Author: Marty Luster

Dean Snell, owner of The Restoration Works, at work in his Rogers Street shop.

Happy Thanksgiving to Joey and Kate and the entire GMG community. GMG is certainly high on the list of the many things that I am grateful for.

Maneuvering The Harvey Gamage into position on elevating dry-dock.

Thank you Kim Smith for posting the BBC videos of African elephants. They brought to mind Barbara’s and my trip to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana in 2011. Of all the wildlife we were privileged to see and study, the elephants were the most endearing and fascinating. Their numbers were plentiful and we had ample opportunity to observe herd life, family structure and bonding within the herd and learn about the elephant habitat. These amazing animals must be among the most intelligent, compassionate and loving in all creation.

In the few short years since our visit, the number of African elephants in the wild has decreased dramatically,(about 6% in Zimbabwe) due largely to habitat destruction and ivory poaching.Despite that, legal hunting of elephants is permitted in many African countries. While it may be true that well managed hunting can serve to conserve habitat and strengthen the herds, some countries, and Zimbabwe in particular, have failed to demonstrate a commitment to that goal. Instead, the hefty fees collected from trophy hunters have been diverted from conservation efforts to unrelated purposes.

That’s why, in 2014,in an effort to discourage Americans from engaging in elephant trophy hunting in parts of Africa, President Obama banned the import into the U.S. of elephant body parts from animals killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
President Trump has now reversed that order, thereby creating incentives for the trophy hunting of these magnificent creatures and accelerating the decline of African elephants which have been on the Endangered Species list since 1979.

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UPDATE 9:15 PM
President Trump, in a tweet, has reversed the order that allowed animal trophies from Zimbabwe to be brought into the US, pending further study. This is a temporary measure, but it allows time to have a public discussion about this issue.
MORE HERE

First of many great meals at Duckworths.

Since I’m housebound for a while, this is a good opportunity to take another look at some of the thousands of photos I’ve shot for GMG (not all were posted) over the past 7 1/2 years.

This is the Pinky Schooner Ardelle in its 15th week of construction at the Harold Burnham boatyard in Essex.

Jude Seminara has provided us with his perspective of the oft told James Merry – Dogtown tale.

The Matador of Gloucester

In the mid-morning of Sunday, September 18, 1892, three local men, Henry and Chester Norwood and Isaac Day discovered the bloody and battered body of 60 year old James Merry wedged between two boulders near the Dogtown Road. His abdomen had been ripped open. Nearby, Patrick Nugent’s Jersey bull was in an agitated condition, bellowing and stomping his hooves, his horns stained with blood. Mr. Day left immediately to summon the police, and Officer Ropper, accompanied by the Undertaker Lloyd and medical examiner Quimby came to investigate.

Tradition holds that Merry had, while a sailor, visited Spain and became interested in bull fighting. When he returned to Gloucester, he raised a bull from a calf and practiced wrestling it in Dogtown. The night before he was killed, the story goes, he was drinking up in town and was challenged to wrestle the bull. The bull won, goring Merry with its horns. While a romantic story, it is simply untrue.

James Merry was born in Edgecomb, Maine, one of three sons, in 1832 to Heram and Betsey Merry. He was in Gloucester sometime prior to 1850, at which time he was recorded as James Murray, fisherman in the census. According to the vital records of Gloucester, he married Catherine Witty in 1856. The Merrys had three children: James Howard, Frank, and Carrie. Carrie died of typhoid fever at the age of 14 in 1878. Merry’s brother David Murray was lost at sea in 1859 and is memorialized in the cenotaph at the Fisherman at the Wheel statue. His other brother Jonathan left Gloucester shortly after David’s death to returned to Maine.

Continue reading “A Not So Merry Tale” →