October 31st, 2016 — At the heart of Gloucester, America’s oldest seaport, visitors will find an eight-foot-tall bronze fisherman at the wheel of his ship.
Engraved at the base of the Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial are the names of more than 3,000 residents who were lost at sea and the following words: “They that go down to the sea in ships, 1623-1923.” Twenty-five years ago, one ship in particular gained national fame when it was lost during the “perfect storm” of 1991.
The “storm with no name” claimed the lives of six fishermen and the captain and crew of the Andrea Gail, a disaster that was later chronicled in Sebastian Junger’s bestselling book and a film starring George Clooney.
The storm left a trail of destruction from Nova Scotia to Florida, killing 13 people and causing close to $500 million in damage as it lashed the coast from Oct. 26 through Nov. 1 of that year.
Winds upwards of 70 mph “tossed [boats] like beach toys [in] the surf,” The Boston Globe reported on October 31, 1991. A small Marshfield home was even lifted from its foundation, floating in the water and endangering moored boats.
“At 3 o’clock Wednesday my mother was upset because there was salt water on her lawn,” a Chatham resident told the Globe. “At 6 o’clock there was no lawn and she was worried there’d be no house. Our house escaped by some miracle.”