Portsmouth’s romance with ships began in the early 1600s. Huge cod available in abundance off the Isles of Shoals attracted fishermen from the American colonies, with demand stretching back to England. After they caught the fish in their own vessels, they shipped them across the Atlantic Ocean.

“They dried the fish and they packed them into the vessels and then they shipped them to Europe,” said Donald Coker, chairman of both the Piscataqua Maritime Commission and the New Hampshire Port Advisory Council.

The area’s proximity to the water and its tall, straight pine trees—perfect for large masts—also made it a hub for shipbuilding. And, with the establishment of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard at the turn of the 19th century, the Seacoast eventually became the world’s most prolific producer of submarines.

Although the Naval Shipyard no longer builds subs, it still repairs and maintains some of the most advanced sea vessels in the world.

“Here we are 212 years later and we still work on Navy vessels, and our service has never been interrupted,” said shipyard spokesman Gary Hildreth.

A walk along Portsmouth’s waterfront provides ample evidence of its boating traditions. Massive freighters rumble into the Port of New Hampshire, guided by local tugboats. Commercial fishing and lobstering boats with names like “Elizabeth Ann” and “Lady Dee” float by the dock at Peirce Island. Marine patrol boats from a U.S. Coast Guard station motor along the deep river channel, as do passenger ships chugging past on their way to the Isles of Shoals for a day trip, or to Jeffrey’s Ledge for a whale watch. A replica gundalow unfurls its sail as it pulls away from Prescott Park. Private sailboats and yachts speckle the water, glinting in the sunlight as they glide by.

Some of these working vessels will participate in the Parade of Sail on Friday, July 13, along with two historic tall ships, the Pride of Baltimore II and the Providence. It’s a highlight of the annual four-day Sail Portsmouth festival, presented by the Piscataqua Maritime Commission from Thursday to Sunday, July 12 to 15. The festival celebrates a maritime culture that has now been active for four centuries.

Travel a few miles inland, and it’s easy to forget about the constant activity in Portsmouth’s working waterfront. But Portsmouth Harbor is vital to the regional economy, serving as a commerce center, a natural resource, and a tourist attraction. It’s also an ever-evolving landscape that must continuously adapt to the latest advances in ship design.

Our maritime heritage is on full display during tours aboard the gundalow Piscataqua, a fully functional selling vessel constructed last year on the grounds of Strawbery Banke Museum. Gundalows were once common in the Gulf of Maine, serving as cargo carriers that transported freight from ocean-going schooners to riverside communities throughout the Piscataqua region. 

The Gundalow Company also has a 30-year-old replica called the Captain Edward H. Adams, which can bring people onboard for dockside programs but is not certified to carry passengers on open water. The Pisctaqua, however, offers regular public sails, sometimes with presentations by Seacoast historians or scientists.

On July 5, the Piscataqua’s special guest was Gary Hildreth, head of public relations at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Established in 1800, PNS is the nation’s oldest continuously operating naval shipyard, sometimes referred to as the “cradle of American shipbuilding.”

But the roots of our shipbuilding heritage stretch back at least another 150 years. There are records of local timber being selected for masts as early as 1650, and Badger’s Island in Kittery was used as a shipyard for large clippers. The first naval vessel built here was the HMS Falkland, completed in 1695 for the British Royal Navy.

Shipbuilding continued at Badger’s Island through the Revolutionary War, when the property was owned by prominent Portsmouth politician John Langdon. Among the vessels built there was the USS Ranger, commissioned in 1777 and commanded by Capt. John Paul Jones, who was in Portsmouth for its construction.

After the Revolution, the Navy recognized the need to have its own shipyard. The government purchased land on Dennett’s Island for $5,500 and opened the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on June 12, 1800. It eventually spread to occupy five islands connected by landfills and collectively known as Seavey Island.

The first vessel completed at the shipyard was the USS Washington, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line. Launched in 1815, it was the biggest warship of its time. 

“That ushered in the age of shipbuilding at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,” Hildreth said.

It wasn’t until the early 1900s that the Navy began developing a submarine force. The first sub built at a U.S. Navy yard was the L-8, completed at PSN in 1917. It was the forerunner of a long line of submarines built in Portsmouth.

The Naval Shipyard was especially prolific during World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, the yard produced more than 70 subs and overhauled dozens of others. In 1944, alone, the yard launched 32 subs, averaging one every 12 days. On Jan. 27 of that year, PSN launched four subs in a single day.

