Cape Ann maritime history
Lost and never forgottenIn remembrance of the fishermen and mariners of Cape Ann lost at sea, and of the families who waited for them to come home.
About the memorial and its words
The bronze fisherman at the wheel, often called the Man at the Wheel, was designed by the English sculptor Leonard Craske and cast by the Gorham Company of Providence, R.I. It was put up on Stacy Boulevard in 1925 to mark the 300th anniversary of Gloucester's founding in 1623, which is why the base carries the years 1623 and 1923.
The words on the base, "They that go down to the sea in ships," are the opening of a passage in the Bible's Book of Psalms: Psalm 107, verse 23, in the King James Version. The passage describes sailors who make their living on great waters, are caught in a storm, cry out for help and are brought safely to the harbor they hoped to reach. The city's record of the statue says the line captures the spirit of those who have dedicated their lives to the sea.
Sources: City of Gloucester public art collection, Man at the Wheel; Historical Marker Database, Gloucester Fishermen's Memorial.
Remembering the people, vessels and towns of Cape Ann's working waterfront.
Gloucester, Rockport, Essex and Manchester-by-the-Sea have sent people to sea for nearly four centuries. These pages gather what the records say about the ships they built and sailed, the people aboard and the communities that waited for them, with every fact tied to its source and every open question left open.
This month in maritime history
Source: Cape Ann Current. Sources and reuse rules.
Everything in this section
Look things up
Search the archive
Search reviewed vessels, incidents and people by name, town or year, including every name in Gloucester's Lost at Sea register and Manchester's 1895 list.
Lost at sea, year by year
Charts of the names in Gloucester's Lost at Sea register and of vessels lost, by year or by decade, from 1633 to 2009, with a table of every number.
Anniversaries by month
The ships and people lost in each month of the year, across all the years of the register.
By town
Gloucester
Gloucester incidents and stories, anniversaries filtered to Gloucester and the archives that hold the port's records.
Rockport
Rockport incidents, including the 1946 grounding of the Charles S. Haight, and where Rockport's maritime records are kept.
Essex
Essex records and archives. Essex built many of Gloucester's schooners; its shipbuilding records are still being researched.
Manchester-by-the-Sea
Manchester incidents, including the 1892 wreck of the Gallatin, and a searchable copy of the town's 1895 list of people lost at sea.
Stories
Our remembrance stories, listed here as they run in the Cape Ann Current.
- No stories yet.
Ships and the people aboard
One page for each loss or wreck we have researched: what happened, who was aboard, the towns connected to it and the records it comes from.
- Wreck of the revenue cutter Gallatin on Boo Hoo Ledge (Jan. 6, 1892)
- Grounding of the Liberty ship Charles S. Haight on Flat Ground (April 1946)
- Loss of the schooner Joseph F. Allen and her crew of 10 on Western Bank (October 1876)
- Two men lost in a dory from the schooner Joseph F. Allen on Grand Bank (April 18, 1876)
For teachers and researchers
Data and tools
Download our maritime records, the year by year counts and Manchester's 1895 list as JSON, CSV or Excel, or embed our charts and search tools on your own site.
How we research
Where the records come from and how we check them before anything is published.
Corrections and additions
Send a correction, a missing name or a family record. The news desk checks every submission before anything changes.
Free reuse
Our records, charts and lessons are free to reuse with credit. This policy explains how, and what each source's own rules require.