Island History

Cuttyhunk Island sits fourteen miles off the coast of the historic whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts.  Discovered by Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602, it is the most westerly of the thirteen Elizabeth Islands.

Searching for land to start a colony, Bartholomew Gosnold and his group consisting of only one ship the “Concord” and a total of twenty colonists and twelve sailors discovered the island.  The “Concord” sailed to the Azores, and from there took a direct westerly route, unusual for the time when it was more coomon to sail much further south.  The ship made crossing in about seven weeks, sighting land at Cape Elizabeth in Maine (lat 43 degrees).  Bartholomew sailed south in search of a suitable settlement and anchored just east of York Harbor on May 14^th, 1602.  The next day he sailed further south and discovered the promontory which he named Cape Cod, rather prosaically, after the large number of cod they caught in the area.  Bartholomew and four others went ashore there, becoming the first Englishmen to set foot in New England.

Sailing south around the cape, they found "many fair islands", naming one that was abundant in grapes and other fruit Martha's Vineyard (after his daughter) and another Elizabeth's Island after the Queen and this island, now called Cuttyhunk Island.  The colonists remained on the island for three weeks, going so far as to build a fort.  Gosnold's first impressions were good, but the group became disillusioned by the hostility of the Indians and a scarcity of provisions, and numbering as few as twelve by some accounts, they abandoned the colony, stocked up the ship with a cargo of "sassafras, cedar, furs, skins, and other commodities as were thought convenient" and returned to England, arriving in Exmouth on July 23^rd , 1602.  The small town of Gosnold in the Elizabeth Islands of Massachusetts is named for Bartholomew, and a 70 foot high monument to the explorer stands on the beach.