Castine "44:22.97N 68:47.16W"
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Tue 26 Jul 2011 11:52
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We are now at the northernmost point that we're
goig to reach (having finally abandoned any hope of getting to Canada). Castine
is at the head of Penobscot Bay near the mouth of the Penobscot River which
leads to Bangor. It is probably the most fought-over place in America having
been occupied several times by each of the French, British, Dutch and Americans.
It is the oldest European settlement in New England, the French having arrived
in 1611 and thus pre-dating the Plymouth colony by eight years.
For the French this was their southernmost site in
Acadia. After much to-ing and fro-ing the area was ceded to France by the Treaty
of Breda in 1667 which ended (temporarily) the war between France and England.
Castine was captured briefly by the Dutch twice in 1674 & 1676, but French
recaputure led to the collapse of New Holland and the Dutch withdrawal from
North America. Thereafter the town see-sawed between France and Britain
until the middle of the eighteenth century when British victory in North
America became final. But Castine continued to be fought over. It was occupied
by the British in 1779 during the War of Independence and successfully withheld
a siege by Revolutionary troops. What followed became arguably the worst ever
defeat of the US Navy. The American fleet was trapped by British reinforcements
arriving from Halifax and the whole lot was beached and burnt - 18 armed vessels
and 24 transports. The disaster cost the United States $8m, an enormous sum. The
naval Commodore was court-martialled and dismissed the service. Interestingly
Paul Revere, he of Revere's Ride (avid students of contemporary
American politics may have noticed Sarah Palin's gaffe recently) was the US
Artillery commander. He was also court-martialled and exonerated, but his
reputation never recovered. Castine was the very last British outpost in the
USA, returned to the US in 1783. But that was not the end of the story;
Castine was re-occupied by the British in 1814 after a brief skirmish, returning
to the USA in 1815 when the Treaty of Paris unexpectedly set the border between
Canada and the USA along the St Croix River instead of the
Penobscot.
Castine is full of beautiful old buildings like the
one below which dates from 1830, with streets lined by lovely old elms (foliage
visible to right of picture) planted in Colonial times
 Castine also has the oldest continually used Post
Office in the US (1814) but unfortunately we didn't know that when Alison used
it today so no photograph. There are almost no pre-independence buildings
left here - amazingly because the Loyalists chose to relocate across the
new Canadian border and took their houses with them, towing them on
rafts about 100 miles up the coast to found the new town of St Andrews
New Brunswick where apparently several of them can still be seen
today.
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