Plymouth Harbor

“ The character of Plymouth’s industrial life has entirely changed within a half century. Within the memory of men now living, the time was when the town boasted a fleet of seventy-five fishermen, and enjoyed prestige as a fishing port. In common with other seaport towns of New England, this industry has departed, but thriving manufactories have risen in its place and coal barges and steamships are doing business at the port, superseding the old fishing schooners which once crowded the wharves or whitened the harbor with their sails. ”

“ Plymouth harbor is a quiet place by moonlight, and Burial Hill is a very quiet place. Yet it gave us the most direct message we had—of spacious thought dramatized in narrow setting, of definite achievement with inadequate equipment, of the resourceful valiance of those early people, and of what Governor Bradford calls "their great patience and allacritie of spirit" in the face of life, and death. ”

“ As they break along the shore.”
The introduction of visitors to Plymouth as they come by rail, is at Seaside, a station in the extreme north part of the town, at the dividing line between Kingston and Plymouth. As the cars slow up passengers see the beautiful panorama of Plymouth Harbor spread out before their eyes. At the near left, across the bay appears Captain’s Hill, so called from its being the home of Capt. Myles Standish, and on its crest is a monument in honor of the Pilgrim warrior, surmounted by his statue fourteen feet in height. ”

“ It begins to snow and rain and the wind to blow and the seas to rise. Now the hinge of the rudder breaks, and oars are got out to steer with. Master Coppin, the pilot, bids them to be of good cheer, for he sees the harbor which he had promised them.
THE MAYFLOWER IN PLYMOUTH HARBOR.
Across the bay they drive, keeping on a press of sail to make the desired harbor before nightfall when crash goes the mast, broken into three pieces, and the shallop is near being wrecked. ”

“ Just within the toe of the boot is Clark's Island, named from the master's mate of the Mayflower; then comes Captain's Hill, making, with the beach, Duxbury Harbor; and in the farthest reach of the bay to the westward is Kingston, where a little water-course, called after the master of the Mayflower, [175] makes up into the land. In the southern board Cape Cod is seen on a clear day far out at sea; a mere shining streak of white sand it appears at this distance.
Plymouth harbor proper is formed by a long sand-spit parallel with the shore, that serves as a breakwater for the shallow roadstead. ”

“ Plymouth has a little land-locked harbor behind a long and narrow sand beach, projected northward from the ridge of Manomet below, this beach acting as a protective breakwater to the wharves. The harbor is so shallow, however, that there is little trade by sea. The town spreads upon the bluff shores, and on a plateau to the hills in the rear. There is now a population of about nine thousand, engaged mainly in manufacturing cordage and textiles, and having a considerable fishery fleet. ”

“ After a week of anxious waiting their return must have been hailed with delight on board the Mayflower, and their good tidings warmly welcomed. As with all sails set the good ship made her way into the harbor, eager eyes doubtless watched with joy the high hills of Manomet, the wooded bluffs, the shining, protecting beaches, the fair island, the low friendly stretch of the mainland sloping back to the picturesque hillsides, which make Plymouth harbor at all times and seasons a goodly sight to look upon. And here at length lay safely at anchor the
“ ... ”

“ Weather fair. Good working weather all the week, but many sick. Fetched wood and water. SUNDAY, Jan. 28/Feb. 7 At anchorage, Plymouth harbor. Seventh Sunday in this harbor. Meeting kept on shore. Those of Planters on board who were able, and some of the ship’s company, went ashore, and came off after service. MONDAY, Jan. 29/Feb. 8 At anchor, Plymouth harbor. Morning cold, with frost and sleet, but after reason ably fair. Both long-boat and shallop carrying Planters’ goods on shore. Those returning reported that Mistress Rose Standish, wife of Captain Standish, died to-day. ”

“ WEDNESDAY, Jan. 3/Jan. 13 At anchor in harbor. Working-party aland, returned at night. They report seeing great fires of the Indians. Smoke seen from the ship. Have seen no savages since arrival. THURSDAY, Jan. 4/Jan. 14 At anchor in Plymouth harbor. Captain Standish, with four or five men, went to look for savages, and though they found some of their old houses “wigwams” could not meet with any of them. FRIDAY, Jan. 5/Jan. 15 At anchor in Plymouth harbor. Working- party went aland early. One of the sailors found a live herring upon the shore, which the Master had to his supper. ”

