Events scheduled throughout the day include an Historic Postcards Slide Show, seafood cooking demonstrations, live music by Not That Blonde, storytelling by Fred Dodge, and presentations focusing on whale tagging, shipwrecks and sustainable fisheries. Ongoing demonstrations include net stripping, sail making, dory building, and ship model construction. Visitors can also explore a simulated shipwreck with Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary maritime archaeologists and observe a boat being hauled out of the water on the center’s 19th century marine railway. Children’s activities include fish printing, compass making and knot tying. Sea Pocket Lab, the center’s outdoor aquarium with touch tanks, will be open.
Visitors can also explore “Fitting Out,” the first exhibit installed in the new gallery, which focuses on the shoreside industries that supported the local fishing fleet at the dawn of the 20th century. The exhibit title refers to the process of outfitting or preparing a vessel for a fishing trip. Displays feature elegant ship models, a standing rig, and artifacts ranging from oilskins to foghorns to sailmaker’s tools. Chart your course to the Grand Banks. Try your hand at rope making. Experiment with the interactive marine railway model. Watch vintage film footage of fishing schooners at sea.
The Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center is located at 23 Harbor Loop in Gloucester,overlooking Gloucester’s industrial Harbor. Open 7 days a week from May 7 thru October, 10 am – 5 pm. Admission is $5/adults, $2/children, $10 family maximum. For more information, call 978-281-0470.

Bud Ris, President and CEO of the New England Aquarium, will present a slide lecture entitled "The New England Aquarium Today and Tomorrow" at 7 pm on Thursday, May 7th.  He will discuss the Aquarium’s efforts to redefine its role, moving education and conservation to the forefront of everything it does.

Erik Ronnberg, renowned New England ship model maker, will present a lecture entitled “New England’s Earliest Otter Trawlers” at 7 pm on Friday, May 8that the Center. He will illustrate his talk with slides of model of the “Surf” he built for marine artist Tom Hoyne.

Both lectures will take place at the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center. There is no admission charge.

 

23 Harbor Loop, Gloucester, Massachusetts 01930

Tel: 978 281 0470

 

The Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center celebrates Gloucester’s historic relationship with the sea. The Center features the oldest continuously operating marine railway in the country, the Sarah Fraser Robbins Marine Education Center, the Gorton’s Seafoods Gallery, two boatbuilding shops, an outdoor aquarium, and exhibits focusing on the history of the fishing industry and the natural history of the Gulf of Maine.

Located on the city’s working waterfront, the Center offers the most extensive public access to Gloucester’s industrial harbor. From the Main Pier, enjoy panoramic views of Ten Pound Island, Rocky Neck, and the State Fish Pier, as well as an ongoing parade of draggers, trawlers, tugboats, and pleasure boats departing and returning to the inner harbor.