Sebastian Junger’s book \”The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea,\” and the subsequent movie told of the dangerous and sometimes tragic business of fishing the North Atlantic from this picturesque Cape Ann port, northeast of Boston. A bronze statue of a fisherman is dedicated to the many Gloucester fishermen lost at sea.
Founded by English fishermen in 1623, 17 years after French explorer Samuel de Champlain mapped the harbor, the settlement was named for Gloucester, England. It has been a fishing port ever since.
Like many coastal New England towns in the 1700s and 1800s, Gloucester also supported a shipbuilding industry. Today its historic buildings, narrow streets, old wharves, and artists’ colony make it the center of a popular summertime resort area, with the region’s rocky shore noted for whale-watching. Several firms offer whale-watching trips and coastal sightseeing excursions.
The city of 28,700 residents can be reached via Hwy 128 east.
Paintings and drawings by Fitz Hugh Lane and other Cape Ann artists are displayed at Gloucester’s Cape Ann Historical Museum.
Other attractions include Beauport, a 40-room house built between 1907 and 1934 by interior decorator Henry Davis Sleeper, and Hammond Castle Museum, a medieval-style structure built by inventor Dr John Hay Hammond between 1926 and 1929. The twoday Gloucester Waterfront Festival is held in August.
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