[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 127 (Wednesday, September 19, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S6443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING JOE GARLAND

 Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, last summer Massachusetts lost a 
gentleman, the fishing industry lost an icon and I lost a friend. For 
years Joe Garland served as the unofficial historian of Gloucester, 
MA--its fishermen, its boats and its life. If you visit the Fisherman's 
Memorial on Gloucester's waterfront on a stormy winter day, the statue 
of the Heroic Mariner seems to be steering the whole town into the wind 
toward fair weather. And if you look closely at the statue, you can 
almost see Joe Garland in its carved granite face, full of grit and 
determination, guiding his beloved Gloucester through headwinds and 
troubled waters.
  He's been gone for more than a year now, but his memory lives on 
through his loving wife Helen, his family, his friends and through the 
continuing legacy of the schooner Adventure.
  In my Boston office, I have a copy of his book about the Adventure, 
which he helped to restore. When I received it many years ago, it 
arrived with an invitation from Joe to tour the schooner and, of 
course, I didn't waste any time accepting his invitation. He welcomed 
me aboard, and his tour made the Adventure's history come alive--from 
its construction in 1926 through its career as a ``highliner,'' the 
biggest moneymaker of them all, landing nearly $4 million worth of cod 
and halibut during her career.
  As Joe himself once wrote, ``The Adventure is a survivor, not a 
vision. She is here, real and beautiful . . . I can stand on those 
decks with the whole-sail breeze, arms hooked into the rigging, and 
watch her go, watch the miles bubble out from under the stern as they 
have done now for more than fifty [now nearing 100] years. She is 
fantastic!''
  As we celebrate the historic restoration of the Adventure, and 
celebrate Joe's incredible life, I know that he is smiling down on us 
today, on what would have been his 90th birthday. Mr. President, the 
world weathers so many storms, but at the center of each we find people 
of character who revive our hope and give us strength. Joe Garland was 
such a man, and we are all blessed to have had his strength and his 
character as an example, and we are equally blessed that he left us 
with such a marvelous schooner, the Adventure, as an enduring reminder 
of his life.

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