Boon Island

Boon Island is a barren piece of land located in the Gulf of Maine 6 miles (10 km) off the town of York on the Maine coast. The island is approximately 300 by 700 feet (90 by 210 m) in size at low tide, and is the site of Boon Island Light, the tallest lighthouse in New England.

It is often said that the island got its name when the coastal trading vessel, the Increase, wrecked on it in the summer of 1682. Four survivors — three white men and one Indian — spent a month on the island, subsisting on fish and gulls' eggs. One day they saw smoke rising from Mount Agamenticus several miles away in York, so they built a fire to attract attention to their plight. The Indians at Mount Agamenticus saw the smoke from the island and the castaways were soon rescued. Seeing their survival as a boon granted by God, the men are said to have dubbed it Boon Island. It's a good story but in fact John Winthrop mentions in his journal passing by Boon Island by name some eighty years earlier. Celia Thaxter called the ironically named Boon Island "the forlornest place that can be imagined."

More famous was the shipwreck on December 11, 1710, of the British merchant ship, Nottingham Galley. All fourteen crewmen aboard survived the initial wreck, however two died from their injuries and another two drowned attempting to reach the mainland on an improvised raft. The remaining ten crewmen managed to stay alive despite winter conditions with no food and no fire for twenty-four days, until finally rescued. They resorted to cannibalism which gave the incident a notoriety that it retains even today. The story also features a conflict between the captain and members of his crew, who had mutinied off the coast of Ireland prior to wrecking on Boon Island. A vigorous public relations battle ensued in London the following summer between the Captain and members of his unhappy crew, which also helped make the story famous in its day. The harrowing story was fictionalized by Kenneth Roberts in his 1956 novel Boon Island. The only non-fiction history of the event, "Boon Island: A True Story of Mutiny, Shipwreck and Cannibalism," by Andrew Vietze and Stephen Erickson, appeared in 2012. It is said that after the Nottingham Galley disaster, local fishermen began leaving barrels of provisions on Boon Island in case of future wrecks.

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