650-RICR-20-05-4
650-RICR-20-05-4. RICRMP: Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4 - Cultural and Historic Resources (version Technical Revision, 03/08/2012 to 08/17/2018)
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Chapter 4: Cultural and Historic Resources
Table of Contents
400
Introduction ......................................................................................................................3
410
Historic Contexts and Cultural Landscapes of the Ocean SAMP Area .......................4
410.1 Pre-Contact Geological History............................................................................5
410.2 Narragansett Tribal History.................................................................................6
410.3 European Exploration and Colonial Settlement Landscape Context.............16
410.4 Post-Colonial Cultural Landscape Context.......................................................18
410.5 Military Landscape Context ...............................................................................20
410.6 Fisheries Landscape Context ..............................................................................30
410.6.1 Rhode Island Fisheries ..........................................................................30
410.6.2 Fishing and Subsistence on Block Island.............................................32
410.6.3 Historic Shipwrecks of Fishing Vessels................................................33
410.6.4 Historic Harbor Features......................................................................34
410.7 Marine Transportation and Commercial Landscape Context........................34
410.8 Recreation and Tourism Landscape Context....................................................37
410.9 Energy Landscape Context.................................................................................38
420
Submerged Archaeological Sites in the Ocean SAMP Area........................................46
420.1 Potential and Known Marine Archaeology Sites..............................................46
420.2 Spatial and Temporal Distribution Patterns.....................................................48
420.3 Submerged Telecommunications Cables & Corridors.....................................56
420.4 Paleo-Geographic Landscape Reconstruction ..................................................58
430
Onshore Historic Sites Adjacent to the Ocean SAMP Area ........................................65
430.1 Properties Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.........................66
430.2 Selected National Register Candidate Properties.............................................68
430.3 Block Island Sites Eligible for the National Register........................................69
440
Policies and Standards.....................................................................................................81
440.1 Marine Archaeology Assessment Standards .....................................................82
440.2 Visual Impact Assessment Standards ................................................................82
450
Literature Cited ...............................................................................................................84
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List of Figures
Figure 4.1. Tidewater shipments of bituminous coal, 1929...........................................................41
Figure 4.2. Potential historic shipwreck locations.........................................................................49
Figure 4.3. Temporal distribution of shipwrecks in the Ocean SAMP area..................................50
Figure 4.4. Illustration of West Passage Transgressive Stratigraphies..........................................59
Figure 4.5. Graph of eustatic sea level rise caused by melting glacier ice ....................................60
Figure 4.6. Sea level rise of Ocean SAMP area, 11,500 yBP........................................................61
Figure 4.7. Sea level rise of Ocean SAMP area, 11,000 yBP........................................................62
Figure 4.8. Sea level rise of Ocean SAMP area, 10,000 yBP........................................................63
List of Tables
Table 4.1. Warfare and the Ocean SAMP area, conflicts 1634-1975............................................21
Table 4.2. Submerged cultural resources associated with the military landscape.........................29
Table 4.3. Known shipwrecks in the Ocean SAMP area...............................................................51
Table 4.4. Selected properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the ocean
coastal zone, Little Compton - Westerly........................................................................................66
Table 4.5. Selected National Register Candidate Properties in the ocean coastal zone, Little
Compton – Westerly ......................................................................................................................68
Table 4.6. Structures and sites from 1680-1948 on Block Island, Town of New Shoreham,
considered eligible for the National Register or contributing to the historic character of the island
........................................................................................................................................................69
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Section 400. Introduction
1. In Rhode Island, historical uses of the ocean and its resources have resulted in a rich and
diverse array of cultural resources underwater and in the coastal zone. These resources
provide cultural, educational, recreational, environmental, and economic services that
humans want and need. The significance, sensitivity, and non-renewable nature of
cultural and historic resources and the special services they provide make them a
challenging and important aspect of the Ocean SAMP process.
2. Through maintenance of oral traditions and unbroken cultural practices, indigenous
people in Rhode Island have retained an active cultural connection to parts of the Ocean
SAMP study area and adjacent coastal places for thousands of years. Located at one of
the historic maritime crossroads of New England and what was becoming known as the
“New World,” the study area has seen five centuries of increasingly intensive uses
beginning with the arrival of Europeans in North America. Today commercial fishing,
recreation, and transportation are among the principal activities.
3. Whether characterized by historians, archaeologists, or cultural practitioners as districts,
sites, buildings, objects, or landscapes, cultural resources reflect thousands of years of
human use of the Rhode Island marine environment. Submerged pre-contact tribal
landscapes and historic shipwrecks, two of the most significant marine categories, have
no direct parallels on land and yet have the greatest potential to add substantially to
understanding Rhode Island’s past. These resources also contain ecological as well as
cultural and historical information, and many are integrated into marine ecosystems as
structures or as parts of the ocean floor environment. Submerged archaeological sites and
landscapes are non- renewable—once gone they cannot be restored.
4. While the Ocean SAMP addresses the offshore environment, and generally does not
include the adjacent coastal areas, this chapter includes both submerged cultural and
historic resources within the study boundary as well as an inventory of onshore cultural
and historic resources within view of the study area. The viewsheds from onshore
properties with cultural, historical, or tribal significance have a relationship with the
Ocean SAMP study area and visual impacts to these properties must be considered.
5. The documentation of cultural and historic resources in this chapter represents
information compiled at the time of the Ocean SAMP’s completion and should be used as
a reference point for activities. Because of its far-reaching nature, efforts have been made
to include a great deal of detailed information, rather than to risk missing potential
impacts or issues by cutting it down too significantly. This chapter is deliberately
structured to facilitate the incorporation of additional knowledge, new information,
discoveries, and identification of culturally or historically significant landscapes, sites, or
structures. Coordination and consultation with the relevant state, federal, and tribal
contacts/agencies will be necessary.
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Section 410. Historic Contexts and Cultural Landscapes of the Ocean SAMP Area
1. For thousands of years, people have lived along the coast of Rhode Island and ventured
on its waters. From the time the shoreline as we know it today stabilized around 7,500
years ago, the ancestors of today’s Narragansett Indian Tribe established large
settlements along the coastline of Narragansett Bay, around the salt ponds of the south
shore of the mainland and on Block Island. Native American archaeological sites are
located in the vicinity of the coast, and maritime resources played an important role in the
lives of native people (RIHPHC 2002).
2. The Native Americans were followed by European colonists, who were attracted to and
found plentiful natural resources in coastal areas, much in the way that today, worldwide,
more and more people are moving into the coastal region within 50 miles of where the
land and water meet. Social, economic and military activities and their associated
infrastructure have left their mark on the Ocean SAMP region, and continue to bring
additional developmental pressures year by year.
3. The following sections describe the known and potential cultural resources of the study
area in terms of the specific historic contexts in which the resources were created. These
contexts are defined by chronological period, by historical theme and by geographical
area. In recognition of the extent to which human activities in the study area have been
shaped by particular aspects of its geography, a number of these contexts, both marine
and land-based, are described as “cultural landscape contexts.” The use of cultural
landscape contexts also recognizes that different cultures or user groups may interpret
history and value places in different but equally valid ways.
4. Rhode Island has a long and valued tradition of studying and preserving historical and
cultural heritage on land. The Ocean SAMP represents the first comprehensive effort to
study the state’s underwater and maritime cultural heritage outside of Narragansett Bay.
Consequently, the contexts for maritime heritage offer more detail than the terrestrial
contexts. (A fuller account of land-based resources can be found in the Rhode Island
Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission’s published survey reports for each of
the individual towns.) The maritime contexts, which describe a new frontier for historic
preservation in Rhode Island, vary significantly in their depth and detail. These
differences represent the current state of knowledge about cultural heritage resources in
the Ocean SAMP area. They identify gaps in survey coverage, historical knowledge, and
cultural perspectives that researchers and prospective developers will need to address in
the future. As knowledge and data relating to the Ocean SAMP continue to grow, the
CRMC will update these landscape contexts, or include new ones if required.
5. Only those aspects of Rhode Island history that influenced the Ocean SAMP area in
major ways are covered in this analysis of cultural resources. Should significant new
themes or cultural perspectives emerge in the future, new landscape contexts may be
added to the Ocean SAMP document in future revisions.
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410.1. Pre-Contact Geological History
1. During the last major advance of continental glaciers in North America, known as the
Wisconsinan Glaciation, or Wisconsin Glacial Episode, much of northern North America
was covered with ice (the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets). Around 24-26,000
years ago, when the ice reached it final southward maximum, the edge of the Laurentide
glacier was located about three miles south of Block Island in the Ocean SAMP area. The
margin of Laurentide ice extended westward across northern Long Island to northern
New Jersey and then to the Midwest. The margin extended eastward to Martha’s
Vineyard and Nantucket and then to Georges Bank. Because of the vast quantity of water
frozen in the glacial ice, the sea level at that time was approximately 120-130 meters
lower than it is at present (RIHPHC 2002).
2. A tundra landscape, cold but habitable, would have extended to approximately the edge
of the Continental Shelf. As the glacier retreated, the meltwater caused sea levels to rise,
inundating this formerly dry land. During the glacial melting, freshwater lakes dammed
by ice and/or glacial deposits were formed, including a large lake in what is now Block
Island Sound. The glacial lakes in Block Island and Rhode Island Sounds had probably
drained by 15,500 years ago, and perhaps earlier, when the rebound of the land began due
to the land being uplifted because of the release of the weight from the overlying glacial
ice (RIHPHC 2002).
3. It is possible that the ancestors of today’s Native American tribes were living in this
landscape, although no direct evidence for submerged terrestrial sites has been found in
the northeast to date. The oldest known sites in North America date back to before
13,500 years ago—when the glaciers had already pulled back from what is now Rhode
Island, but before sea levels had risen to their modern level. The oldest artifacts found in
Rhode Island are several thousand years more recent. These sites and artifacts, however,
are simply what has survived and what has been found—there may well be older sites,
submerged by the glacier meltwater, located offshore (RIHPHC 2002).
4. Reconstructing the paleo-landscape is the essential first step to predicting the locations of
submerged terrestrial sites. Section 420.3 of this chapter discusses paleo-geographic
landscape reconstruction in more detail. The process of inundation was not a constant,
gradual influx of water. Catastrophic landscape changes probably occurred as the dams
of the freshwater lakes failed, and their waters flooded out. The rate at which the sea
level rose changed over time, with periods of dramatic inundation. These turbulent
processes, coupled with storm activity and the normal movement of tides and currents,
have probably destroyed many submerged terrestrial sites. However, under certain
circumstances, such as rapid flooding of post-glacial lake shores in closed depressions,
drowned terrestrial landscapes (and any archaeological deposits contained therein) may
have survived. Paleosols—ancient soils preserved beneath an overburden of later
sediment—have been found through coring in nearby Nantucket Sound. Where such
paleosols survive, evidence for human occupation might also be found (RIHPHC 2002).
5. Geological reconstructions allow archaeologists to identify places where submerged sites
may have survived. In terrestrial archaeology, predictive models based on the locations
of known sites and on patterns of land use are used to identify areas considered sensitive
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for archaeological resources. Such models can provide some guidance in predicting the
location of submerged sites—access to freshwater resources, for instance, appears to be a
constantly useful predictive factor. However, given the relative paucity of data about the
early paleo-Indian use of the landscape, constructing useful models for the human
choices that would have played a role in site location is still an ongoing process
(RIHPHC 2002).
410.2. Narragansett Tribal History
1. Understanding human settlements within and adjacent to the Ocean SAMP region before
European colonization provides guidance into the potential for culturally relevant
landscapes and sites in the study area. The indigenous people of New England belonged
to many tribes, each with its own history. This section provides a historical context
produced by the Narragansett Indian Tribe (“Tribe”), the oldest known and still-living
native culture in the State of Rhode Island.
2. The Narragansett Indian Tribe is the federally recognized and acknowledged Native
American tribe in Rhode Island. Archaeological evidence and oral history of the
Narragansett people suggest the Tribe’s existence in the region for at least 30,000 years
(Brown, pers. comm.).
3. The Narragansett Indian Tribe has maintained its cultural traditions and tribal
organization in Rhode Island since the Tribe’s first contact with European settlers in the
early 17th century. The Narragansett Indian Tribe was recognized by the U.S.
government in the Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790. In response to an action taken by
the state of Rhode Island to “detribalize” the Narragansetts in 1880, the Narragansett
Indian Tribe made continued efforts to challenge this State action during the 20th century,
and attained formal federal acknowledgment as a Sovereign Nation and federally
recognized and acknowledged Tribe of the United States government on April 11, 1983
(25 CFR § 83). Rhode Island state legislation was enacted in 1985.
4. Dr. Ella W.T. Sekatau is the present-day contact and source of oral history for the
Narragansett Indian Tribe. Since the 1970s, Dr. Sekatau has served as the ethnohistorian
for the Tribe, and she has been learning Narragansett history, language, religion, and
medicine since birth. In addition, Dr. Sekatau is an approved Medicine Woman for the
Tribe (Herndon and Sekatau 1997).
5. On April 15, 2010, Dr. Sekatau provided the following account of the Narragansett
Indian Tribe’s oral history and traditions, specifically for inclusion in the Ocean SAMP
document. In addition, Dr. Sekatau provided the following references found in Section
450 of this chapter (Herndon and Sekatau 1997; Herndon and Sekatau 2003a; Herndon
and Sekatau 2003b; Sekatau 1970; and Sekatau-Pottery).
a. Traditional
Indian
Prayer:
Kawtantawwit
taubotneanawayean
wutche
wameteanteaquassinish. Mishquatch maugoke. Thank you Great Spirit for all the
things that Mother Earth gives.
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b. This historical report about the Narragansett People is short and will be accompanied
by five publications, two published reports by Dr. Ella Wilcox Sekatau and Dr. Ruth
Wallis Herndon and one report edited by Colin G. Calloway and Neil Salisbury. The
report is not a page-by-page account; it simply talks about the activities of the
Narragansett People of the past and their existence today, which in some cases has
changed very little depending on the subjects, or changed a lot because of the
circumstances of colonization for the past four hundred years. The author sometimes
becomes very personal, but most times tries to avoid a line-by-line or detailed daily
account. Any reader who is interested can take the references listed in the notes of the
accompanying publications for more research or contact the Narragansett Indian
Tribe Historic Preservation Office (NITHPO).
c. Explanations must be given with the uses of the words history and pre-history;
historical and pre-historical. What has happened and what is happening with the
Narragansett Indian people is ongoing history. The word pre-historical refers to the
coming of colonist to this part of the world for the past five hundred years and their
recordings. Numerical chronologies in many cases deny the evolution of people this
side of the world.
d. The people who have become known as Narragansett returns to this area after going
South with the stages of recession of the last Ice Age called the Paleoarchaic Era by
some writers. For the next many thousands of years, the people hunted very large
animals (i.e. and the varieties of smaller animals on the land). In this particular area
there were deer, elk, moose, two types of bison, three kinds of bear, there were brown
bear, black bear, and grizzly bear. There were rodents of all types and the felines and
the canines. As long as these specimens lasted they were hunted by the people. The
weather conditions dictated when the mammoth died out and the walrus no longer
came this far south.
e. Enishkeetompauog minnimuussinnock people of the small bays and inlets and inland
in what was to become known as Southern New England, Southeastern Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, and Long Island, Southeastern New York and coastal wise
South to what was to become known as Delaware had a lifestyle which was stable
until colonization from people of other parts of the world. All of these areas and
groups of the indigenous people were later called by names mostly by geographical
areas were under the auspices of the royal sachems of the Narragansett Nation,
mainly the five larger groups were Pawtuxet, Pocasset, East Niantic, West Niantic,
Kauweesett, and Shauwommett which comprised the Narragansett nation.
f. When the first contacts and colonization of the early 17th century involved the nation
of royal sachems of the land called by others as Narragansett, Canonicus, and
Miantonomoh, were the older and younger sachems over all the groups before-
mentioned. Many or most times depending upon the acquaintances or introductions to
geographical areas, water courses, land, elevations, or weather conditions at certain
times of the yearly habitation by non Indians were names referred to groups living
there. This land covered by a very large area which included all what was to become
known as Southern New England states, Long Island, Southeastern New York, and
Southeastern Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
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g. After colonization of the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, the colonial writers wrote and
identified groups convenient for them to remember and identify as the centuries
passed. We the Narragansett People know that our peoples evolved on this side of the
world and did not come from elsewhere. Our existence depended upon what the
territories embraced directly from the salt water, marshes, and sweet water ways that
began from inland springs, ponds, and seeps. What the Earth Mother produced which
included animal, fowl, amphibian, fish and the great varieties of plant life was used
for the survival of people who lived according to the four main directions and the
alternate direction of North, East, South, West, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, and
Northeast. The four seasons, the tides, the weather patterns of each season and the
availabilities of survival materials for food, shelter, tools, weapons, utensils,
decorations, and clothing all contributed to the native lifestyles.
h. The native wild turkeys were the beautiful bronze which weighed up to fifty pounds
and the direct coastal and island white turkeys with a little black trim on the tails and
wings in the Narragansett Bay Area. No one has written much history about the Blue
Grouse in this area as well. The Blue Grouse did not do much flying so they got killed
off early. They weighed in at twenty pounds. At the same time they were mentioned
someone mentioned also the Dodo birds of another coastal area (the Island of
Mauritius). The disappearance of these two kinds of fowl is a prime example of over
harvesting. The disappearance of the blue grouse, native pidgeons, bison, as well as
other fowl animals and plants contributed to destruction of ecosystems for the past
four hundred years in the northeast. Narragansett have continued to use bird feathers
of different kinds forever. The fur and wampum trade went hand and hand using
local resources. The beaver, mink, muskrat, grey and red foxes, the three types of
bear, catamount, lynx, raccoon and wolf which used to be plentiful until trade and
shipments back to European countries either reduced the numbers or wiped out
species. The wolf, lynx, and two species of bear are gone. Surprisingly, birds like
the wild turkey were in great demand for food as well as their feathers for decoration.
The local ducks and Canadian Geese which were good for food and used for some
decoration we still have quantities of these fowl. The massive millions of native
pigeons were used for food and sport so much that they no longer exist. Narragansett
males in a few families still trap minks and muskrat, skunk and raccoon. In most
cases they no longer eat the meat. They just sell the pelts. However there are many
men non-Indian hunters and trappers. The beaver which disappeared in southern New
England have been reintroduced in some areas.
i. Americans now raise domestic fowl like chickens, turkeys, geese which do well along
coastal regions and inland. The stands of oak, walnut, pignut, chestnut, and black
walnut trees furnished food for people and animals. Refer and research the places and
towns in Washington County of what became known as Wickford, North Kingstown,
Wakefield, Narragansett, and Westerly all of these places had access to the saltwater.
Celebrations with other tribes took place at certain places specifically in days of the
good month of late spring through harvest time when there was time for visiting and
trade locally and inland. The Narragansett harvested great quantities of shellfish;
oysters, quahaug, soft-shell steamers, lobster, razor clams, and four kinds of crab
(blue shell, spider, rock and humpback), mussels, snails, and conch. All of these
shellfish depending on the size were smoked and dried for local use and trade. The
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Narragansett had a thriving business for shellfish for food and shellfish wampum
making and decoration.
j. Many inland tribes of Indians traded their goods like copper, different kinds of stone
for tool making for shells that they fashioned into wampum strings and belts which
told tribal histories as did the Narragansett. Today the wampum decorations are made
by Narragansett, many other Indians, and non-Indians for very successful business
ventures. Surprisingly, since the 17th century the use of shell money was money
needed by the Dutch, English, and Portuguese because many did not have the use of
money from Europe. The uses of shell pearls found inside of oysters and sometimes
clams and quahaug have prevailed for all the centuries. Naturally other kinds of
shellfish have been used in many ways for decorations and recording by the
indigenous natives and Americans.
k. Unlike the European colonists, the females and males were equals and were given
that respect. Each had its respective responsibilities, jobs, duties, and needs. The
women were responsible for the living quarters of summer individual family
wigwams which were called wetu, for one building, or wetuomuck, for many
buildings, because of the round shape of these family units. They were not placed
close to each other. There was always space for gardens which the women took care
of and enough undeveloped land in between to be able to have firewood and where
small animals could be found. Only the garden areas where cleared for planting close
by. The women were responsible for the care and early training of children with help
of elders. The males were responsible for the hunting, most fishing, building of the
framework for the summer and winter longhouses, and the brush fences around the
summer homes and the great high palisades around the permanent/winter homes
called longhouses (Who lived in the long houses? Everyone related to you on your
mother’s side of the family). The men were responsible for making the dugout and
tree bark canoe for water travel inland and other places. The brush fences and high
palisades were there to protect the homes from the larger types of animals which we
will discuss later. The men were responsible for protecting people once colonization
began. There were varied dialects spoken by the people. Man speaking to man was
one dialect, woman speaking to woman was another dialect and then a general dialect
was used by all when they were all together.
l. But a real change of male thinking took over after the males were cheated out of their
jobs of defending land areas and water areas for trade, travel to visit other groups, to
meet with government relationships. The governmental relationships we discuss here
were with other tribes and their royal families. Any disagreements or disputes were
settled in what we call today a democratic way. The introductions of new restrictions
were adopted as well by other indigenous people in what became known as New
England. In some cases, the males started to act like the colonist males. The colonists
did not recognize women and after the native males had been cheated out of the
normal things that they did, they had to feel important. However on the back of their
minds was the thought that the women were the backbones of all groups. Most Indian
males still believe in that fact today that women are the backbones of most native
families, which is a fact.
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m. The European invaders took over by wars and the diseases which were brought to this
part of the world that killed the indigenous natives by the millions in North America,
Mexico, Central and South America. The native people had no built in immunities
from experiences with those diseases ever having been here. This is one of the
logical explanations of the fact that our peoples evolved on this side of the world and
did not migrate from elsewhere.
n. The salt waters gave much to the natives. The marshes around the sweet and the salt
water, and even mixtures of sweet water joining saltwater, played a most important
role in the existence in the Narragansett Indian peoples. They utilized saltwater fish,
mammals, and shellfish as well as the sweet water fish, shellfish, and mammals.
