Off of the NH and Maine shoreline (Rye/Kittery) is a historically significant group of islands called the Isle of Shoals.
Some of the islands were used for seasonal fishing camps by indigenous Americans in the 16th century and then were first settled by Europeans in the early 17th century. They became an important fishing area for the young British and French colonies.
The Isles of Shoals were named by English explorer Capt. John Smith after sighting them in 1614.
In 1623, the first recorded landfall of an Englishman was that of explorer Captain Christopher Levett, whose 300 fishermen in six ships discovered that the Isles of Shoals were largely abandoned. In his words…”The first place I set my foot upon in New England was the Isle of Shoals, being islands in the sea about two leagues from the main…,” Levett wrote later. “Upon these islands I neither could see one good timber-tree nor so much good ground as to make a garden. The place is found to be a good fishing-place for six ships, but more can not be well there, for want of convenient stage room, as this year’s experience hath proved.”
The first township, Appledore, included all of the Isles of Shoals, and was incorporated by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1661.
At that time, the province of New Hampshire and the province of Maine were both a part of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Starting in 1680 and continuing for several years, there was a general migration of the population to Star Island in New Hampshire. Gosport was fairly prosperous up until about 1778, when the islanders were evacuated to Rye, New Hampshire due to the Revolutionary War.
A small population remained but the islands were largely abandoned until the middle of the 19th century, when Thomas Laighton and Levi Thaxter opened a popular summer hotel on Appledore Island. Laighton’s daughter, Celia, married Levi at the age of fifteen. As Celia Thaxter, she became the most popular American female poet of the 19th century and a patron of the arts.
At her impressive estate with extensive gardens, she hosted an arts community for many years frequented by such luminaries as author Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Impressionist painter, Childe Hassam. It took a Poet and not a Captain to envision and create the impressive Island gardens that stood for many years.
The Islands have been used for various filming such as the movie drama “Weight of Water”, a History Channel episode called “History’s Mysteries” and the recent documentary “Celia Thaxter’s Island Garden”.
Plum Island Kayak offers kayaking day trips to the Islands for both boaters and nonboaters.
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Appledore Island, in Maine, is the largest of the Isles of Shoals, at 95 acres. Formerly it was known as Hog Island, and prior to that as Farm Island. Appledore House was a popular hotel during the 19th century. Built in 1847, the hotel was lost to a fire in 1914. Today, the island is the operating station of the Shoals Marine Laboratory, run cooperatively by Cornell University and the University of New Hampshire. The island is mostly owned by the Star Island Corporation.
Second in size at 46 acres, Star Island is located in New Hampshire within the borders of the town of Rye and is the only island served by a commercial boat from the mainland. It is a religious conference center, owned by the Star Island Corporation, which is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association. During the summer, the island hosts a number of conferences which make use of the Oceanic Hotel, Gosport House, the 150-year-old chapel, and several buildings dating back to the original village. Short-term day visitors are also welcomed, although that may depend on the boat schedule. This is also a popular destination for sailboats wishing to tie up overnight in Gosport harbor.
Smuttynose Island, at 25 acres is the third-largest island. It is known as the site of Blackbeard’s honeymoon, later for the shipwreck of the Spanish ship Sagunto in 1813, and then for the notorious 1873 murders of two young inhabitants. The latter is recalled in the 1997 novel, The Weight of Water, by Anita Shreve (and in the film of the same name). Also in the song, “The Ballad of Louis Wagner” by John Perrault. There are two small houses on the island. One of them, the Samuel Haley house, was once believed to be the oldest structure in the state of Maine.
Malaga Island is a diminutive island just to the west of Smuttynose, connected to it by a breakwater. That breakwater was built around 1820 by Captain Samuel Haley, who is rumored to have paid for its construction with proceeds from bars of pirate silver found under a flat rock on the islands …(!)
Other islands include White Island and Lunging Island on the New Hampshire side of the border and Duck and Cedar Islands on the Maine side. White Island features one of the two lighthouses on the New Hampshire coast. Lunging Island, formerly Londoner’s Island, was the site of an early trading post for codfish. Today, it is privately owned.
Duck Island lies about 1 mile (1.6 km) to the north and once was used as a bombing range for the US Navy. It has been sold by the Star Island Corporation to the Maine Coastal Heritage Trust and is kept as a wildlife sanctuary. Duck is home to a seal colony and has never been inhabited by humans. Cedar is connected by breakwaters to both Smuttynose Island and Star Island and is privately owned.
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Plum Island Kayak Isle of Shoals Trip
Celia Thaxter’s Island Garden documentary