Coast Guard Park

New Bedford may not be on too many people’s lists of places they must visit when in Massachusetts, but we like the town a lot.
And no trip to New Bedford would be complete without a drive down to the waterfront where the heart of the town’s fishing history, now spanning 3 centuries, lives.
It’s down by the commercial fishing piers where you’ll find the Coast Guard park.
Although it’s a «pocket» park in size it’s worth the stop to pay one’s respects at the Lightship Sailors Memorial.
A lightship is an anchored vessel affixed with a light that acts a warning beacon and a guide to ships at sea. Essentially, it’s a ship that acts as a lighthouse.
The Vineyard Lightship sank in the Hurricane of 1944 and all 12 men aboard perished one mile west of Cuttyhunk. The men aboard were fighting 100 mile winds and 20 foot seas that night and although they sent messages ashore to the Woods Hold Coast Guard station, those messages were filled with static and misunderstood, leaving potential rescuers to erroneously believe the sailors were successfully riding out the storm.
This Coast Guard Memorial honors the service of all lightship sailors, but it’s the names of the Vineyard Lightship men that are etched on the side of the granite memorial.
Atop the memorial sits the fog bell from the Vineyard Lightship.
After this moving bit of history, take a walk down the piers to take in the amazing display of fishing boats. It’s these boats in particular that the lightships aim to guide.
If you want to talk about a tough day at work, being a lobsterman, scalloper or shrimper would make most other complaints seem meager.
These working boats are a sight to behold. They are incredible structures but nothing fancy about them. It’s all work.
Up close you can see the machinery and conditions in which these tough and scrappy fisherman work.
I know there is a lot of controversy over the commercial fishing industry from both sides. Nonetheless, these men and women are doing a job that for those of us who eat seafood, puts food we love on the table.
I try to think of these boats and fishermen whenever I sit down to a seafood meal. A trip to the New Bedford Harbor and the Coast Guard Park helps put the lives of both fishermen and Lightship sailors, so inextricably entwined, in perspective.