Saturday, August 12, 2017

Montaup to Chesawanuck

This past Thursday on a perfect summer's morn I launched from the Mount Hope Boat Launch in Bristol, RI and headed south past Montaup (pictured at left).  High tide was approaching and the day's usual southerly breeze was still in the formative stage.  My destination was Hog Island in Narragansett Bay on the other side of Bristol Point.

Once past Montaup the Mount Hope Bridge came into view...

Past the bridge was the pudgy-looking Hog Island Shoal Light...

Just to the north was the low-lying section of Hog Island where I made landfall.  Knowing that I was in the heart of the Wampanoag leader Ousamequin's (aka Massasoit) domain I wondered by what name he knew this small island.  A little online research led me to the Pilgrim Hall Museum site where a 1683 deposition mentions "little island near adjacent unto Mount Hope in the Narragansett Bay formerly called by the Indians Chesawanuck and now by the English Hog Island."  Other spellings for Chesawanuck were found in Native American Place Names of Massachusetts by R.A. Lithgow:  "Chessawamicke", "Chissawonook", and "Chisawamicke".  The island became a bone of contention in the buildup to the conflict known as King Philips War when Ousamequin's son, Metacom (aka King Philip), ferried his pigs out to the island to graze. Problem was his father and older brother had apparently sold the island to a Mr. Richard Smith of Portsmouth, and the town of Portsmouth demanded that Metacom remove the pigs from the island.  The incident is discussed in a 1994 article by Virginia DeJohn Anderson entitled King Philip's Herds:Indians, Colonists, and the Problem of Livestock in Early New England.

A paddle around the island revealed a good number of cottages on the spots with higher ground.   While no hogs were seen the island's north tip was teeming with terns...

Oddly, though the island is located in the mouth of Bristol Harbor, it's actually in a different county, Newport.  Bristol is this close...

Once I finished my circumnavigation I headed for the Mount Hope Bridge with the breeze at my back...

Passing under the bridge brought me close to the Bristol Ferry Light...
...dwarfed by the bridge which rendered the light obsolete.

This view of Montaup welcomed me back to Mount Hope Bay...


My brief stay on Chesawanuck yielded this bit of flotsam from the island's southeast corner...
Amidst the sand, seashells, and seagrass the stuff certainly looked out of place.

Each time I paddle another section of Narragansett Bay I become more impressed with just how much of a boater's paradise it is.
  


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