We got up and drove
along the scenic ocean view route to Essex, Massachusetts. Our destination,
besides the drive was to tour Essex Shipbuilding Museum. The museum building
looked like the typical New England style building. We opted to do our own
self-guided tour, which was easy enough reading the information on the walls,
and the pictures that were in the exhibits.
It was really
interesting to talk to the young woman, who admitted us and gave a small introduction
talk to the shipyard. She was born and raised in Essex and talked about the
shipyard and about her family who did a lot of clamming. She loved where she
was from and loved being by the water and waking up to it. I found it
interested to hear all of that, I especially enjoyed listening to her talk
about her family and how proud and happy she was about her birth place, Essex.
After, touring inside
the museum, the rest of the displays and the ship equipment were located
outside. There were displays and small buildings that showed how to frame and make
a schooner.
Ship building began in
Essex before 1668. By 1840, there were as many as 15 ship yards making over 50
vessels a year. At least 4,000 wooden vessels had been launched from the banks
of the Essex River. There was a schooner on display outdoors. It wasn’t being
reproduced to its original but rather being preserved. The Evelina M. Goulart
was built in 1927. It was one of 7 surviving Essex built fishing schooners,
used mainly for sword fishing. At one time,
the Evelina was converted into a fishing dragger, fitted with an engine.
I enjoyed touring the
ship building yard, and it gave me a better understanding of what went into
building a wooden ship. It took a lot of mastery, pride, and precision
work by the builders. They had to feel a real sense of accomplishment after
building a ship.
Essex is a quaint area
and definitely worth a visit, especially to the ship yards, where one can
better understand the history of ship building.
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