Instead, he became a master plumber and pipe fitter at local gas and ice plants. ( Clayton Stockbridge Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library and Archives, Gloucester, MA)Īlthough Clayton loved talking and writing about the sea, he did not go to sea because even a short trip in a rowboat made him seasick. Some who knew him believed Kipling was a significant influence in his later writing.Ĭlayton watches a rehearsal of “Gloucester Story” in 1963 at the old East Gloucester Elementary School auditorium. While there, the two men took a photograph of the toddler Clayton in his grandfather’s lap. Kitson stopped at the family homestead in 1897 to purchase model boats made by Clayton’s grandfather.

According to Clayton, Kipling and his friend Mr. He used to tell a story about his meeting with another author who wrote about Gloucester fishermen – Rudyard Kipling ( Jungle Book, Captains Courageous). His home was built from materials from an abandoned warehouse in South America, which an ancestor had obtained on a voyage.Ĭlayton spent much of his spare time, as both a child and an adult, on the waterfront listening to stories that would later be incorporated into his writing. He was born in Gloucester on Jand lived in the city at 251 East Main Street his entire life except during World War I when he served in the Army Air Force. It was built by an ancestor from an old warehouse brought back from a voyage to South Africa.

Clayton Stockbridge lived his entire life at 251 East Main St.

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling