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Gloucester Harbor, Outer
View related Fitz Henry Lane catalog entries (20) »
Gloucester Outer Harbor served as a staging area for deep draft or heavily laden vessels waiting to come into the wharves in the shallow Old Harbor at high tide, or waiting to discharge cargo into smaller vessels. While Lane's paintings typically show one or two vessels in the harbor, works by other artists from the period, as well as contemporary descriptions, demonstrate that the harbor was usually crowded with vessels, especially in bad weather. The Outer Harbor could accommodate as many as three hundred vessels when they needed to shelter during a storm.
There were two deep spots where they could wait, the "Deep Hole" between Ten Pound Island and the Fort; and the "Pancake Grounds" between Ten Pound Island and Eastern Point. The "Pancake Grounds" also served as a quarantine area for ships arriving from foreign ports. "Deep Hole" was named for the (relatively) deep water between Rocky Neck and Fort Point to the Outer Harbor. Deeply loaded vessels had to anchor there for “lightering” (partial unloading by boats called “lighters”) prior to final unloading at wharfside. "Deep Hole" was 20–25 feet deep at low tide, when Harbor Cove was only 1–6 feet deep with bare ground around some wharves. "Deep Hole" is where you see ships anchored in Gloucester Harbor from Rocky Neck, 1844 (inv. 14), The Old Fort and Ten Pound Island, Gloucester, 1850s (inv. 30), View of Gloucester, Mass., 1859 (not published), Gloucester Inner Harbor, 1850 (inv. 240), The Fort and Ten Pound Island, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1847 (inv. 271), and Gloucester Harbor, 1848 (inv. 335) (which is coming to anchor).
The term "Deep Hole" is apparently a post-Bellum term. Prior to that, it was known as "The Stream" and, as later, served as anchorage where deeply loaded vessels could be lightered prior to docking in Harbor Cove. Alfred Mansfield Brooks in his book Gloucester Recollected uses this term on page 53. After the Civil War, merchant shipping in Gloucester was dominated by salt ships and later coal carriers, bringing a whole new culture to the harbor, and with it new names for old places.
Related tables: Gloucester Harbor – Use » // Gloucester Harbor, Inner / Harbor Cove »
John Heywood Photo for Hervey Friend
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive (2013.068)
Schooners anchored on the Pancake Ground, taken from from Wonson's Cove, easterly side of the Rocky Neck causeway. Eastern Point Fort and garrison in background to far left.
Also filed under: Eastern Point »
Stereograph card
Procter Brothers, Publisher
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive
"Gloucester Harbor from Rocky Neck, Looking Southwest. This gives a portion of the Harbor lying between Ten Pound Island and Eastern Point. At the time of taking this picture the wind was from the northeast, and a large fleet of fishing and other vessels were in the harbor. In the range of the picture about one hundred vessels were at anchor. In the small Cove in the foreground quite a number of dories are moored. Eastern Point appears on the left in the background."
Southeast Harbor was known for being a safe harbor.
Also filed under: Historic Photographs » // Rocky Neck » // Schooner (Fishing) » // Small Craft – Wherries, and Dories »
Stereograph card
Procter Brothers, Publisher
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive
View from Civil War fort on Eastern Point.
Also filed under: Eastern Point » // Historic Photographs »
Series Maps. v. 13: p. 17
SC1 / series 48X
Massachusetts Archives, Boston
View related Fitz Henry Lane catalog entries (1) »
Also filed under: Beacons / Monuments / Spindles » // Gloucester Harbor, Inner / Harbor Cove » // Gloucester, Mass. - "Ten Pound Island Light » // Gloucester, Mass. – Eastern Point Light » // Maps » // Mason, John » // Norman's Woe » // Pavilion (Publick) Beach » // Ropewalk »
44 x 34 in.
Henry Francis Walling, Map of the Towns of Gloucester and Rockport, Essex Co. Massachusetts. Philadelphia, A. Kollner, 1851
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive
"Map of the Towns of Gloucester and Rockport, Massachusetts. H.F. Walling, Civil Engineer. John Hanson, Publisher. 1851. Population of Gloucester in 1850: 7,805. Population of Rockport in 1850: 3,213."
Also filed under: Annisquam River » // Brookbank » // Dolliver's Neck » // Fresh Water Cove » // Maps » // Norman's Woe » // Stage Rocks / Stage Fort / Stage Head » // Steepbank » // West Gloucester – Little River » // Western Shore »
Newsprint
Cape Ann Advertiser
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive
Notice in the Cape Ann Advertiser announcing arrival of ships into the port of Gloucester, with details of their cargo.
Also filed under: Newspaper / Journal Articles » // Trade Routes and Statistics »
Newspaper
"Lane's studio seldom presents so many attractions to visitors as at the present time. With unwonted rapidity his easel has turned off pictures in answer to the numerous orders which have poured in from all quarters."
Also filed under: Chronology » // Newspaper / Journal Articles » // Studio Descriptions »
Electrotype impression
Collection of Erik Ronnberg
Also filed under: Gloucester Harbor, Inner / Harbor Cove » // Maps »
Stereograph card
Procter Brothers, Publisher
Cape Ann Museum Library & Archive
Also filed under: Historic Photographs » // Stage Rocks / Stage Fort / Stage Head »
Pencil and ink on paper
15 x 22 1/8 in.
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., Gift of Mr. Donald K. Usher, in memory of Mrs. Margaret Campbell Usher, 1984 (2401.19)
Also filed under: Beacons / Monuments / Spindles » // Mackerel Fishing »
Watercolor on paper
8 3/4 x 19 3/4 in.
Cape Ann Museum, Gloucester, Mass., Gift of Rev. and Mrs. A. A. Madsen, 1950
Accession # 1468
Fishing schooners in Gloucester's outer harbor, probably riding out bad weather.
Also filed under: Elwell, D. Jerome » // Schooner (Fishing) »