery of iron ore in Massachusetts and offered tax incentives to create iron works in the colony.  He wanted his Commonwealth to be independent and self-sustaining.

One of several huge bellows pumps air
into the gigantic furnaces to smelt ore.

He used funds from wealthy investors in England who were sympathetic to the Puritan cause. The first attempt in Braintree was unsuccessful.   Saugus, the second site, offered a deep channel for shipping, bogs with stone to collect ore, a fast-moving river for raw power, and lots of trees for fuel to fire the furnaces.  The 340-cubic foot furnace interior held three tons of ore, 265 bushels of charcoal and two tons of gabbro, rock as the fluxing agent.

A water wheel supplies
the power to pump the bellows.

Saugus Iron Works, one of the first major industrial developments in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, provided the foundation for an entire American industry.

Park rangers Gregg and Sean
explain how the Saugus
Iron Works operated in days gone by.

Ranger Gregg offered to show us how the water wheel worked at the Blast Furnace, and Ranger Sean explained how the water power turned the gears.  It was our own private demonstration.
In spite of the rain and dark skies, this had been a fun day of historical enlightenment.
In the motel parking lot we untangled the lobster rope Andy found two days ago in Ogunquist, Maine.  We stretched the pieces across the parking area to untie the knots.  It was a little like unraveling history.