These creatures were used for food, clothing, parts of decorations, and shelter.
o. Plant vegetation products were not only used for food, but for clothing and shelter as
well. We the Narragansett People are people who used the many trees and aquatic
plants for shelter, protection, food, and decorations and medicine. Today some of the
Narragansett still harvest certain plants. Bulrush from the freshwater marsh areas was
used for interior house mats for walls. Cattails were used for exterior summer houses
walls and fill for middle walls of the permanent or winter/longhouses. Trees growing
in the coastal areas were used for framework of summer houses as well as the winter
longhouses (maple, oak, white cedar, red cedar, chestnut, and walnut to mention a
few that played important parts of buildings, interiors and exteriors). Cedar bark was
used for canoes, mat making, twine making, clothing, black dye, disposable diapers,
and sanitary napkins or rope and tump lines. White oak bark could be eaten also as
well as sassafras for tea and medicine. The products of local nut trees in the coastal
area; oaks, butternut, three types of walnuts, hazelnuts, were used for food and oils.
p. The so-called Woodland Era began around 1500 BC. According to modern writers,
conclusions that the Narragansett nation’s people had become more dependent on
products from maritime resources is questionable. Questionable because the return
north of the people after the recession of the Ice Age brought new ways of survival
from the Southern climates. Gathering continued and agriculture of maize, beans,
and squash called the Three Sisters added to dietary practices. The additional practice
of raising the Three Sisters crops made life easier in the seven month preparation for
the six months needs. Late March to early October was called the seven good months
by the people and late October to early March were called the six months of need.
Remember we are talking about the thirteen months on the Indian calendar, 28 day
moon cycles during the four seasons of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Thirteen
celebrations of Thanksgiving are still celebrated ceremonial by the tribal people with
prayer, dancing, drumming, singing, and feasts. Activities of early, middle and late
fall and winter are still practiced; i.e. the fish runs, the hunt of Indian summer,
January thaw of harvesting acorns from the white oak trees, and the harvest from
maple and butternut trees to make sugar in late April and early spring.
q. The very important fish runs for the Narragansett happened when the smelts the ale
wifes herrings, buckies, shad, Atlantic salmon, carp, some trout which go from
saltwater to fresh or the sweet water to spawn. We do not get the Atlantic salmon
runs today but the author of this history remembers catching a salmon at the
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Misshannock Horseshoe Falls when she was eleven or twelve years old. She thought
it was extra large dace. The smelts and the ale wife/herring and shad are prey and
were followed by the great bass and lamprey, which ate them up. The Narragansett
and ale wife/herring fish that we call buckies were used to fertilize the ancestors’
gardens until the colonists came and took over and forbade the Indians to take the
salmon. With the decline of Atlantic salmon and the forbidding of Indians fishing,
hunting and using the lands of their ancestors, the taking of ale wife/herring, called
buckies, was allowed because they were boney fish. These fish became an important
part of the Narragansett diet in the 18th and 19th century and smoked buckies are a
Narragansett Indian specialty. Some of the men and women still smoke and dry fish,
eels, and shellfish.
r. During the 17th century writers started classifying some of the indigenous natives by
what the writers assumed. Samuel Champlain started writing us Narragansett up as
Algonquin because of the similarity of lifestyles - a similarity of customs and dialect,
celebration, burial practices, seasonal ceremonials and use of the salt water and sweet
water and coastal travel as well as materials for survival and foods.
s. The first four decades of the 17th century, European arrivals and explorers brought in
disease from Europe that killed off 80-90 percent of coastal natives. That is why the
Pautuxett Narragansett never went back to Pautuxett, which place became known as
new Plimoth, nor the Pautuxett summer place on the South shore of Boston. The
larger numbers of Narragansett were not hit by the devastation of European smallpox
and other communicable diseases such as chicken poxes, measles (regular and
German), diphtheria, and tuberculoses until later.
t. Indian summer is the time in the Fall of a warm up after the colorful foliage time has
passed and killing frost and first freeze up comes each year. Special immense “V”
shaped corrals were made in specific places sometime over a mile wide at the
entrance down to fifty or a hundred feet or less at the main point of the “V”. Here the
men with spears and those with arrows were placed to take down all the desired
animals at the opening of the “V” corral. All ages of people were placed many feet
apart and their job was to beat on and make noise as much as possible at the wide part
of the “V” corral to drive the animals into and through the corral. Although human
habitation in Rhode Island is close to one million people, the deer population is over
abundant, while other species of animals are no longer here.
u. In 1637, the Narragansett had to deal with the English in what was called the Pequadt
war. The colonists were informed who the Pequadts and Mohegans were and they
were from the Mahican groups up north who disagreed with their sachems. They
negotiated and came South by permission of the Narragansett about a century and
half before Verrazano visited the area what was to become New England. They
became two separate groups and were allowed into different places because their head
sachems did not agree with each other. It is not for us to judge why the Schaghticoke
split themselves from the Pequadts later.
v. In 1643 there had been relatively good relations with a few of the colonists who were
having many troubles of their own fighting over who was to be boss in specific
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places. They had meetings in what was to become known as Hartford and New
Haven, and Boston and other places. One of their discussions was the forbidding
Indians hunting, gathering, and trading amongst each other. Indians were being
punished and were either put in the stocks or had to pay fines.
w. Roger Williams disagreed with the leading colonists regarding the Indian rights. He
was going to be sent back to England however he and others ran away to Narragansett
County to the place what was to become known as the State of Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations. He was ill and the Narragansett nursed him back to health.
He was granted land that was called Providence Plantations once he returned to
England and requested permission to return to America and be in charge of a land
grant.
x. In 1643, the youngest sachem of the Narragansett Miantonomoh tried to create an
alliance with the English colonists which did not work; the English offered a price for
Miantonomoh’s head because he did not agree with colonist policies. Colonists said
he was an enemy. He was captured and upon his own request he wanted a Mohegan
of his own status to commit the murder. Writers now claim that there was a long war
between the Narragansett and the sub-tribal division of the Mohegan through 1650s.
This was not true. There was however a disagreement with the governing bodies of
the Narragansett and the Mohegan. The Mohegan said it would be easier if he went
along with the colonist ways . The group still under the Narragansett said, “No.”
y. The 1660s brought disagreement between Narragansett males and females alike.
Some of the Royal Families of Ninigretes decided on mortgaging off tracks of land
under them to pay the fines demanded by the colonists. Queen Esther, the sister of
Tom Ninigrete, and other royal squaw sachems said, “No.” Here we must remember
the extensive lands under the royal sachems that comprise the Narragansett Nation. In
the colonial writer’s records very little is said about the women sachems because
women were supposedly chattel according to the English lifestyle. Only when there
was direct conflict with the European colonists were the women sachems spoken
about. An example is Oussamequin Massasoit’s wife. Fifteen years of disruptions
and disagreement followed. The sons of Oussamequin wanted to gain back uses of
their summer places on Cape Cod and their winter places inland around what was to
become known as Taunton and Fall River. The colonists killed the older brother by
poisoning him when they called him to meet in Boston. The younger brother
Pomettacomett called by the colonist King Phillip sent his families to a Narragansett
winter camp which moved from the permanent place to where the University of
Rhode Island now is. Many families moved to the Great Swamp Area in South
Kingstown, taking the King Phillip families with them. It was a custom of the
indigenous natives to send their people to places they considered safe during
conflicts.
z. At that time of unrest, some of the Medicine Families and the families of the War
Chief Tattazone moved in to the areas that became known as parts of Connecticut,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York prior to the war. They moved into
areas where there was no colonist involvement yet. Because of this action of King
Phillip, the colonists demanded that King Phillip’s families be turned over to them as
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war hostages. When the Narragansett sachems said no, the Narragansett were drawn
into the war. Most Narragansett sachems agreed that no Wompanoag would be given
and the fighting man went on their own local fights to gain back lands that had been
taken over in parts of Rhode Island. While the majority of Narragansett sachems were
against what the colonists were up to and doing, the sachem Ninigrete was dealing
with the colonists. While the others fought for the return and privileges and lands,
Ninigrete and his associates stayed in the Watch Hill area and raised not a hand
against the colonists because the colonists promised him the king’s crown to be in
charge of the remainder of Indians in the area.
aa. One great winter camp was in the area where the University of Rhode Island is. In
1675 when the colonist went to the great winter camp area no one was there. The
colonist militia did find an Indian man who had turned Christian. They told him that it
was his duty to tell them where the camp that held the King Phillip families was or he
was to be killed. Oral history knows him only as Peter. Peter became a traitor as much
as Ninigrete is considered to have been. Peter led the colonist militia to the winter
camp in the Great Swamp in South Kingstown. The new camp was not complete
because of the severe weather and a winter blizzard and freeze over. On the side
where the deepest water was frozen over, that winter camp housed about 600
wigwams filled with old men, women, and children. The colonist militia finally
gained entrance on the unfinished palicide place and set fire to many wigwams,
driving the occupants out of the camp area killing many and winning the
confrontation against the old men, women, and children. To this day the exact island
in the great swamp that housed that winter camp of Narragansett and Wompanoag old
men, women, and children where the massacre happened is unknown (one thing we
have to relate here is that Indians did not kill the old, the women and children
primarily as did the Europeans). Although old Narragansett of some families knew
the location, we were told by elders that it was best not to know because the place
was sacred. Albert and Lawrence knew the place but neither man told us children.
Once in awhile an artifact would be given to us and we were told it came from the
Great Swamp Massacre Area. Their voices would lower and the eyes would squint
and snap and the mouth would turn down at the corners accompanied by guttural
sounds from the throat. Sometimes they would utter a war-whoop and do a few war
dance steps.
bb. 1667-1675 was a very devastating time for the Narragansett. History has been written
by the colonial records of the places where the natives were killed off. The European
custom of paying an amount for men, women, and children scalp locks was paid to
the killers. The Narragansett as well as others in New England suffered great losses.
Only those who agreed with the colonists survived. In 1705 Ninigrete was awarded
chiefdom. While given recognition he granted specific land and political control to
the Rhode Island Assembly and got put in charge of the reservation. Land that was
formerly under the auspices of the Royal Sachems of the Narragansett Nation was
reduced drastically everywhere.
cc. The practice of indentured service became the rule. Adults mostly all female became
servants and indentured their children; twenty-two years for boys and nineteen year
for girls. This indenture was a form of slavery for the Narragansett. The town
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records started another form of genocide against the Narragansett as well as other
indigenous natives. The recordings of many of the children were written as “mustee,”
“molatto,” “negro,” or “black”. It all depended on who was doing the recording.
dd. In 1746 some of the Narragansett on and off reservation started using the Christianity
as a second way to worship God. They listened to preachings and put their “X” on
written papers they did not even understand. This was a form of control the colonists
exercised with people who did not understand the English language and spoke very
little of it. The meeting house/church was established. The people established and
ordained Samuel Niles as their preacher. Members of the Medicine Family never
became Christians. We learned about the concepts of foreign religions but never
embraced them to this day. Today we Narragansett have the traditional and Christian
parts in all weddings, burials, and tribal meetings. However, ancient ceremonies are
kept traditional. Our powwows have a combination of ancient and American
revolutionized activities.
ee. The Narragansett Indian meeting house/church was established and built around 1750
after the reformation which was said to be under a man called Mr. Park since 1741.
The first minister was James Simons and after him Samuel Niles was ordained and
took over the responsibility of preaching with eloquence to the Narragansett and
visitors. A fire destroyed the wooden structure which was twenty eight feet wide and
forty feet long. In the late 1850s a stone meeting house/church was built basically
using the same size and design as the wooden one in a place nearby where the old
building had been built. A fire destroyed the stone meeting house/ church also which
was deliberately set in 1993. Whoever put incendiary materials to help burn the
interior evidently thought the destruction of the meeting house/church would destroy
the Narragansett people. However, the meeting house/church was just a small part of
an indigenous native group heritage. So it was rebuilt again to accommodate the
Narragansett Indians as well as other Indians and friends for meetings and religious
services of all kinds. The building is a place of refuge for the good of all. Today’s
building still has the unique architecture of the first building’s two doors on the south
side, windows on the east and west side and no windows on the north side.
ff. Through the passing centuries, the Narragansett people continued to celebrate the
thirteen Thanksgiving celebrations that were traditional for us. The language was still
spoken although this was one of the things forbidden by colonials. As long as no
colonialists or the colonist Indian friends were present, the tribal language and
religion were practiced.
gg. In 1775-1785 the Narragansett males took part in the service to the American
Revolutionary War. Some did not want anything to do with the wars or the people.
So some joined other Indians and made the journey to what was to become known as
Brothertown with their families. During this time around 1777 Queen Esther of the
Ningrete family died. She and her sisters never agreed with King Thomas Ninigrete.
The leadership of the Narragansett was no longer recognized by the State of Rhode
Island. By 1790-1820 the State of Rhode Island started passing laws regulating tribal
businesses, membership, voting rights, and giving ideas to the Tribal Council. The
Americans recognized the autonomy of the Narragansett Tribal Council and
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appointed a treasurer who soon quit and no one took his place. In 1820, a school was
established with the help of Frederick Bayles. This school was not very successful
through 1830 because the appointed teachers were not educated enough to teach. In
the wintertime the school was not accessible when the snows came, nor was the
meeting house/church. The church group met in private homes.
hh. Things changed radically during the 1860s through the early 1880s when the State of
Rhode Island illegally wrote the Narragansett Tribe was terminated. This they did
without federal sanction. The Narragansett were never on the list of federally
terminated recognized tribes because their numbers had been so badly reduced they
were no longer a threat to the United Sates and to the military. That is why the
Narragansett were not moved out of the state. Through 1880-90s the Narragansett
Tribe unsuccessfully tried to sue Rhode Island for recovery of stolen and taken lands.
Tribal activities especially traditional and ceremonial continued. With the turn of the
century when World War I began, some of the Narragansett males joined the armed
forces. No one bothered to ask why they joined. The fact was they could exhibit
protecting the land again; a priority colonial conquest had taken away.
ii. At different times of the year, trade was resumed. Trading shells and shellfish took
place. The Narragansett traded maize and smoked shellfish and shells with Indians in
the Great Lakes regions for copper and red pipestone/catlinite, which we do not have
in Rhode Island. Copper to the natives in New England was like gold and silver in
other places. There was a method to get small amounts of copper produced locally.
Basket making and pottery, mats made from white and red cedar, pine bark and reeds,
and bead work instead of porcupine quill and bird quill works continued. Indians did
not know how to make glass so the glass beads were brought from other countries and
took the place of porcupine quill and bird quill embroidery.
jj. Education was very important and Indians started getting degrees. The Indian males
went from apprenticeship to having their own businesses, especially carpenters,
fishing, stonework, and farming and making boats. Most of the old stone walls and
stiles and great foundations in the local area were made by Narragansett Indians and
many still exercise the trade of stone masons.
kk. In the early 1930s the Narragansett people decided to formulate a business contract to
be run by the Tribal Government and other members. A printed form of Constitution
and Bylaws for the business end of The Tribe was also used to incorporate and define
who and what the Tribal Government responsibilities as well as others were to be.
ll. Today the Tribal Government consists of nine Councilmen who are representatives of
different family groups sitting at the top is Chief Sachem, Medicineman, and
Medicine Woman as advisors. Added to this a Tribal Secretary, Assistant Tribal
Secretary, Tribal Treasurer, and Assistant Tribal Treasurer, and we also have three
Sub-Chiefs. Today we think about what was and how far the Atlantic Plains
extended before the water covered it because a lot has been found in the Ocean.
Because of storms and maybe a little bit of global warming has changed the coastline.
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mm. Narragansett men and women from the later 1930s participated in all of the military
services in land, water, and the air forces, traveling and stationed in military units all
over the world. From the 1960s and up services were during the Korean conflict and
Vietnam War and what is happening in the Near East and the Far East today.
nn. Facing the turn of the century into the beginning of the 21st century saw the
Narragansett trying to gain back some of their land in Charlestown area. The Federal
Government backed The Tribe and paid for about two-thousand acres. The state is
still arguing that they supersede Federal Law and that the State Laws have control.
The Narragansett have a smaller reservation in Westerly; about seven or eight
hundred acres currently know as The Old Crandal Farm.
oo. In the early 1980s the Narragansett people, federal lawyers, and local lawyers put
together a 14-volume report to prove they were eligible for Federal Programs for
Federally recognized tribes. It was miscalled and misinterpreted as a Bureau of
Indian Affairs Federal Recognition. We did not have to gain something that we
already had. We simply proved our continuous existence and supporting genealogy.
The acknowledgement and approval for allowance to apply for many Federal Grants
and Programs was gained by the Narragansett in 1983. Some funding comes in to
support the Tribal Government, Social Services, Indian Health Services, Education,
and Housing. Narragansett people work with the coastal resource groups and are very
interested in work with the historical preservation of the areas. We have our own
Historical Preservation Officer and a staff. In spite of so many forms of genocide,
pitfalls, downfalls from wars, political aggression against the Narragansett Nation, we
people are still here.
410.3. European Exploration and Colonial Settlement Landscape Context
1. The exploration and settlement of New England was a “vast maritime enterprise”
(Bridenbaugh 1974, 10) in that conquerors and settlers traveled across the ocean and were
sustained by it (St. Martin and Hall-Arber 2008). Marine resources along with coastal
and oceanic trade routes ensured the physical and economic survival of European
colonies in New England, including Rhode Island (Bridenbaugh 1974). The Ocean
SAMP area influenced and was influenced by these human processes. Some of these
influences exist today as place names, archaeological sites (known and undiscovered),
and altered marine and coastal ecosystems.
2. The Exploration, Contact, and Settlement history of the Ocean SAMP area begins with
the voyage of Giovanni da Verrazano in 1523. Under orders from the French crown,
Verrazano explored the east coast of the present day United States from Cape Fear, North
Carolina to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In part focused on discovering the fabled “North
West Passage,” Verrazano also spent a considerable time interacting and trading with
Indians. In April 1524, he sighted Block Island, which he described as 10 leagues from
the mainland, similar size to the island of Rhodes, hilly, forested, and triangular shaped.
Observing a large number of fires on shore, Verrazano actually predicted that Block
Island was heavily inhabited (Wroth 1970).
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3. Prevented by weather from going ashore at Block Island, Verrazano sailed into
Narragansett Bay, anchoring in Newport Harbor. There he recorded his observations on
the Indian people, their leaders, homes, the openness of the countryside, the plants and
animals, and the ways that they interacted with the coastal environment (Wroth 1970).
4. Following in the wake of the Dutch East India Company’s sponsorship of Henry
Hudson’s explorations in New York beginning in 1609, the Dutch dispatched Adriaen
Block on several voyages to the region. On the fourth voyage in 1614, Block’s ship the
Tyger was burnt at Manhattan. In response, he built a 42-foot coastal vessel, the Onrust.
In the spring of 1615, Block explored the East River and passed north through Long
Island Sound into what is now the Ocean SAMP area, in the process charting Block
Island for the first time. The Dutch connections in New York laid down by Hudson and
subsequently enhanced by the Dutch East and West India Companies exercised
considerable long term influence on the history and patterns of maritime commerce
through the Ocean SAMP area.
5. The cultural and political history of Rhode Island’s establishment, when combined with
its unique geography, explains the state’s early, aggressive, and highly successful
maritime enterprises. Roger Williams is considered the father of organized colonization
in the state. Williams’ move to Rhode Island also created conditions that contributed to
Rhode Island’s rapid rise as a maritime economy and colony. A religious radical with
close Indian ties, Williams fled Massachusetts for Mount Hope Bay in 1636 where he
received aid from the Indian chief Massasoit. Sympathetic with Williams (see Section
410.2), Massasoit granted Williams land on the east bank of the Seekonk River, north of
present day Providence. Shortly thereafter, Williams was forced to move his expanding
group of settlers close to present day Fox Point where he reestablished the community he
called Providence (McLoughlin 1986).
6. Other dissenters followed Williams to Rhode Island: Anne Hutchinson in Pocasset
(1639), William Coddington in Newport (1639), and Samuel Gorton in Shawomet
(1640). In addition, William Arnold broke away from Williams and established his own
community at Pawtuxet (1638), declaring allegiance to Massachusetts in the process. The
result was a collection of scattered settlements led by people with diverse and sometimes
controversial religious beliefs. This diversity ultimately led to a social and religious
openness that proved a critical asset to Rhode Island’s maritime economy (McLoughlin
1986; Bridenbaugh 1974).
7. The dispersed pattern of early settlements resulting from religious diversity and toleration
multiplied the natural significance of waterborne connections in Rhode Island, especially
in Narragansett Bay. Communication and commerce depended on the water. Initially,
local transport was largely by canoe and most households possessed one or more them
(Vickers 2005). Roger Williams, for example, used dugouts to travel the colony, and to
visit and trade with local Indian leaders.
8. The Rhode Island colony was, in its essence, a maritime place, bounded by protected
waters and gifted with good harbors and access to coastal natural resources. Fish, for
example provided food, fertilizer, and saleable commodity. The islands, particularly Hog,
Patience, Prudence, Dyer, Gould, Goat, Conanicut, Dutch and Aquidneck, were
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particularly important to Rhode Island’s colonial settlement, survival and economic well
being. Many islands had good land, trees, and fertile soil, and all had access to water.
Beyond this, however, the islands in Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound were
critical for agriculture and animal husbandry. Pigs and goats - and later cattle, sheep and
horses - were all raised on islands where they could forage and survive the winter while
remaining confined and protected from wolves. Indeed, Hog and Goat Island were
named for their contributions to early Rhode Island husbandry (Bridenbaugh 1974). The
quest for grazing also drew attention to Block Island. At the end of 1639, William
Coddington in Newport dispatched a small coastal trading vessel to Block Island with
some livestock. In 1661, Dr. John Alcock and a group of men from Roxbury men built a
barque and transported cattle from Braintree to Block Island. These activities represent
Rhode Islander’s expanded activity into previously isolated areas within the Ocean
SAMP area (Bridenbaugh 1974).
9. The early agricultural development of Rhode Island was critical to its survival as a colony
and its rapid maritime commercial expansion. As such, it directly influenced the Ocean
SAMP area and surrounding lands. While English settlers brought their own ideas about
agricultural development to Rhode Island, they also copied Native Americans’ cultivation
practices, particularly planting corn, which could be consumed, traded and used for
animal fodder. Ultimately, animal husbandry proved easier and more lucrative than crop
cultivation–and within a decade or two of settlement, Rhode Islanders, particularly those
on Aquidneck Island, generated surpluses in pigs, goats, neat cattle (domestic straight-
backed), sheep, and horses (Bridenbaugh 1974).
