A very striking and peculiar body of water is this Gulf of Maine,
markedly different in character from any other of the bays on the coast
line of the eastern United States. Especially does it differ in the
depth of its coastal waters, where in all the others, except the much
smaller New York Bay, the shoal water is found extending far out from
the land.
In the Gulf of Maine, however, with the single exception of the vicinity
of Ammens Rock on the eastern part of Cashes Bank, the entire central
area presents navigable deep water having a mean depth of 100 fathoms,
out of which rise the various underwater plateaus, whose depths average
about 50 fathoms and which constitute the larger of the fishing grounds.
In addition to these, many smaller banks and "fishing spots" are found
nearer the land where they lie a along the 50-fathom curve.
In general this curve lies at a distance of about 16 miles from the
coast line, but in many instances it approaches much neared to the
mainland. From this 50-fathom depth the soundings decrease very
gradually to the 20 and 10 fathom marks.
These latter soundings are often held far in toward the coast line, even
carrying the deep water well into the river mouths, so that in deeply
indented hays, in long inlets running far into land, in the river
mouths, the deep water behind the rocky headlands, or in the lee of the
thousands of surf-washed islands that line the coast, are found
innumerable safe anchorages within easy run of the fishing grounds,
where the fleets may take shelter from a sudden blow or await the
arrival of a "fish day," when conditions may permit "making a set" under
the hardships of winter fishing.
If the marine features of this region are radically different from those
of other coastal bodies of the eastern United States, so, too, the shore
land, battered as it has been by sea and storm or worn by glacial action
or Arctic currents, is no less remarkable.
No other section of the eastern United States has a similar coast, so
serrated, indented, and rugged, as has this shore line of the Gulf of
Maine. Here the battering by the forces of nature has resulted in making
thousands of safe harbors and havens for the navigator. All along shore
are strewn hundreds of islands, a characteristic feature of the region
and one noted with wonder by every early explorer. [6] These islands, if
near the land, are beautiful and smiling; if in the open sea, of rugged
grandeur; and mainland and island alike are inhabited by a numerous and
hardy race of fisher folk.
The tides within the Gulf of Maine have a very great rise and fall as
compared with other waters in this region. At the south of Cape Cod
tides are seldom over 4 feet in their range, but beginning at once at
the north of Cape Cod with a rise of from 7 to 10 feet these increase
quite constantly as they go eastward reaching about 28 feet in the
neighborhood of Passamaquoddy Bay, to touch their highest point in the
Bay of Fundy, where in many places is a rise and fall of 50 feet, and in
some few places tides of 70 feet are reported. These Fundy tides
probably are the greatest in the world.
This great ebb and flow of water serves to aid shipbuilding and the
launching of vessels as well as to carry the deep water far up into the
inlets of the coast and into the mouths of the rivers, making these
navigable for crafts of considerable size well into the land or up to
the lowest falls of the streams.
The climate here is one of extremes, and, lying as it does between 42°
and 45° north latitude, the region may be said to be cold. Apparently
the waters of the Gulf of Maine are not affected by any stray current
from the Gulf Stream, which passes at a considerable distance from its
mouth, thus doing little to temper the cold of this area either on land
or at sea. Whether these waters are cooled further by any flow from the
Labrador Current may be questioned.
The winters are long, usually bringing heavy snowfalls; and strong gales
are frequent during much of the fall and winter season. Perhaps the most
dangerous of these "blows" come out of the mountain to the north and
northwest of the gulf. Thus, in addition to the uncertainty of an
opportunity to set gear when once upon the fishing grounds, the winter
fishing here is not without its element of serious danger. While the ice
crop in northern New England never fails, yet, perhaps because of the
strong tidal currents of these waters, the principal harbors rarely are
closed by ice, or, if closed, for but a few days only.
