This Ol'Barge
Tied up for 40 years, it once hit all ports.

The building that houses the Black Duck Cafe was once a sea-going refrigeration and ice storage barge that was built around 1840. It also carried food and other supplies along the East and Gulf coasts and may have even made it up the Mississippi River as far as St. Louis.        Barges such as this were loaded with ice, a valuable commodity in the 1800's, in Portland, Boston Gloucester and other northern New England ports in the spring. Traveling up and down the Atlantic coast, they exchanged cargoes along the way.        This particular barge was refurbished in the early 1900s and had been anchored in Westport since 1961. It's 90-foot hull rests atop a 100 foot barge that sank here many years ago when the Saugatuck River was much deeper. The small penthouse on the top deck now the office for the restaurant, was the bargemaster's living quarters. A patch in the roof covers the hole opened for the chimney of his pot-belly stove.        During its 40 years in Westport, the barge had been home to many businesses: among the earliest were a bait shop and dress store. Three other restaurants preceded the Black Duck on the site, probably the most notable being Davy Jones Locker, which operated from 1973-77. Named after a legendary rumrunning boat, the Black Duck Cafe was opened in 1978 and has been going strong ever since.