April 18, 2014 — About two weeks before the Greenport fishing season begins to ramp up, the docks downtown remain quiet, save for the whipping wind and driving rain.
On Tuesday, dockhands were preparing to wrap tires with canvas to use as bumpers for the docks at Claudio’s Marina. “It’s a little cold to do anything else,” said owner Jerry Tuthill. But come May 1, when the docks open for business, Greenport’s historic working waterfront will be bustling again. It’s a part of Greenport’s identity that shows no sign of drifting away.
“Tradition never goes out of style,” said Claudio’s Clam Bar manager David Hensley, a former bayman.
The fishing heritage of Greenport dates back to its earliest settlers, who hunted whales in rowboats. Whaling took off in the late 1700s and lasted into the mid-1800s, and the village’s prime location near fertile ocean waters helped to grow the port town.
Though whaling declined, Greenport’s fishing industry still grew. More than 5,300 ships were moored in Greenport harbor by 1881. Shipbuilding yards became essential to the village, and even served as the focal point of bootlegging operations during the Prohibition era.
But as fish stocks began to shrink in the 1950s, Greenport began to reinvent itself as a tourist destination, and not just a fishing town.
Read the full story at The Suffolk Times