While the summers are fairly mild and in certain parts of them even
extremely hot, fogs are heavy and virtually continuous during the "dog
days" (July 20 to September 1). when southerly and south-westerly
breezes bring the warm moist air from the Gulf Stream into the cooler
currents from the land. The fogs of Fundy are especially noted, even in
these waters. During the summer seasons winds from the east and north
bring the only clear weather experienced in the outer chain of fishing
grounds.
The main body of the gulf lies approximately between 42° and 45° north
latitude. It is in form like a deep bowl whose outer rim is made by
Georges Bank and Browns Bank, with a narrow, deep-water spillway
between: its area is half encircled in the arms of the mainland, two
conspicuous headlands reaching bodily seaward to mark its wide entrance
at the opposite sides--Cape Cod, Mass. [7] on the western side, and Cape
Sable, [8] Nova Scotia, on the eastern flank, distant from each other
about 230 miles. These two capes range with each other about ENE. and
WSW, thus matching alike the general trend of the coast line, of the
island chains and of the offshore ledges within this area.
From a base line connecting these outposts of the gulf the distance to
the Maine coast opposite averages about 120 miles. From Cape Sable, at
its eastern end, the coast trends for some distance to the northwest,
whence a continuation of this course strikes the coast of Maine near
West Quoddy Head at a distance of rather more than 110 miles. From West
Quoddy head to Cape Elizabeth (in a direct line about 160 miles) the
coast, in general rough, rocky, and with many lofty headlands is
extremely irregular and deeply indented and follows a general course of
WSW. Thence, the coast, lower and becoming more and more sandy, begins
to trend more decidedly south-west until it reaches Boston, when it
turns to the southeast, and to the east toward Cape Cod.
But this is not the entire story. There remain outside of these stated
limits the Bay of Fundy in the north, with a possible area of 3,000
square miles; and at the south Cape Cod Bay, whose area, with that of
the waters west of a perpendicular drawn from the western end of the
base line that strikes the land in the vicinity of Portsmouth, N. H.
makes an additional section containing close to 1,500 square miles.
Within the limits thus inclosed there are, roughly, 30,000 square miles
of most productive ground most intensively fished through all the year.
The Bay of Fundy is divided at its head by Cape Chignecto, making two
branches to north and to east--Chignecto Bay and Minas Basin. With
these smaller areas, lying as they do entirely within the territorial
limits of Canada, American fishermen have little to do, although both
are valuable and productive fishing grounds.
[Footnote 6: William Strachey (1609), speaking particularly of Casco Bay,
but the words equally applicable to almost any stretch of the Maine
coast, says "A very great bay in which there lyeth soe many islands and
soe thick and neere together, that can hardly be discerned the number,
yet may any ship pause betwixt, the greatest part of them having seldom
lesse water than eight or ten fathoms about them"--History of Travalle
into Virginia Britannica.]
[Footnote 7: This, the most striking cape of the Atlantic coast line,
made a very prominent landmark for all the early ocean voyagers
approaching it, and all were greatly impressed by it, whether they came
from the south and fought their way through its shoals to eastward, or,
coming from the north, found themselves caught in the deep pocket which
it makes with Cape Cod Bay.
The Spaniard Gomez (1525) gave it the name "Cabo de do Aricifes" cape
of the reefs, referring to the dangerous shoals to the eastward. The
Frenchmen Champlain and Du Monts named it "Cape Blanc", and the Dutch
pilots, also noting its sandy cliffs, called it Witte Hoeck. The English
mariners at first accepted his last name of White Cape, but the English
Captain Anthony Gosnold, the first to make a direct passage to the
waters of the Gulf of Maine from Europe, although at first he called it
"Shoal Hope", soon changed this, because of the success of his fishing,
to "Cape Cod", which title, commonplace though it be, has been the name
to endure despite Prince Charles's attempt to change it to Cape James in
honor of his father.]
[Footnote 8: Cape Sable, at the southern end of Nova Scotia, has held
this title from very old times. It is so indicated on a Portuguese map
of the middle of the sixteenth century.]