Schooners in our Lives

The Schooner Festival is coming up so of course, my thoughts turn to the role of such vessels in my family’s life in Gloucester.

This is a picture of the schooner Concord, owned and operated by Captain John Duguo, an ancestor-in-law a couple of generations back who sailed about the same time as my direct ancestor Captain John Bentley. This picture puts in perspective for me the relative size of the ship to the men and to the sea. Yikes. Those guys sure look small there and it’s a wonder ANY of them ever came back from these fishing trips.

John Bentley was born in 1847 in County Galway Ireland. I have not yet found the siblings he surely must have had. To my knowledge, his parents Henry and Kate never came to America. He arrived in New York from Ireland before he was 18 years old, perhaps in 1863 when he would have been only 16.  He made his way to Cape Ann and  married Mary Catherine Costello (Kate) Christmas Day 1864 in Gloucester. (17 years old if we accept the dates on the various records). There were 6 children born to this couple.

Captain Bentley and his father in law, Martin Costello, died at sea in February 1882 when he was only 35 years old. His wife was left with 5 living children, the youngest only 8. Kate Bentley died just 3 years later of “natural causes”. By this time, the children were older and probably taking care of each other, but I’ve often wondered what life was like for them after they lost their father and then their mother in such a short time. An article in the October 1886 The Century Magazine called Gloucester Fishers states “Few men who fish on the Banks live to be old, and the result is there are comparatively few old fishermen in Gloucester.” And many fatherless children.

Seeing the schooners in the harbor is glorious and it’s worth taking a minute to remember the high price Gloucester has paid to get to this point.