ABSTRACT
Rory Nugent, travel writer and mariner, spent seventeen years living and working in the Massachusetts port city of New Bedford, home to “America’s largest fishing fleet.” From 1988 to 2005 Nugent documented the “riches to rags” story of an industry, its economy, culture and community, capturing the last gasp as it tumbled into the murky drink. Early on, the crusty-smart water people of New Bedford felt something in their bones, like arthritis in inclement weather. There’s an old saying, “When you’re at the end of your rope, let go.” Ever alert to signs and symbols, the drowning fishermen of New Bedford did what farmers, miners, whalers and loggers had done before them, they kept on scrambling, holding on, even as it was killing them.
