Goat Island is a small island in

Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sm ...

and is part of the city of

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

, U.S. The island is connected to the Easton's Point neighborhood via a

causeway A causeway is a track, road or railway on the upper point of an embankment across "a low, or wet place, or piece of water". It can be constructed of earth, masonry, wood, or concrete. One of the earliest known wooden causeways is the Sweet Tr ...

bridge. It is home to the

Newport Harbor Light The Newport Harbor Light, also known as the Goat Island Light or Green Light, built in 1842, is located on north end of Goat Island, which is part of the city of Newport, Rhode Island, United States, in Narragansett Bay. The light was added to t ...

(1842), residences, a restaurant, event space, and hotel. It was also home to several military forts and to the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, and was the site of the attacks on and .

Colonial History

Narragansett Indians called the island "Nante Sinunk" and sold it in 1658. Early Newport colonists used the island as a goat

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...

.Denlson, Frederic; Redi, J. A.; and Reid, R. A.; ''Narransett Sea and Shore'', Providence, RI, 1879; and Seavey, George L.; ''Rhode Island's Coastal Natural Areas'' (accessed Oct. 12, 2009) The island's name has also been attributed to early colonists' discovery of a breed of goats nicknamed the New American Goat. An earthen fort was built on Goat Island in 1703 during the

War of Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phili ...

, and it was named "Fort Anne" after the reigning Queen Anne. On Friday, 19 July 1723, twenty-six

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

were buried on the north end of Goat Island, on the shore, between high and low water mark. The significance of this placement is that, to Christians of this era, this inter-tidal land was considered "unhallowed ground," like burials placed outside of a consecrated cemetery. The men had been tried in Newport between 10 and 12 July and hanged at nearby Bull's Point (

Gravelly Point Gravelly Point is an area within the National Park Service's George Washington Memorial Parkway in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. It is located on the west side of the Potomac River, north of Roaches Run and Ronald Reagan Wash ...

). They were: Charles Harris, Thomas Linicar, Daniel Hyde, Stephen Mundon, Abraham Lacy, Edward Lawson, John Tomkins, Francis Laughton, John Fisgerald, William Studfield, Owen Rice, William Read, John Bright, Thomas Hazel, William Blades (Rhode Island), Thomas Hagget, Peter Cues, William Jones, Edward Eaton, John Brown, James Sprinkly, Joseph Sound, Charles Church, John Waters, Thomas Powell (Connecticut), and Joseph Libbey. "The pirates were all young men, most of them natives of England." The following is taken from ''The Salem Observer'', November 11, 1843: "...this was the most extensive execution of pirates that ever took place at one time in the Colonies, it was attended by a vast multitude from every part of New England." In 1738, a stone fort was built and renamed Fort George after King George II.Goat Island Military History
In 1764, Newporters took over Fort George and fired shots at , a British ship with a crew that had allegedly stolen from local merchants. In 1769, Rhode Islanders burned the customs ship when it drifted to the north end of Goat Island (near where the pirates were buried) in another early act of rebellion against British rule. In September 2018 maritime archaeologists reported that they had discovered the resting place of Captain Cook's HMS ''Endeavour'' just off the coast of Goat Island, where it had been used to blockade the British during the American Revolutionary War. The ship and its crew had been made famous as the first European explorers to visit Australia's east coast.

Revolutionary War

In 1775, the Fort was renamed Fort Liberty. The British army occupied Newport from 1776 through 1779 and renamed it Fort George during that time.

Post-revolution

In 1784 the fort on Goat Island was repaired and renamed Fort Washington after George Washington. In 1794, Newport sold Goat Island to the federal government for $1,500 to maintain a military fort to defend Newport Harbor. The fort was named

Fort Wolcott Fort Wolcott was a fortification on the small Goat Island in Newport Harbor of Narragansett Bay less than 1 mile west of the city of Newport, Rhode Island. The attacks on and occurred near the fort. Fort Anne An earthen Fort Anne, built on Goat ...

in commemoration the services of

Oliver Wolcott Oliver Wolcott Sr. (November 20, 1726 December 1, 1797) was an American Founding Father and politician. He was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation as a representative of Connecticut, and t ...

who was a General of the Militia and a member of the Continental Congress from Connecticut. In 1824, the first Newport Harbor Lighthouse was constructed at the north end of the island.

was active until 1835 when the garrison was transferred to Florida to fight the Seminole Indians. In 1851 the original lighthouse moved to Prudence Island to become Prudence Island Light, and the current

was constructed on a dike near the former lighthouse site. The area surrounding the dike was later filled in when the hotel was constructed much later.

Naval Torpedo Station

In 1869 the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station was founded on Goat Island, on the site of the former Army fort. The Station was greatly expanded over the next 100 years and produced many of the Navy's torpedoes through World War I and World War II at the island's Navy Torpedo Factory. One of the Navy's first radio stations was established on the island in 1903. The torpedo station was closed in 1951 and

Naval Undersea Warfare Center The Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) is the United States Navy's full-spectrum research, development, test and evaluation, engineering and fleet support center for submarines, autonomous underwater systems, and offensive and defensive weapons ...

was created with a facility nearby.

Coast Guard

In addition to the Goat Island lighthouse, the

Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...

has maintained a cutter at Goat Island since at least the late 1960s. The

Point-class cutter The Point-class cutter was a class of 82-foot patrol vessels designed to replace the United States Coast Guard's aging 83-foot wooden hull patrol boat being used at the time. The design utilized a mild steel hull and an aluminum superstructure. ...

served her entire 31-year career at Goat Island from when she was commissioned on 14 April 1967 until she was decommissioned on 3 April 1998. The tradition of having a Coast Guard cutter stationed at Goat Island resumed when the

Marine Protector-class coastal patrol boat The Marine Protector class is a class of coastal patrol boats of the United States Coast Guard. The 87-foot-long vessels are based on the Stan 2600 design by Damen Group, and were built by Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana. Each boat ...

was commissioned on 16 July 2005.

Redevelopment

In the 1960s, Goat Island was sold to a private developer, Globe Manufacturing. Over the next several decades, Globe constructed the Colonial Hilton Hotel (later known as the Sheraton Islander Inn, Islander Doubletree Hotel, the Hyatt Regency, and, as of late, Gurney's Newport) and Goat Island South Condominiums, and converted the only former navy building remaining on the island into the Goat Island Marina and Marina Bar & Grille. In the 1990s Island Development Corp. (IDC) constructed the "Regatta Club", an event venue. After two

Rhode Island Supreme Court The Rhode Island Supreme Court is the court of last resort in the U.S. State of Rhode Island. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and four Associate Justices, all selected by the Governor of Rhode Island from candidates vetted by the Judicial N ...

decisions regarding the development, Goat Island South Condominiums took possession of the Regatta Club, leasing it to a third party.(1) ''America Condominium Ass'n, Inc., v. IDC, Inc.'', 844 A.2d 117, 132–133 (R.I.2004) (America I); and (2) ''America Condominium Ass'n, Inc., v. IDC,Inc.'', 870 A.2d 434, 443 (R.I. 2005) (America II). In 2006, Longwood Venues and Destinations opened Belle Mer, an event space for private functions, spanning 7.5 acres.

References

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External links

Prologue: July 19, 1723 from gregflemming.com

Goat Island South Know the Facts
* {{authority control Islands of Newport County, Rhode Island Islands of Narragansett Bay Buildings and structures in Newport, Rhode Island Colonial forts in Rhode Island Installations of the United States Army Forts in Rhode Island Islands of Rhode Island