Shipwright Harold A Burnham comes from a family who have been building wooden boats in Essex MA for several generations. Produced by Blake Road Productions LLC for the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
From the year of its settlement in 1628 until the middle of the 19th century, Salem, in the Massachusetts Bay, was a maritime port surpassed in size and importance by only two or three other seaports along the Atlantic coast.
By the early 1840s, Essex no longer had its own fishing fleet, but had turned to year-round shipbuilding fostering a symbiotic relationship with the successful fishermen in Gloucester