Isles of Shoals. The Isles of Shoals are a group of small islands and tidal ledges situated approximately 6 miles off the east coast of the United States, straddling the border of the states of Maine and New Hampshire.
   They have been occupied for more than 400 years, first by fishing communities and more recently as the site of private homes, a large seasonal hotel and a marine research facility. Some of the islands were used for seasonal fishing camps by indigenous peoples and first settled by Europeans in the early 17th century.
   They became one of the many fishing areas for the young British and French colonies. This was one of the most northern fishing ports, the closest one to the south being Rockport, Massachusetts.
   The Isles of Shoals were named by English explorer Capt. John Smith after sighting them in 1614.
   The first recorded landfall of an Englishman was that of explorer Captain Christopher Levett, whose 300 fishermen in six ships discovered that the Isles of Shoals were largely abandoned in 1623. The first place I set my foot upon in New England was the Isle of Shoals, being islands in the sea about two leagues from the main, Levett wrote later. Upon these islands I neither could see one good timber-tree nor so much good ground as to make a garden. The place is found to be a good fishing-place for six ships, but more can not be well there, for want of convenient stage room, as this y
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