Members of the Champlain Society Posed for a Photo in 1881 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Before Setting Off for Their Second Summer in Maine
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Photograph courtesy Mount Desert Island Historical Society Members of the Champlain Society posed for a photo in 1881 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before setting off for their second summer in Maine. Founded by Charles Eliot, the society was a group of Harvard College undergraduates interested in documenting the natural history of Mt. Desert Island. Their work helped inspire land conservation efforts on the island and beyond. 26 MAINE BOATS, HOMES & HARBORS | April / May 2014 | Issue 129 Influenced by NATURE Early Maine sailing vacations inspired a land conservation movement BY CATHERINE SCHMITT IN MAY 1871, Charles William and the Deer Isle Thorofare. As they Eliot had been president of Har- made Bass Harbor Light on the third day , by Charles William Eliot I vard University barely two years, out, the fog cleared away. They passed and a widower just as long. He needed Long Ledge and Great Cranberry Island a break, for himself and his two young and sailed into Southwest Harbor. sons, a “thorough vacation” in the open This cruise and summer of camping, air, as he wrote to a friend. the first of many, helped instill in Eliot, He found means in the Jessie, a 33- and especially his son Charles, a sense of foot sloop, and began planning a sailing place that would have a lasting impact Charles Eliot Landscape Architect and camping trip to Maine, “down on the Mt. Desert region and beyond. From Mount Desert way.” Described as “a very The younger Charles Eliot, who became Charles Eliot in 1897 at age 33. pretty boat and tolerably fast,” the Jessie a landscape architect and partner in the and crew made a few warm-up excur- firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., ple to enjoy the same experience today. sions around Boston Harbor and raced would go on to lead the first natural his- At the time, the concept of cruising with the Dorchester Yacht Club before tory surveys of Mt. Desert Island in the the coast for pleasure was just beginning leaving for Maine in July. Captained by 1880s. Later, when he helped found The to take off. Robert Carter, Washington Eliot (with assistance from a hired sailor) Trustees of Reservations in Massachu- correspondent for the New York Tribune, and crewed by his brother-in-law, setts in 1891, he created the land trust had published a serialized account of his cruise on the chartered sloop Helen to Mt. Desert in 1858 (the newspaper arti- This cruise and summer of camping, the first of many, cles were published in book form as the helped instill in Eliot, and especially his son Charles, classic A Summer Cruise on the Coast of a sense of place that would have a lasting impact New England). An 1867 New York Times article noted the visit of the newly on the Mt. Desert region and beyond. formed Boston Yacht Club to Southwest Harbor. But in contrast to the Eliots, Charles Eliot Guild, nephew Robert model that would be used to protect Mt. most visitors to Mt. Desert arrived via Wheaton Guild, and Arthur C. Kelley of Desert Island’s diverse landscapes, and some combination of train, steamship, Neponset, the boat was jammed full of other places around the world. Sailing and carriage, and boarded with local res- camping gear, leaving little room for the and camping on Frenchman Bay was a idents or stayed in hotels. passengers in the four berths. formative experience that changed the The log of the 1871 cruise and sub- They reached Portland in a day, then Eliots’ lives. Their conservation leader- sequent ones, preserved by the Mt. sailed on to anchorages in Herring Gut ship made it possible for millions of peo- Desert Island Historical Society, describe EXPLORE the MAINE BOATS, HOMES & HARBORS DIGITAL edition @ www.maineboats.com 27 Charles Eliot and fellow members of The Champlain Society sailed his father’s yacht Sunshine on the first of what became many annual expeditions to Mt. Desert Island. The Eliot family had spent summers in the region since Charles was young and he wanted to share the experience with his classmates. This photo of the yacht was taken July 20, 1881 by Marshall P. Slade, a member of the group. Photographs courtesy Mount Desert Island Historical Society (2) Members of the Champlain Society in 1881 at Hadlock Brook, near their Northeast Harbor base camp. 28 MAINE BOATS, HOMES & HARBORS | April / May 2014 | Issue 129 what sailing was like in those early years. Excerpts from the Champlain Society Record Travel was still fairly rustic, and that was of Meetings and Yacht’s Log 1881 the idea. Sailing was a natural