Cruising Salem Harbor with Reverend William Bentley

During this boat tour follow up to historian Donald Friary’s virtual presentation of Reverend William Bentley’s Salem Harbor, you’ll explore the harbor with Reverend Bentley and learn more about the way he experienced it. According to his diary, Reverend William Bentley seemed to be everywhere.

He saw Salem’s ship captains departing for and returning from voyages around the world to bring exotic goods and new ideas to their home port. Mr. Bentley saw beached whales, shipwrecks, a seven-foot shark, seals and porpoises, lobsters and crabs. He noted ropewalks, shipyards, cooperages, and fish flakes, as well as privateers and smugglers. He was saddened by drownings and marveled at the frozen harbor. He knew all the islands—Bakers, the Miseries, Orne’s, Eagle, Cat, Ram—and impediments to navigation—Half-Way Rock, Kettle Bottom, Abbott’s Rocks, Bowditch’s Ledge.