HIBB'S COVE
HIBB'S COVE
The economic center of the Port de Grave peninsula fishery in the 60's , Hibb’s Cove today, for the most part have succumbed to the modern advances of an offshore crab fishery and a safe boat basin at Port de Grave harbour. The community begins at the foot of Ship Cove Pond and winds down to the cove, then branches two ways, encompassing Kennedy’s Beach and Lears Cove to the left and Pick Eyes to the right. Common surnames in the cove include Petten, Porter, Dawe, Kennedy, Lear and Bishop. For many years Hibb’s Cove was a photographers delight appearing in books, magazines, calendars and scribblers.
Hibb’s Cove Then and Now
An open cove, once called a hole
Washed for millennia by relentless seas,
Then with the Miss Kennedy swinging
To and fro,
As if a sentinel guarding a corral
Chock full of live things on collars waiting to be released,
straining to work.
Hibbs Cove, adorned by hand-built stages;
A beehive of busy people
Pronging, splitting and salting fish.
Cods heads as if in excess,
Bigger that yours,
Hitting rocks and slipping beneath
The sloshing lops.
A wharf ringed by tomcods, cunners, dabbys, Scummys, splitting tables, blubber barrels
And active women standing in
Piles of guts.
Breakwaters
Now wasted away by unapologetic time, global greed, and progress;
And left in their wake one lone flat.
Charmed by its beauty, American Artist George Noseworthy settled in the cove in the 1960’s and established a fisherman’s museum and an art studio. Later the one room schoolhouse and Porter house was included in the development. Today Hibb’s Cove minus the fishing boats still remains a popular tourist attraction and a great adventure for hikers who can take the lighthouse trail for a delightful day at Green Point lighthouse
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