10. Pigs foraged relatively freely and fattened quickly. Sent by sea to Boston, butchers
processed them into salt pork for use as food by mariners and fishermen. By 1649, cattle
were also being raised for commercial markets. Agricultural surpluses, protected
harbors, economic freedom, religious toleration, and lax regulation from the metropolis
ensured Rhode Island’s early and aggressive economic development and reinforced its
ties with the ocean (Bridenbaugh 1974).
410.4. Post-Colonial Cultural Landscape Context
1. With the beginning of European colonization in the early 17th century, the open sea was
Rhode Islanders’ critical transportation link to the parent countries of Europe and to
neighboring colonies along the Atlantic Seaboard. This marine transportation focused
increasingly on trade as the colonial settlement matured, and with Newport merchants in
the lead, Rhode Island became an important center of maritime commerce in the mid-18th
century. This ready access to the sea stimulated areas of concentrated development on
the shores of Narragansett Bay and, to a lesser extent, the Sakonnet and Pawcatuck
Rivers, where protected harbors fostered the colony’s principal urban centers. The ocean
coast had fertile soils that attracted early settlement but it was diffuse with little in the
way of villages or town centers. From Little Compton to Westerly, the shore was lined by
isolated farms, some of them quite large, with their fields and pastures running down to
the water. Fishing and harvesting seaweed for fertilizing were important adjuncts to
farming for the coastal population as well, though they left little permanent evidence on
the land.
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2. Factory-based manufacturing supplanted maritime trade as the center of the Rhode Island
economy in the 19th century. Industrialization stimulated the growth of urban industrial
centers led by Providence at the head of the Bay, and a concentration of population in
smaller industrial communities clustered along the state’s rivers. The growth of industry,
urban commerce and the region’s population all contributed to a steady flow of maritime
travel through Rhode Island’s coastal waters, and Providence emerged as an important
regional port for the distribution of raw materials such as coal and cotton and for travelers
between New England and the mid-Atlantic and southern states.
3. Industry largely bypassed the coastal area and the initial pattern of agricultural land use
and dispersed settlement continued to define the majority of coastal Newport and
Washington Counties (including Block Island) through the 19th century. However, by the
middle of the century, the coastline had begun attracting seasonal visitors, as the
expanding industrial and commercial economy made it possible for its successful
participants to escape the hectic and noisome city to enjoy leisure time in a vacation. This
seasonal use began in an informal way as visitors lodged with local farmers or in small
boardinghouses.
4. Then, in the decades after the Civil War, the scale of vacationing grew and individual
resorts developed where a new culture of leisure emerged. The preeminent resort
community was Newport, which initially housed its summer visitors in boardinghouses
and hotels, but became best known for its elaborate “cottages,” private summer houses
built by many of the country’s wealthiest businessmen. With the opening of Bellevue
Avenue and then Ocean Drive, the rocky coastline of Newport was taken up for the
summer estates of wealthy summer residents from New York City and other major cities.
Newport and the other coastal resorts also catered to the middle ranks of society with
large hotels, boardinghouses and more modest cottage residences.
5. In addition to Newport, Jamestown, Narragansett Pier, and Watch Hill had their own
concentrations of grand cottage architecture and large hotels in a coastal setting.
Sakonnet, Weekapaug, Matunuck, and Misquamaquit also experienced a surge of
waterside development accommodating summer tourists and there were smaller clusters
elsewhere along the coast. From its roots as a somewhat isolated haven for agriculture
and animal husbandry, Block Island grew into a popular tourist-attracting destination
resort, a magnet for sailors and boaters of all kinds, fishermen and summertime day-
trippers. Whether enjoyed from the verandas and grounds of private estates or from
public beaches and shoreline trails, the picturesque beaches, rocky coast and ocean vistas
were fundamental attractions that drew summer visitors of all economic levels to
Newport and other points along the Rhode Island coast.
6. A key element in much of this growth was the steamboat, most notably at Block Island,
where the construction of the federal breakwater in the 1870s provided the island with its
first protected harbor. The new harbor could accommodate large steamboats, which
greatly increased the number of summer visitors. It also enabled an expansion of the
island’s fishing fleet, which in turn stimulated the growth of the year-round population.
On the mainland, the federal government built a second breakwater to form the Point
Judith Harbor of Refuge between 1890 and 1914. This fostered the growth of a fishing
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fleet as well, and the creation of the village of Galilee on the east shore of Point Judith
Pond, which became a major commercial fishing harbor in the 20th century.
7. The patterns of development and land use that defined the late 19th century continued into
the early 20th century, but were then interrupted by several factors. One was the
economic and political turbulence that accompanied the contraction of the state’s
economic growth in the 1920s, followed by the Great Depression and then World War II.
Another was the Hurricane of 1938, which devastated Rhode Island’s coastal
communities. A third was the rise of the automobile, which had perhaps the most long-
lasting effect. When new development resumed after the long hiatus of depression and
war, the automobile encouraged a more dispersed pattern of development in the coastal
region. The open countryside that still covered much of the coastline became viable for
residential subdivisions. As the summer population spread out, the large hotels that had
been developed in the era of mass transit by steamboat or railroad dwindled in numbers.
Many parts of the coastal region acquired a new suburban character as summer houses
were adapted or rebuilt for year-round use and new subdivisions were built on former
farmland. Although the amount of farm land decreased, representative examples of
saltwater farms still helped define the coastal character. Block Island was the least
affected by the automobile and suburbanization due to its remoteness from the mainland.
Although it has experienced residential growth in the late 20th century, the island retains
its rural character to a high degree.
8. As access to Block Island became more readily convenient from the 1950s onward, the
Island residents have responded by adopting a land and nature preservation and
protection ethos. Fittingly, it was led by a veteran Merchant Marine captain, Rob Lewis,
in a tradition that has been carried on by his family, along with a host of other influential
Block Islanders, such as “Birdlady” Elizabeth Dickens, and David and Elise Lapham. It
was Captain Lewis who, perhaps better than others, appreciated the delicate balance
between land and water, and the need to constantly find a harmony among their values.
Rodman’s Hollow, Black Rock and their neighboring properties were at the forefront of
this Block Island conservation movement when it was formed, and efforts began in the
early 1970s when Islanders inspired by Captain Lewis purchased the Hollow from
potential off-Island developers. It has been their work, and the effort and commitment of
Islanders through the years and still ongoing, that has led to the conservation of over
2,500 acres from the signature North Light to the sprawling Southwest corner, all replete
with historical and cultural emphasis.
410.5. Military Landscape Context
1. During the post-contact period, twenty or more wars and endless conflicts that took place
throughout the region have resulted in a complex military cultural landscape in the Ocean
SAMP area.
2. Table 4.1 lists the conflicts, ranging from regional to global, that have had tangible
influence on the Ocean SAMP area. Four centuries of conflicts have contributed to the
Ocean SAMP area landscape; however, the conflicts highlighted in bold font exercised
the most influence in the Ocean SAMP area.
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Table 4.1. Warfare and the Ocean SAMP area, conflicts 1634-1975
Conflict
Years
Adversaries
Pequot War
1634-1638
Colonial v. Indian
First Anglo Dutch War
1652-1654
England v. United
Provinces
Second Anglo Dutch War
1665-1667
England v. United
Provinces
Third Anglo Dutch War
1672-1674
England v. United
Provinces
King Philip’s War
1675-1676
Colonial v. Indian
King Williams War
1689-1697
England v. France
Queen Anne’s War
1702-1713
Britain v. France
King George’s War
1739-1749
Britain v. Spain
(and France after 1744)
French and Indian War
1754-1763
Britain v. France
American Revolutionary War
1776-1781
Britain v. United States
French Revolutionary and
Napoleonic Wars
1792-1814
(brief period of peace
1802-1803)
Britain and her allies v.
France
Quasi–War with France
1798-1800
United States v. France
War of 1812
1812-1814
United States v. Britain
Mexican War
1846-1848
United States v. Mexico
Civil War
1861-1865
Union v. Confederate
Spanish American War
1898
United States v. Spain
World War I
1914-1918
Britain, France, Russia,
United States v. Germany
World War II
1939-1945
Britain, United Sates,
Soviet Union v. Germany,
Japan, Italy
Korean War
1950-1953
United Nations, Republic
of Korea, United States v.
Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea
Vietnam War
1961-1975
South Vietnam, United
States v. North Vietnam,
Viet Cong
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3. Among the wars, the American Revolution and the two World Wars (especially World
War II) proved especially influential on the Ocean SAMP area’s cultural landscape. The
Revolutionary War altered the trajectory of Rhode Island history, reshaped its economy
played host to fighting on land and at sea resulting in at least 33 historically significant
shipwrecks in Rhode Island waters. Likewise, the global conflicts of the first half of the
20th century, especially World War II strongly influenced Rhode Island history and the
Ocean SAMP area’s cultural landscape. Naval facilities, bases, warships, fuel depots,
hospitals, gun emplacements, testing ground, and shipwrecks from WWII all contributed
to the fabric of the Ocean SAMP area history and many elements remain as
archaeological or historic sites.
4. The outbreak of the Pequot war is tied to events that occurred within the Ocean SAMP
area. In 1634, John Oldham, a trader from Massachusetts, was killed during his
interactions with Indians on Block Island. In response, Massachusetts attacked,
conquered and settled the island.
5. The three Anglo Wars (1652-1654, 1665-1667, 1672-1674) affected in long-term ways
patterns trade and traffic through the Ocean SAMP area. New York’s extraordinary
influence on the history of Rhode Island and the Ocean SAMP region traces directly to
the early Dutch colony of New Amsterdam and the conflicts it engendered. The regional
Dutch - Rhode Island connections persisted after the English took control of New York in
1664, continuing to influence trading relationships and traffic patterns through the Ocean
SAMP area for centuries.
6. During the period covering King William’s War (1689-1698) and Queen Anne’s War
(1702-1713), the English government expended little effort to control or regulate Rhode
Island. The religiously tolerant, independent-spirited, and economically motivated Rhode
Islanders refused to supply soldiers or military support to New England colonial armies
(McLoughlin 1986).
7. In contrast with land war, Rhode Islanders enthusiastically embraced the for-profit
warfare of privateering. During the many Anglo-French wars (1689-1754) Rhode Island
and other colonies licensed large numbers of privateers that sailed through the waters of
the Ocean SAMP area. Privateers were privately owned armed ships licensed by the
government in times of conflict and granted permission to raid enemy shipping.
Privateering could be highly profitable and provided some level of naval defense for the
colony. In 1690, Thomas Paine, a privateer from Jamestown, helped drive off French
ships that landed on Block Island (McLoughlin 1986).
8. The late-17th and early-18th centuries blurred the distinctions between legal privateering
and illegal piracy. Thomas Paine, the hero at Block Island, was suspected of piracy, and
the colony produced the well-known pirates Thomas Tew and Captain Want. In the
1690s, Rhode Island reportedly welcomed the famed pirate William “Captain” Kidd
(Hawes 1999). Pirate booty boosted the Rhode Island economy, fattening the purses of
certain merchants and government officials who might overlook illicit cargos and
questionable practices (Bridenbaugh 1974). After about 1720, piracy along the eastern
seaboard of colonial America declined and the separation between illegal pirates and
legal privateers became clearer.
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9. During King George’s War and the French and Indian War (1739 – 1749, 1754 – 1763),
Rhode Island dispatched a large number of privateers during the eighteenth century wars.
During King George’s War (1739 – 1749) Rhode Island was home to 25 percent of all
privateers in operating in America (Swanson 1991). During the French and Indian War
(1754 – 1763), powerful Rhode Island merchant families such as the Browns and
Bannisters dispatched fleets of privateers through the Ocean SAMP area waters.
10. The French and Indian War emptied the British government’s coffers, leaving an
immense war debt that threatened the national economy. The clumsy plans devised by
Imperial authorities to raise revenues from the America colonies threatening the
cherished semi-independence and finances of Rhode Island and sister colonies and
ultimately led to the War for Independence.
11. A Maritime-based economy meant that the new heavy British hand was perhaps felt
sooner and with more pain in Rhode Island than in the other British North American
colonies. Rhode Island responded by becoming the first colony to take up arms against
Britain, the first to propose a Continental Congress, the first to formally sever ties with
the British monarchy, and the first to create a navy.
12. Armed resistance to British rule in America began on Rhode Island waters and set the
stage for the development of the United States navy. In December 1763, the HMS
Squirrel sailed through the waters included in the Ocean SAMP area and into
Narragansett Bay to enforce the new regulations. Seven months later in July 1764, at the
orders of two members of governor’s council, gunners fired eight shots at a tender from
Squirrel after a British-sparked mobbing incident at Newport.
13. Attacking Royal Navy vessels became a pattern in Rhode Island. Major incidents
occurred in 1765 when a Royal Navy ship HMS Maidstone attempted to impress local
sailors at Newport, and in 1769 when a mob boarded the Royal Navy ship Liberty,
running it ashore and setting it aflame (McLoughlin 1986; Bartlett 1858; Carroll 1932).
14. The most important incident of this kind was the burning of the HMS Gaspee in the
Providence River by disgruntled colonists in 1772. The Gaspee affair ranks alongside the
Boston Tea Party and the Stamp Act Crisis as a large step on the road to the American
Revolution (Bartlett 1858; McLoughlin 1986).
15. The colony’s independent streak and eye for profits continued in the early 1770. When
the other colonies banded together in refusing to accept imported British manufactures,
Rhode Island claimed poverty and abstained. At expense of the other colonies, Rhode
Island Sound and Narragansett Bay remained open to British commerce. At a direct cost
to the other colonies, ships, goods, and money flowed through the Ocean SAMP area
waters into Rhode Island’s ports (McLoughlin 1986)
16. The 1773 Tea Act and the infamous Boston Tea Party fed Rhode Islanders appetite for
rebellion. In 1774, Rhode Island called for a Continental Congress and became the first
colony to elect delegates. During this period, British warships increased operations in
Rhode Island Sound beginning to block traffic into and out of Narragansett Bay.
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17. In June of 1775, the Rhode Island legislature established America’s first navy,
commissioning the Washington and the 12-gun sloop Katy (later renamed the sloop
Providence). Within a few days, the Katy captured the Royal Navy’s tender Diana
(tender to the HMS Rose) off Jamestown, in some respects the first naval battle of the
Revolution (Fowler 1976).
18. In October 1775, the Continental Congress passed a Rhode Island proposed resolution to
create a Continental Navy. Rhode Island supplied two of thirteen new ships, the 28-gun
frigate Providence (a different vessel from the sloop Katy/Providence), and the 32-gun
frigate Warren. The following month, Rhode Island sea captain Esek Hopkins became the
Continental Navy’s first commander-in-chief (Fowler 1976).
19. Some of the United States Navy’s earliest actions took place in Ocean SAMP area
waters. In April 1776, Commander-in-Chief Esek Hopkins, captaining the Providence,
captured a British tender Hawk off Block Island and a brig (bomb vessel) Bolton. On
April 6, Hopkins’ squadron engaged but did not capture HMS Glasgow off Point Judith.
The following month, John Paul Jones, often considered the father of the American Navy,
became the captain of the sloop Providence (the former Katy) (McLoughlin 1986).
20. In a dramatic prelude to the formal United States Declaration of Independence, on May 4,
1776, Rhode Island “abrogated its allegiance to the king.” The waters around the Rhode
Island, including the Ocean SAMP area became state waters on July 22, 1776 when
Rhode Island altered the identity on its charter from “colony” to “state.” (McLoughlin
1986).
21. As with earlier imperial conflicts, Rhode Island embraced privateering during the
Revolutionary War, commissioning 65 privateers between May and December 1776.
22. In December 1776, the British took Newport in an amphibious assault. The subsequent
three-year British occupation had dire consequences for maritime Rhode Island, ending
forever the glory days of Newport-owned ships transiting the Ocean SAMP area waters
on their way to distant markets. Many colonial merchants fled, taking their trade and
shipping with them. Rhode Island’s center of political and economic influence shifted
from Newport to Providence, where it would remain after the war ended.
23. By cutting off Rhode Island’s customary access to the sea, the British naval control of the
Ocean SAMP area waters and Narragansett Bay brought serious hardships for patriots in
Providence. Only supplies sent overland to Providence from Connecticut prevented
starvation.
24. Patriot forces maintained an offensive strategy on Rhode Island waters despite superior
British forces. In October 1778, American patriot, Silas Talbot commanding a 2-gun
sloop captured the 22-gun Royal Navy Brig Pigot that had been blockading Sakonnet
(McLoughlin 1986).
25. The British occupation of Newport and control of the entrance to Narragansett Bay had
trapped the new frigates Providence and Warren along with the sloop Providence at the
head of the bay. In February 1778, the Warren slipped the blockade, followed a month
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later by the Providence. The Continental ship Columbus failed in its bid for the open sea,
running aground and burning in the Ocean SAMP area near Point Judith.
26. In March 1778, France recognized the United States of America and entered the war as
an ally. This changed war’s character from a colonial rebellion to a broader European
and Atlantic conflict. The French king sent a fleet under French Admiral d’Estaing, to
assist the Continental forces. One of its first actions involved supporting an unsuccessful
American effort to liberate Newport in the summer of 1778.
27. The French fleet comprised 12 ship-of-the-line, 4 frigates and 2,800 marines, a force far
more powerful than the British frigates and smaller vessels stationed in Rhode Island.
Faced with certain capture, between July 29 and August 8, 1778 the British forces sunk,
scuttled or burned all of their vessels. English losses including the sloops Kingsfisher
and Falcon, the galleys Alarm and Spitfire, and the frigates Lark, Cerberus, Orpheus,
Juno and Flora as well as 13 transport ships in Newport Harbor (Abbass 2000). Today,
many of these wrecks are likely eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
28. Despite these successes, the American and French efforts to take Newport stalled. The
British, however, finally withdrew from the Island and Newport on their own accord in
October 1779.
29. In July 1780, a French fleet under Admiral Ternay and carrying troops commanded by
the comte de Rochambeau arrived in Newport. French warships stayed through the
following winter. In March 1781, General Washington and Rochambeau, who would
become the architects of the British defeat at Yorktown, held a series of strategic
meetings at Newport. Shortly thereafter, the French evacuated Rhode Island
(McLoughlin 1986).
30. Although a center for the US navy during the American Revolution, Rhode Island did not
reap any naval rewards during the post war years. The Navy Acts of 1794 or 1798 failed
to direct significant navy resources toward the state. The only significant federal navy
project was the construction of the frigate General Greene in Warren in 1799.
31. Between 1798 and 1800, the United States fought the so-called Quasi-War with France.
Rhode Islanders participated enthusiastically, sending out many privateers to stalk French
merchant ships.
32. The War of 1812 brought a mixed reaction in Rhode Island. The state government
opposed the war, however, the lucrative prospects of privateering enticed many Rhode
Islanders into action. One Bristol privateer, the Yankee captured 40 vessels worth a total
of $5,000,000 (Coleman 1963). No battles took place in Rhode Island; however, the
heavy presence the British Navy’s off the east coast, including in Long Island Sound and
in parts of the Ocean SAMP area, hampered Rhode Island’s maritime activities.
33. Rhode Islanders served in the early U.S. Navy with distinction. Perhaps the most
important of these were members of the Perry family of South Kingstown. Christopher
Perry served during the Revolution and the Quasi-War with France. His eldest son,
Oliver Hazard Perry commanded the US fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie (1814) during the
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War of 1812. His younger son, Matthew C. Perry, commanded a famous expedition that
opened Japan to trade in 1853-1854 (Rhode Island Historical Society 1993).
34. Despite Rhode Island’s illustrious contributions and fine harbors, the Navy did not
become an important presence in the State until the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-
1865) (Rhode Island Historical Society 1993).
35. The Civil War (1861-1865) finally renewed a relationship between Rhode Island and the
U.S. Navy, a relationship that would continue for the next 150 years. At the beginning
of the war, the Union government, concerned about the proximity of the Naval Academy
at Annapolis in the south, relocated it to Newport. Despite strong efforts to keep the
Academy in Rhode Island, it returned to Annapolis after the war.
36. Despite losing the academy, the Navy’s presence in Rhode Island increased exponentially
during the last 30 years of the 19th century. In 1869, underwater mines and explosive
warfare technology were in their infancy and the Navy established a torpedo
experimentation and development facility on Goat Island.
37. The Newport torpedo development, testing, training and manufacturing station is central
to the history of the propeller-driven torpedo in America. The navy subsequently
established testing ranges inside Narragansett Bay and in parts of the Ocean SAMP area
in Rhode Island Sound.
38. The Navy expanded operations to include Rose (1883) and Gould (World War I) Islands.
During World War I, the Newport Torpedo Station added depth charges and mines to its
manufactures. During World War II, the station had 13,000 employees who manufactured
57,653 torpedoes, about a third of all torpedoes manufactured in the United States. In
1942, the Navy authorized the station to proof-fire 100 torpedoes a day. Through testing
and actual warfare, unexploded torpedoes and other ordinance are historically significant,
if potentially dangerous components of the military landscape of Narragansett Bay and
parts of the Ocean SAMP area.
39. The station renamed the Naval Underwater Systems Center moved to Coddington Cove
in 1951. In 1992, the Coddington Cove facility became the Naval Underwater Warfare
Center (Rhode Island Historical Society 1993). These research and development
activities were highly important during the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union.
40. Education has remained an important military activity in Rhode Island. In 1883, the
Navy established the Naval Training Station at Coasters Harbor Island. Operations on
land in Newport and at sea in Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound expanded during
the first half of the 20th century. During World War II, over 300,000 recruits passed
through the station. After the war, the Naval Training Station evolved into Officers
Candidate School (Rhode Island Historical Society 1993; Schroder 1980).
41. The Navy established the Naval War College at Newport in 1884. First led by Admiral
Stephen B. Luce the college recognized increasing connections between science and
warfare. The College’s highly influential second president, Alfred T. Mahan, along with
the technological and tactical challenges presented in the Spanish American War (1898),
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silenced many of the institution’s critics. In 1992, the College became an accredited
degree-granting institution (Rhode Island Historical Society 1993).
