At the dock there are a couple of key pieces of equipment. The winch, the forktruck, the scales and the carts. Any one of these go down and we’re in serious trouble. We rely on them to work day in and day out. In the worst of all conditions.
You know how the fishing industry is the second most dangerous profession in the world behind coal mining? Well it might be the second most dangerous profession but handling saltwater fish is absolutely the deadliest profession for machinery. Salt, and saltwater, fish grease and massive tonnage being handled daily create the perfect storm of corrosiveness and opportunity for mechanical failure.
That’s why whenever I have an opportunity to secure a Fairbanks Cart to help perform our job at the dock I leap. This morning at 5:00 AM I drove a couple of hours to get my hands on the newest member of the Captain Joe and Sons Lobster Company Family. One of the best parts about the Fairbanks carts are the plug in caster systems. If after years you need new casters, you contact the company and they can ship you out new ones.
The decks are absolute beastly and handle incredibly poundings without skipping a beat. I routinely lower 400Lbs of lobster crates on them when offloading the boats and then add another stack of 400. No problem.
Here’s the new one. I put a couple of coats of linseed oil on the oak decking and greased up the greased fittings and she’s ready for servicing our lobster fleet!
Our “Old” Fairbanks cart that’s helped offload millions of pounds of lobsters through the decades and our newly acquired Fairbanks Cart with the pretty green paint.
For more than 125 years, the Fairbanks Company has been shipping quality material handling equipment from our manufacturing facilities in Rome, GA. Our facilities encompass more than 200,000 square feet of production and warehousing space. To maintain our leadership role in the industry, we have modernized our facilities with the latest in robotic welding, electrostatic powder coating and CNC machining of wood parts.
These techniques have resulted in the expansion of our product offerings, making us a premier supplier of casters, wheel, handtrucks, platform trucks and dollies.
The “New” Old Cart At The Dock @CaptJoeLobster #GloucesterMA
Here’s the “new” old cart Brian O’Connor found on Craig’s list in Haverhill and I picked up Friday morning. The “old” old cart I claimed at an old industrial site in Chelsea and it was being thrown away about 20 years ago. I had no idea what the brand was, all I know is that it was extremely rugged. The type of rugged that could withstand the brutal saltwater conditions of a lobster dock year in and year out. In the Craigslist ad the man listed the similar “newer” old cart as a Fairbanks cart so I googled the company and found out they are still in business. http://www.fairbankscasters.com/ from the website:
For more than 125 years, the Fairbanks Company has been shipping quality material handling equipment from our manufacturing facilities in Rome, GA. Our facilities encompass more than 200,000 square feet of production and warehousing space. To maintain our leadership role in the industry, we have modernized our facilities with the latest in robotic welding, electrostatic powder coating and CNC machining of wood parts.
These techniques have resulted in the expansion of our product offerings, making us a premier supplier of casters, wheel, handtrucks, platform trucks and dollies.
THE “NEW” OLD CART
You can see the difference between the “new” old cart and the “old” new cart in that the cart below has it’s main load carrying wheels based in the middle of the cart so if you place the load in the middle there is a even disbursement of the weight and makes it easy to move on the larger wheels. They call it a tilt style cart. The “new” old cart has the two big wheels pushed further to the front corner of the cart and two big casters at the back. In the “old” old cart you could turn it 360 degrees in place, with the placement of the wheels on the “new’ old cart it will be slightly less easy to maneuver but will make it easier to pull the crates off of the platform of the cart without the cart wanting to rotate needing for another person to hold the handles while the other worker pulls the crates onto the platform scale. Also the weight bearing wheels on the “new” old cart are much larger.
Here’s the “old” old cart that has been used to offload millions and millions of pounds of lobsters over the past decade.
THE “OLD” OLD CART
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
We are ten days out from a VERY busy weekend, so here is a heads up of what’s to come! On SATURDAY APRIL 25th, we celebrate Indie Bookstore Day & the kick off to the @northofbostonbooktrail 3rd Annual Passport Challenge! (Check out the
#NOBBookTrail page to learn more about that)
For IBD Weekend, we will have complimentary sweet treats on the counter and a refreshed Blind Date with a Book (including a limited number of FREE ARC books) We’ll also have extended hours (Sat 9-7 & Sun 9-6!) @librofm – our audiobook partner – also has some great deals for IBD week including a special gift when you start a new annual membership and also a huge sale. Choose The Bookstore of Gloucester as your bookstore to support us while you listen away!