The shipyard remained at the forefront of submarine construction long after the war. In 1953, it launched the USS Albacore, the fastest and most maneuverable sub of its time, and now the center of a museum and park on Market Street.

Portsmouth also lays claim to the Navy’s first nuclear-powered sub, the USS Swordfish, launched in 1957. It predicted another leap in 1960 with the launch of the USS Thresher, the fastest, quietest, deepest-diving sub of its time. However, the Thresher sank during sea trials in 1963, and its entire 129-man crew was lost.

New construction at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard ended following the launch of the USS Sand Lance in 1969. But the yard has continued to operate as a site of submarine overhaul and repair, currently employing about 5,000 people. In 2010, the shipyard welcomed the USS Virginia for the first ever major maintenance availability of a Virginia-class sub. It was delivered on schedule in May.

“That’s the sub for the next 30 to 50 years,” Hildreth said. “The Virginia is the future.”

Submarines aren’t the only big ships that navigate local waters. Cargo ships from around the world, some of them up to 750 feet long, transport a variety of products in and out of the Port of New Hampshire.

The state Legislature established the original Port Authority in 1957 and purchased property for a state-run marine terminal in 1962. Its first pier was established two years later. Today, the Pease Development Authority oversees the port, issuing licenses for certain companies to operate there.

Goods like road salt and machine parts come in, while products like scrap metal and power plant equipment go out. Tall cranes can often be seen lifting cargo along Market Street.

“The port as a whole, we average about 4 million tons of cargo a year,” said Geno Marconi, director of ports and harbors. “Two million of it is liquid bulk, and that includes home heating oil, kerosene and propane, which are essential to the quality of life in this area. And when I say this area, I’m talking a 75-mile radius.”

But the port now must prepare for the next generation of ships, which are bigger than ever. The state dock is 600 feet long, about 150 feet shorter than the largest freighters. And the Piscataqua River’s turning basin allows for a radius of 800 feet, which doesn’t leave much breathing space for a 750-foot vessel. 

“Ships are getting larger,” said Donald Coker, chair of the Port Advisory Council. “It’s getting more and more difficult to make money with small ships because the volume just isn’t there, so the ships are getting larger and larger.”

The Pease Development Authority is working with the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers to expand the port’s capacity by lengthening the pier and dredging the river, but funding for both projects is scarce.

“We’ve got a set of drawings and plans for a pier expansion, but with the economy as it is, we just don’t have the funding to do what we want to do,” Marconi said.

Another problem is the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, which is not wide enough to allow the largest ships to pass through.

“When it was built in 1940, the largest ship to come in through the harbor here was about 550 feet. Today we have tug and barge units coming in that are 550 feet,” Marconi said. “We have been, for the last couple of years, turning ships away because they’re too wide to get through that bridge.”

The ships that do make it into the port are often guided by a pair of tugboats operated by Moran Portsmouth. The red and black workhorses, tied up along Ceres Street, have become iconic local landmarks.

Bob and Natalie Hassold, co-owners of Tugboat Alley on Bow Street, have built a business out of the lure of tugboats. They sell model boats, books, DVDs, clothing and gifts all about tugs, which are used to tow and maneuver larger ships. Up until this year, they also offered cruises on their own tugboat.

“People just love tugs, and many people have always wanted to ride on a tug, so when they found us they were thrilled,” Natalie Hassold said.

The Hassolds have long tried to figure out exactly what makes these vessels so appealing. Maybe it’s nostalgia for stories from the 1930s and ’40s, like “Tugboat Annie,” “Little Toot” and “Scuffy the Tugboat.” Whatever the reason, tugboats seem to be especially popular with women, Hassold said.

“A lot of women are really taken by tugboats. They just find them intriguing and cute,” she said. “They’re cute and yet they’re really powerful. They’re all engine, really, and they get the job done.”

Portsmouth’s tugboats are a symbol of the working waterfront that many locals overlook. But these boats, along with all the others using the river, help draw tourists here from around the nation and world.

“I think everybody that comes to Portsmouth to visit goes down to Ceres Street and looks at the tugboats,” Coker said. “We sit there at the bridge and moan and groan because we’re delayed because the bridge is up. But people who come to visit Portsmouth, they’re fascinated by that. They don’t see ships like that.”

Between tourism and commerce, Portsmouth’s boats and ships are an enormous economic driver, Coker added. And, every time we step aboard a boat and sail into the gateway to the Atlantic, we’re also sailing into history.

“It’s part of our heritage,” Coker said.