* EASTERN * POINT * LIGHTHOUSE *

Gloucester, Massachusetts

Fisherman on jetty at Eastern Pt Lighthouse, incoming tide, stiff breeze

At the entrance to Gloucester Harbor, the brick tower of Eastern Point Lighthouse crouches atop time-worn red cliffs. A breakwater of massive blocks of the local granite protects the inner harbor from ravaging Nor’easter storms, and in fair weather serves as an unsinkable platform for sport fishermen.

Now in decline as a port, Gloucester was the world’s biggest fishing port around the turn of the century, when it was home port to more than 100 graceful two-masted schooners -- a period immortalized in Rudyard Kipling's novel Captains Courageous. To this day canneries, frozen food plants, and boat yards jostle one another around the vast harbor, located on Route 128 about 30 miles north of Boston. A trip to Gloucester and the surrounding peninsula, Cape Ann, provides the visitor with an unforgettable whiff of maritime atmosphere.