DUNKIRK, a seaport of northern France (Fr. Dunkerque), capital of an arrondissement in the department of Nord, on the Straits of Dover, 53 m. N.W. of Lille on the Northern railway. Pop. (1931) 31,763. Around a chapel founded by St. Eloi in the 7th century a small village sprang up, and, in the loth century, was fortified by Baldwin III., count of Flanders. In 1658 Tur enne's victory of the Dunes (q.v.) gave it into the hands of the French and it was ceded to Cromwell in return for services of the Ironsides. Charles II. sold it to Louis XIV., who fortified it. By the terms of the peace of Utrecht (1713) the fortifications were demolished and its harbour filled up, a sacrifice demanded by England owing to damage inflicted by Jean Bart and other corsairs of the port. In 1793 it was besieged by the English under Fred erick Augustus, duke of York, who was compelled to retire after the defeat of Hondschoote. It was heavily bombed and much damaged in the war of 1914-18, during which it was, for most of the time, 18 m. behind the allied front. Dunkirk is situated in the low but fertile district of the Wateringues. It lies, amidst a net work of canals, immediately to the west and south of its port, which disputes with Bordeaux the rank of third in importance in France. The populous suburbs of Rosendael and St. Pol-sur-Mer lie respectively to the east and west of the town ; to the north-east is the bathing resort of Malo-les-Bains. The streets of Dunkirk are wide and well paved, the chief of them converging to the square named after Jean Bart (born at Dunkirk in 1651), whose statue by David d'Angers stands at its centre. Close to the Place Jean Bart rises the i6th century belfry (290 ft. high) which contains a fine peal of bells and also serves as a signalling tower. It was once the western tower of the church of St. Eloi, from which it is now separated by a street. St. Eloi, erected about 156o in the Gothic style, was deprived of its first two bays in the 18th century; the present façade dates from 1889. The roof was destroyed in the World War. The chapel of Notre-Dame des Dunes possesses a small image, which is the object of a well-known pilgrimage. The large Chamber of Commerce includes the customs and port serv ices. Dunkirk is the seat of a sub-prefect ; its public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, an exchange, a branch of the Bank of France and a communal college; and it has a school of drawing, architec ture and music, a library and a rich museum of paintings. Dunkirk forms with Bergues, Bourbourg and Gravelines a group of for tresses enclosed by inundations and canals.
The harbour of Dunkirk (see Docx) is approached by a fine natural roadstead entered on the east and west, and protected on the north by sand-banks. From the roadstead, entrance is by a channel into the outer harbour, which communicates with seven floating basins about 115 acres in area and is accessible to the largest vessels. The port is provided with four dry docks and a gridiron, and its quays exceed 5 m. in length. Canals bring it into communication with Belgium, the coal-basins and industrial towns of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, and the rich agricultural regions of Flanders and Artois. The roadstead is indicated by light-ships and the entrance channel to the port by a lighthouse which, at an altitude of 193 ft., is visible at a distance of 19 m.
Dunkirk annually despatches a fleet to the Icelandic cod fisheries, and takes part in the herring and other fisheries. It im ports great quantities of wool from the Argentine and Australia, and is in regular communication with New York, London and the chief ports of the United Kingdom, Brazil and the far East. Besides wool, leading imports are jute, cotton, tow, flax, timber, petroleum, coal, iron ore, pig-iron, pitch, wine, cereals, oil-seeds and oil-cake, nitrate of soda and other chemical products, and metals. The principal exports are sugar, coal, cereals, wool, forage, cement, chalk, phosphates, iron and steel, tools and metal-goods, thread and vegetables. Dunkirk is the third port of France. The industries include the spinning of jute, flax, hemp and cotton, iron founding, and the manufacture of machinery, fishing-nets, sail cloth, sacks, casks and soap. There are also saw- and flour-mills, petroleum refineries and oil-works. Ship-building is carried on and the preparation of fish and cod-liver oil occupies many hands.