Rockport Harbor

Situated on the northern portion of the Massachusetts Coast just off Sandy Bay, Rockport is more popular as a land-based vacation stop than a water-based place to rest up for the night. Rockport is 30 miles northeast of Boston and 28 miles south of the Massacusetts/New Hampshire state line.Rockport Harbor is unfortunately a difficult place to find a slip or a mooring to tie up to. Most of the moorings in the harbor are private and guests moorings are not typically available. Slips are very hard to come by as well, but you may be able to arrange some sort of berth or mooring for the night by radioing or calling ahead to the town harbormaster.The image above is a view from the west looking east over Rockport Harbor and the town of Rockport. Off in the distance in the upper left-hand side of the image is Straitsmouth Island with Old Garden Beach just before it.Hundred of years ago, Cape Ann was home to a number of Native American villages, inhabited by members of the Agawam tribe. The area that is now Rockport was simply an uninhabited part of Gloucester for more than 100 years, and was primarily used as a source of timber -- especially pine for shipbuilding. The area around Cape Ann was also one of the best fishing grounds in New England, in 1743 a dock was built at Rockport harbor on Sandy Bay and was used for both timber and fishing. By the beginning of the 19th century, the first granite quarries were developed, and by the 1830s, Rockport granite was being shipped to cities and towns throughout the East Coast of the United States.