One of the earliest settlements, Gloucester, Massachusetts, is famous for being America's oldest seaport and the cradle of our country's fishing industry. In fact, there are plenty of us who have family lines going right back to colonial America, with parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who were anglers, shipbuilders, sailmakers, candlemakers (it gets dark on those ships at sea!) and packers.

It was 1606 when the French explorer Samuel de Champlain sailed into what is now Gloucester Harbor and marveled over the beauty of the land, and of course, the profusion of fish in the water. Later, English Captain John Smith, following Champlain's earlier voyages, reached Gloucester, filled his hold with cod, dried 40,000 of the fish, put them in flakes and sent them to Spain for sale. He had so many cod left over that he pickled them and took them back to England with him.

News of the incredible, even inexhaustible supply of fish, and the ease with which they could be caught, spread quickly. A few years later, a group of men of venturesome spirit (not to mention money-making ambition) sailed to Gloucester and established a settlement right here on Cape Ann.

Just west of Gloucester is Essex, what was once the largest shipbuilding town in the country. You can still find the schooner Adventure (better known as "The Old Lady") moored at a Gloucester pier - one of only five fishing schooners remaining from the more than 4,000 that Essex shipbuilders built.

The early settlers were content to fish close to shore in small, frail boats. But it didn't take long before their pioneering spirit dared the elements and moved farther and farther from the home shore.

And thus began the famed New England shipbuilding industry. The lush, nearby forests of the North Shore provided the timbers, planking and the faultless masts to help fishing vessels grow in size and numbers. By 1720, the small early boats had evolved to fore-and-aft rigged craft, later to be called schooners.

Each new development created a new need and solution. The larger the boats, the larger the facilities needed at port. Ice in great quantities was essential to maintain the quality in the catch, now coming longer distances from sea to port. Sufficient salt was demanded aboard to help lower the melting point of the ice and keep low the temperature in the ships' holds.

As the fishing industry expanded, coastal and foreign trade developed too. But all this expansion did have many costs. While the proud, fast sailing vessels brought home millions of pounds of fish, the price in human life was paid as well. From 1830 to 1886 alone, Gloucester lost, through storms at sea, 419 vessels and 2,249 men.

The Arts. It's not all fishing here

Since the mid-nineteenth century, wind-weathered Rocky Neck, a small peninsula across the harbor on Cape Ann, has been one of America's oldest art colonies. Here, with the breathtaking views of the sea and town, famous painters like John Singer Sargeant and Winslow Homer came to work in the many buildings that date back to the Civil War. The dozens of galleries, studios and a traditional air of authenticity keep Rocky Neck a veritable working art colony.