From Fishing Village to Fishing Port

From Fishing Village to Fishing Port. Up to 1948. , Infrastructure improvements paved the way for an industry , At the turn of the twentieth century, Point Judith's Port of Galilee was a mere cluster of fishing shacks. Between wind, waves and piles of twine and traps, a handful of fishermen lived in these shacks year round. They collected rainwater for drinking and gathered by the stove on cold nights. They kept their boats moored near shore, and their fishing took place just as much in the pond as in the ocean., The size of the fleet was kept small by topography. The natural breachway connecting pond to sea was shallow and unreliable. When winter storms filled it in, fishermen had to dredge it by hand. It did not accommodate deep-draft vessels, so fishermen hauled their catch to Newport or carted it to the railroad station for shipping to New York markets., Installation of a breakwater (by the Army Corp of Engineers) outside the pond was the first step in a series of infrastructure improvements that converted Galilee into a major fishing port. Completed between 1906 and 1915, it required almost one and a half million tons of stone and created a Harbor of Refuge where large vessels could anchor. Completion of a permanent breachway in 1910 was a second turning point. Between 1895 and 1935, catches increased by 23% per year., The next wave of change arrived in 1935 with a Works Progress Administration program that dredged a 35-acre area just inside the pond, built a state pier, and paved a road to Galilee. Between 1935 and 1945, creation of a stable boat dockage platform enabled fish catches to climb by 47% per year!, [Caption:] , Fisherman Tom Mann was the "mayor" of Galilee in the 1920s and 1930s. He gave the port its biblical name as a joke , but the name stuck.