Sailboats, Martha's Vineyard

by Brooke T Ryan

Title

Sailboats, Martha's Vineyard

Artist

Brooke T Ryan

Medium

Photograph - Digital Photography

Description

Several sailboats buoyed in the waters off Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, bob in the water in November, 2016. Black and white fine art photograph by Brooke T Ryan.

Henry Franklin Norton wrote a history of the island:
"MARTHA'S VINEYARD, called "Noepe" by the Indians, which means in their picturesque language "In the Midst of the Sea," is the largest island on the southeastern coast of Massachusetts. It is twenty miles long and nine miles wide and but a few feet above the sea level in the eastern part, which is known as the Plains, one of the largest tracts of level ground in New England. However, the land gradually rises to an elevation of over three hundred feet above the sea level at Peaked Hill in Chilmark, not Indian Hill as believed by many summer visitors.

Martha's Vineyard, with Chappaquiddick, No-Man's-Land, and the Elizabeth Islands comprise the County of Dukes County, which was incorporated November 1, 1668. The county was named for the Duke of York by the first governor, Thomas Mayhew, who was hoping thereby to gain royal favor. There are six towns on Martha's Vineyard. Edgartown on the east, named for Edgar, son of James II, who bore the title of Duke of Cambridge; Oak Bluffs on the northeast, named for its location and oak trees; Tisbury for the Mayhew Parish in England; later the village post-office was named Vineyard Haven because of its location; West Tisbury; Chilmark, for the English Parish of Governor Mayhew's wife, and Gay Head on the west, named for its wonderful cliffs of different colored clay.

The first Europeans that visited Martha's Vineyard were the Northmen, who landed about the year 1000, naming it Vineland. In some of their writings have been found descriptions that can be of no other place than Martha's Vineyard.

Another discoverer of this island was Verrazano, an Italian explorer, who first sighted the western extremity in 1524, and called it Claudia, in honor of the mother of Francis II of France.

The next explorer, and the first one to leave any account of the island, was Bartholomew Gosnold, of Falmouth, England. In 1602 he sailed for Virginia. Contrary winds drove him to the Azores; thence he sailed a little north of west, and struck out boldly across the Atlantic. He was the first Englishman to sail directly to the American coast, thereby saving nearly a thousand miles in distance and at least a week in sailing time. He landed on a cape which he named Cape Cod from the abundance of codfish found there. Then doubling the cape and sailing to the southward he landed on a small island about six miles southeast of Gay Head. He called this small island Martha's Vineyard. The next day he landed on the larger island. After exploring it and finding it so large, well wooded, and with such luxuriant grape vines, many beautiful lakes, and springs of the purest water, he transferred the name and called it Martha's Vineyard, in honor of his mother whose name was Martha. The other island he named No-Man's-Land.

Soon after Gosnold explored the group of islands to the northwest of the Vineyard, naming them the Elizabeth Islands in honor of Queen Elizabeth who was still reigning. There are eight islands in this group, named as follows: Naushon, Nonamesset, Uncatena, Wepecket, Nashawena, Pasque, Cuttyhunk, and Penekese. On May 28, 1602, Gosnold founded a colony on Cuttyhunk. Here he built the first house and fort erected in New England, intending to leave a colony there, but when he had loaded a cargo of sassafras root and cedar logs, the settlers were determined to return with him because they were afraid of the Indians

The sassafras root was then in great demand in England as a popular medicine and cure-all. Gosnold counted on getting a great sum for it, but Sir Walter Raleigh accused him of trespassing on his land, which was from north latitude 34 to 45, and seized the whole cargo, much to the disappointment and disgust of the industrious sassafras diggers.

Referring to Gay Head Cliffs in one of his accounts, Gosnold called them Dover Cliffs, because they somewhat reminded him of the white cliffs of the same name in England. He found on Martha's Vineyard "an abundance of trees and vines of luxuriant growth."

His expedition was not a failure because it showed Europe a shorter and more direct route to America and kept up the interest in the new country. The Mayflower followed this route eighteen years later. In 1902 a large monument was erected to Gosnold's memory on Cuttyhunk, where the first fort was built three hundred years before.

About five years later, in 1607, Captain Martin Pring, with a more courageous company than Gosnold's, anchored in what is now Edgartown harbor on Whit Sunday and called it Whitsun Bay. He built a stockade on Chappaquiddick Bluffs which he called Mount Aldworth. Pring traded with the Indians, amused them with music, but enjoyed terrifying them with the sound of the cannon, and with two large mastiffs which he had on board his ship. He sailed away at the first sign of hostility with a cargo of the precious sassafras root. Those who attended the Tercentenary Pageant at Plymouth will remember the scene representing Pring trading with the Indians.

By this time the Vineyard had become known to the English by the Indian name of Capawock, and it seems to have been considered one of the most important places on the newly-discovered American coast. This was of course because of its geographical location, harbors and springs of purest water.

The following noted discoverers and explorers, the Cabots, Champlain, Cartier, and Captain John Smith, must have passed through Vineyard Sound and may have stopped for water at these wonderful springs; especially the one known as "Scotland Spring" at the head of the Lagoon Pond." Copyright 1923 by Henry Franklin Norton and Robert Emmett Pyne, Publishers.

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December 30th, 2016

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