extension of a desire to get out of the crowded city, TUESDAY, JULY 5 and was faster and more calming than a “Sunshine” went down to S.W. Harbor in the afternoon with Rand, bumpy carriage ride, crowded train, or Spelman, and C. Eliot. A very strong breeze in the harbor. The crew steamship. These “were people who made many purchases and visited the P.O. Also ordered two fish loved the outdoors enough to actually spears. Spelman carried a gun but shot nothing. Saw a sea pigeon get out in it,” wrote one scholar. near Greening’s Island. E.L. Rand found 4 or 5 species of flower that were new to The day after arriving in Southwest the Botany List. Rand (H.L.) & Hubbard spent the afternoon on Robinson’s Mt…. Harbor, the Jessie continued east around the island, passing seven Eastern Yacht MONDAY, JULY 25 Club yachts off Schooner Head on their Wretched bad weather still. Woods too wet for walking; sky too wet for sailing. Yet the yacht way to Ironbound Island. The Eastern went out for a couple of hours this afternoon and gave Spelman several shots at sea pigeons and Dorchester Yacht Clubs both formed and Slade a “shoot” at the sound from Greening’s Island. They also picked up a weary Rand in 1870; this was likely the first summer who had been on a tramp to Seal Cove via Bass Harbor. The principal occupation on board excursion of the inaugural Eastern Yacht seems to have been the eating of candy that was left by the lamented Dunbar as a token of Club fleet. his regard for his fellow campers…. Eliot steered the Jessie north along the Gouldsboro peninsula, past Jordan and Stave islands to Calf Island and its Photograph and text courtesy Mount Desert Island Historical Society outlying Thrumcap and Little Calf. canvas tents. There was also a large din- farm there a few years earlier, although a There he edged the boat onto a curved, ing-room tent and a kitchen tent and a son still cut hay in the fields, and a few narrow beach. After getting permission flagpole to salute passing boats. oxen grazed where the Eliots established from the owners, the Eliots established a Most of the small island had been their summer home. Five miles west, the camp, which they called “Camp Sun- cleared of trees but a few spruce and dark blue of the Porcupine Islands sepa- shine,” on Calf Island. They slept on hay pine still lined the shores. The family rated the blue of the bay from the high- mattresses with rubber pillows in walled that owned the island had abandoned its est hills of Mount Desert. The sea breeze EXPLORE the MAINE BOATS, HOMES & HARBORS DIGITAL edition @ www.maineboats.com 29 and its small adventures, the procuring of supplies, the sailing of the boat absorbed him completely.” Back in Cambridge that fall, Eliot knew he would return to Calf Island. He made plans to sell the Jessie and started looking for a vessel better suited to extended cruising. Built by Albertson Brothers of by Henry James Philadelphia, the new sloop, Sunshine, was 43½ feet long, had a cabin tall enough to accommodate Eliot standing Charles W. Eliot Charles W. up, and room enough for four adults From and two children. James called it “one of During the Eliot family’s first cruise to Mt. Desert Island, they set up camp on Calf Island in Frenchman the first American yachts designed Bay opposite Bar Harbor. Charles Eliot drew this sketch of the camp, later printed in a Pulitzer-prize win- specifically for cruising along the New ning biography of his father, Charles William Eliot, by Henry James (nephew to the well-known novelist). England coast.” The Eliots returned to Calf Island in blew across the island, shimmering the The family spent the summer tasting 1872 and every subsequent summer green meadow grass and keeping mos- the salt of coastal life, picnicking, chas- through 1878, with the exception of quitoes away. ing butterflies, and combing woods and 1873 when they went to Cape Cod. With Eliot and his crew were soon joined wrack lines for treasures. According to the Coast Survey’s Atlantic Coast Pilot as by his boys, Charles, 11, and Sam, 8, and Charles William Eliot’s biographer a guide, and the historic voyages of their attending nursemaid; the elder Henry James, a sense of novelty and Samuel de Champlain as inspiration, the Eliot’s sister Frances, and her husband, excitement was part of the fun. “Once family came to know the harbors, shoals, the Rev. Henry Wilder Foote (minister at away on these holidays, Harvard and his islands, and beaches of the Maine coast. King’s Chapel in Boston); and their ordinary cares seemed to drop out of In the spring of 1880, the elder Eliot daughter, Mary. Eliot’s mind. The sea, the wind, the day announced that he and his second wife, Grace, would be traveling in Europe for fished for food and for science.