GLOUCESTER, a city of Essex county, Massachusetts, 28 m. N.E. of Boston, occupying 31 sq.m. on Cape Ann ; a port of entry, a summer resort, and the greatest salt-fishing port of the country. It is served by the Boston and Maine railroad and by steamers to Boston. The resident population was 24,204 in 1930 and is increased by 20,000 in summer. Rock-bound coasts, bald hills, bold and precipitous ledges, acres of boulders, interspersed by small tracts of vegetation, quaint old village streets, houses dating from the i8th and even the 17th centuries and luxurious modern estates, combine to make a picturesque region. Within the city limits are the summer resorts of Magnolia, Annisquam, Bass Rocks and East Gloucester. The assessed valuation of property in 1925 was $33,742,331, of which about 25% represents summer homes. Non-resident tax-payers are listed from every city and 141 towns of Massachusetts, 32 other States, and two foreign countries. On the coast at Magnolia is Rafe's chasm, a fissure 60 ft. deep and 6 to 1 o f t. wide, cut into the rock ledge for a distance of 200 ft.; and near its entrance is the reef of Norman's Woe, celebrated in Longfellow's "Wreck of the Hesperus." The harbour is deep and commodious. Its commerce in 1925 amounted to 91,739 tons, valued at $4,698,968, of which $730,381 repre sented foreign trade. While the aggregate amount of freight received by the city has increased since the World War, the traffic of the port has declined to about Z of its former volume, as part of the coal now comes in by rail, and much of the general merchandise by motor truck. Fishing for cod, mackerel, haddock and halibut is still, as it has been for three centuries, the principal occupation, engaging 5,000 men. In 1925 the catch by Gloucester vessels totalled 150,000,00o lb., of which 8o,000,000 lb. was landed in Gloucester and the rest in other ports. The fishing vessels range from the Capes of Virginia to Greenland and even Iceland, and the length of their trips varies from a few days to three or four months. The curing, boning, and packing of the fish, and the making of glue and other by-products are important subsidiary industries. The beautiful dark granite of the Cape is quarried at several places in Gloucester and the adjoining town of Rockport. This industry, dating from 1823, has furnished stone for government fortifications, the Woolworth Building in New York, and the towers of the Brooklyn bridge. The aggregate product of all the manufacturing industries in 1927 was valued at In 1605 Champlain sailed around the Cape, which he called Cap aux Isles, and in 16o6 he mapped the harbour and named it Le Beau Port. A settlement was made in 1623 by English fishermen sent out by the Dorchester company, and in 1642 the town was incorporated. It was chartered as a city in 1874. During the i8th century and half of the 19th Gloucester had a considerable foreign trade. The fishing industry has had fluctua tions in prosperity; a continuous evolution of methods and types of craft; and a history of daring, fortitude, hardships, heroism, and adventure. In 1923 a monument was erected to the 8,000 men who since 183o have lost their lives in the fisheries.
Gloucester life has been described in many books : Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps-Ward, A Singular Life and Old Maid's Paradise; James B. Connolly, Out of Gloucester (1902), The Deep Sea's Toll (19o5), The Crested Seas (1907), and Gloucester Fishermen (1927).