The average temperature of Narragansett Bay is 69 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and 32 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter. It is estimated that approximately 12 million people visit Narragansett Bay every year. In Narragansett Bay became known as one of the most contaminated in all of the United States due to storm run-off, and inadequate sewage treatment which dumps toxic chemicals and waste into the bay. Due to the pollution in Narragansett Bay people in the upper region of the bay have been advised to avoid coming into contact with the water for at least three days following heavy rain.
The wastewater treatment plants are unable to handle all of the water due to combined sewer and storm drains and raw sewage is often discharged into the bay during heavy rainfall. Seasonal visitors to Narragansett Bay include harp seals, gray seals, harbor seals, harbor porpoises, and dolphins. Seal watching tours are available from November to April aboard two different educational vessels via Save the Bay.
The bay's currents and circulation patterns greatly influence the sediment deposits within the region. Although the majority of the sediments within the bay are fine grain material such as detritus, clay-silt and sand-silt-clay, Scientists have been able to identify 11 types of sediment that range from course gravels to fine silts.
The bay's currents deposit fine materials through the harbors of the lower and middle sections of the bay, and the course, heavy materials are deposited in the lower areas of the bay, where the water velocities are higher. The first visit by Europeans to the bay was probably in the early 16th century. At the time, the area around the bay was inhabited by two different and distinct groups of natives: the Narragansetts occupied the west side of the bay, and the Wampanoag lived on the east side, occupying the land east to Cape Cod.
It is accepted by most historians that first contact by Europeans was made by Giovanni da Verrazzano , an Italian explorer who entered the bay in his ship La Dauphine in after visiting New York Bay. Verrazzano called the bay Refugio , the "Refuge". The bay has several entrances, however, and the exact route of his voyage and the location where he laid anchor is still a subject of dispute among historians, leading to a corresponding uncertainty over which tribe made contact with him.
Verrazzano reported that he found clearings and open forests suitable for travel "even by a large army," a far cry from the impenetrable tangle that resulted when the English suppressed controlled burns in the seventeenth century. Later, in , the bay was explored and mapped by the Dutch navigator Adriaen Block , after whom nearby Block Island is named.
The first recorded European settlement was in the s. Roger Williams , a dissatisfied member of the Plymouth Colony , moved into the area around the year He made contact with the Narragansett sachem called Canonicus by the Europeans, and set up a trading post on the site of Providence. At the same time, the Dutch had established a trading post approximately 12 miles 20 km to the southwest which was under the authority of New Amsterdam in New York Bay. In , Williams traveled to England and was granted a charter for the new colony of Rhode Island.
He also wrote a dictionary of the Narragansett language, Keys to the Indian Language , which was published in England that same year. The Gaspee Affair, an important naval event of the American Revolution , occurred in in the bay; it involved the capture of the Gaspee , a British ship. The American victory contributed to the eventual start of the war at the Battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts three years later.
The event is celebrated in Warwick as the Gaspee Days Celebration in June, which event includes a symbolic recreation of the burning of the ship. Captain James Cook 's HMS Endeavour is believed to have been scuttled in the bay, as part of a blockade by the British, whose occupation of Newport was threatened by a fleet carrying French soldiers in support of the Continental Army. Roger Williams and other early colonists named the islands, it is incorrectly reported that they were named after Roger William's daughters.
To remember the names, colonial school children often recited the poem: "Patience, Prudence, Hope and Despair. And the little Hog over there. The ship is a steel hulled and its bow rises to 36' below the surface, and appears to have sunk sometime after More than kinds of birds have been seen here. Over the years there have been many wonderful maps, photographs, and satellite images of Narragansett Bay.
Of course, the Native Americans knew it very well for thousands of years before Roger Williams came here. Many of the words he gathered from the Narragansett describe their lives near the Bay — the fish and shellfish they ate, the boats they built, the wampum they made from seashells. Roger deliberately chose a place near the Bay for his trading post, so he could travel there by water or land. He also came to Providence by water, as we can see in the City Seal.
To be near the Bay was important for all of the early Rhode Islanders, including the Natives. This Gallery of Maps show how different Narragansett Bay has appeared to the mapmakers over the years:.
To see the Bay in a variety of different ways would not have surprised Roger Williams — this place was always supposed to be a meeting place of different kinds of seekers. Even before he was banished, Roger Williams knew that he wanted to be near Narragansett Bay to start a new life.
Even centuries later, there is something about this free space — an ever-shifting mixture of water, land and air — that liberates people.
Stephen Olsen, Donald D. Robadue, Jr.
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