Nautilus Island is a privately owned island in

Penobscot Bay Penobscot Bay (french: Baie de Penobscot) is an inlet of the Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean in south central Maine. The bay originates from the mouth of Maine's Penobscot River, downriver from Belfast, Maine, Belfast. Penobscot Bay has many ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

, United States. It is part of the Town of Brooksville, in Hancock County.

Overview

Lying south of Castine and guarding the entrance to Castine Harbor, the island has a long, rich history. During the Revolutionary War, the American vessel ''Hazard'' engaged the British sloop of war ''Nautilus ''off the island's shores and the island has been known as Nautilus ever since. It was captured from the British on July 26, 1779, by men of the

Continental Marines The Continental Marines were the Amphibious warfare, amphibious infantry of the Thirteen Colonies, American Colonies (and later the United States) during the American Revolutionary War. The Corps was formed by the Continental Congress on Novem ...

commanded by Paul Revere as part of action undertaken by the Penobscot Expedition. Nautilus Island is .The world's most expensive private islands
''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' It has century-old buildings and

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be u ...

s. The island features in the opening of the famous poem "

Skunk Hour 'Skunk Hour' is one of Robert Lowell's most frequently anthologized poems. It was published in his groundbreaking book of poems, ''Life Studies,'' and is regarded as a key early example of Confessional poetry. Composition 'Skunk Hour' was the fi ...

" by

Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects i ...

: "Nautilus Island's hermit / heiress still lives through winter in her Spartan cottage; / her sheep still graze above the sea. / ... Thirsting for the hierarchic privacy / of Queen Victoria's century, / she buys up all / the eyesores facing her shore, / and lets them fall."Robert Lowell, ''Collected Poems'' (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), p. 191.

References

External links

Official website
Islands of Hancock County, Maine Islands of Maine Coastal islands of Maine Private islands of Maine {{Maine-geo-stub

Overview

See also

References

External links