The Isles of Shoals: History

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The Isles of ShoalsHistory Photographs

• Jennifer Kennedy
• Director, Blue Ocean Society for Marine
  Conservation
• Portsmouth, NH

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The Isles of Shoals-Introduction

• Nine barren, windswept islands
• Site of one of the first settlements in America
• One of the richest fishing commercial ports in
  the new world
• Host to a popular Victorian summer resort
• Haven to some of the most famous pirates in
  history
• Scene of several shipwrecks and cold-blooded
  murder

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The Basics

• 9 Islands (8 at low tide, 9 at high). With rocks
  and ledges, total 18.
• 6 miles off the coast of Rye, NH
• Split between ME (5) and NH (4) by a dividing
  line drawn by Mason Gorges in 1635
• Entire land area is about 205 acres

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1873, John Scribner Jenness, Riverside Press.
www.seacoastNH.com
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Why Isles of Shoals?

• Ledges?
• Schools of fish?

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Early History - Discovery

• Explored by Vikings Leif and Thor Ericson in 1000
  and 1002
• In 1603, Martin Pring stopped in the Piscataqua
  River and noted the Shoals in his log
• In the mid-1500s-early 1600s, there were
  already European fishing boats anchored in
  Gosport Harbor at the Shoals
• Charted by Samuel Champlain in 1605

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Early History Capt. John Smith

• Isles were explored by Captain John Smith in July
  1614.
• Charted the coastline, giving it the name New
  England, the first time that term was used.
• Named the islands Smiths Isles
• Smiths voyage said to have turned the tide of
  English migration to these shores
• After his summer exploration, made sail from
  England 4 separate times, but was deterred by
  storms and never made it back to his Isles.
  Buried in 1631 in London at the age of 54.

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Smiths Chart of New England
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Early History Rise of the Fishing Industry

• Original fishermen settled on Appledore (Hog)
  Island, part of the Mass. Bay Colony
• In 1679-1680, 40 families moved to Star Island to
  avoid taxation
• In 1715, Star Island was given the name Gosport
  after a small town near Portsmouth, England

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Early History Fishing Industry

• Estimated 600-1000 fishermen and their families
  lived on the Shoals year-round
• Reputation as a hard-drinking, godless, lawless
  people, who resisted any attempts to tax, govern
  or redeem them
• Dunfish was highly prized and commanded 4x the
  market price
• Important trade port as many as 100 ships were
  anchored in Gosport at one time

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Making Dunfish
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Early History Pirates Ghosts

• Celia Thaxter wrote the Isles were infested by
  pirates
• Famous pirates included
• Capt. Quelch
• Dixie Bull
• Sam Black Bellamy (Captain of the Whydah)
• William Kidd
• andy Gordon (the Scott), and
• Blackbeard
• John Quelch supposedly buried 100K at the Shoals
  and 275K worth of treasure.

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Lady Ghost of the Shoals

• Lady Ghost of the Shoals wife of Blackbeard
  or pirate Scot?
• The Scot, wife Martha, Blackbeard and his fiancée
  dropped anchor at the Shoals
• Marriage celebration lasted for days
• Gordons set up on White Seavey, Teachs on
  Smuttynose
• Treasure and ghost still on Lunging Island...?

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Ghost of Phillip Babb

• Lived on Appledore in 1600s
• A butcher and constable. Dug a hole and found a
  large treasure chest, but smoke sulfur came out
  when he tried to lift it.
• Ghost seen at Babbs Cove wearing a butcher
  apron and carrying a large knife to guard the
  treasure.
• Celia Thaxter He is supposed to have been so
  desperately wicked when alive that there is no
  rest for him in his grave. His dress is coarse, a
  striped butcher's frock, with a leather belt, to
  which is attached a sheath containing a ghostly
  knife, sharp and glittering, which is his delight
  to brandish in the face of terrified humanity."

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Early History Grand Hotel Era

• Thomas Laighton purchased Hog, Smuttynose, Malaga
  and Cedar Islands with a partner in 1839 and
  accepted a position as lighthouse keeper at White
  Island Light
• Wife Eliza opened the Mid-Ocean House on
  Smuttynose while her husband was in the NH
  legislature

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Grand Hotel Era

• The Mid-Ocean House was such a success that the
  Laightons opened the Appledore Hotel in 1848
• One of the largest Victorian hotels on the NE
  coast
• Could accommodate 500 guests
• Had a bowling alley, a swimming beach and a new
  dock
• Eliza was said to be the secret to the success
• Laighton brothers took the hotel over as their
  parents grew older

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Appledore Hotel
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Celia Laighton Thaxter

