The Rockport Public Library will be featuring Paul St. Germain, local author and historian, as part of our Local Author Night at the library. Paul will present excerpts from his new book, Images of America: Sandy Bay National Harbor of Refuge and the Navy, tracing the history of the building of the Sandy Bay Breakwater and subsequent visits by the U.S. Navy in the early 1900's.

In 1885 construction began on the second largest deep-water harbor in the world, second only to Cherbourg, France to be called the Sandy Bay National Harbor of Refuge. It would consist of a giant 9,000-foot granite breakwater that would offer safe harbor to over 5,000 vessels and enclose an area of 1,600-acres. As it was being built, the U.S. North Atlantic Fleet began making annual visits to Rockport with their newest and largest warships, including most of Theodore Roosevelt’s “Great White Fleet”. From 1898 to 1919, hundreds of naval vessels, including battleships, cruisers and torpedo destroyers, anchored in Sandy Bay for most summers.

Paul St. Germain, local Cape Ann author and historian, has been a Rockport resident for 25 years and has written three other books in the Images of America series. He has drawn from the Sandy Bay Historical Society archives, official U.S. Navy files and other private collections creating a revealing record and interesting history of the building of the breakwater, the men, the ships and the events surrounding the Navy visits.

Copies of Paul's books will be made available for sale and signing at the conclusion of the program.