Also happening on Saturday:
@Icaliterarycapeann presents Hard-Wired for Stories – a free author talk at Shalin Liu at 1pm with authors Heidi Pitlor and Susan Sheperd. The Bookstore will be selling a selection of short story collections at the event!
Finally, at O’Maley from 10am-2pm is the Earth Day Recycling Festival! While we’re not able to be there in person, we did create a special curated list of books to celebrate Earth Day! Swipe to get a peek at that and check out our @bookshop_org page to see the full list there too.
We hope to see you at these events!!
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Jim and I recently took an Amtrak vacation trip to DC and Pigeon Forge TN for our “Spring Break”. It turned out to be quite a nice experience. Amtrak set us up to leave from Boston, travel to DC and stay a couple of nights. Then we were provided a vehicle to drive to Pigeon Forge (about 8 hours) and stay a few more nights. One tour in DC and one tour in TN were also included. We were uncertain how this would go but it mostly went seamlessly. Amtrak did a nice job with our accommodations as well as travel arrangements.
One glitch we experienced involved the Boston parking garage where we left our car for the duration. Our return train was significantly delayed so we were put on an earlier train which was great. However, we arrived at South Station at 1:30 AM and the parking garage was closed until morning. South Station was also locked up tight until morning. The situation was complicated a bit by the fact that this was Marathon Monday morning so no hotels were available. We were able to get a Lyft to Gloucester without too much fuss so even that worked out. A note of advice to check parking garage hours if you find yourself in a similar situation. Overall, the Amtrak vacation experience was a positive one. I would not hesitate to try another adventure.
Here are some photos from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park where we spent nearly all of our Tennessee time. It’s been on my bucket list for a while. We did not get to see a bear but we did get to see a few elk up close. For additional photos and story details, check out Pat D’s Photos and Adventures on Facebook (link here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063510494739) The DC portion of our trip will follow soon.
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Special temporary exhibition features a selection of original pen & ink drawings for 1920s classic reads editions for Arabian Nights, Hans Christian Andersen and more. The show coincides with school vacation week Saturday and Sunday, Apr 25 and 26, 2026. Hammond Castle is a fantastic option for a don’t miss worth the trip visit to share with family and friends of all ages and interests. It’s a sure fire guaranty everyone will find something that stops them in their tracks to wander and wonder. One could hear that all around us on this sunny spring day.
Eric Pape Fantasy Illustrations2026 marks the 4th in a series of special temporary exhibitions at Hammond Castle in collaboration with Dr. Gregory Conn,
This iteration includes dozens of drawings on loan from the collection of American photographer, Bruce Haley, and several more from the collection of Conn, avid collector and philanthropist who has turned his Eric Pape passion to writing several books and is the go to authority.
Conn wrote a thorough and fond reintroduction to the once-esteemed Gilded Age artist for Illustration Magazine in 2016. While he explored several of Pape’s geographical inspirations—San Francisco, Paris, and Egypt—Gloucester wasn’t the focus. However, he did highlight the Hammond connection and the influential Cape Ann summer staple: the Pape School of Art, run by Eric and his first wife.
Dr. Conn reached out to GMG after seeing our posts about Tablet Rock, President Taft, and the connection between Eric Pape and Cawein in Gloucester [see You can bid on 1909 Taft presidential memorabilia created for Gloucester: Canterbury Pilgrims Pageant and historic house fundraiser at Stage Fort Park welcomed thousands!Sept. 6, 2018 here] Having delved into Pape’s oeuvre for decades, he certainly wouldn’t miss those!
The HarborWalk (2012) also ensured the correct attribution of Pape’s design for Tablet Rock: ..James R. Pringle was designated to write the inscription for the bronze plaque. The execution of the design was by Eric Pape. “The nautical scheme of decorative framework and embellishment was the composite suggestion” of various committees dating as far back as the 1880s.
It’s exciting to see this series come full circle, back to Cape Ann and Hammond Castle.
Spread The GMG Love By Sharing With These Buttons:
Good Morning Gloucester 