42. The United States Atlantic Fleet developed strong connections with Rhode Island,
Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound during the first half of the 20th century. On
the eve of the Second World War, six battleships, eight cruisers, thirty destroyers, two
submarines, two destroyer tenders and two supply ships along with many smaller vessels
were based in Rhode Island.
43. Naval facilities developed to service this growing Navy presence. In 1900, the Navy
created the Bradford Coaling Station near Melville, near the site of the Portsmouth Grove
Civil War hospital. Again Stephen Luce, although now retired, was involved in this
decision. By 1917, the coaling station had developed into a general fueling facility, with
extensive oil storage capacity. By 1937, it could store 13 million gallons of fuel. More
capacity was added during World War II.
44. Military naval and military activities in Rhode Island and its waters during the Second
World War. Providence yards built Liberty ships and the famed Herreshoff shipyard
built small boats for the Navy.
45. In 1940, the Navy broke ground on what would become the Quonset Naval Air Station,
one of two naval air stations on the east coast. Used first as a training facility it became a
command center for the First Naval District. “Quonsett-based aircraft carriers and planes
participated actively in antisubmarine warfare, convoy escort duties, and air and sea
rescue missions, as well as in air patrol operations in coastal waters.” (Schroder 1980). In
1942, the Navy built a Naval Auxiliary Air Facility in Charlestown with an on the ground
deck for carrier landing practice. The skies above the Ocean SAMP area saw thousands
of over-flights by military aircraft, several crashed in or near the Ocean SAMP area.
46. In October 1941, adjacent to Quonset at Davisville, the Navy built the Construction
Battalion Training Center (Camp Endicott) It served as a training center for newly
formed Naval Construction Companies who built facilities and protected themselves
while under fire. Over 100,000 men trained at Davisville during the war. A Civil
Engineer Officers Training School was added in 1944.
47. Camp Endicott also stored materials and equipment for construction of advance bases
overseas. In 1944, almost half a million long tons of advance base materials were
shipped out of the Davisville facility. During the war, engineers at Endicott developed
pontoons that were used as dry docks, bridges, ferries and barges. The private sector
G.A. Fuller Company developed and manufactured 32,253 portable corrugated steel
shelters that became famous as Quonset Huts (Schroder 1980).
48. Other naval facilities developed in Rhode Island during World War II included: a naval
supply depot at Coddington Cove (1942); the naval net depot that built steel anti-
submarine nets (1941); a marine Barracks at Coddington Cove (1943); a naval magazine
on Prudence Island (April 1942); a communication station at Beavertail (1941); a small
arms firing range at Sachuest Point (1942); a naval operating base in Newport (August
1941); an anti-aircraft training center at Price’s Neck near Brenton Point (1942); an
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inshore patrol facility on Long Wharf in Newport; and a demagnetizing facility at Gould
Island used counteract mines or torpedoes attracted to ships or detonated by magnetism
(Schroder 1980).
49. In 1942, the Navy built a Motor Torpedo Boat (Patrol Torpedo Boat) Squadrons Training
Center at Melville (February 1942). By 1944, the center’s 28 PT boats worked
extensively in the Rhode Island coastal waters and acted as listening posts farther out to
sea (Schroder 1980).
50. Between 1952 and 1973, the Cruiser-Destroyer Force Atlantic based out of Newport. In
1973, the Navy dramatically downsized its Rhode Island presence, causing serious
economic damage. The War College remained open as did the Navy Undersea Warfare
Center and smaller navy unit, known as Surface Group 4, comprising mostly frigates and
minesweepers (Rhode Island Historical Society 1993).
51. The history described above influenced the Ocean SAMP study area in many ways over
the past 300 years. Conflict and peacetime Navy operations have left a rich repository of
submerged archaeological sites. By far the greatest numbers of potential and known sites
are tied to World War II and/or the development of Naval facilities in Rhode Island
during the later-19th and 20th centuries. These resources include vessels lost by accident,
vessels deliberately sunk as part of weapons testing, derelicts, military aircraft, merchant
marine vessels sunk during war, ordnance, and other lost or abandoned military
equipment. The locations of these resources are known, many others certainly await
discovery.
52. Shipwrecks and other submerged archaeological sites tied to the American Revolutionary
War are central to understanding the importance of the military landscape of the Ocean
SAMP area. Rhode Island’s coastal waters have perhaps the largest number of known
Revolutionary War shipwreck sites in the United States. The intensity of American,
British and French military activity in Rhode Island from 1775-1778, makes it probable
that unidentified vessel losses occurred and that yet unknown Revolutionary War
shipwrecks await discovery in or near the Ocean SAMP area.
53. Rhode Island was one of the great centers of American privateering during many of the
Wars between the late 17th century and the end of the War of 1812 and a number of
related shipwrecks almost certainly occurred in the Ocean SAMP area. Two privateers
are known to have been lost in Rhode Island waters, one of which might be in the Ocean
SAMP area. It is probable that more await discovery.
54. Known and potential military-related shipwrecks from other periods of Rhode Island
history also contribute to the submerged military landscape. While few in numbers and
less characteristic of the overall landscape, some of these may be highly significant.
Military vessels from the late-17th century or early-18th century, as yet unknown, if
discovered they would contribute significantly to our understanding of Rhode Island
history.
55. The known cultural resources that contribute to the military cultural landscape are listed
in Table 4.2 below.
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Table 4.2. Submerged cultural resources associated with the military landscape
Vessel/Aircraft
Type
Date of Loss
Located within Ocean SAMP Area
Admiral Parker
Armed Schooner
9/22/1777
Possibly – lost off Watch Hill.
USS Alexander J. Luke
Destroyer Escort
10/22/1970
Possibly – sunk off Newport,
possibly out at sea.
USS Bass
Submarine
3/12/1945
Yes – Off Block Island.
Black Point
Collier
5/5/1945
Yes - Rhode Island Sound.
USS Columbus
Frigate
3/28/1778
Possibly – lost off Point Judith.
F6F Hellcat
Fighter Aircraft
10/22/1945
Possibly – crashed off Charlestown.
F6F Hellcat
Fighter Aircraft
8/17/1944
Yes – Salt Pond, Block Island.
USS Leyden
Steam Tug
1/21/1903
Yes – Block Island.
PB4Y Liberator
Navy Aircraft
1/31/1944
Yes – Rhode Island Sound.
USS Lightship #73
Lightship
9/14/1944
Possibly – Near Buzzard’s Bay
Entrance Tower.
USS L-8
Submarine
5/26/1926
Yes – Rhode Island Sound.
Minerva
Navy Transport
10/21/1778
Possibly – lost off Westerly.
USS Revenge
Armed schooner
1/8/1811
Possibly – lost near Watch Hill
Reef.
USS Scout Patrol 907
Scout Patrol
9/18/1918
Possibly – Burned at entrance to
Narragansett Bay.
Sisters
Navy Transport
11/7/1777
Possibly – lost near Point Judith.
AD-5W Skyraider
Trainer
Navy Aircraft
12/27/1957
Possibly – crashed off Charlestown.
USS Snowden
Destroyer Escort
6/27/1969
Possibly – towed out to sea and used
as a target for bombing and strafing.
HMS Syren
Frigate
11/7/1777
Possibly – lost off Point Judith.
Triton
Navy Transport
11/10/1777
Possibly – lost near Point Judith.
Two Brothers
Privateer
3/11/1777
Possibly – lost near Westerly.
Two Mates
Schooner
11/7/1777
Possibly – lost near Point Judith.
USS Waller
Destroyer
2/2/1970
Possibly – sunk as target off Rhode
Island.
PT-95
PT-Boat
9/4/1945
Possibly – destroyed at Rhode
Island.
PT-96
PT-Boat
9/7/1945
Possibly – destroyed at Rhode
Island.
PT-97
PT-Boat
9/7/1945
Possibly – destroyed at Rhode
Island.
U-853
Submarine
5/5/1945
Yes – off Block Island.
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410.6. Fisheries Landscape Context
1. Chapter 5, Commercial and Recreational Fisheries, describes commercial and
recreational fishing in and around the Ocean SAMP area. It also identifies important
historical elements related to the current state of fishing, target species, fishing ports and
communities. This hunting and gathering of the living marine resources in the Ocean
SAMP area has affected broad areas of the landscape. Sometimes these relationships
and their related cultural heritage resources are obvious such as in pre-contact shell
middens. Often, however, the influences and material culture of fishing and harvesting
have been overlooked by archaeologists and historians.
2. Studying the effects of historical fishing on marine populations and habitats is an
important new area of scholarship that is adding critical baseline information about pre-
commercial or pre-industrial ecosystems and the extent and potential effects of fishing.
Understanding existing ecological conditions requires knowledge of the past as well as
current human influences and activities. The condition of species have influenced, in
important ways, human activities that extend back millennia in the Ocean SAMP area.
The many known and undiscovered or unrecognized components of this landscape, such
as historic fishing vessels, fish traps, working and remnant piers, and the altered habitats
of historic fishing groups represent untapped opportunities to gain important knowledge
about human activities and their relationships with the marine environment of the Ocean
SAMP area. Many of these resources, including unique or representative fishing vessels
and the archeological remains of traps and piers that are 50 years old or older could
potentially be considered as candidates for the National Register of Historic Places.
Fixed on shore, the presence of historic submerged piers or fish traps are easier to
determine and locate. The locations of many fishing vessels, however, are unknown—
indeed, the number of vessels lost in the area prior to and since the European contact
remains unknown. This is an important historical and archaeological research question
and has implications for the citing of new structures in the Ocean SAMP area.
410.6.1. Rhode Island Fisheries
1. The commercial fisheries of Newport and Sakonnet Point have origins dating back to the
17th century (Hall-Arber et al. 2001). Colonial fishermen in Rhode Island operated a
“hook and line” fishery utilizing small skiffs, or set seine nets along the shore. The small
fish caught with seines were used primarily as manure in the fields. (Olsen et al. 1980).
During the mid-1800s, the use of staked and floating fish traps, set close to shore, came
into prominence as a fishing technique, eclipsing the hook and line method. This new
method of fishing was much more efficient (Olsen et al. 1980). At the time, traditional
hook and line fishermen claimed that the waters of Rhode Island were being overfished
by these new technologies.
2. The development of the fishing industry coincided with the development of markets for
fish and with the ability to store and transport fish. Toward the turn of the 19th century,
fish could be shipped by steamship from Newport to New York, or via railroad. In 1876,
construction was completed on Government Harbor (now Old Harbor) on Block Island’s
east side, which led to an expansion of the fishing industry and the accommodation of
larger vessels that could go farther out to sea for a longer time (RIHPHC 1991). In 1889,
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there were a reported 127 million pounds of fish landed in Rhode Island, of which 89
percent were menhaden (Olsen and Stevenson 1975). Menhaden plants, which rendered
the fish for oil, were common throughout the New England coastline around the turn of
the century.
3. During the 1920s and 1930s, menhaden began to disappear off the coast of New England
as stocks were overfished, and many of the menhaden plants were forced to close.
Fishermen were pushed to pursue other species (Poggie and Pollnac, eds. 1981). In the
1930s, the first otter trawls were used off Rhode Island (Olsen and Stevenson 1975).
Marine diesel engines were also introduced around this time, allowing fishermen to travel
further offshore in pursuit of fish (Poggie and Pollnac, eds. 1981). Trawling quickly
became the dominant method of fishing, and trap fishermen soon began criticizing
trawlers for a decline in stocks.
4. During the 1960s, significant stocks of lobsters which had not previously been fished
were discovered offshore, providing a large boost to landings and value in the state’s
lobster fishery (Sedgwick et al. 1980). Around this time, traps replaced trawling as the
dominant method for catching lobsters offshore, and this also significantly boosted
lobster landings and revenues (Poggie and Pollnac, eds. 1981).
5. As in other states around the country, the presence of foreign fishing fleets was a
contentious issue in Rhode Island in the 1960s through the mid-1970s, until the passage
of the Magnuson Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in 1976, which
declared a 200-mile limit on U.S. waters. Rhode Island offshore fisheries continued to
grow even during the time of massive fishing efforts by foreign fleets, as some of the
offshore stocks were not heavily exploited by foreign fleets, and were thus targeted by
Rhode Island vessels. This led to rapid expansion of Rhode Island fisheries in the late
1970s and early 1980s. In 1979, there were a record 264 offshore vessels landing at
Rhode Island ports, although some of these vessels were home-ported elsewhere.
6. Rhode Island’s important squid fishery began in the late 1800s as a bait fishery, and a
market for human consumption developed during the 1960s. From the late 1960s through
early 1980s, squid was heavily exploited in Rhode Island waters by foreign fishing fleets.
After the departure of foreign vessels from U.S. waters, Rhode Island vessels were
among the first to target squid in large numbers; Rhode Island commercial landings for
squid increased by an order of magnitude from 1981 through 1992 (DeAlteris et al.
2000).
7. During the 1980s, the commercial fishing industry in Rhode Island was growing,
increasing by 24 percent in total landings from 1980 through 1987, while landings in the
other New England states declined by 37 percent. This increase was due in part to an
increase in fish consumption nationwide, to the increased harvesting of what at the time
were underutilized species (such as squid and butterfish), and also to a significant
increase in international exports from Rhode Island, particularly to Japan. This growth
was also aided by public investment into the fishing industry during the late 1970s and
1980s, including the development of piers at both Newport and Galilee
(Intergovernmental Policy Analysis Program, University of Rhode Island, 1989).
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410.6.2. Fishing and Subsistence on Block Island
1. Modern archaeological investigations suggest that Indian people living on Block Island
depended heavily on marine plant and fish life as early as 3,000 years ago (Tveskov
1997). There is historical evidence of significant Indian fishing during the late 17th
century on Block Island. Two centuries later, beach walkers regularly discovered
examples of Indian fishing technology in the form of heavy grooved stone sinkers
(Livermore 1877).
2. Fish and marine vegetation directly and indirectly influenced diets and ecological
conditions on Block Island, promoting sustainable agriculture. Beginning in the late 18th
century, possibly earlier, Block Island farmers (many of them also fishermen) used
seaweed to protect crops from extreme weather and to nourish the heavily worked soil.
Farmers also mixed seaweed with fish offal and soil to create compost. These marine
resources and local agricultural practices maintained the soil’s fertility despite centuries
of intensive use. Livermore, the island’s principal early historian, noted that Islanders
gathered over 6,000 cords of seaweed valued at $10,000 in 1875. By that time many
Islanders maintained the exclusive right to collect weed from specific areas. A large area
of public beach, however, remained opened to all islanders. Such divisions are important
markers on the island’s historic cultural landscape (Livermore 1877).
3. Commercial fishing has long and important history in New England and the Ocean
SAMP area. Intimately tied to early exploration and settlement in the region during the
16th century, fish enticed thousands of ships and tens of thousands of European mariners
and fisherman to cross the North Atlantic to the Americas. They discovered and charted
off-shore banks and interacted with native people. In terms of economic value, the fish
caught and processed by the French and English fishermen outstripped the more famous
New World treasures of gold and silver extracted by the Spanish Empire (Fagan 2006;
Pope 2004).
4. Cod was the most important species for the Atlantic markets. Abundance combined with
low level of oil in the flesh made it possible to store dried salted cod for extended
periods. Cod, caught in the fall and the spring of the year, was the most important
commercial species for Block Island fishermen in the 19th century. In 1880, Block Island
fisheries employed 263 people, producing in excess of one million pounds of fish,
roughly three-quarters of which was dry cod. Fishermen also caught other species such
as dogfish and mackerel. In the 19th century, fishermen from other Rhode Island ports
and neighboring states competed with Block Islanders (Goode 1884).
5. In late 19th and early 20th century, Block Islanders attempted to maintain proprietary
connections to their local environment and resisted the introduction of new fishing
technologies to “their” waters in the 1880s (Goode 1884). One important exception was
the introduction in the late 1860s of fish traps or pound nets. Pound nets required that
many pilings be driven into the seafloor, the remnants of which might exist in regularly
spaced intervals in near-shore areas around the island (Livermore 1877; Goode 1884).
The rough Atlantic environment made maintaining traps challenging, but archaeological
remnants may well remain.
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410.6.3. Historic Shipwrecks of Fishing Vessels
1. Shipwrecks, particularly of fishing vessels, occurred throughout the centuries in Rhode
Island and remain a common occurrence in the Ocean SAMP area during the present day.
In the historical record, fishing can be an elusive subject. Accounts of the transporting
and selling of fish are available for some places and periods. In the later 19th century,
government-generated statistics become more common. However, in the distant past and
in more recent times, the records of individual fishing voyages remain rare and if in
existence, they often reveal little information about actual fishing activities, much less
fishing life. Official documents between the 16th through the early 19th centuries seem to
have rarely recorded (or at best under-recorded) the losses of early fishing vessels.
Based on examinations of manuscript and federal records by Ocean SAMP investigators,
this pattern seems to hold true in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly when it
comes to smaller fishing vessels.
2. The potential for unreported but historically significant commercial fishing vessel wrecks
in the Ocean SAMP area and surrounding waters is extremely high. The most important
individual wrecks would be the rare early commercial fishing vessels of 16th through the
mid 19th centuries. However, when considered as part of a larger fisheries landscape in
Rhode Island and in the Ocean SAMP area, fishing vessels and associated technologies
from the late 19th century through the 20th century have the potential to provide an
unbroken, representative, and highly illuminating archaeological record. These types of
cultural heritage have extraordinary potential to add significant new knowledge in many
areas, particularly in terms of the environment and culture. Often overlooked because of
apparent commonality and unromantic uses, it is essential to note that any commercial
fishing vessel built 50 years ago or more may be eligible for the National Register of
Historic Places (if the vessel meets other necessary criteria). Research is clearly needed
to identify these resources and to develop standards to evaluate these wrecks for purposes
of study, public use, and historic preservation.
3. Cultural heritage research relating to commercial fishing is in its early stages in
neighboring Massachusetts, where archaeologists and biologists at Stellwagen Bank
National Marine Sanctuary have discovered the locations of several wrecked fishing
vessels. Efforts are underway to evaluate and nominate some of these wrecks to the
National Register of Historic Places. Many similar wrecks exist in the Ocean SAMP
area and adjacent waters. While not all of these wrecks may merit preservation, the
older vessels certainly require inventory and assessment—a level of study that will
generate an improved understanding of the Ocean SAMP area’s cultural and natural
heritage.
4. At present, there is no solid estimate of the number and composition of historic
shipwrecks related to commercial fishing in the Ocean SAMP area. There is also no
direct historical evidence of the earliest vessels that likely passed through the Ocean
SAMP area during the second half of the 16th century. It is possible that one or more of
these craft wrecked in the Ocean SAMP area.
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410.6.4. Historic Harbor Features
1. Commercial fishing drove the development of harbor facilities in the Ocean SAMP area
in the 17th through the 20th centuries. In 1670’s, the first legislation supporting the
construction of a pier at Block Island cited the encouragement of fishing as its principle
justification. Subsequent successful and unsuccessful efforts to establish safe harbors on
the island focus on fish. In 1816, Block Island fisherman constructed the “pole harbor”
near present day old harbor. Consisting of pilings driven into the bottom and boulders,
the pole harbor offered adequate shelter in normal conditions. If stormy weather
threatened, fishermen pulled their boats onto the shore. By 1870s and the opening of the
Government Pier, the pole harbor consisted of 750 pilings (Goode 1884; Mendum 1897).
For the next two centuries and beyond, all efforts to build harbor facilities at Block Island
had strong ties to the fisheries (Livermore 1877; Goode 1884).
410.7. Marine Transportation and Commercial Landscape Context
1. While none of Rhode Island’s cargo ports or naval facilities are within the Ocean SAMP
area, cargo ships, support vessels and military craft traverse the Ocean SAMP area en
route to the Rhode Island ports of Providence, Quonset/Davisville, and Newport in
Narragansett Bay, and the Massachusetts port of Fall River (which includes Fall River
and Somerset) in Mount Hope Bay.
2. In the 1620s, Dutch shallops (coastal vessels) from New Amsterdam (later New York)
regularly transited the Ocean SAMP area and entered Narragansett Bay. In 1625, Dutch
traders established a base on Dutch Island in Narragansett Bay where they conducted a
lucrative trade with the native peoples.
3. English settlers that arrived in Rhode Island in the 1630s reshaped maritime traffic in the
Ocean SAMP area dispatching merchant ships both to Massachusetts and New York. In
1634, the first English cargo of maize (Indian grown) was shipped out of Rhode Island,
through the Ocean SAMP area, to Boston. Although European settlers on Aquidneck
Island embraced and expanded the commercial connections with Massachusetts, they also
fostered links with New Amsterdam. The latter had widespread implications, since trade
with Manhattan resulted in increasing numbers of Rhode Island merchant ships in Long
Island Sound, Block Island Sound and along the Connecticut shore (Bridenbaugh 1974).
4. During the 1640s, Rhode Islanders cultivated modest amounts of tobacco, which they
exchanged for English manufactured goods, including textiles and ironware. William
Coddington and William Withington were two of the earliest pioneers in this regard
(Bridenbaugh 1974).
5. The influx of Quakers into Rhode Island, which started in 1657 and accelerated after
1672, greatly affected patterns of trade and transportation in the Ocean SAMP area.
Quakers brought with them extensive regional and international commercial connections
and Rhode Island Sound became the thoroughfare through which they operated.
6. Although Rhode Island shipbuilders constructed relatively large vessels during the 18th
century, earlier vessels built in the colony, skiffs, pinnaces, shallops, ketches, were very
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small. Ranging from 16-30 tons these vessels were used for trade and/or fishing. In
1649, Captain Jeremiah Clarke built a barque called the Sea Flower and, in so doing,
became the first Rhode Island merchant to own a vessel larger than a shallop. In general,
barques ranged from 30-50 tons. By the early 18th century, Rhode Islanders started
building sloops with some regularity. Early centers of boatbuilding included Portsmouth,
Newport, Wickford, and Dighton on the Taunton River (Bridenbaugh 1974). In 1708,
Rhode Island merchants owned a total of 24 vessels. That number increased to 80 vessels
by 1731, 120 vessels by 1740 and more than 500 by 1763 (McLoughlin 1986).