• Married her fathers business partner in 1851 at
  the age of 16
• One of the most noted literary figures of the
  Shoals
• Poems included Landlocked and Sandpiper
• Also known for her gardens
• Held salons and entertained figures such as
  Childe Hassam, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pres.
  Franklin Pierce, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

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The Oceanic Hotel

• Built by John Poor in 1873, burned down in 1875
  and rebuilt from 2 existing structures
• Bought by the Laightons, who ran both hotels
  until the Appledore Hotel burned in 1914

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History Conference Era

• Conference era born in the 1890s when Thomas
  Elliot and his wife Lilla visited the Isles
  instead of attending a Unitarian conference in
  Weirs Beach
• First conference held in 1897, both hotels filled
• Hotel island purchased in 1916 by the Star
  Island Corporation (made up of Unitarian
  Universalist United Church of Christ) for
  16,000.
• Conferences on all topics still being held today.

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Island By Island - Duck

• Used to have old fishing shack, said to be
  haunted
• Used as a bombing target in WWII
• Now a wildlife refuge to allow island to go back
  to natural state
• Home to colony of harbor seals, eider ducks,
  cormorants and gulls

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Island by Island - Appledore

• Shoals Marine Laboratory founded by Dr. John M.
  Kingsbury of Cornell, 1967
• Over 20 credit courses for undergraduates, plus
  adult continuing-ed courses
• Celia Thaxters Garden

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Island by Island - Smuttynose Malaga

• Smuttynose got its name from a stone profile
• Mid-Ocean House of Entertainment built and run
  by Samuel Haley in late 1700s, later run by
  Laightons
• Haley Cottage one of the oldest structures in ME
• Haley found buried treasure built breakwater
  between Malaga Smutty
• Owned by Celias great-granddaughter

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Island by Island Smuttynose Malaga

• Haley family built a grist mill, salt works,
  bakehouse, blacksmith cooper shops, and a
  cherry orchard
• Kept a lighted candle in window as a beacon to
  sailors in Jan. 1813 the Sagunto was driven
  ashore, 14 sailors tried to make it to shore

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Smuttynose Murders

• March 5, 1873
• Fishing business on Smuttynose Hontvent
  Christiansen family
• Karen Anethe Christiansen murdered
• Subject of The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve
• House burned in 1885

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Island by Island Cedar

• Southernmost island on the coast of ME
• Named for 4 shrubby old cedars seen by Capt.
  Smith
• Foyes Halls operated a lobster fishing business
  for 7 generations

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Island by Island Star

• Home to the Star Island Conference Center
• Approx. 270 guests/week, 100 staff
• Water/mail ferried out, power is by generators

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Island by Island Star
Star in the 1860s
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Island by Island Star
Star Island Chapel
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Island by Island Star
Tucke Monument
Vaughn Cottage
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Island by Island Star
Caswell Cemetery Oceanic Hotel
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Island by Island - Lunging

• Originally fishing base of the London Trading
  Company
• House built in late 1800s by Thomas Leehee,
  doubled by Oscar Laighton
• Now owned by the Randall family
• Did Blackbeard bury treasure there in 1718?

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Island by Island - Lunging
The Honeymoon Cottage
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Island by Island - Lunging

• Note in the kitchen from Oscar Laighton
• Welcome to anyone entering this house in
  shipwreck or trouble. Start a fire...and make
  yourself comfortable...Beds are made up in the
  chambers. Help will reach you from the other
  islands the moment it is possible

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Island by Island White Seavey

• White Island First lighthouse built in 1820, new
  tower built in 1859 and finished in 1865

1888
Present
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The Lighthouse Kids the Crack in White Island
Light
Visit www.LighthouseKids.com
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Island by Island White Seavey

• Seavey Island is home to a tern restoration
  project, sponsored by
• NH Audubon Society
• NH Fish Game
• Dept. of Resources Economic Development
• NH Coastal Program

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Get to the Isles

• Isles of Shoals Steamship Company
• Public island tours from May-September
• www.islesofshoals.com
• Star Island Corporation
• www.starisland.org
• Shoals Marine Lab
• www.sml.cornell.edu

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References Shoals Reads

• Among the Isles of Shoals, Celia Thaxter
• An Island Garden, Celia Thaxter
• Gosport Remembered, Peter Randall Maryellen
  Burke
• Here's How We'll Do It An Informal History of
  the Construction of the Shoals Marine Laboratory,
  John M. Kingsbury
• Isles of Shoals in Lore and Legend, Lyman V.
  Rutledge
• Land of Lost Content, Robert H. Whittaker
• Moonlight Murder at Smuttynose, Lyman V. Rutledge
  
• Ninety Years at the Isles of Shoals, Oscar
  Laighton
• Sprays of Salt Reminisces of a Native Shoaler,
  John W. Downs
• Ten Miles Out, Lyman V. Rutledge

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Thank You!