Gloucester lost at sea, year by year
Yearly, decade and calendar-month counts calculated from the City of Gloucester's Lost at Sea register: names recorded, split into fishing, trading and other, plus the number of named vessels and of vessels the register says were lost with their entire crew.
- Type
- Dataset (downloadable files)
- Towns
- Gloucester
- Topics
- History, Maritime, Remembrance, Fishing
- Geographic coverage
- People and vessels in the City of Gloucester's Lost at Sea register
- Time coverage
- 1633 to 2009, as recorded in the register (PDF dated July 29, 2010)
- Version
- Data release 1.3.0
- Last released
- 2026-10-05
- Expected updates
- When the city publishes a new edition of its register
- Rights
- Counts calculated by Cape Ann Current from facts in a public City of Gloucester record; offered under our Free Access and Attribution Policy. The register's own text and pages are not included.
- Policy
- Cape Ann Current Free Access and Attribution Policy, version 1.0
Preview of the data
First 8 rows of the years table (276 rows in all), first 6 columns.
| year | entries_maritime | fishing | trading | other_or_unknown | not_maritime_excluded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1633 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1635 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 1662 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 1676 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1685 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 1687 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 1690 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 1697 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Download
Single CSV tables
- years.csv (276 rows)
- decades.csv (36 rows)
- months.csv (12 rows)
- month_vessels.csv (2092 rows)
- sources.csv (1 rows)
Each CSV is plain UTF-8 with one header row. Missing values are empty cells. Read README.txt for the fields and NOTICE.txt for credit and source rules; both are in the ZIP.
Stable addresses
- Always the newest release:
https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/gloucester-register-yearly/latest/gloucester-register-yearly.json - Fixed version 1.0.0:
https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/gloucester-register-yearly/1.0.0/gloucester-register-yearly.json - Fixed version 1.1.0:
https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/gloucester-register-yearly/1.1.0/gloucester-register-yearly.json - Fixed version 1.2.0:
https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/gloucester-register-yearly/1.2.0/gloucester-register-yearly.json - Fixed version 1.3.0:
https://capeanncurrent.com/datasets/gloucester-register-yearly/1.3.0/gloucester-register-yearly.json
These are static files. There is no API, key or account. Files are cached for up to an hour; please download once and reuse your copy rather than fetching on every page view.
How to credit
Every public use, including on government websites, must show this credit near the reused material, with a clickable link to this page:
Source: Cape Ann Current. Link: https://capeanncurrent.com/data-tools/gloucester-register-yearly/
If you change it: Adapted from Cape Ann Current. Changes made by [organization name].
A credit only in metadata, code, a tooltip or a site footer does not count. Read the Free Access and Attribution Policy.
Methodology
We counted the register's 6,626 entries by the year printed with each one. Entries the city marks with # (not connected with fishing or the sea) are counted separately and left out of the totals. The fishing and trading split uses the register's own F and T codes, including entries marked with a question mark; everything else is other or unknown. Named vessels counts distinct vessel names in each year, leaving out entries with no vessel or only a type such as dory or small boat. Lost with entire crew counts distinct named vessels with at least one entry whose circumstances say the entire crew was lost. These are our calculations from the register's facts; the register itself is not republished.
Definitions
- entries maritime
- Register entries for that year, not counting # entries. Usually one person per entry; a few entries stand for a group, such as unknown passengers (4).
- fishing
- Entries coded F or F? by the register.
- trading
- Entries coded T, T? or Ts.
- other or unknown
- All other codes, including U (unknown) and blank.
- not maritime excluded
- Entries the city marks with # as not connected with fishing or the sea.
- entries partial date
- Entries whose date gives only a month or a year.
- named vessels
- Distinct vessel names with entries in that year.
- vessels entire crew lost
- Distinct named vessels whose register entries say the entire crew was lost.
- names with month
- In the months table: entries across all years whose recorded date gives a month (entries with only a year are left out).
- heaviest month
- true for the three calendar months with the most names in the register.
- vessels named
- In the months table: distinct named vessels with register entries in that month, counted once per year.
- month vessels
- One row per named vessel, year and month: the vessel as recorded (type suffix removed), the dates as recorded, how many names, whether the register says the entire crew was lost, each person's name as recorded with the city PDF page (separated by |, in the same order), and the register record IDs.
- top years
- In the months table: the three years with the most names in that month, with their counts.
Limitations
- An entry is a name in the register, not a confirmed death count. The city says the register is incomplete, especially for early years and for Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea people.
- The year is the year printed with the entry. For a vessel never heard from, it may be the year she sailed.
- Vessel counts are approximate: a name used by two different vessels in one year counts once, and vessels lost with no entry in the register are missing.
- Other counts differ. The 1882 Fishermen's Own Book, for example, gives 27 Gloucester vessels and 212 men lost in 1876; the register has 213 entries and 46 named vessels for that year, 16 of them recorded as lost with the entire crew.
- The register's date is July 29, 2010, so recent years are incomplete.
Sources and their rules
Our policy and each source's own conditions both apply. Where they differ, the source's conditions govern the source's material. Underlying facts are not owned by anyone; we never claim them.
| Source | Rights and terms | Required source credit | Not covered by our policy | Retrieved / rights reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lost at Sea register (PDF dated July 29, 2010) City of Gloucester, Mass. (compiled by the Gloucester Archives Committee) | public record Site footer: All content (c) 2006-2026 Gloucester, MA. All rights reserved. The PDF carries no separate license. The city says the register is incomplete. Source terms | City of Gloucester, Lost at Sea register | Copies of the city's PDF pages or images. | 2026-10-05 2026-10-05 |
Restricted components
None.
Rights and reuse
Counts calculated by Cape Ann Current from facts in a public City of Gloucester record; offered under our Free Access and Attribution Policy. The register's own text and pages are not included.
Free under our Free Access and Attribution Policy for websites, businesses, news organizations, government agencies, schools, libraries and nonprofits whose website or publication does not run a paywall for news or informational content. School systems that require logins for student privacy qualify.
Report a correction
See an error or have a record that adds to this? Send a correction or email [email protected].