How this headline may connect to industries in Maine. Technical scores are below — click any ? for what a metric means.
The Ferry Dock Scribbler: The Point.In the centuries before the Industrial Revolution the continent of North America’s economy was based on agrarian and fishing cultures.If you stand right at the tip of the Point Judith Lighthouse with a good pair of binoculars and look to the west, you’ll see an arc of barrier beach all the way down to Watch Hill Point; after this point with a lighthouse—guiding vessels into Fishers Island’s sound—there lies another stretch of barrier beach that plays out all the way to the Thames River between Groton and New London.Moreover, if we flew over this long stretch of sand dunes, scrub, and coastal ponds bordering heavily forested northern acreage, we would see that farmland delineated by stone walls abuts this stretch of our southern coastline.Both of these raw and naturally demarcated environments have been places to harvest food going back hundreds of years.And, this bounty fed and housed the indigenous coastal tribes and the expanding Yankee population from England.Additionally, on Cape Cod, Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, these same two food sources grew to provide the sustenance for the expanding colonies.Both of these cultures—fishermen and farmers—were peopled with folks of rugged individualism, native and Yankee ingenuity, and a strong work ethic.Fishing and farming are tough businesses.Moreover, there are the elements that must be dealt with on a seasonal basis.A couple of miles west of the lighthouse lies the entrance to a harbor, which back in the day was home to a community of fishermen, and these people and this place have stories, lots of stories, of how a few adaptable families of these hearty and industrious people made a go of it in the Port of Galilee.Names like Champlin, Hoxie, Loftes, Whaley, Westcott, Roebuck, Follet, et al, are embedded in the historical annals of this vital and historic fishing port.After the 1938 hurricane and Hurricane Carol in 1954, the Escape Road was built to allow traffic over the marshland north of Sand Hill Cove Road, which was the only way into and out of the austere fishing port of Galilee and Great Island.These hurricanes demonstrated how vulnerable these coastal communities were and are to the present day.Again, this is a coastal barrier beach made of sand.Galilee grew into a thriving fishing port beginning in the ‘50s.As the years went by, boat designs changed to go further offshore to catch more fish, and in addition to this, so did the types of boats that worked the lobster fishery.As a result, Galilee has been in flux for the 60 years that I’ve lived and worked in the port, and the above family photograph is a constant reminder of what came before in this commercial harbor.This picture was taken after the 1938 hurricane, and it reveals the obvious changes that have happened since that brutal storm.On 21 September, a massive and complex weather system was heading toward the east coast.There was no warning for this storm.There were no long-range forecasting methods and protocols, and most importantly, there were no satellites.When the storm made landfall, it came ashore as a Cat 5 hurricane.There were winds that gusted to 180 MPH, and the tidal surge of 14 feet inundated Providence.One hundred and thirty-two people perished in Rhode Island, and the fatalities totaled over 600 in New England.This was a brutal storm, causing millions in damages, and resulted in the design and creation of the hurricane barrier to keep Providence safe from future flooding.Hurricane Carol was also a very serious event along the coast of Rhode Island and the adjoining coastal communities of New York, Connecticut, Maine, and Massachusetts.For myself, living along the coast and owning sailboats over the past four decades has been an up close and personal relationship to wind directions, sea conditions, gales, and hurricanes.Furthermore, I work for a ferry company, where there is the daily drill of paying attention to weather conditions.For example, as of this writing on Memorial Day weekend, we are experiencing some pretty foul and nasty weather, which has altered service.The ferry company canceled the High-Speed ferries from the Point and from Newport because of the wind and sea state causing sloppy conditions from its southeast direction.If you are reading this column and have some historical and institutional memory of the ferry landing, then the above photo of early Galilee will give some context for what it looked like back in 1938, and what it looks like now.First of all, we can see that there is no Escape Road, because that was not built until after hurricane Carol in 1954.Secondly, we can see that amidst sunken boats, destroyed buildings, the faint outline of the telephone poles lining Great Island Road, and the bulkhead as a work-in-progress, that Galilee was indeed a sandy barrier beach.Nota bene, there’s a lot of sand and no hotel.Thirdly, there is a faint outline of a sandy road that runs north where the standby parking lot now sits, and we can see the footprint for the present main ferry building—we can also see the area where the present freight garage and the ferry office annex are now located.Moreover, Jimmy’s Portside and The Boathouse would someday be located across the street.Finally, we can also see how the port’s bulkheads and State Pier were breached during this particular hurricane and the subsequent carnage strewn about in the storm.This kind of weather would become a trend in the following decades from the 1938 hurricane to the present day.It’s a humbling photograph that denotes the changing environment and the unstoppable nature of the sands of time.The Point, has weathered many other hurricanes: Bob, The Halloween Storm aka, “The Perfect Storm,” Irene, and most notably, Hurricane Sandy.The Point, has also, over the years, had to reinforce the steel bulkheads and build new docks.The ferry operation has grown.To maintain this commercial harbor requires tremendous expense and resources with help from the state, the federal government, and local commercial businesses, and must be monitored and maintained because this salty piece of coastline known as The Point will remain a vibrant fishery, and an embarkation point for ferries going back and forth to Block Island for years to come.Finally, maybe the next time one heads out to Block Island, perhaps this sandy piece of coastline will be noticed for its sense of place, and its fragility and importance will be a memory throughout the coming years.