Rhode Island

Rhode Island, the Ocean State, has more shipwrecks per square mile than any other state. The south coast and Block Island are the resting places of many shipwrecks, with many more located in Narragansett Bay. The record of shipwrecks in Rhode Island begins immediately after the arrival of Europeans in the early 17th century with the grounding of a Dutch trading vessel, and thousands more vessels came to grief in its waters in the following centuries, through bad weather, human error, equipment failure, and military action. Some of these shipwrecks were epic disasters, with many fatalities and the total loss of the vessel; others were relatively minor misfortunes in which the ships were salvageable. Many shipwrecks from the 19th century on into the 20th were captured in the dramatic images gathered here. These pictures show the variety of vessels that travelled Rhode Island's waters back when the ocean was the primary transportation corridor and the many ways in which they met misfortune.

From 1893 to 1920, Bristol's Herreshoff clan designed and built so many undefeated America's Cup sailboats that enthusiasts refer to the era as The Herreshoff Period. In this intimate portrait, Simpson tackles the achievements of a New England dynasty that has attained the pinnacle of sailing fame and success.

This book chronicles the history of the HMS Gaspee, a sloop in the British Royal Navy that was sent to patrol the waters of Narragansett Bay in 1772.

The Gaspee cracked down on smugglers and enforced British customs regulation, particularly the Stamp Act. The ship and her captain, William Duddington, were quickly hated by colonists for their campaign of brutality, harassment, and arbitrary enforcement. When the Gaspee ran around in shallow waters, while in pursuit of a colonist merchant ship, they took immediate action. The colonists, led by John Brown and other local notables, burned Gaspee and wounded her captain. This act of revolt preceded the Boston Tea Party by 18 months.

In an era when immigration was at its peak, the Fabre Line offered the only transatlantic route to southern New England. One of its most important ports was in Providence, Rhode Island. Nearly eighty-four thousand immigrants were admitted to the country between the years 1911 and 1934. Almost one in nine of these individuals elected to settle in Rhode Island after landing in Providence, amounting to around eleven thousand new residents. Most of these immigrants were from Portugal and Italy, and the Fabre Line kept up a brisk and successful business. However, both the line and the families hoping for a new life faced major obstacles in the form of World War I, the immigration restriction laws of the 1920s, and the Great Depression. Join authors Patrick T. Conley and William J. Jennings Jr. as they chronicle the history of the Fabre Line and its role in bringing new residents to the Ocean State.