7. As Rhode Island’s economy grew in the second half of the 17th and the early 18th
centuries, Newport both led the way and benefitted the most from the expansion.
Providence followed closely behind and became preeminent after the American
Revolution.
8. In the 18th century Newport and Providence merchants made money in the strengthening
Atlantic economy, shipping sugar, molasses, whale oil, spermaceti candles, livestock,
fish, lumber, wheat, and slaves to ports on the Atlantic rim. Sometimes Rhode Island
merchants participated in the infamous triangle trade of sugar, rum and slaves. Some
merchant families like the DeWolfs generated huge profits from the slave trade, while
others like the Browns, suffered periodic commercial setbacks. Virtually all ships en
route to European and Caribbean ports passed through the Ocean SAMP area.
9. In the years following the American Revolution, Providence merchants pursued
opportunities in the newer trades with South America, Australia, and Asian ports. The
port of Providence remained preeminent into the 1820s and 1830s (Albion et al 1970;
Kellner and Lemons 2004). One of America’s earliest China Trade vessels, the Ann and
Hope, was lost off the coast of Block Island in January 1806.
10. The 19th century saw a pronounced decline in the volume and economic significance of
Rhode Island’s foreign commerce, particularly when compared to Boston and New York.
Where Newport had been one of colonial North America’s busiest ports, by 1832 the
total tonnage of ships arriving from abroad to the Rhode Island ports of Providence,
Bristol and Newport amounted to less than 30,000 tons. By contrast, Boston also
recorded over 158,000 tons of arrivals from foreign ports and New York port more than
400,000 tons. Significantly, nearly all of the Rhode Island arrivals were American
vessels—many of them possibly Rhode Island owned. About 13 percent of Boston’s
arrivals and more than 25 percent of New York’s were foreign bottoms (22nd Cong. 2nd
sess. S. Doc. 109). By 1849, the Rhode Island total had fallen to under 23,000 tons (with
Newport only 3200 tons). That same year saw Boston’s arriving foreign commerce reach
451,000 tons and New York 1,118,000 tons (27th Cong. 2nd Sess. S. Doc. 356).
11. Steam navigation became a component of Rhode Island’s maritime sector in the early
1820s and grew in importance over the century. Rhode Island’s first steamboat was
reportedly the Firefly that operated between Newport and Providence in 1817. More
significant, however, was the establishment of steam packet service between New York
and New England by way of Long Island Sound. The first Long Island Sound-style
steamboat, The Fulton, was launched in 1814 by Elihu Bunker, and by the early 1820s,
all passengers traveling to or from Boston by steamboat passed through Providence (and
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the Ocean SAMP area). After 1847, Fall River, Massachusetts replaced Providence on
the New York/ Boston route, however, all of the steam traffic continued to pass through
Ocean SAMP area waters (Albion 1972).
12. In 1869, there were 31 steamboats constituting about 27,000 tons in the Rhode Island
fleet, a figure that compared favorably with neighboring New England states-- trailing
Connecticut and Massachusetts--but surpassing Maine and New Hampshire. In addition,
many of the Rhode Island steamboats were larger and reflected interregional rather than
local routes (Report of Commerce and Navigation for the Fiscal Year 1869). This pattern
was more pronounced in 1879, a year that Providence and Fall River each rivaled Boston
in the tonnage of steamboats calling at their wharves. When combined, the volume of
coastwise steamboat traffic entering Providence and Fall River reached an estimated
1,800,000 tons, surpassing New York port by nearly 300,000 tons (46th Congress, 2nd
Session H.Exec.Doc. 7).
13. The combination of steam, brightly painted wooden hulls and deckhouses, and a desire
for speed, in combination with primitive harbor facilities and other navigation hazards led
to significant steamboat disasters in or near the Ocean SAMP area. Among them, the
burning of Lexington in 1840; the grounding and destruction of the Atlantic on the
northern end of Long Island Sound in 1846 (immortalized by a Currier and Ives
lithograph). In Rhode Island off Watch Hill in 1872, the steamboat Metis collided with a
schooner and sank. In 1880, the Rhode Island grounded and broke up near Bonnet Shores
in Narragansett Bay. In 1907, the Larchmont was destroyed in a collision southeast of
Watch Hill (See also Section 410.9). These were major disasters; many smaller
steamboats including tugs and cargo vessels also suffered accident and loss in or near the
Ocean SAMP area.
14. As the volume of maritime commerce along the Atlantic coast grew, the federal
government assumed responsibility for establishing aids to navigation and protecting
public safety with a system of lighthouses and lifesaving stations. Lighthouses
established on Block Island, Sakonnet Point, Point Judith and Watch Hill (as well as in
the Bay) are important representatives of this enduring federal program. One U.S.
Lifesaving Service station remains on the west side of Block Island, another at
Narragansett Pier and there are historic U.S. Coast Guard stations at Newport, Point
Judith and Block Island.
15. Much of the domestic traffic through the Ocean SAMP area during the nineteenth century
escaped formal documentation. Fishing vessels, yachts, tugs, and small steamers had
little need to file paperwork. One area, coal (see also section 410.9) left a deep
impression in historical documents and in the archaeological record. During the later
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large quantities of coal transported by a fleet
comprised of hundreds of vessels contributed to the highest levels of traffic and human
activity in the recorded history of the Ocean SAMP area. In 1893, more than 60,000
vessels passed by Point Judith. (55th cong. 2d session House Document 60, Harbors of
Refuge at Point Judith, Block Island, and Great Salt Pond, etc. 1903). Another stream of
vessels passed south and east of Block Island and missed passing Point Judith. If counted,
they would add thousands more voyages to the 60,000 figure.
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16. In the early 20th century, during the 14 years known as “Prohibition,” maritime activity
in Rhode Island’s offshore waters expanded to include the illegal transport of alcoholic
beverages. Rum supply vessels typically lined up offshore beyond federal jurisdiction and
supplied “rum-runners,” small boats that could outrun Coast Guard enforcement vessels
while smuggling alcohol back to shore. One source indicates that rum supply vessels
serving Rhode Island communities anchored in the Ocean SAMP area about 15 miles
southeast of Block Island, and that rum runners used the three entrances to Narragansett
Bay to their advantage in attempting to avoid enforcement vessels (Hale 1998).
17. To understand the cultural and historical significance of the Ocean SAMP area it is
crucial to recognize that maritime activity in Rhode Island underwent a dramatic
transformation during the nineteenth century. While the state’s foreign trade declined in
significance, this did not mark a reduction in maritime traffic through state waters.
Domestic maritime traffic through the Ocean SAMP area grew rapidly along with New
England’s industrial economy and urban areas; see also Section 410.9. Introduced early
in the century, steamboats reached their peak as a passenger transport system
simultaneously with the busiest era of coastwise commercial trade.
18. Although statistical tracking of domestic shipping in the United States was inconsistent, it
is clear that overall vessel traffic levels through the Ocean SAMP area climbed
exponentially during the nineteenth century, and that Rhode Island maintained a
strategically important maritime sector. At the very time that Rhode Island’s foreign
maritime commerce was declining, growing numbers of steamboats and coastal merchant
vessels transformed the Ocean SAMP area waters into a segment of a northeastern U.S.
maritime highway equivalent in significance to the modern I-95 interstate.
19. For more detail on marine transportation, navigation and infrastructure in the Ocean
SAMP area, see Chapter 7: Marine Transportation, Navigation, and Infrastructure.
410.8. Recreation and Tourism Landscape Context
1. The Ocean SAMP area and adjacent coastal communities have a long history as centers
of marine recreational activity and as seaside tourism destinations. Since the mid-19th
century, tourists have traveled to Rhode Island to enjoy the natural beauty of the South
County beaches and to enjoy popular seaside resorts. Throughout the latter part of the
19th century, coastal areas were increasingly viewed as desirable destinations for
vacation and recreation, and new forms of transportation enabled access to such
locations. Coastal transport was flourishing at this time, and much of this trade was in the
transport of passengers via steamboat between urban centers and seaside resort locations
(Labaree et al. 1998). Companies such as the Fall River Line provided overnight
steamboat service from New York, via the protected waters of Long Island, Block Island,
and Rhode Island Sounds, to resort towns such as Newport, or to Fall River to connect
with a Boston-bound train (Labaree et al. 1998). Passenger steamships also provided
transport to Block Island, and to Narragansett Bay coastal camps and amusement parks
such as Rocky Point in Warwick and Bullock’s Point in Riverside (Albion et al. 1970).
2. Newport, dubbed the “City by the Sea,” is considered by some sources to be the oldest
summer resort in the nation. Many wealthy individuals from East Coast cities such as
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New York and Philadelphia cruised to Newport by yacht through Ocean SAMP waters to
enjoy what were considered the ideal sailing waters of Block Island Sound and
Narragansett Bay. As such, Newport’s rise as a resort community was due in part to its
location adjacent to the Ocean SAMP area waters. Yachting and recreational boating had
expanded dramatically in popularity in the late-19th and early-20th centuries throughout
the U.S. due to the increase in discretionary income and leisure time amongst the upper
classes. Narragansett Bay and the adjacent ocean waters have been popular locations for
yacht racing activities and regattas since 1860. From 1930 to 1983, America’s Cup
racing was based out of Newport and the races were held just outside of Narragansett Bay
off Brenton Point. Increasingly large crowds of visitors came to Newport and the adjacent
waters; by one count, 100,000 people converged on Newport for the 1983 race (Kellner
and Lemons 2004).
3. Block Island has also become a popular tourist destination since that time. The late
nineteenth century marked a new era of tourism for the island, and the development of
boarding houses, hotels, and cottages took place in a sequential pattern and led to a
dramatic increase in the annual summer population on the island. (RIHPHC 1991) In
addition to seaside tourism, Block Island has historically been a popular destination for
recreational boaters and sailors. A 1948 cruising guide, Yachting in North America,
identifies Block Island as a recommended destination.
4. For more detail on recreation and tourism in the Ocean SAMP area, see Chapter 6,
Recreation and Tourism.
410.9. Energy Landscape Context
1. For nearly 300 years, the production and transfer of energy has shaped the cultural
landscape of the Ocean SAMP area and adjacent coastal areas. At first, this shaping took
place on land, but in the nineteenth century began to encompass the oceans.
2. For more than one thousand years before the European invasion of New England, Block
Island supported large Indian populations who met their energy needs by taking
sustainable quantities of wood from the island’s dense forests. When Europeans settled
Block Island in 1662, they commenced altering an ecosystem and visual landscape
created through centuries of deliberate Indian activity (Cronon 1983). The limited
coverage of trees and miles of stone fences marking the island today resulted from a
heedless consumption of energy that soon exhausted the Island’s forests. In 1721, Simon
Ray, a town elder warned that the wasteful consumption of trees could force the
community to abandon the Island for lack of fuel and building material. Survival came
not from rational conservation but the discovery of Block Island’s vast beds of peat.
Derived from wet compressed decomposed organic matter, peat is the geological ancestor
of coal. Using peat for fuel required Block Islanders to engage in the time consuming
and laborious process of digging, flattening, stacking, and drying. Known as “tug” on
Block Island, the fuel was carefully stored in “tug houses,” built for this purpose.
Between about 1750 (possibly earlier) and 1860, peat provided the only reliable source of
energy on Block Island (Livermore 1877). The work required to gather and process peat
made it an expensive source of energy when measured in the terms of human time and
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effort. In effect, Block Islanders have been paying a premium for energy for nearly three
hundred years.
3. An 1846 shipwreck in Cow Cove brought some interest in the use of coal as a new fuel
for Block Island. However, it took some time for coal to be accepted on the Island with
the shift from native peat to imported coal coming with the 1873 completion of federal
protected harbor and landing (Old Harbor). Begun in 1870, the harbor ushered in a new
era on the Island. According to Reverend Samuel Livermore, a Block Island historian
writing in 1877, more construction had taken place on the island in the previous five
years, than in the 50 year that preceded it. Livermore also described in the installation of
the Island’s first coal furnace, in the First Baptist Church in 1875. By that year,
Islanders had gotten past their fears of the new energy source and had shifted to the coal
for their household stoves.
4. New England’s dependence on energy, delivered by sea through the Ocean SAMP area,
resulted from major historical processes that transformed the United States into the
world’s leading industrial economy. Three processes directly associated with Rhode
Island created unprecedented demands for fuel in New England: the introduction of
stationary industrial steam engines and their application to textile milling, the expansion
of heat intensive metal manufacturing processes, and the replacement of wood by coal for
industrial energy. Just as industrialization shaped Rhode Island’s historic landscapes on
land, it exercised parallel effects in the Ocean SAMP area, leading or contributing
substantially to hundreds of accidents and deaths through shipwrecks and to major
alterations to the environment through the construction or improvement harbors,
dredging of shipping channels, construction or improvements to lighthouses, docks, and
lifesaving stations.
5. Although the “Ocean State,” Rhode Island‘s history is more commonly associated with
industry than the ocean. Many landmark moments in U.S. industrial history occurred in
Rhode Island. In 1780, the Brown family installed the second industrial steam engine in
the United States. Used to pump water, the engine kept an iron mine in service to supply
a successful Brown blast furnace (Hunter 1985). Ten years later in a historic partnership,
Moses Brown and the English millwright Samuel Slater constructed the first Arkwright-
style textile mill in the United States (Coleman 1963). Like other American mills of the
period, the motive power came from flowing water. However, in another Rhode Island
first occurring in 1827, Slater established a steam-powered textile mill at Providence.
Slater’s steam mill also effectively inaugurated the New England energy lifeline. The
anthracite coal used to fuel the mill originated from Pennsylvania’s Schuylkill region
(Coleman 1963). The several hundred-mile journey from mine to mill followed a
freshwater path to Philadelphia where, loaded on a ship it embarked on a sea voyage that
would pass through the Ocean SAMP area into Narragansett Bay and up to Providence.
6. The spread of the stationary steam engine such as the one used by Slater, facilitated the
growth of industry in New England, and freed it from geographic dependence on
waterpower. Stationary steam allowed industry to centralize in urban areas where mill,
factory, and foundry operators could find readily available pools of skilled and unskilled
labor, excellent sources of capital, and well developed ports and railway connections
(Hunter 1985). Providence became the national capital for stationary steam with the
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1849 patenting of the locally developed and manufactured Corliss Engine. With
improved fuel efficiency and operational consistency, the Corliss became the nation’s
most important steam engine with nearly 500 constructed in Providence before the Civil
War (Hunter 1985).
7. The Corliss works was one of many energy intensive precious and base metal enterprises
that transformed Rhode Island into America’s most industrialized state. By 1880, Rhode
Island’s steam engines produced 38.1 horsepower per acre; nearly double Massachusetts
(21.3), four times New Jersey (9.8), and nine times New York (4.9) (Hunter 1979).
Rhode Island’s concentrated style of industrialization occurred across the urban areas of
southern New England. Between 1850 when Americans burned an estimated 0.36 lbs of
coal per capita and 1918, coal consumption grew 77-fold nationwide. A sizable
proportion of this increase occurred in New England. By 1907, Americans consumed
nearly 5 tons of coal per capita annually (Schurr 1960). In the industrialized areas of
New England, the per capita consumption was much higher. That year, over 10 million
tons of coal arrived at New England ports, 3.5 million in Providence alone. In 1918,
perhaps the peak year for the coal trade, the regional figure of coal shipped by sea
reached nearly 20 million tons (Graaebner 1974; Gordon 1978; Atlantic Deeper
Waterways Commission 1908).
8. Unlike America’s other industrializing regions, New England lacked native coal in
industrial quantities. For New England’s industries to thrive, they relied on inexpensive
coal mined in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and
transported as cheaply as possible. During the second half of the nineteenth century an
ad-hoc and grossly inefficient system of coal transportation by sea developed. Canals,
rivers and railroads carried coal to the major Atlantic ports where it was loaded on a
grimy armada of schooners, schooner-barges, and barges that sailed or steamed north to a
bewildering array of destinations. Figure 4.1, reproduced below, depicts the general flow
of coal from mine to New England. (It does not represent the several ports that shipped
coal through much of the period when coal transportation to New England expanded. By
the 1920s, coal shipping had centralized in Virginia). In 1903, midway through the
expansion of the coal trade, the principal coal companies reported delivering product to
142 separate destinations, most of them in New England. The quantities sent were huge,
but many of the vessels were not, and the trade required the constant employment of
hundreds of vessels, many as small as 200 tons. In January of that year, Boston received
333,000 tons of coal and Providence 181,000 tons (57th Cong. 2nd Sess. H. Doc. 15 pts
7,8 & 9 Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance of the United States for the Fiscal
Year 1903).
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Figure 4.1. Tidewater shipments of bituminous coal, 1929. (Reproduced from Fritz and Veenstra,
Regional Shifts in the Bituminous Coal Industry, p. 89.)
9. The large quantities of coal transported by a fleet comprised of hundreds of vessels
contributed to the highest levels of traffic and human activity in the recorded history of
the Ocean SAMP area. During the peak decades of coal, maritime traffic dwarfed the
contemporary levels described in Chapter 7, Marine Transportation, Navigation, and
Infrastructure, exceeding it by orders of magnitude in term of the numbers of ships and
transits. In 1893, more than 60,000 vessels passed by Point Judith. Most of these
(34,000) were classified as schooners. Barges accounted for an additional 9000 transits.
It is difficult to estimate the proportion of these vessels engaged in the coal trade but it
would include nearly all of the barges, and probably a significant majority of the
schooners. (55th cong. 2d session House Document 60, Harbors of Refuge at Point
Judith, Block Island, and Great Salt Pond, etc. 1903). Another stream of vessels passed
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south and east of Block Island and missed passing Point Judith. If counted they would
add thousands more voyages to the 60,000 figure.
10. At the beginning of the twentieth century, coal carriers followed one of two main routes
through the Ocean SAMP area. Many, probably the majority, steered a course past Point
Judith, sailing closer to the mainland than Block Island. Many of these small schooners
came up through Long Island Sound, while others such as the Addie Andersen, a four-
masted coal schooner bound for Providence passed east of Block Island before entering
Narragansett Bay only to wreck on Whale Rock. When threatened by heavy weather,
the vessels taking the offshore route sought protection on the lee sides of Block Island, a
practice that contributed to many shipwrecks (55th cong. 2d session House Document 60,
Harbors of Refuge at Point Judith, Block Island, and Great Salt Pond, etc. 1903).
11. Current data at least suggests that the majority of shipwrecks in the Ocean SAMP area
involved transportation of coal to New England during a fifty year period between 1870
and 1920 when the United States developed into the world’s largest industrial economy.
The rapidly increasing demand for abundant AND inexpensive energy in New England
led to the creation of an ad hoc system of transportation that relied on many low-cost and
vulnerable types of vessels. Operated by poorly paid mariners, many of them black, the
coal barges represented the lowest strata on the maritime social scale (The Seaman’s Bill,
Hearings Held Before the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries on House Bill
11372, December 14, 1911).
12. The Ocean SAMP area’s energy landscape is very important in the history of Rhode
Island and greater New England. The coal vessels provided critical infrastructure
without which the region would have languished economically after the Civil War. It has
been a largely forgotten chapter in the state’s maritime or industrial history. Where
merchant vessels such as the famous Brown family East Indiaman Ann and Hope that
wrecked at Block Island in 1815 were highly visible in cultural terms and associated with
the wealth and social status of their owners, the coal vessels, with a few notable
exceptions, rarely contributed to the social status to their owners, officers, or crew.
Indeed other merchant mariners regarded the grimy armada of coaling vessels and their
crews with mixture contempt and pity due to the low wages, harsh living conditions,
mixed racial composition of the workforce, and the frequent accidents they endured (The
Seaman’s Bill, Hearings Held Before the Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries
on House Bill 11372, December 14, 1911).
13. The rapidly growing New England coal trade operated within a unique context of
obsolescence, innovation, and forced operational economy. It resulted in a complex and
historically significant cultural landscape in the Ocean SAMP area consisting of
shipwrecks, harbors, canals, lifesaving stations, and aids to navigation. Among the most
common wrecks are those of merchant sailing vessels built in the 1850s, 1860s, and
1870s and repurposed to carry coal, towed in long lines behind steam tugs. As the
demand for coal continued to grow and the supplies of older ships diminished, new
classes of vessels evolved to fill the void, including some of the largest commercial
sailing vessels ever built (Snow and Lee 1999). Shipyards also turned out specially
designed schooner-barges. Less majestic and more common, these sail-equipped vessels
were supposed to possess some capacity for independent navigation; however, the
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historical and archaeological record demonstrates that this usually was not true,
especially in heavy weather. Over time, however, the relentless drive for economy led to
an increasing emphasis on even cheaper and easier to construct barges. These early
“box-barges” had poor seagoing capacities and many foundered in Rhode Island.
14. The shipwrecks of the Ocean SAMP area’s energy landscape are important heritage
resources associated with the industrialization of American seafaring. While not every
wreck merits preservation, they all potentially can contribute a broader understanding of
human activity within the Ocean SAMP area. At the very least, many of the energy
related shipwrecks could possibly be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
In addition, specific areas of the Ocean SAMP may be eligible as cultural landscapes.
Cultural resource managers in other locations are beginning to study and preserve
industrial vessels such as those found in the Ocean SAMP. At the Stellwagen Bank
National Marine Sanctuary in Massachusetts, NOAA archaeologists recently documented
three coal schooners, Paul Palmer, Frank A. Palmer, and Louise B. Crary and prepared
successful nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. Archaeologists
working in the Great Lakes region have documented and nominated numerous industrial
era steamers, schooner, schooner-barges and related craft (Marx and Lawrence 2006;
Cooper and Jensen 1995). Determining which wrecks in the Ocean SAMP area‘s energy
landscape should be included on the National Register will require a broader scale
regional study. At this point, any coal vessels built more than fifty years ago are
potentially eligible (if the vessel meets other necessary criteria).
15. There is no clearly defined temporal end to the coal era in the energy landscape. In 2007,
as reported in Chapter 7, Marine Transportation, Navigation, and Infrastructure, more
than 4 million tons of coal entered Narragansett Bay and transited through the Ocean
SAMP area. The context of industrial shipwrecks, however, can be more tightly defined.
