“What’s
in a name?”
It
is part of a famous quote from legendary scribe William Shakespeare’s
Romeo and Juliet. Every person, place, and thing has a name that
becomes synonymous with them. In most cases when something is named
that name remains unchanged through time. Cape Cod gained its name
in 1602 through English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold. It has
remained unchanged for more than four centuries.
Village
names on the Cape came as communities were established, mostly based
upon English towns. Sandwich, Yarmouth, Falmouth, and others were
named for places across the Atlantic.
It
is a rarity that a town changes its name once it has been decided
upon. There have been some examples like when Hot Springs, New
Mexico became Truth Or Consequences after the game show, or when
Clark, Texas became DISH after the satellite television company. One
change of interest locally came in 1997 when the town of Gay Head on
Martha’s Vineyard was changed to Aquinnah. Another name change was
bandied about on Cape Cod that not many may be aware of. It was a
name given to a Cape Cod town by another famed explorer. This is the
story of that explorer and his journey to the Cape.
Only
a few years after Gosnold explored and gave Cape Cod its name another
world famous explorer found his way to the peninsula. French
explorer Samuel de Champlain made at least 21 voyages across the
Atlantic Ocean to North America beginning in 1599. His first voyage
was to check on the colonies in the West Indies (Caribbean) for the
Spanish government. His second trip in 1603 led Champlain to
present-day Nova Scotia and the St. Lawrence River in Canada. It was
his third New World trip in 1604 which led him to Cape Cod for the
first time.
After
beginning the exploration of North America once again in Nova Scotia
the expedition of three ships, including Champlain’s ship Don de
Dieu, began venturing south.
In the spring of 1605, after enduring a harsh Canadian winter,
Champlain and the rest of the expedition headed south, mapping the
coastlines of Maine, New Hampshire, and into Massachusetts. The
venture was to find a suitable location for a French settlement.
The
initial contact with Cape Cod for Champlain occurred as he landed in
present-day Eastham. He likely sailed into Pleasant Bay and could
have landed between the location of the Salt Pond Visitors Center and
Fort Hill. The stay was very brief and Champlain’s crew returned
north. Ultimately a settlement was established near the mouth of
the Annapolis River in Nova Scotia at the end of the summer of 1605.
It was named Port Royal and became the home base for further
exploration of the North American coastline.
A
voyage south to Florida in the spring of 1606 failed due to weather
and lack of supplies among other things. The next trip returned
Champlain to Cape Cod in the fall of 1606. It was this time that he
became the first European to visit what is today known as Chatham.
 |
| Champlain's Map of Stage Harbor with Harding's Beach Point along the bottom. |
In
October 1606 Champlain first returned to Eastham and was greeted in a
friendly manner from the Natives. After a short visit they continued
south and were nearly wrecked on the shoals surrounding Monomoy
Island. Eventually they entered present-day Stage Harbor and docked.
Champlain would sketch out the area and even dubbed it initially
‘Port Fortune.’
The
crew stayed on shore with the Natives for more than a week. It was
initially a pleasant stay but eventually turned hostile as the
Natives felt the French had overstayed their welcome. An early
morning attack by the Natives on their last day at Port Fortune left
four of Champlain’s crew dead and the rest of them lucky to escape
the bloody skirmish. Later on Port Fortune would be referred to as
‘Misfortune’ due to this event.
 |
| Present-day view of Stage Harbor with Harding's Beach Point along the bottom. (Google Maps) |
The
expedition continued on southwesterly until they gained sight of
Martha’s Vineyard on October 20, 1606, although Champlain was not
certain if this was part of mainland Cape Cod. A strong storm forced
the ship to turn back and reluctantly dock in Stage Harbor again. It
was here while awaiting favorable winds that Champlain’s crew
enacted revenge on the Natives killing several of them while under
the guise of friendship.
Once the weather was up to par the
expedition left Stage Harbor and, except for a brief return to
Eastham on the way back to Port Royal, would never see Cape Cod
again. Champlain became the first European to visit Chatham and no
other would step foot there for fifty years until William Nickerson
arrived in 1656.
Samuel
de Champlain died on Christmas Day in 1635 in Quebec City. He had
returned there in 1633 and acted as governor until his death. His
legacy was as the ‘Father of New France’ for his cartography of
much of the eastern coast from Nova Scotia to Cape Cod and his
establishment of Quebec in Canada. However Champlain’s connection
to Cape Cod came back to the forefront three centuries after his
death.
In
1937 the Port Fortune Society was formed with the intention of
changing the name of Chatham to the name originally given to the land
by Champlain upon his arrival. The idea for the change came from the
minds of two people. There was Chatham artist Harold Dunbar who
thought the name change would be a way to honor Champlain as the
‘grandfather of our country.’ The second was retired Professor
Carol Wight of Johns Hopkins University who did not see the appeal in
honoring William Pitt the English Earl of Chatham who never stepped
foot on the land.
Their
cause was championed by Ben Adams Buck who was president of the Port
Fortune Society, a lifelong Chatham resident and Cape Cod historian.
In April 1937 the group’s intentions were declared in a long
newspaper article. Though initially making waves with its
declaration nothing came of the name change attempt and the Port
Fortune Society became a mere footnote in Cape Cod history.
 |
| The Champlain stone marker near Stage Harbor. |
In
the end the Port Fortune name did end up being a part of Chatham.
There was the seasonal restaurant and lodge on the corner of Main
Street and Hallett Street called The Port Fortune. It started as a
restaurant in the 1930’s and later became a bed and breakfast
called the Port Fortune Inn. This existed until just after the turn
of the 21st century when it became a private home.
Samuel
de Champlain’s connection to the Cape today still remains.
Though
unsuccessful at changing the name of Chatham to Port Fortune Carol
Wight succeeded in having a stone marker commemorating Champlain’s
Cape Cod visits created near Stage Harbor in the 1930’s.
Champlain’s detailed map of Stage Harbor can still be viewed and
some fixtures of Chatham’s landscape like Mill Pond and Oyster Pond
can be made out in the sketches.
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View my previous blog posts: In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Great Colonial Hurricane
In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History - The Cape's Conservation Story
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Be sure to check out my website: Christopher Setterlund.com
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