“ We saw the smoke of the fire which the savages made that night, about four or five miles from us.
In the morning we divided our company, some eight in the shallop, and the rest on the shore went to discover this place, but we found it only to be a bay, without either river or creek coming into it. Yet we deemed it to be as good a harbor as Cape Cod, for they that sounded it found a ship might ride in five fathom water. We on the land found it to be a level soil, though none of the fruitfullest. ”

“ Although the Pilgrims were the first Europeans to establish a permanent colony in northeastern North America, they did not come to an unknown land. As early as 1605, Samuel de Champlain had mapped Plymouth Harbor, in the course of a three-year expedition during which he explored the coast from Nova Scotia to Martha’s Vineyard. The quality of his detailed and accurate observations on the land and people appears in this map, and in his notes on the visit: “There came to us two or three canoes, which had just been fishing for cod and other fish which are found there in large numbers. ”

“ The Tamar broadens into the Hamoaze, which is the naval harbor, and is four miles long, with sufficient anchorage-ground for the entire British navy. Sutton Pool is a tidal harbor now used by merchant-vessels. The coasts of Plymouth Sound are rocky and abrupt, and strong fortresses frown at every entrance. It is the naval dockyard that gives Plymouth its chief importance: this is at Devonport, which is strongly fortified by breastworks, ditches, embankments, and heavy batteries. The great dockyard encloses an area of ninety-six acres and has thirty-five hundred feet of water-frontage. ”

“ We have, from the easterly brow of Burial Hill, a beautiful picture of the harbor and its surroundings. Below us the ground slopes to the water, cut into terrace below terrace, with the buildings upon them. At its foot are the wharves and harbor, and below it the Beach near which the “Mayflower” swung at her anchors. Manomet is the range of misty blue hills stretching into the bay on the right. Kingston and Duxbury, with Captain’s Hill are on the left, and far out Clark’s Island, Saquish, and the Gurnet, with the thin, sandy strip of beach joining the latter headlands. ”

“ Ascending the British Channel, we soon made the spacious harbor of Plymouth, where we came to an anchor. One of our convoy, however, by some unskilful management, ran ashore at the mouth of the harbor, where she went to pieces.
We found Plymouth to be a naval station of considerable importance, well fortified, possessing extensive barracks for the accommodation of the military, and having a magnificent dock-yard, abundantly supplied with the means of building and refitting the wooden walls. ”

“ For the earliest act of the heroes
Whose fame has a world-wide sway
Was—to fashion a crane for a kettle,
And order a washing-day!
Margaret Junkin Preston.
A shallop which the Pilgrims had brought with them in the Mayflower was put together, and in it a party explored the neighboring shores, in search of a suitable place for the settlement. They finally selected Plymouth Harbor, and on Monday, December 21 (O. S. 11) , they "marched into the land and found divers corn-fields and little running brooks,—a place (as they supposed) fit for situation; at least it was the best they could find." ”

“ It is estimated that over one hundred thousand visitors come to Plymouth annually. They all go to see the Rock; most of them clamber up to the quaint Burial Hill and read a few of the oldest inscriptions; they glance at the National Monument to the forefathers, bearing the largest granite figure in the world, [Pg 192] and they take a turn through Pilgrim Hall. But there is one place they often forget to see, and that is the harbor itself.
We began our tour through Plymouth through the eyes of a Pilgrim man and maid watching the departing Mayflower. ”

“ This harbor is a bay greater than Cape Cod, compassed with a goodly land, and in the bay, two fine islands uninhabited, wherein are nothing but wood, oaks, pines, walnuts, beech, sassafras, vines, and other trees which we know 39 not. This bay is a most hopeful place, innumerable store of fowl, and excellent good, and cannot but be of fish in their seasons; skote, [50] cod, turbot, and herring, we have tasted of, abundance of mussels the greatest and best that ever we saw; crabs and lobsters, in their time infinite. It is in fashion like a sickle or fish-hook. ”

