ANNO 1662
Harrow Quay is cut
Fishermen of the Meridian clan cut the first stone quay into the eastern shelf, stacking ballast from twelve wrecks. The harbor master's ledger records "nine boats, one bell, endless herring." The bell still hangs — green with salt, rung only for fog.
ANNO 1711
Saltglass Cove
A brigantine named Providence grounded in the cove during the equinox gale and settled so gently that her crew rowed ashore at dawn. Locals stripped her copper sheathing; the sand there glitters on dry afternoons, and children call the shards "meridian glass."
ANNO 1749
The Vesper Beacon lit
After the loss of the Amity on the northern ledges, the Harbor Trust raised a coal-fired beacon atop Mount Vesper. Its keeper, one E. Halloway, drew the very chart you are reading — soundings taken by lead line in a borrowed punt, each figure twice checked.
ANNO 1803
The Kelp Arch falls — partly
A winter sea brought down half of the great stone arch on the western shore. Whalers still pass beneath the surviving span for luck, dipping ensigns as they go. The chart's oldest annotation, faded to ghost-brown, simply reads: "here the water sings."