Adventure : Last of the Great Gloucester Dory-Fishing Schooners

by Joseph E. Garland, Jim Sharp

Launched in Essex in 1926, the 121-foot wooden schooner Adventure of Gloucester was already old and worn when she was laid up in 1953. She was the very last American vessel to catch fish by hand from small dories, yet was one of the biggest moneymakers in the history of the fisheries. After 34 more years as queen of the Maine coast passenger windjammers, she was given in 1988 by Captain Jim Sharp to the people of Gloucester via The Gloucester Adventure, a nonprofit educational corporation that is restoring her to sailing trim as a National Historic Landmark. From an old Gloucester family, Joe Garland is a writer and sometime sailor who has chronicled his famed home town in depth and breadth. He once skippered the aged 35-foot schooner yacht Bandit.

200 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000