During the 1920s, structural changes in the transportation of coal and advances in marine
safety and navigation greatly reduced, although did not eliminate the wrecking of coal
carrying vessels in the Ocean SAMP area. The centralization of coal shipping in Virginia
and improvements in the receiving of coal at larger New England ports removed physical
and economic roadblocks that prevented investments in safer large capacity coal barges
and vessels. As long as waiting times to unload were irregular and often protracted,
larger, safer, and more capital-intensive vessels could not compete with the inferior or
less expensive vessel whose wrecks line the bottom and shorelines of the Atlantic Coast
from Virginia through New England.
16. Coal dominates the archaeology of the Ocean SAMP area’s energy landscape, but other
fuels have left important marks. While the absolute volume of coal transported through
the Ocean SAMP has continued to be high, its relative dominance in New England’s
energy lifeline slowly diminished after 1918 with rapid increases in the use of oil for fuel.
In 1918, the burning of fuel oils produced the equivalent of 8% energy of the total energy
produced by coal in the United States. By 1922, that figure had doubled to 16% and by
1935 reached 21.5% (Schurr 1960). Although coal in vast quantities fueled and continues
to fuel New England’s power plants, it was increasing amounts of petroleum in the form
of fuel oil, kerosene, and gasoline that provided the additional energy require to heat
homes and power the millions of new motor vehicles then reshaping the country.
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17. The history of transporting petroleum products by sea differs greatly from coal. It
developed quickly and took on a highly rationalized form that included efficient port
infrastructures for loading and unloading (Schurr 1960). Modern tankers first appeared in
Europe in the 1880s, with the first American built tanker launched for Standard Oil in
1888. Tankers became more common with increased use of petroleum for fuel and this
became increasingly true with the mass production of the automobile and the
skyrocketing consumption of gasoline. In 1918, Americans consumed an estimated 74.5
million barrels of gasoline, a figure that grew 7-fold by 1939, the year that the tanker
Lightburne ran aground and broke up on Block Island carrying a cargo of gasoline and
kerosene (Schurr 1960; Snyder and Snyder 1998). The Lightburne was not the first
petroleum-carrying vessel to wreck in Rhode Island. An older wreck with potentially
more historical significance is the tanker Llewellyn Howland that ran aground and broke
up on Seal Ledge, dumping thousands of barrels of fuel oil into the Ocean SAMP area in
1924 (Snyder and Snyder 1998). The Howland’s history is not well known; however,
research by URI investigators suggests that it is a first generation oil tanker built in 1888,
and a very likely candidate for the National Register of Historic Places.
18. Transporting energy by sea brings risks. In 1996, the North Cape, a barge containing 3.9
million gallons of home heating oil, grounded at Moonstone Beach in Rhode Island. The
ensuing spill of 828,000 gallons was the one of the worst environmental disasters to
occur in Rhode Island’s waters. In terms of human use and their cultural and
environmental impacts on the Ocean SAMP area, the North Cape grounding was but one
of the latest in hundreds of energy related transportation accidents that have occurred
over the past 170 years (USFWS n.d.).
19. In 2007, as reported in Chapter 7, Marine Transportation, Navigation, and Infrastructure,
more than 6 million short tons of petroleum products entered Narragansett Bay via the
Ocean SAMP area. In 2010, the transportation of energy dominates commercial shipping
through the Ocean SAMP area, accounting for 80 percent of the volume of cargo entering
Narragansett Bay.
20. The production and distribution of energy dramatically shaped in the landscape of the
Ocean SAMP area and adjacent coastal places, including Block Island and Point Judith.
Some of the landscape features such as historic shipwrecks associated with the
transportation of coal and petroleum are easy to identify in this historical record and to
associate with the energy landscape. The cultural and historical significance of this
archaeological landscape is clearly high, but determining specific contributions of each
individual wreck to the landscape will require further research and analysis. At a
minimum level, these wrecks connect with a time in history (1870 – 1920) when the
human uses within the Ocean SAMP area appeared more pronounced and its visual
characteristics markedly different from 2010. In heavily traveled areas of the Ocean
SAMP region, a typical day would have presented observers with an industrial maritime
thoroughfare characterized by passage of hundreds of vessels and thousands of people.
Modern harbors, industrial docks, dredged navigation channels, and legally proscribed
shipping lanes that developed during this period are just a few of the non-shipwreck
landscape features that connect in meaningful and documentable ways with the Ocean
SAMP area’s energy landscape.
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21. For more details on proposed renewable energy in the Ocean SAMP area, see Chapter 8,
Renewable Energy and Other Offshore Development.
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Section 420. Submerged Archaeological Sites in the Ocean SAMP Area
1. Ocean SAMP submerged cultural resource investigations were designed to give a broad
understanding of the extent, significance, and types of underwater historic and
archaeological sites in the area, as well the way these sites were tied into the submerged
cultural landscape of Rhode Island.
2. Generating an inventory and database of known and potential submerged historic sites
requires an examination of published sources and existing databases, as well as historic
research, digital historic cartographic research, geophysical survey and geo-spatial
database construction. While investigations of post-contact submerged cultural
resources usually focus on shipwrecks, other types of submerged properties, including
historic submarine cables, docks, wharfs and buildings, should also be considered. In the
Ocean SAMP area, at least one of these additional types of cultural resources, historic
submarine cables is important to both historic preservation and development plans.
420.1. Potential and Known Marine Archaeology Sites
1. While the Ocean SAMP area contains a rich repository of submerged historic sites,
estimating the total extent of that resource base is difficult. The data necessary, whether
it be historical, archaeological or geophysical, is frequently incomplete and/or
inaccessible. This sometimes results in contradictory data sets that have to be carefully
analyzed, amalgamated and ultimately rationalized. Only then can reliable estimates of
the resource base be generated. URI researchers have made significant strides toward
doing that for the Ocean SAMP.
2. Military vessels lost during war and commercial vessels after about 1840 are
comparatively well documented in the historical and archaeological record. Many of the
earliest and potentially most significant shipwrecks, however, are undocumented. In a
similar vein, vernacular craft, including fishing boats, are poorly understood despite their
place in Rhode Island history and their undeniable relationships with and effects on the
ocean environment.
3. Information about shipwreck losses in the Ocean SAMP area comes in multiple forms.
By far the most reliable database is held by the Rhode Island State Historic Preservation
and Heritage Commission (the Official State Database), which contains listing for 1041
shipwrecks in Rhode Island state waters. The Official State Database also includes
significant information collected over many years by the Rhode Island Marine
Archaeology Project (RIMAP) headed by Dr. Kathy Abbass. The Rhode Island Historic
Preservation and Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) and RIMAP have an ongoing strong
and fruitful working relationship. In addition to the Official State Database, there exists
at least two complementary datasets. First, the Northern Shipwrecks Database,
comprising in excess of 100,000 shipwrecks, has at least 1,200 recorded in Rhode Island
waters. Second, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office
of Coast Survey maintains the Automated Wreck and Obstruction Information System
(AWOIS) that has 850 wrecks and obstructions for a region that extends from Long
Island Sound to Cape Cod and includes Rhode Island waters.
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4. Beyond these datasets, the University of Rhode Island has three databases; a working
archaeological database that contains listings for 618 shipwrecks in Rhode Island waters
(URI Working Database); a geophysical survey database that contains acoustic images of
at least 30 shipwrecks in Rhode Island (URI Geophysical Survey Database); and a
supplementary historic database, built from various sources including historic charts, and
records of the US Life Saving Service, the US Coast Guard, the Navy and the
Department of Commerce (URI Supplementary Historic Database).
5. The URI Supplementary Historic Database currently contains listings for 584 wrecking
events in Rhode Island prior to 1908 as well as considerable information about non-
shipwreck submerged cultural resources.
6. The historic cartographic research to support this database focused on geo-rectifying
historic navigation charts for Block Island. The charts for 1914, 1934, 1957, 1966, 1968,
1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1985, 1996, 1997, and 1999 were geo-
referenced and laid on top of the modern navigation chart. A similar procedure was
followed with navigational charts for Block Island Sound, although in this case the
process was less exhaustive. It did, however, incorporate data from the 1901 navigation
chart of Block Island Sound which in turn was based on survey data from 1848. URI
researchers also geo-rectified 1934 and 1999 charts of the Block Island Sound. In the
process of doing this work they identified what was almost certainly the first modern
hydrographic survey of Block Island waters – completed by the US Coast Survey in
1839. From these charts, researchers were able to map historic navigation corridors,
hazards to navigation, obstructions, shipwrecks, shoaling, shoreline changes and patterns
of maritime commerce.
7. All databases described above can be augmented with published dive guides - the most
important of which are Marlene and Don Snyder’s books Rhode Island Adventure Diving
and Rhode Island Adventure Diving II; and Henry Keatts and George Farr’s book, The
Bell Tolls: Shipwrecks & Lighthouses, Volume 1, Block Island.
8. Outside government agencies, organized avocational groups, and academic institutions
there are a wide array of people that possess critical information about shipwrecks and
other submerged archaeological sites in Rhode Island. Among these are local users
including commercial and recreational fishermen, and non-academic shipwreck experts
including John Stanford and Mark Munro.
9. All of these databases and sources of information have strengths and weaknesses. While
there is considerable overlap, there are also significant discrepancies between the
datasets. As part of the Ocean SAMP process, researchers at the University of Rhode
Island started to augment the Official State Database with extensive data from elsewhere.
The final rationalized product will be an improved estimate of the location and extent of
submerged cultural resources in the Ocean SAMP area. While this work is not yet
complete, the progress made to date does allow for some preliminary analysis of the
shipwreck resources in Rhode Island waters.
10. During the last 300 years, there have been at least 1,200 maritime accidents and disasters
in Rhode Island and Rhode Island Sound that probably resulted in vessel loss and/or
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deposition of cultural material. This number excludes many 17th and 18th century
accidents that are much more difficult to track in the historical record. Of the 1,200 or
more vessels lost in Rhode Island waters, approximately half occurred in the Ocean
SAMP area. Of these, more than half have some locational association with Block
Island. Other places strongly represented are the waters off Point Judith, Watch Hill and
Beavertail.
11. It is difficult to know how many of the recorded maritime accidents and disasters left a
material record that can be found, studied, protected and analyzed – but it is certainly a
significant number. We have good location information for approximately 50 shipwrecks
in the Ocean SAMP area, but given the number of known wrecks, many others clearly
await discovery and assessment. The complete results from geophysical survey
conducted as part of the Ocean SAMP process are not yet available, but when the
archaeological processing of that data is complete, the RIHPHC will have additional
information in their database. Much of the Ocean SAMP area remains un-surveyed for
archaeological sites and important historic resources certainly lie in those areas.
420.2. Spatial and Temporal Distribution Patterns
1. Figure 4.2 shows the preliminary spatial distribution of reported Rhode Island
shipwrecks. This data was compiled from multiple database sources, but it is yet to be
fully analyzed and consolidated. Not all the shipwrecks have been confirmed and in a
few instances the map contains more than one point for an individual shipwreck.
Nevertheless and despite its weaknesses, the map shows identifiable spatial patterning
from which some general conclusions might be drawn.
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Figure 4.2. Potential historic shipwreck locations.
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2. Block Island has been a focus of vessel loss in Rhode Island waters. Heavy levels of
commercial traffic over the past three centuries combined with strong currents, storms
and frequent periods of heavy fog created an environment in which shipwrecks on shore
and collisions at sea were relatively common. The Ocean SAMP area shows another
concentration of shipwrecks in a corridor that runs along the southern edge of the Rhode
Island coast from Watch Hill to Point Judith. The lee shore and heavy levels of
commercial and passenger traffic during the nineteenth century out of New York and
along the southern coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island are largely responsible for this
concentration. This heavier concentration of vessels along with dangers to navigation
around Block Island, go a long way in explaining higher densities of shipwrecks in the
northwestern part of the Ocean SAMP area. There is, however, an important caveat. The
central-southern and southeastern parts of the Ocean SAMP area were further off shore
and further away from land observation. Stricken vessels in these areas were less likely
to be have been seen and less likely to have boasted survivors. In addition, there have
been fewer modern attempts to map the ocean floor in the central and eastern parts of the
Ocean SAMP area. As a result, our knowledge of these areas is less authoritative. They
probably contain higher numbers of shipwrecks than are reflected current distribution
patterns.
3. Figure 4.3 shows the temporal distribution of Rhode Island shipwrecks from the early
18th century to modern times, grouped by decade. The data comes from the URI
Working Database, but analyses of other Rhode Island shipwreck databases mirror these
results.
Figure 4.3. Temporal distribution of shipwrecks in the Ocean SAMP area (Mather 2010).
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4. The graph shows a spike in the number of Rhode Island shipwrecks during the
Revolutionary War and another during the first two decades of the nineteenth century.
Starting in the 1860s, Rhode Island saw a sharp rise in the number of shipwrecks
occurring in its waters. The numbers continued to rise, reaching their zenith during the
1880s. This certainly resulted from the rapid expansion of shipping activity across the
Ocean SAMP area during America’s most rapid period of industrial development.
Demands for energy, particularly coal, in New England during the late 19th century
caused hundreds of vessels a day to move through the Ocean SAMP area. Heavy traffic,
hazardous waters and pre-electronic navigational instruments, provided a recipe for high
losses of shipping and life. A decline in the number of shipwrecks per decade in the 20th
century corresponded with improvements in navigational instruments and greater
capitalization of U.S. shipping.
5. Table 4.3 lists shipwrecks in the Ocean SAMP area for which the location is known.
Table 4.3. Known shipwrecks in the Ocean SAMP study area.
Name
Type
Year Built
Year of Loss
Location
Water
Depth
Description
Achilles
Freighter
1887
Off Block
Island
Annapolis
Wooden
Barge
1918 at
Wilmingto
n, DE (?)
1945
Off
Charlestown
Breachway
85’
Lost as a result of a
collision with the USN
Submarine Moray.
Possibly owned by P.
Dougherty Co.,
Baltimore, MD.
USS Bass
Submarine
1924
1945
Off Block
Island
160'
Converted to merchant
submarine in 1940.
Sunk by navy aircraft
(PBY-5A) during
target practice.
Belleville
Freighter
1950
1957
Off Brenton
Point
25'
Headed from Boston
to Philadelphia. Ran
aground on Seal
Ledge. Later
dynamited by Corps of
Engineers to remove
wreckage that
represented a hazard to
navigation.
Black
Point
Collier
1918
1945
North of Block
Island,
southeast of
Point Judith
100’
Headed from Norfolk
Virginia to Boston
with 7000 tons of coal.
Torpedoed by German
submarine U-853. The
Black Point was the
last merchant ship
sunk in American
waters during WWII.
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Name
Type
Year Built
Year of
Loss
Location
Water
Depth
Description
Bouquet
Barge
1906
Off
Quonochontaug
Beach
120’
Crystal
Lake
Steel
Coal
Barge
1946
South of
Misquamicut
Beach
130’
The Crystal Lake was
one of two coal-carrying
barges being towed by
the tug Nottingham from
Edgewater, New Jersey
to Providence. She sank
in heavy seas 4 miles
south of Misquamicut
Beach. 7 men died. The
other barge had been left
in New London.
Essex
Freighter
(formerly
Passenge
r Liner)
1890
1941
Southeast Point,
Block Island
30’
Bound from Portugal to
New York. A
navigational error caused
her to run aground on
Southeast Point, Block
Island. Close to the
wreck of the Lightburne.
Explorer
Trawler
1978
1994
South of
Aquidneck
Island
90’
Hull pierced by floating
debris (a 55-gallon
drum).
George W.
Humphries
Wooden
Fishing
Steamer
1877
1904
Brenton Reef
15’
Built in Philadelphia and
owned by the American
Fishing Company she
ran ashore at Brenton
Reef in 1904 when
returning to Newport
after fishing for
menhaden. Navigational
error.
Goliath
Tug
1942
Off
Charlestown
Grecian
Freighter
1899
1932
Off Block
Island
100’
Bound from Boston to
Norfolk in dense fog.
Sunk after collision with
a steamer called the City
of Chattanooga. Later,
the hulk was blown up to
reduce risks to
navigation.
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Name
Type
Year Built
Year of
Loss
Location
Water
Depth
Description
F6F
Hellcat
Fighter
Aircraft
1941, 1942,
1943, 1944 or
1945
1945
Off Charlestown
20’
The aircraft experienced
engine trouble during a
patrol flight on October 21,
1945 in Rhode Island
Sound. The pilot
attempted to make an
emergency landing at
Charlestown Air Base, but
was forced to make a water
landing.
Hercules
Steam Tug 1880
1907
Off Misquamicut
State Beach
15’
Built in Camden, NJ in
1880, home ported in New
York, and owned by “Jay
Steel Terminal” or more
probably Jay Street
Terminal, Brooklyn, NY.
She had been chartered by
the New York Herald in
1898 and dispatched to
Cuba so that the paper’s
correspondents could cover
the Spanish American War.
She was lost December 12,
1907 during a winter
nor’easter. She struck “Old
Reef”. She was bound
from Newport for New
London with 4 barges in
tow.
Heroine
Fishing
(dragger /
trawler)
1899
1920
South of Watch
Hill and
Charlestown
80’
Built in Brooklyn NY,
home ported in Boston,
MA, owned by
Commonwealth Fishing
Company. Fishing off
Block Island the fishing
boat developed a leak and
sank. Survivors picked up
by another fishing boat, the
Rose of Italy.
Idene
Fishing
(dragger/
trawler)
1991
Off Block Island
85’
Scuttled off Block Island
Jennie R.
Dubois
Schooner
1902
Off Block Island
90’
L-8
Submarine 1917
1926
South of
Beavertail
100'+
US Navy submarine, built
during WWI and sunk as
part of torpedo tests on
May 26, 1926.
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Name
Type
Year Built
Year of
Loss
Location
Water
Depth
Description
Larchmont
(formerly the
Cumberland)
Passenger
Paddle
Steamer
1907
Off Watch Hill
130’
Owned by the Joy Line.
Bound from Providence
to New York. Collided
with the Harry Knowlton,
a coastal coal schooner.
USS Leyden
Navy Steam
Tug
1866
1903
Block Island
15’
Assigned to Torpedo
Station, Newport. On
route from Puerto Rico to
Newport. Ran aground
on south coast of Block
Island in thick fog due to
a navigational error.
Lightburne
Tanker
1919
1939
Block Island
30’
Headed from Providence
to Port Arthur, TX. Ran
ashore near southeast
light in heavy fog and
strong winds. She had
72,000 barrels of gasoline
and kerosene on board at
the time of her sinking.
Llewellyn
Howland
(formerly
Wico)
Tanker
1888
1924
Off Newport
30’
Built at Tyneside, UK.
Bound from Fall River to
Portland, ME with 25,000
barrels of fuel oil. Struck
Seal Ledge south of
Aquidneck Island.
Lydia
Scholfield
Three-
Masted
Schooner
1860
1891
Butterball Rock,
South of Castle
Hill.
25’
Bound from New Orleans
to Providence with 7,000
barrels of cotton-seed oil.
Ran ashore in heavy fog.
Mary Arnold
Tug
1940
Off Charlestown
60’
In November 1940, the
Mary Arnold was towing
a lighter (barge) and a
dredger called the
Progress from
Greenwich, Conn, to
Riverside near
Providence. They
anchored off Charlestown
in a fierce storm. All
vessels sank. On board
the Progress were four
seamen, none of whom
had been to sea before.
Meteor
Collier
1926
Block Island
20’
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Name
Type
Year
Built
Year of
Loss
Location
Water
Depth
Description
Metis
Wooden Passenger
Steamer
1872
Off Watch Hill
130’
The Providence and
New York Steamship
Company converted the
Metis from a freighter to
a passenger liner in
1864. In August 1872,
the ship was bound from
New York, via Long
Island Sound, to
Providence. The
vessels was overloaded
and overcrowded. Sunk
after collision with two-
masted schooner Nettie
Cushing. There was
substantial loss of life.
Minerva
Spanish Brig
1810
Near Brendon
Reef
20’
Montana
Schooner Barge
1870
1907
Northwest of
New Harbor,
Block Island
90’
The Montana was one of
two coal barges being
towed by the tug
Buccaneer from
Baltimore to Providence
in January 1907. Both
were lost in a violent
storm. The larger barge,
the Ash, was lost 10
miles east of Fire Island,
New York. The smaller
barge, the Montana, was
lost just northwest of
New Harbor, Block
Island. There is some
evidence of overloading.
Neptune II
Fishing
1989
Off Sakonnet
Point
85’
Onodaga
Freighter
1905
1918
Off Watch Hill
40’
Bound from Boston to
Charleston, SC with a
general cargo. Headed
for Long Island Sound to
avoid potential U-boat
attacks. Navigational
error caused her to strike
the reef off Watch Hill.
P. T. Teti
Tug
1972
Off Sakonnet
Point
100’
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Name
Type
Year
Built
Year
of
Loss
Location
Water
Depth
Description
Progress
Dredge
1940
Off
Charlestown
60’
In November 1940, the Mary
Arnold was towing a lighter
(barge) and a dredger called
the Progress from
Greenwich, Conn, to
Riverside near Providence.
They anchored off
Charlestown in a fierce
storm. All vessels sank. On
board the Progress were four
seamen, none of whom had
been to sea before.
Puszta
Freighter
1911
1934
Block
Island
20’
Built in Newcastle, UK.
Owned by the Anglo-
Hungarian Shipping Co.
Bound from Providence to
Key West. Ran aground at
Clay Head, Block Island, in
thick fog.
USS S-51
Submarine
1925
Off Block
Island
Spartan
Freighter
1905
Block
Island
15’
Troydon
Fishing
1995
Off Block
Island
135’
U-853
Submarine
1943
1945
Off Block
Island
130’
The U-853 sank the Black
Point on May 5, 1945. The
US warships Amick,
Atherton, Moberly and
Ericsson sank the U-853 later
the same day.