“ The harbor is lighted at evening by twin lights on the Gurnet, and by a single one off Plymouth Beach. The latter is a caisson of iron rooted to the rock by a filling of concrete, and is washed on all sides by the waters of the harbor.
Sand is everywhere; the "stern and rock-bound coast" of Mrs. Hemans nowhere. Except one little cluster by the northern shore of the harbor, the Forefathers' is the only rock on which those pious men could have landed [Pg 270] with dry feet. A few boulders, noticeably infrequent, are scattered along the beach as you approach from Kingston. ”

“ Plymouth extends over a territory about eighteen miles long, and from five to nine miles wide, and beyond the settled parts of the town is a succession of wooded hills. This large tract is interspersed with hundreds of large and small ponds (or lakes) stocked with fish, furnishing limitless fields for the lover of nature or seeker of pleasure, in walking, riding, fishing, or hunting. Wealthy residents of other places have fine summer seats at the town overlooking the harbor and bay. ”

“ It was given the name of “Jones River” in compliment to the Master of the ship. A bark of thirty tons may go up at high tide, but the shallop could scarcely pass at low water. All came aboard at night with resolution to fix, to-morrow, which of the several places examined they would settle upon. WEDNESDAY, Dec. 20/30 At anchor, Plymouth harbor, many ill. Dec. After service the colonists decided to go ashore this morning and determine upon one of two places which were thought most fitting for their habitation. ”

“ Later trips being equally unsuccessful, the emigrants re-embarked, and the Mayflower was taken a little further up the western coast of Cape Cod, whence excursions were made to different points in an open boat by a few sturdy explorers, who landed on Clark’s Island—so called after the first man to step on its shores—and finally, on the 11th December, crossed the modern harbor of Plymouth, and landed on or near the rock which has since been revered as the sacred “corner-stone of a nation,” the “altar and bulwark of religion and liberty.” ”

“ It is greenish syenite, very hard, and bears high polish when its fragments are worked for various purposes.
36 The Landing
Let us picture to ourselves the scene on that Monday morning, when, after the rest on Clark’s Island they came in their shallop to inspect the new country that they had providentially found. The wharves and buildings and every trace of civilization vanish. All is wild and unknown. Across the harbor comes the boat and every eye anxiously and keenly scanning the strange shore to discover the presence of human beings, who will be sure to be enemies. ”

“ As a summer resort for health and pleasure, Plymouth has great attractions. Plymouth and the adjoining towns of Kingston and Duxbury nearly encircle a harbor of almost unrivalled beauty, a source of endless pleasure to the summer 81 visitor. There are good sand beaches for surf and smooth-water sea bathing, bath houses being provided by the town. In the bay are opportunities for fine sport in the mackerel season, and a haul of sea-perch, tautog, cod or haddock is always to be had. ”

“ The shallop is steered to its side; the company steps upon the Rock, and the Landing of the Forefathers, now so reverently commemorated, is completed. Look along the shore at this day, north or south, and you may see cliffs as 37 Cole’s Hill was then, with the mouth of Town Brook near by the Rock, which later made a safe little harbor for their boats in the rear of the dwellings which they erected on the south side of Leyden Street. ”

“ As first, that there was a convenient harbor for boats, 30 though not for ships. Secondly, good corn-ground ready to our hands, as we saw by experience in the goodly corn it yielded, which would again agree with the ground, and be natural seed for the same. Thirdly, Cape Cod was like to be a place of good fishing, for we saw daily great whales of the best kind for oil and bone, come close aboard our ship, and in fair weather swim and play about us. ”

“ The brig Hope was the next Plymouth vessel to “run the embargo.” She belonged to William Holmes of this town, and loaded a cargo of dry fish at Provincetown, where she was seized by the customs officers of that port, and anchored in the harbor, with a revenue cutter commanded by Capt. Thomas Nicolson of Plymouth lying near at hand to prevent her from going to sea. Under these circumstances her owner [Pg 83] induced Capt. Samuel Doten, who had “assisted” in the Hannah adventure, to become the principal in “cutting out” the Hope from under the guns of the revenue vessel. ”