Gloucester, Massachuesetts
August 12, 1925
Memorial To Anniversary Nearly Ready
Proposal to Combine Dedication with Memorial Service to Lost Fishermen
Most Fitting - President Invited
The permanent memorial of the 300th anniversary will be dedicated on Sunday, August 23, as a part of the annual memorial services for lost fishermen.
The unveiling and dedication of "The Fisherman," a bronze statue of a man in oilskins at the wheel, may be attended by the President of the United States. President Calvin Coolidge has been approached on the matter and a picture of the statue and a letter of invitation to unveil it was taken in person this afternoon by Reuben Brooks, secretary of the Gloucester Fishermen's Permanent Memorial Association to the Presidential executive offices in the Security building, Lynn. The matter has been previously taken up by Congressman A. Piatt Andrew and ex-Mayor William J. MacInnis.
Plans for the dedication in connection with the memorial services are going forward. The concrete base has been set. Work on the mound which will cover the foundation and stand three feet above the street level is already underway. A telegram was received yesterday by ex-Mayor MacInnis from The Gorham Company of Providence, stating the statue would be out of their works by August 18, and would be delivered in Gloucester, and erected in time for a dedication on the 23rd.
It is planned to hold the dedication at 3:30 o'clock at the location of the statue on the Western avenue esplanade. Exercises will be brief. It will be unveiled by the President if the invitation is accepted.
The memorial exercises with the address will follow at 4 o'clock and will conclude with the impressive ceremony of strewing garlands of flowers on the ebbing tide as it rushed through the canal into the harbor.
More than unusual interest has been shown this year in the coming services. The tragic loss of sch. Rex which was cut down on Quero bank by the liner Tuscania in June with the loss of 15 lives, has seemingly aroused more interest and sentiment of people not only in the city but elsewhere. The double event of dedicating the statue and holding the memorial services should prove an everlasting tribute of "They that go down to the sea in Ship."
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