420.3. Submerged Telecommunication Cables and Corridors
1. Modern telecommunication cables and corridors are well understood in the Ocean SAMP
area. The southern coast of Rhode Island has been heavily utilized for a succession of
transatlantic communication cables. Cables currently “in service” include Transatlantic
No. 12/13 (TAT-12/13), part of which runs from Green Hill, Rhode Island to Lands End,
England; Gemini, part of which runs from Charlestown, Rhode Island to Oxwich Bay,
near Swansea, Wales; and FLAG Atlantic 1 which runs from New York to the UK
intersecting Long Island Sound and Block Island Sound. “Out of service” cables include
Transatlantic No. 5 (TAT-5), part of which runs from Green Hill, Rhode Island to Conil,
Spain; Transatlantic No. 6 (TAT-6), part of which runs from Green Hill, Rhode Island to
St. Hilaire-de-Riez, France; and Transatlantic No. 10 (TAT-10), part of which runs from
Green Hill, Rhode Island to Norden, Germany. The majority of these cables whether in
service or not, run out of Green Hill, RI to the southeast and then south, passing between
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3 and 9 nautical miles east of Block Island. The exceptions are TAT-12/13 and FLAG
Atlantic 1, which run west of Block Island.
2. Historic cables, however, are less well understood than their modern counterparts, and
under certain circumstances might be considered historic resources. They also present
problems for the management of development projects. Of particular concern to marine
planners in the Ocean SAMP region is the cable area off the southwest coast of Block
Island, which runs across Blocks Island Sound to Montauk Point on the eastern end of
Long Island. In an attempt to understand the origin of this area and its potential to house
historic resources, University of Rhode Island researchers traced the cable laying history
of Block Island Sound.
3. In 1880, Congress appropriated $15,000 for the U.S. Army Signal Corps to lay the first
telecommunications cable from Block Island to the mainland. The work was complete in
1884. Although justified for military communications and the transmittal of weather
information, Rhode Islanders clearly saw this as a way to attract Federal dollars for
communication infrastructure that would allow connections with the otherwise isolated
communities on Block Island. At the time, safety-at-sea was also an immediate concern.
Throughout the state’s history, shipwrecks and loss of life-at-sea in the Ocean SAMP
area had never been higher.
4. The two-conductor cable ran from Sandy Point at the north end at the Block Island to
Narragansett Pier (Annual reports of the War Department, 1899; An Act to Authorize the
Laying of a Telegraph Cable from the Main Land in Rhode Island to Block Island, 14
Jan. 1880). Within two years, however, the cable was unserviceable and Congress
appropriated an additional $18,350 to replace it. Lawmakers specifically recognized the
importance of the Block Island cable and the role it played in connecting signal stations
with life-saving stations and lighthouses. (Statutes of the United States of America, 1885-
1886). In March 1888, the cable was rendered unserviceable for a second time. This
time a vessel (possibly the schooner William Jordan), that had become stranded some
time earlier, broke apart in a springtime storm and severed the cable. By the turn of the
century, the Signal Corps had repaired the cable, but now started to question its military
utility and its value for transmitting weather information. The cable’s utility, however,
for general telegraph communication, life–saving, shipping, and commerce was still
acknowledged. According the Chief Signal Officer of the Army in 1889, the Block
Island line, and a similar cable connecting Nantucket with the mainland, were “probably
the most valuable of all the sea-coast lines, giving ….service to about 75,000 people
during the hot summer months, and at the same time sending valuable vessel reports”
(Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, 1889). He went on to question,
however, the military utility of the cables and hinted at a transfer of ownership and
responsibility.
5. In 1902, the Block Island cable, was transferred to the Weather Bureau, under the
Department of Agriculture, on condition that the Bureau maintain it and allow military
use of it during war. By this time, the salt-water environment and marine organisms
(particularly teredo) had once again taken their toll on the communication infrastructure.
The cable had become so badly deteriorated that the Department of Agriculture requested
an appropriation of $40,000 for a complete replacement. This time guttapercha would be
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used instead of rubber (Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture, 1902; A Digest
of Opinions of the Judge of the Advocates General of the Army, 1912). The current
cable corridors from the north end of Block Island to the mainland stem from these years.
6. During WWII, as German submarines threatened the Atlantic coast of the United States,
the U.S. military renewed its interest in signal stations and communication cables. As a
result, the army and navy initiated an extensive cable laying operation, requiring
governmental easements over private property on land and the designation of new cable
corridors in Rhode Island Sound, Block Island Sound and Narragansett Bay. This cable
infrastructure included cables that ran from Fort Greene (then near Point Judith) to Green
Hill, and from there onto stations at Charlestown, Noyes Point and Watch Hill. It also
included cables from Block Island to Fort Greene (near Point Judith) and Block Island to
Montauk Point, Long Island. Block Island’s southwest cable corridor originates from this
time. Both the Block Island cables were de-accessioned between 1956 and 1957
(Submarine Cable Easements – Narragansett RI, 1957-1958, Record Group 269, GSA,
1922-1997; Submarine Cable Easements – Block Island, RI, 1956-1960, Record Group
121, Records of the Public Buildings Service, 1801-1976)
420.4. Paleo-Geographic Landscape Reconstruction
1. The strategy for doing cultural landscape reconstruction and surveying for inundated
archaeological sites is fundamentally different from surveys to discover and characterize
shipwrecks, because the landscape and any associated cultural sites are usually buried by
continental shelf sediments. These shelf sediments have accumulated since the time of
initial inundation of the landscape by global sea level rise caused by the progressive
melting of continental ice sheets since the last glacial maximum. Because the time of
initial inundation is a function of the original elevation of the site relative to rising sea
level, the contact between the underlying sediments and the base of the shelf sediments is
a time-transgressive surface. Therefore, lower elevation sites are inundated earlier than
higher elevation sites.
2. The process of inundation by global sea level rise in Rhode Island and adjacent waters
has been described by Oldale and O'Hara, 1980. The local stratigraphy that is produced
by sea level rise has been described in detail by McMaster (1984) and Peck and
McMaster (1991) and Boothroyd and August (2008).
3. The work of Peck and McMaster (1991) indicates that during inundation, a high energy
surf zone environment, the shoreface, passes across the landscape, and material is
actively eroded from the surface. An erosional surface covered by a later deposit of sand
and gravel is indicative of the passage of the shoreface across the site. As indicated in
Figure 4., the degree of erosion depends on the original topography of the site. Deep
tributary valleys tend to have less erosion, whereas interfluves and trunk valleys have
much more erosion. In studies of shoreline change of Rhode Island, Boothroyd indicates
that preexisting sediment is removed to a depth of 1 meter below mean lower low water
(MLLW) as the surf zone sweeps across the landscape (Boothroyd, pers. comm.). This
means that approximately 1-2 meters of material is removed from tributary valley settings
and significantly more from interfluves and trunk valleys. The present south shore of
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Rhode Island provides a representative view of erosional processes and results that were
active as the Sounds were flooded.
Figure 4.4. Illustration of West Passage transgressive stratigraphies (Peck and McMaster, 1991).
4. Closed topographic depressions and fresh water wetland settings that are inundated
quickly and to significant depths (5-10meters water depth depending on setting) will tend
to preserve the original terrestrial landscape (Robinson, pers. comm.). These settings
have the highest potential for preservation of cultural landscapes and sites.
5. The erosional surface marks the altered original terrestrial surface after it has been
worked by a high energy surf zone environment (Peck and McMaster 1991), but any
cultural sites and artifacts that are preserved will be found in conjunction with the
immediate overlying layer of sediment. This stratum can usually be readily detected and
traced within a study area by high-resolution sub-bottom sonar (Coleman and McBride
2009).
6. The use of the sea level rise curve versus time (Figure 4.5), the current bathymetry, and
the depth of the erosion surface below the current bottom can be used to reconstruct the
cultural landscape at various points in time. The landscape scenarios shown in Figures
4.6., 4.7 and 4.8. indicate various closed depressions that may have contained post-glacial
lakes. The shorelines of these lakes are likely areas for preservation of cultural sites.
Rapid flooding by marine water into these basins may have preserved these sites.
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Figure 4.5. Graph of eustatic sea level rise caused by melting glacier ice (modified from Peltier and
Fairbanks 2006).1
1 Eustatic sea-level rise caused by melting glacier ice as the world emerged from the last glaciation. Curve illustrates
slow sea-level rise from 25 – 20 thousand years ago. And then more rapid rise as the climate warmed. Meltwater
pulses indicate particularly rapid rise as large sections of continental ice sheets were released to the ocean (1A –
Antarctic, 1B – Laurentide) (Peltier and Fairbanks 2006).
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Figure 4.6. Sea level rise of Ocean SAMP area, 11,500 yBP.2
2 Relative sea level was about 50 meters below present at 11,500 years before present (yBP). Brown colors represent dry land, blue represents water. Marine water is just
impinging on the southern Ocean SAMP boundary. Other blue areas are possible lakes in closed depressions. The present day shoreline is shown by the red lines.
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Figure 4.7. Sea level rise of Ocean SAMP area, 11,000 yBP.3
3 Relative sea level at 40 meters at 11,000 yBP. Marine water has advanced into central Rhode Island Sound. The lakes shown are in part a product of the map production,
some of the lakes seen in this image may have existed at an earlier time.
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Figure 4.8. Sea level rise of Ocean SAMP area, 10,000 yBP.4
4 Relative sea level at -30m at 10,000 yBP. Marine water now occupies significant parts of both Rhode Island and Block Island Sounds and Block Island has become an island.
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7. Knowledge of the depth of the erosion surface below the present sediment surface can be
used to assess the possible impact of cable installation on cultural resources. For
example, in cases where cables might be installed, if the depth of jet plowing is shallower
than the erosion surface, then there will be negligible impact.
8. Borings are needed to assess the impact of installation of future developments on cultural
resources.
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Section 430. Onshore Historic Sites Adjacent to the Ocean SAMP Area
1. Approximately 1,000 sites associated with Rhode Island’s earliest history have been
identified in the coastal zone. A number of these sites have contributed significant
information to our knowledge of Rhode Island’s past. Some have been listed on the
National Register of Historic Places; others are included in National Register
Archaeological Districts. Many archaeological sites in the coastal zone have been
destroyed by development; others await discovery.
2. Rhode Island’s ocean coastline has gone through several periods of change, but it has
retained significant cultural resources from throughout its history. For some of these
historic buildings and places that border the shore, the ocean is a fundamental aspect of
their historic significance and for many others the coastal waters are an integral feature in
their historic setting. A list of historic properties in the ocean coastal zone with a
significant connection to the ocean follows. They include properties that are entered on
the National Register of Historic Places or are candidates, potentially eligible for
National Register listing. One property, Southeast Lighthouse on Block Island, is
designated as National Historic Landmark.
3. The documentation of onshore land-based cultural and historic resources is important for
the Ocean SAMP study area because offshore development proposals may present visual
impacts to cultural and historic resources if the development is sited within the viewshed
of onshore land-based sites designated as historically significant.
4. For onshore land-based sites, the overall perception of visual impacts of offshore
developments is subjective and opinions vary about whether visual impacts for a given
project are positive, negative, or neutral (Minerals Management Service 2007). Section
106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, however, requires that a given project’s
visual effect on historic resources be evaluated from National Historic Landmarks,
properties listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, or
Traditional Cultural Properties (Minerals Management Service 2010).
5. For offshore development proposals, an Area of Potential Effect (APE) is defined to
include visual impacts specifically related to onshore land-based National Historic
Landmarks, properties listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic
Places, or Traditional Cultural Properties (Minerals Management Service 2010).
6. The Criteria of Adverse Effect defined in Section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act [36 CFR 800.5(a)(1)] states, “An adverse effect is found when an
undertaking may alter, directly or indirectly, any of the characteristics of a historic
property for inclusion in the National Register in a manner that would diminish the
integrity of the property’s location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, or
association.” Examples of adverse effects are listed as including, but not limited to, the
following [36 CFR 800.5(a)(2)]: “(v) Introduction of visual, atmospheric or audible
elements that diminish the integrity of the property’s significant historic features.”
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430.1. Properties Listed on the National Register of Historic Places
1. The National Register of Historic Places is the federal government's official record of
properties that have been evaluated for their significance in American history and
determined to be worthy of preservation. Properties listed in the National Register
include individual buildings / structures, historic districts, and archaeological sites. Rhode
Island properties listed in the National Register include colonial houses, farms, Victorian
neighborhoods, factory villages, diners, monuments, military bases, seacoast villages,
suburban neighborhoods, etc. (RIHPHC 2010)
2. The Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) serves as
the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for Rhode Island. RIHPHC maintains
records of listed and candidate properties in the state, along with survey publications for
each of the Rhode Island’s 39 towns, for specific neighborhoods, and for thematic
projects.
3. There are 33 properties in nine Rhode Island municipalities within or adjacent to the
Ocean SAMP study area listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
4. Only one property within the study area, Block Island Southeast Light in the Town of
New Shoreham, is designated as a National Historic Landmark (NHL). National Historic
Landmarks are buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that have been
determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be nationally significant in American
history and culture. All National Historic Landmarks are included in the National
Register of Historic Places (NPS 2010). Southeast Light was built in 1874, and the
National Historic Landmark Study completed for Southeast Light lists the period of
significance 1874-1929. The statement of significance defines Southeast Light as,
“…outstanding as one of the finest lighthouses constructed by the U.S. Light House
Board in the 19th century.” (Reynolds 1997)
5. Table 4.4 lists historic properties identified by RIHPHC that are in the ocean coastal zone
and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, or designated National Historic
Landmarks (NHL).
Table 4.4. Selected properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places in the ocean coastal zone,
Little Compton to Westerly (RIHPHC, April 2010).
Town
Name of Property
Location
Date of Listing
on NRHP
Charlestown
Fort Ninigret/The Niantic Fort
Fort Neck Road
4/28/1970
Charlestown
Babcock House
Quonochaontaug
1/1/1976
Jamestown
Beavertail Light
Beavertail Road
12/12/1977
Jamestown
Horsehead/Marbella
240 Highland Drive
6/16/1999
Jamestown
Fort Dumpling
Ocean Street
3/16/1972
Little Compton
Sakonnet Light Station
Little Cormorant Rock
5/10/1983
Little Compton
Stone House Inn
122 Sakonnet Point Road
4/2/2008
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Town
Name of Property
Location
Date of Listing
on NRHP
Middletown
St. George’s School: Church of
St. George, Little Chapel, &
Memorial Schoolhouse
372 Purgatory Road
11/12/2004
Middletown
Smith-Gardiner-Norman Farm
HD (Paradise Farm)
583 Third Beach Road
6/16/2008
Middletown
Clambake Club of Newport
353 Tuckerman Avenue
11/7/1995
Middletown
Lyman C. Josephs House
438 Walcott Avenue
5/2/1975
Narragansett
Ocean Road Historic District
Ocean Road, Hazard and
Newton Avenues
8/18/1982
Narragansett
Dunmere
560 Ocean Road
9/23/2005
Narragansett
Point Judith Lighthouse
1470 Ocean Road
3/30/1988
Narragansett
Ocean Road Historic District
Ocean Road, Hazard and
Newton Avenues
8/18/1982
New Shoreham
Hygeia House
Beach Avenue
10/22/2002
New Shoreham
U.S. Weather Bureau Station
Beach Avenue
8/4/1983
New Shoreham
Peleg Champlin House
Rodman Pond Lane
8/1/1982
New Shoreham
Block Island North Light
Sandy Point
5/23/1974
New Shoreham
Block Island South East Light
(National Historic Landmark)
South East Light Road
8/6/1990; NHL:
9/25/1997
New Shoreham
Great Salt Pond
Archaeological District
2/15/1990
New Shoreham
Old Harbor Historic District
All property within a 2,000-
foot radius of the Village
Square, at the intersection of
Water, High, and Spring
Streets
5/8/1974
Newport
Castle Hill Lighthouse
Castle Hill, off Ocean Ave.,
at the west end of Newport
Neck
5/31/1972
Newport
Bellevue Avenue National
Historic Landmark District
(National Historic Landmark)
Both sides of Bellevue
Avenue from Memorial
Boulevard to the Atlantic
Ocean at Land's End;
bounded, generally, on the
east by Easton Bay and on
the west by properties on the
west side of Bellevue Avenue
NHL: 5/11/1976
Newport
Ocean Drive National Historic
Landmark District (National
Historic Landmark)
Including all of Ocean Drive,
from Almy Pond around and
back to Wellington Ave. and
Newport Harbor
NHL: 5/11/1976
South Kingstown
Theatre-by-the-Sea
Card’s Ponds Road
7/10/1980
South Kingstown
Hale House
2625A Commodore Oliver
Hazard Perry Highway
6/5/2007
South Kingstown
Willow Dell
2700 Commodore Oliver
Hazard Perry Highway
11/21/1996
South Kingstown
Admiral Dewey Inn/
Dewey Cottage
668 Matunuck Beach Road
5/7/1992
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Town
Name of Property
Location
Date of Listing
on NRHP
South Kingstown
Browning's Beach Historic
District
Card's Pond Road
9/5/1997
South Kingstown
Potter Pond Archaeological
District
12/10/1987
Westerly
Weekapaug Inn
25 Spray Rock Road
1/25/2007
Westerly
Watch Hill Historic District
Bounded roughly by Breen,
Watch Hill and East Hill
Roads; Block Island sound;
Little Narragansett Bay; and
Pawcatuck River
9/5/1985
430.2. Selected National Register Candidate Properties
1. Table 4.5 lists candidate properties identified by the RIHPHC that are in the ocean
coastal zone and considered to be eligible for nomination to the National Register of
Historic Places.
Table 4.5. Selected National Register candidate properties in the ocean coastal zone, Little Compton to
Westerly (RIHPHC, April 2010).
Town
Name of Property
Location
Charlestown
Arnolda Historic District
Jamestown
Fort Burnside
Beavertail Road
Jamestown
Fort Wetherill
Fort Wetherill Road
Jamestown
Harbor Entrance Control Post
Beavertail Point
Little Compton
Warren’s Point Historic District
Little Compton
West Main Road Historic District
Little Compton
Goosewing/Tunipus Farm
Long Highway
Little Compton
Simmons-Manchester House
106 Sakonnet Point Road
Middletown
Paradise Road Historic District
Middletown
Renfrew Cottages
Renfrew Park
Middletown
John C. Bancroft House
675 Tuckerman Avenue
Narragansett
Fort Nathanael Greene
Old Point Judith Road
Narragansett
US Coast Guard Station
Point Judith
New Shoreham
Block Island Historic Landscape District
New Shoreham
US Coast Guard Station
Coast Guard Road (DOE)
New Shoreham
US Life-Saving Station
Cooneymus Road
New Shoreham
Vail Cottages
Mohegan Trail
New Shoreham
Mohegan Cottage/Bit O’Heaven
Snake Hole Road
South Kingstown
Windy Meadows, Weeden and Harbet
Farms Agricultural District
Matunuck Schoolhouse Road
South Kingstown
Samuel Perry Farm
645 Matunuck Schoolhouse
Road
South Kingstown
Henry Palmer House
Old Succotash Road
Westerly
Weekapaug Historic District
Westerly
Misquamicut Golf Club
Ocean View Highway
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430.3. Block Island Sites Eligible for the National Register
1. Block Island sits directly within the Ocean SAMP study area and has a number of
historically significant onshore properties that are either listed on the National Register,
or considered to be eligible for listing. The types of historic properties on Block Island
have been categorized into: early houses; structures associated with Block Island’s
maritime history; farms; buildings associated with Block Island as a resort; and landscape
(RIHPHC 1991). Detailed inventory information on many properties considered to meet
National Register eligibility criteria can be found in Historic and Architectural Resources
of Block Island, Rhode Island (RIHPHC 1991).
2. Table 4.6 lists structures and sites from 1680 – 1948 on Block Island/Town of New
Shoreham as identified by the Block Island Historical Society as either eligible for the
National Register or contributing to the historic character of the island’s scenic corridors,
streetscapes or sense of place. (Compiled by Pamela L. Gasner for the Town of New
Shoreham, 2008)
Table 4.6. Structures and sites from 1680 – 1948 on Block Island/Town of New Shoreham considered
eligible for the National Register or contributing to historic character of the Island (compiled by Pamela
L. Gasner for the Town of New Shoreham, 2008).
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date built
(tax
assessor’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
17
9
1691
1694
Aaron W.
Dodge
Myrtis
Littlefield/
Tom and
Esther
Littlefield
Scenic corridor on Old
Town Road.
15
2
1
1700
1700
William B.S.
Ball
Johnson's
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor off Dories
Cove Road.
3
103
1
1720
1720
Capt. Samuel
Littlefield
Allen
Littlefield(son);
Karl Erickson;
Alfred D. John;
Spencer Farm;
Littlefield Bee
Farm
Scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road to Maze
walking trails and
Clayhead; rural historic
landscape.
2
26
1750
1790
Elias
Littlefield/
John Hayes
Edward Hayes/
Miss Susan
Morgan/Ellison
Property
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road.
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Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner
and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
3
142
1750
1790
Nathaniel
Littlefield
Littlefield
Farm/Jeremiah
Littlefield
(Jerry's Point)
Edgar
Littlefield/John
Littlefield/
The Littlefield
Homestead
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor on
Mansion Road; historic
barn; property next door
to Littlefield Farm.
4
18
1760
1760
Thomas Mott
Mitchell Farm;
Adrian's
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road; historic
background buildings.
14
11
1780
1780
Samuel Allen
Sr.
Frank Allen
Scenic corridor on
Dickens Farm Road off
Cooneymus Road.
15
13
1781
1700
Asa R. Ball
Goss
Homestead
Scenic corridor off West
Side Road.
18
35
1781
1781
Charles C.
Mitchell
"Breezy Hill;"
Reg Conley's
Scenic corridor off Center
Road.
3
118
1790
1790
Silas Niles
Littlefield
Abby
Littlefield
Home/Amazon
Littlefield
(Silas's Son and
Capt. Of L.S.S.
at Harbor)
Nicholas Ball/
William O.
Ball/Luella
Ball
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor on
Mansion Road; historic
background buildings.
2
19
1
1790
1790
Nicholas
Littlefield Jr.
James
Maxfield/
Jimmy
Maxfield
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road.
11
11
1797
1797
Sylvester
Mitchell
Henry C.
Sprague/
Wilbur and
Virginia
Mitchell
Scenic corridor on
Mitchell Lane.
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Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner
and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
15
64
1800
1800
Amos W.
Mitchell
Jon Grant
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor off Dories
Cove Road.
