Thursday, July 9, 2020

Fresh Off the Boat



According to the above monument standing at a spot overlooking the Charles River in Watertown, Massachusetts, a 21-year old Roger Clap found himself here within a day or so of having crossed the Atlantic Ocean aboard the ship, Mary and John.  The ship had left England on March 20, 1630 and arrived at Nantasket on May 30, 1630.  It was the second of 11 shiploads of Puritans crossing the Atlantic Ocean that spring as part of what's referred to as "The Great Migration".  However, instead of being delivered to their expected destination of Charlestown, all of the ship's more than one hundred passengers and all of their earthly belongings were unceremoniously deposited on the shore at Nantasket Point.  Now what? Roger would later write in his memoir:
"When we came to Nantasket, Captain Squeg who was captain of that great ship of four hundred tons would not bring us into Charles River, as he was bound to do; but put us ashore and our goods on Nantasket Point, and left us to shift for our selves in a forlorn place in this wilderness.  But as it pleased God, we got a boat of some old planters, and loaded her with goods; and some able men well armed went in her unto Charlestown; where we found some wigwams and a house, and in the house there was a man which had a boiled bass, but no bread that we see; but we did eat of his bass, and then went up the Charles River until the river grew narrow and shallow, and there we landed our goods with much labor and toil, the bank being steep; and night coming on, we were informed that there were hard by us three hundred Indians.  One Englishman, that could speak the Indian language, (an old Planter) went to them and advised them not to come near us in the night; and they harkened to his counsel, and came not.  I my self was one of the centinels that first night: our Captain was a low country souldier, one Mr. Southcot, a brave soldier.  In the morning, some of the Indians came and stood at a distance off, looking at us, but came not near us.  But when they had been a while in view, some of them came and held out a great bass towards us; so we sent a man with a biscuit, and changed the cake for the bass.  Afterwards they supplied us with a bass for a biscuit-cake and were very friendly unto us.  We had not been there many days, (although by our diligence we had got up a kind of shelter to save our goods in,) but we had order to come away from that place which was about Watertown, unto a place called Mattapan now Dorchester, because there was a neck of land fit to keep our cattle on."

It's really a compelling story...having ten men freshly arrived in a strange land and finding themselves about to spend the night in close proximity to three hundred Native Americans, probably the Pequusset people.  The following morning they conducted one of humanity's most basic arm's-length transactions.  For me, as a fan of history, nothing beats a first-hand narrative.

I had launched into the Charles River at Herter Park yesterday a little before 6 am and headed upriver in hopes of finding the monument marking Roger Clap's Landing.  According to the Historical Marker database some folks mentioned the monument no longer being there.  Trusting the gps coordinates provided on the web site I went ashore, climbed the steep bank, and happily found the monument right where it was supposed to be.  The text extracted from Clap's memoir still clearly tells the tale...
   
As Clap mentioned, his party was ordered to "come away from that place" and just a few days later another group of settlers led by Sir Richard Saltonstall headed up the Charles River from Charlestown.  Saltonstall's group didn't go as far upriver as Clap did and landed near the present-day Mount Auburn Hospital...

They are considered "the founders of Watertown" and their names are memorialized on the Founders Monument sculpted by Henry Hudson Kitson in 1931...
  

This monument was previously unknown to me as well as the fact that the first of my clan to arrive in America is there listed.  In fact I only stumbled upon the monument and Roger Clap's account while chasing down the previous owners of John Tinker's trading post in Lancaster.  Tinker bought the trading post from one of Watertown's founders John Prescott...but I digress.

At any rate Sir Richard gets top billing...
...while the transaction described by Roger Clap is depicted on a bas-relief and still conveys to me a powerful message...

While paddling on this section of the Charles  I encountered numerous solo rowers getting in their early morning workouts gliding up and down the river.  Also encountered was this night heron...
...and this turtle who'd seen plenty of boats before...

The Charles is certainly a different river than it was back in 1630.  Prior to 1910 when the river's outlet to the sea was dammed, it was tidal all the way up to the Watertown Falls...
...whereas these days it's pretty much one endless high tide.  However, it still gets "narrow and shallow" in places just downstream of the falls...

Another landing spot, the "Sensory Garden", is located between the Roger Clap's Landing Monument and the Founders Monument...

It's a safe bet that Clap or Saltonstall didn't encounter plastic litter back in 1630.  Yesterday they would've found this bit...
 
This DCR map has been marked to show the locations mentioned...

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