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In 1602, English explorer, Bartholomew Gosnold, left Falmouth, England in the bark Concord with 32 men intending to establish a new colony in New England. A bark being a three masted ship about 70 feet in length and 10 feet wide. He sailed a direct route from the Azores and first landed at Cape Elizabeth in May 1602..
Gosnold then proceeded southwest along the Maine coast. On May 14, 1602, at six in the morning, the ship came upon Savage Rock (Nubble). He named it such because this was first place that he encountered natives. From the rock, a Biscay shallop with eight persons aboard approach Gosnold’s ship. A shallop typically had a mast with two sails and also oars. A shallop was about 30 feet long, 8 feet wide and could carry 15 men. At first, Gosnold thought they were distressed Christians. They hailed Gosnold’s ship and showed signs of peace. The apparent leader of the group wore English clothing along with several others having a few things. They spoke broken english and seemed to understand more than Gosnold and his crew. With a piece of chalk, the leader drew a map of the coast and knew of Newfoundland. Gosnold recorded the people as swart in color (meaning darkened skin) with long hair tied upside with a knot in the part behind their head. Their bodies were painted, which were strong and well proportioned. They much desired that Gosnold stay but Gosnold sailed onward. This encounter reflected the contact of the natives with the fisherman that had traded with them for decades.
The next day, Gosnold arrived at the harbor of what is now know as Provincetown. The large number of cod that his crew caught led Gosnold to name the area Cape Cod. The native name for Cape Cod was “Noepe” meaning “narrow land” or “land amid the streams”. In continuing on, they stopped at an island with plentiful grape vines. He named the island Martha’s Vineyard after his infant daughter that had died in 1598 or after his Mother In Law, Martha Golding, that had helped finance the expedition. He also named Elizabeth Islands (now Cuttyhunk to the north of Martha’s Vineyard) and established a settlement with 20 men that was short lived (one month) due to hostile encounters with the natives and concerns over supplies. Gosnold returned to England with valuable cargo, like sassafras, cod and cedar, and his exploration laid groundwork for future colonization efforts.