Figure 1 – The beach at Derby Wharf, US Salem Maritime National Historic site. (c) DE Wolf 2019.

Today was really gloomy, damp, and foggy out on the ocean. The mood was marvelous and contemplative. I walked down to the little beach that is adjacent to Salem’s Derby Wharf and took the image of Figure 1, attracted by the glowing licks of water on the beach, which accentuated the otherwise monotonous bleakness. 

Looking on the scene at the Salem US National Maritime Historic site, with its three preserved wharfs. It is hard to imagine that there once were fifty such wharves, and that Salem was once the center of “The China Trade.” 

Derby Wharf is the longest and was begun in 1762 by Richard Derby, Sr., one of Salem’s wealthiest merchants. Over the years, as the Derby family’s trade expanded, they extended the wharf, until in 1806 it reached its current half-mile length. Hatch’s Wharf, the shortest wharf, was built in 1819, and Central Wharf was built in 1791 by Simon Forrester. Derby Wharf Light Station was built in 1871.

The park has put out Adirondack chairs for visitors to sit on and look out over the beach. If you restrict your eyes, as I have done here, you see only the natural world and can watch the cormorants and diving ducks like the buffleheads in little groups, at any moment ready to submerge or take flight. It is all so very wonderful!