19
68
1800
1800
Abel Sprague
Adrian L.
Sprague
Scenic corridor on West
Side Road.
13
1
1810
1810
Horatio W.
Allen
"Red Shutters"/
Rev. Stanley
and Winnie
Pratt
Scenic corridor on West
Side Road.
19
39
1820
1812
Peleg C.
Champlin
Weeden
Champlin/
Susan Ball
Dodge/
Mary Madison
Miller/
Frederick
Ritchie and
Ethel Colt
Ritchie/
Dr. Gerald F.
Abbott
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor on
Rodman Pond Lane;
listed on National
Register.
18
66
1825
1825
John Carr
Dodge
Natalie
Mitchell/
Gill W. and
Ruth Y.
Peabody
Scenic corridor off
Beacon Hill connecting to
greenway trails.
19
51
1
1827
1825
Edward Hull
Champlin
Champlin
Farm/Edward
Peckham
Champlin
(1865 -
1942)/Robert
Paine
Champlin and
Lillian Mae
Chace
Champlin/
Kathryn
Champlin-
Kernan
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor on Coast
Guard Road (Champlin
Road).
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Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
record)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/present
building name
Setting significance
15
78
1836
1830
John Mott
Otis Mott
Farm/Otis
V.P.Mott/Mrs.
James F.
Jackson(1950)
Scenic corridor on West
Side Road/ historical
significance.
3
92
1840
1800
Capt. Hiram
D. Ball
Hiram 'Ansel'
Ball (son)/Mrs.
Robert
Barker/Louis
Beauregard/
"Old
Beauregard
Homestead"
Scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road.
8
103
1840
1840
Capt.
Welcome
Dodge Sr.
Scenic corridor off Amy
Dodge Lane (New Haven
House Road).
14
21
1840
1840
Jeremiah
Allen
Scenic corridor off
Dickens Farm Road.
4
19
1
1840
1840
Joshua Chase
Smith
Byron
Littlefield
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road; rural
laneway.
8
222
1840
1840
John Ed Willis Richard Heller
Scenic corridor on top of
High Street.
15
58
1
1845
1800
Samuel
George
Mitchell
Stanley Smith
Scenic corridor off West
Side Road.
4
53
1850
1850
Capt.
Nathaniel L.
Willis
Willis
Homestead
Landmark farm; scenic
corridor on Corn Neck
Road.
6
18
1850
1850
Almanza
Littlefield
Farm
Oscar Willis
House/
Wagenseil
Scenic corridor on Old
Town Road; historical
significance.
8
19
1850
1850
Freeman M.
Millikin
Scenic corridor on
Mohegan Trail; rural
laneway with open field
and stonewalls.
Ocean Special Area Management Plan
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 73 of 89
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
8
212
1850
1850
Capt. Arnold
R. Millikin
Ambrose
Rose/Anne
Reed/
"Rosecrest"
Scenic corridor on Pilot
Hill Road.
16
25
1
1850
1850
Silas Niles
Littlefield,
2nd
William T.
Martin
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor off West
Side Road and Old Mill
Road.
16
71
1850
1850
Parsonage for
West Side
Church
duPont Family
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor off
Beacon Hill Road.
8
137
1850
1850
Caleb W.
Dodge Jr.
David Dudley
and Warren
Doolittle III
15
74
1850
1965
William Allen
Scenic corridor off Dunn
Town Road.
15
33
1852
1790
Caleb
Littlefield
Rose
Tormut Rose
Farm
Scenic corridor on Dories
Cove Road.
2
31
1852
1860
Benjamin
Littlefield
Mr. Douglas,
artist; Henry
Oehrle of
Newport; Bella
Littlefield's;
Albert and
Bella Littlefield
Gardiner(grand
niece of
Benjamin)/Dr.
Gerald Abbott
and Tom
Abbott/Barn:
WWII Bunker
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road adjacent to
Hodge Property walking
trails; rural historic
landscape; WW II
lookout bunker in
converted barn; view of
North Light; historic
background buildings and
stonewalls.
16
73
1855
1855
Nathaniel
Latham
Stephen duPont
Scenic corridor off
Beacon Hill Road; rural
historic landscape.
Ocean Special Area Management Plan
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 74 of 89
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
8
66
1860
1860
Charles H.
Hall
John Steffian
Scenic corridor on
Mohegan Trail.
12
11
1860
1880
John P.
Champlin
Scenic corridor.
6
46
1867
1867
Lorenzo
Dodge
Fair View
Cottage/
Bob Rice
Scenic corridor on Old
Town Road intersection
and Conn. Avenue.
10
17
1870
1920
School # 3
Gully School/
George Enos
Scenic corridor on Payne
Road.
5
81
1877
1854
"Centre"
School #2
Private home
after 1933
Scenic corridor on Center
Road; historical
significance.
10
23
2
1877
1876
Edward S.
Payne
Payne Farm/
Payne Farm
Homestead
Scenic corridor off Payne
Road.
2
10
1879
1878
Samuel Hayes
"Hayes
Cottage"/
Gordon and
Frankie Smith
Scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road.
18
24
2
1880
1850
James A.
Dodge
Dodge
Homestead;
Erlanger's;
Transue's
Scenic corridor on
Beacon Hill; rural historic
landscape.
9
101
1880
1872
Lovice R.
Conley
Scenic corridor on Pilot
Hill Road.
8
108
1880
1880
Amos D.
Mitchell
Napolean B.
Mitchell;
Nicholas Rotz;
Jay and Caral
Edelberg
Scenic corridor on Amy
Dodge Lane.
8
130
1880
1880
unknown
Clarence
McClarren/
Ernie Howarth/
John Handy
Scenic corridor on Spring
Street.
8
86
1880
1895
Spring
Cottage
Venetia and
John Rountree
(Spring House
Cottage)
Scenic corridor on Spring
Street.
4
21
1
1882
1850
Ezra C. Smith
Milton Carrow
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road; rural
laneway.
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 75 of 89
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
9
106
1882
1891
Gurdon A.
Millikin
"Pilot Hill
House"(Boardi
ng House)/
Fred Benson's
Home/Millikin
Family
Homestead
Scenic corridor on Pilot
Hill Road.
15
116
1883
1850
Capt. John B.
Dunn
Leona Carney
Scenic corridor off
Graces Cove Road; rural
historic landscape; rural
laneway.
18
58
1883
1860
Ray Sands
Littlefield
Central House
Annex
Scenic corridor on Center
Road.
9
44
1884
1870
William Smith
Sprague
"Spokes"
Spragues/
Mable Dawley
Scenic corridor on
Lakeside Drive.
17
17
1884
1870
Amos D.
Mitchell and
Annie R.
Mitchell
Chas.J. Dodge;
Browning/
Sands
Littlefield/
Foy and Bea
Stiefer/
Peter and
Cheryl Blane
Scenic corridor on Old
Town Road.
8
205
2
1884
1886
James E.
Mitchell
Armenie and
Ray T.
Mitchell; Haida
Ginsburgh
Scenic corridor on
Seaweed Lane off Pilot
Hill Road.
3
104
1
1884
1894
Capt.
Benjamin F.
Gardner
Mid Holloway
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road at the entrance
to the Maze.
17
16
1885
1800
John 'Frank'
Hayes
Scenic corridor on Old
Town Road.
9
52
1885
1870
Miss Abby E.
Vaill
1 of 2 Vaill
cottages
8
95
1885
1876
Enoch Rose
Linus Dodge
Scenic corridor off Spring
Street.
5
79
1885
1885
William Pitt
Ball
Holiday Haven
Scenic corridor on Center
Road.
10
21
1
1886
1880
John R. Payne
(part of) Payne
Farm; Frank C.
Payne; Herb
Fisher's
Rural historic landscape
off Payne Road; house in
original state.
Ocean Special Area Management Plan
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 76 of 89
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
14
53
1886
1886
Samuel B.
Dickens, 2nd
Emily Reeve's
cottage
Scenic corridor off
Cooneymus Road.
11
32
2
1886
1887
Everett D.
Barlow
Mohegan
Cottage/Bit O'
Heaven; Judge
McCabes
Scenic corridor on Black
Rock Road.
17
31
1887
1887
Anderson C.
Rose
Lydia A.S. and
Curtis H.
Sprague/
Erastus and
Mary Ida
Sprague/
Meyers Family
Scenic corridor on Beach
Ave.
5
60
1887
1900
George W.
Willis
Scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road on Indian
Head Neck.
8
199
1888
1860
Horatio N.
Milliken
"Millikin
Cottage"/
Kikuchi
Scenic corridor on Pilot
Hill.
3
127
1888
Edward
Searles
Searles
Mansion
foundation
Scenic corridor on
Mansion Road.
3
128
1888
Edward
Searles
Searles
Mansion
foundation
Scenic corridor on
Mansion Road.
16
56
1889
1840
John A.
Mitchell
Cirlor Sprague/
Vera Littlefield
Sprague
Scenic corridor on West
Side Road.
8
207
1889
1880
William Pitt
Dodge
Betty B. Dodge
Scenic corridor on
Seaweed Lane.
2
46
1889
1888
Capt. Amazon
Niles
Littlefield
Capt. Oswald
A. Littlefield;
Littlefield Bee
Farm
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road.
3
93
1
1889
1889
Hiram 'Ansel'
Ball
Ansel Ball's/
Cottage Farm
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road.
4
70
1889
1889
David Van
Nostrand
"Innisfail"/Dr.
Norman Boas
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road.
8
52
1890
1890
Capt. Potter
Carriage
House
Scenic corridor on
Southeast Extension.
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 77 of 89
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
8
125
1891
1910
Halsey
Littlefield Jr.
15
76
1892
1898
William
Crook Allen
"Sunset
View
Lodge"
Scenic corridor off Dunn
Town Road.
15
5
1892
1900
Capt.
Martin
L. Rose
Grace
Wheeler's
Scenic corridor off West
Side Road.
11
48
1892
1901
Oliver
D.
Sprague
Ezra
and
Mary
Rose/Johnston/
Comstock
Scenic
corridor
on
Lakeside Drove.
13
35
6
1892
1903
Jesse D. Lewis
Lewis
Farm
Farmhouse
Rural historic landscape
at Lewis Farm.
11
50
1892
1908
Thomas
K.Warner
15
99
1893
1880
Thaddeus
P.
Dunn
Giles P. Dunn,
Sr. (son) and
Ada Mitchell/
Dewey cottage
Rural historic landscape;
scenic corridor on Dunn
Town Road.
4
72
1893
1892
Charles
F.
Fairfield
"Lake
Side"/
David M. Poole
Scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road.
4
74
1895
1895
Simon R. Ball
Jr.
Gertrude Ball
Scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road Neck.
4
74
1895
1895
Simon R. Ball
Jr.
Gertrude Ball
Scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road.
15
27
1895
1900
H.W.Dickins
Latham Farm/
Knapp Family
Scenic corridor off West
Side Road.
4
48
1897
1860
Everett A.
Willis
"The Bayside"
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road; house
currently behind large
privet hedge.
7
95
1897
1896
Mrs. Sarah L.
Tourjee
Tourjee
Cottage/
Scott Rutan
Scenic corridor on High
Street.
4
48
1897
1900
Everett
A.
Willis
Bayside
or
Little
Red
House?
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road.
9
50
1898
1875
Hon.
Julius
Deming
Perkins
"Bayberry
Lodge"
Ocean Special Area Management Plan
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 78 of 89
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
2
31
1900
1900
WWII Bunker
1940's
converted
Barn/cottage
Bella Littlefield
Gardner/
Abbott Family
Scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road.
10
54
1
1900
1900
unknown
Rosie LaRue
8
48
1901
1900
Capt. Mark L.
Potter
"Pine
Lodge"/Potter
Place/Potter
Mansion
Scenic corridor on
Southeast Extension.
5
59
1904
1904
L.V. Maltby
Maltby
Cottage/
"Ninicroft
Lodge"/
Brownlee/
Sullivan House
Rural historic landscape
on Indian Head Neck;
scenic corridor off Corn
Neck Road (old Cemetery
Street).
15
44
1904
1940
Horace W.
Dickens
"West Side
View Cottage"/
Miss Kiley's
Scenic corridor off Dories
Cove Road.
6
42
1905
1900
Irving M. Ball
Scenic corridor on Conn.
Avenue.
6
41
1906
1890
Morris L.
Negus
Negus
Cottage/Martha
Bodington/
C. Scott/
"Beachcomber"
Scenic corridor on Conn.
Ave.
18
61
1907
1907
Primitive
Methodist
Church
Scenic corridor on Center
Road.
15
21
1907
1910
James E.
Sprague II
Scenic corridor on West
Side Road.
18
52
1908
1850
Fenner Ball
"Parsonage"
(1921)/
Primitive
Methodist
Scenic corridor off Center
Road.
6
49
1908
1908
Elgin Roberts
Scenic corridor on Old
Town Road.
18
60
1913
1875
John Ernest
Littlfield
Omar
Littlfield's
Scenic corridor on Center
Road.
2
36
1917
1911
Eugene
Littlefield
Rose
Gene and
Lenice Rose
Scenic corridor on Corn
Neck Road.
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 79 of 89
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
4
55
1920
1920
Crawford
cottage
little white
cottage moved
from Calico
Hill in Town
Landmark cottage on
Corn Neck Road.
4
70
1920
1920
Innisfail
cottage
converted
summer
kitchen
Landmark cottage on
Corn Neck Road.
12
14
1920
1920
Preston Dunn
Black Rock
cottage
Scenic corridor on Black
Rock Road.
15
106
1920
1920
Boarding
House on
Swede Hill
Scenic corridor on Graces
Cove Road.
18
18
1920
1920
WW II
Lookout
Tower on
Beacon Hill
Brown Family
Scenic corridor on
Beacon Hill Road.
4
74
1922
1922
Simon R. Ball
Jr.
Gertrude Ball
Scenic corridor on Indian
Head Neck off Corn Neck
Road.
18
18
1928
1920
Thomas T.
Doggett
Beacon Hill
Tower/
"Mariner's
Monument"
Scenic corridor on
Beacon Hill Road.
20
17
1932
1932
Hippocampus
Boy's camp/
Beane Family
Rural historic landscape
at Beane Point.
20
10
1935
1940
U.S.Coast
Guard Brick
House
Scenic corridor at end of
Coast Guard Road.
9
87
1940
1930
WWII
Lookout
Tower at
Sands Pond
Turtle Hill
Scenic corridor off Sands
Pond Road on Turtle Hill.
5
75
1
1940
1940
Red Gate
Farm
outbuilding
2 outbuildings
Scenic corridor off Center
Road.
6
41
1940
1940
Negus Cottage
outbuilding
laundry
building
Scenic corridor on Conn.
Avenue.
18
60
1942
1942
Omar
Littlefield
cottage
John E.
Littlfield
Homestead
site/Omar's
Scenic corridor on Center
Road.
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Page 80 of 89
Plat
Lot
Sub-
lot
Date
built
(deed)
Date
built
(tax
assess-
or’s
office)
Original
owner and/or
building
name
Past/Present
building name
Setting significance
15
52
1943
1943
John Rose
cottage
Scenic corridor on Dories
Cove Road; rural historic
landscape.
8
23
1945
1945
WWII
Lookout
round white
tower adjacent
to cottage on
SE side
Scenic corridor off Spring
Street.
Ocean Special Area Management Plan
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
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Section 440. Policies and Standards
1. The Council recognizes the rich and historically significant history of human activity
within and adjacent to the Ocean SAMP area. These numerous sites and properties, that
are located both underwater and onshore, should be considered when evaluating future
projects.
2. The Coastal Resources Management Council (“Council”) has a federal obligation as part
of its responsibilities under the Federal Coastal Zone Management Act to recognize the
importance of cultural, historic, and tribal resources within the state’s coastal zone,
including Rhode Island state waters. It has a similar responsibility under the Rhode Island
Historic Preservation Act. The Council will not permit activities that will significantly
impact the state’s cultural, historic and tribal resources.
3. The Council will engage federal and state agencies, and the Narragansett Indian Tribe’s
Tribal Historic Preservation Office (THPO), when evaluating the impacts of proposed
development on cultural and historic resources. The Rhode Island Historic Preservation
and Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) is the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO)
for the state of Rhode Island, and is charged with developing historical property surveys
for Rhode Island municipalities, reviewing projects that may impact cultural and historic
resources, and regulating archaeological assessments on land and in state waters. For
other tribes outside of Rhode Island that might be affected by a federal action it is the
responsibility of the applicable federal agency to consult with affected tribes.
4. Project reviews will follow the policies outlined in “Section 220: Areas of Historic and
Archaeological Significance” and in “Section 330: Guidelines for the Protection and
Enhancement of the Scenic Value of the Coastal Region” of the State of Rhode Island
Coastal Resources Management Program, As Amended (“Red Book”). The standards for
the identification of cultural resources and the assessment of potential effects on cultural
resources will be in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act Section 106
regulations, 36 CFR Part 800, Protection of Historic Properties.
5. Historic shipwrecks, archeological or historical sites located within Rhode Island’s
coastal zone are Areas of Particular Concern (APCs) for the Rhode Island coastal
management program. Direct and indirect impacts to these resources must be avoided to
the greatest extent possible. Other areas, not noted as APCs, may also have significant
archeological sites that could be identified through the permit process. For example, the
area at the south end of Block Island waters within the 30 foot depth contour is known to
have significant archeological resources. As a result, projects conducted in the Ocean
SAMP area may have impacts to Rhode Island’s underwater archaeological and historic
resources.
6. Archaeological surveys shall be required as part of the permitting process for projects
which may pose a threat to Rhode Island’s archaeological and historic resources. During
the filing phase for state assent, projects needing archaeological surveys will be identified
through the joint review process. The survey requirements will be coordinated with the
SHPO and, if tribal resources are involved, with the Narragansett THPO.
Ocean Special Area Management Plan
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 82 of 89
7. APCs may require a buffer or setback distance to ensure that development projects avoid
or minimize impacts to known or potential historic or archaeological sites.The buffer or
setback distance during the permitting process will be determined by the SHPO and if
tribal resources are involved, the Narragansett THPO.
8. In addition to general Area of Particular Concern buffer/setback distances around
shipwrecks or other submerged cultural resources, the Council reserves the right, based
upon recommendations from RIHPHC, to establish protected areas around all submerged
cultural resources which meet the criteria for listing on the National Register of Historic
Places.
9. Projects conducted in the Ocean SAMP area may have impacts that could potentially
affect onshore archaeological, historic, or cultural resources. Archaeological and
historical surveys may be required of projects which are reviewed by the joint agency
review process. During the filing phase for state assent, projects needing such surveys
will be identified and the survey requirement will be coordinated with the SHPO and if
tribal resources are involved, with the Narragansett THPO.
10. Guidelines for onshore archaeological assessments in the Ocean SAMP Area can be
obtained through the RIHPHC in their document, “Performance Standards and
Guidelines for Archaeological Projects: Standards for Archaeological Survey” (RIHPHC
2007), or the lead federal agency responsible for reviewing the proposed development.
440.1. Marine Archaeology Assessment Standards
1. The potential impacts of a proposed project on cultural and historic resources will be
evaluated in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act and Antiquities Act,
and the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Act and Antiquities Act as applicable.
Depending on the project and the lead federal agency, the projects that may impact
marine historical or archaeological resources identified through the joint agency review
process shall require a Marine Archaeology Assessment that documents actual or
potential impacts the completed project will have on submerged cultural and historic
resources.
2. Guidelines for Marine Archaeology Assessment in the Ocean SAMP Area can be
obtained through the RIHPHC in their document, “Performance Standards and
Guidelines for Archaeological Projects: Standards for Archaeological Survey” (RIHPHC
2007), or the lead federal agency responsible for reviewing the proposed development.
440.2. Visual Impact Assessment Standards
1. The potential non-physical impacts of a proposed project on cultural and historic
resources shall be evaluated in accordance with 36 CFR 800.5, Assessment of Adverse
Effects, (v) Introduction of visual, atmospheric, or audible elements that diminish the
integrity of the property’s significant historic features. Depending on the project and the
lead federal agency, the Ocean SAMP Interagency Working Group may require that a
project undergo a Visual Impact Assessment that evaluates the visual impact a completed
project will have on onshore cultural and historic resources.
Ocean Special Area Management Plan
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 83 of 89
2. A Visual Impact Assessment may require the development of detailed visual simulations
illustrating the completed project’s visual relationship to onshore properties that are
designated National Historic Landmarks, listed on the National Register of Historic
Places, or determined to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Assessment of impacts to specific views from selected properties of interest may be
required by relevant state and federal agencies to properly evaluate the impacts and
determination of adverse effect of the project on onshore cultural or historical resources.
3. A Visual Impact Assessment may require description and images illustrating the potential
impacts of the proposed project.
4. Guidelines for Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment in the Ocean SAMP Area can
be obtained through the lead federal agency responsible for reviewing the proposed
development.
Ocean Special Area Management Plan
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Ocean SAMP - Chapter 4
Page 84 of 89
Section 450. Literature Cited
A Digest of Opinions of the Judge Advocates General of the Army, 1912. 1917. Washington:
Government Printing Office.
Abbass, D. K. 2000. Naval History and the Submerged Cultural Resources of Rhode Island,
Volume I. Newport, RI: Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project.
Albion, R. G., Labaree, B. W. and Baker, W. A. 1970. New England and the Sea. Mystic, CT:
Mystic Seaport Press.
Annual Reports of the War Department for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1899. 1899.
Washington: Government Printing Office.
Annual Report of the Auditor of the Railroad Accounts made to the Secretary of the Interior for
the Year Ending June 30, 1880. 1880. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army to the Secretary of War for the Year 1888.
1889. Washington: Government Printing Office.
Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1902. 1902.
Washington: Government Printing Office.
Atlantic Deeper Waterways Association. 1908. First Annual Convention Held at Baltimore
November 17, 18, 19 1908: Report of the Proceedings. Philadelphia: Atlantic Deeper
Waterways Commission.
Bartlett, John Russell, 1858. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
in New England. Providence: Knowles, Anthony & Co.
Boothroyd, John. 2010. University of Rhode Island. Personal communication, April 2010.
Boothroyd, J. and P. August. 2008. Geologic and Contemporary Landscapes of the Narragansett
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