Opinion/Harrington: Off RI's coast, a place called 'Little God's Island'

Daniel F. Harrington (danielfharrington@yahoo.com), a monthly contributor, lives in Warwick.

Unlike so many of planet Earth’s craggy islands born of receding glaciers, Rhode Island’s picturesque Block Island looks as if she were sculpted by a divine being in the best of moods. Her elegant triangular shape, particularly when viewed from above, is a delight to behold.

Home to several Native American tribes for thousands of years, and most notably the Niantic people, they called the island “Manisses,” which means “Little God’s Island.”

Europeans would first learn of our petite belle in January of 1524 when Italian mariner Giovanni da Verrazzano, on a quest for treasure for Frances I of France, would study her while anchored in Narragansett Bay. The “well-peopled” island and the fertile lands surrounding the bay seemed to please the explorer more than any other place he had visited.

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Dutifully, Verrazzano called the island “Claudia” in honor of the queen of France. But the name was quickly forgotten.

Enter explorer Adrian Block. In 1614 The Dutch adventurer anchored his brand-new ship “Unrest” within the waters of Block Island after exploring New York’s Long Island. Captivated, Block decided to drop his name on the little Island that sat just nine miles off the coast Rhode Island. (Thus, the famous “New York, Long Island, Rhode Island, Block Island” which-is-what was born!)

Appearing as “Adrian’s Eyland” on popular Dutch maps of the era and later as simply “Block Island” the name – somewhat ironic for a triangle-shaped island – stuck.

In 1636, the same year Roger Williams founded Providence, a shady Massachusetts trader named John Oldham was murdered by Native Americans on the island. Details are few, but Puritan Massachusetts saw fit to send the notorious Colonel John Endicott to the tiny Island to exact revenge. In an eerie preview of the King Philip’s War 40 years later, Endicott and his crew of 90 raiders burned 60 wigwams, massacred 14 Niantics and “shot every dog they could find.” Pleased with the performance, Endicott would be granted co-ownership of the island.

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Over time Massachusetts’ interest in the island faded and the possession was sold to a band of peaceful residents who eventually became town fathers. In 1672 Block Island, under the brand new name "Town of New Shoreham,” became the sixth town incorporated by the Rhode Island General Assembly.

So why the odd name?

The answer is quickly revealed by Google Maps. The town of Shoreham-by-Sea in England sits at the southernmost tip of the great island nation and is home to the famous chalky white cliffs that adorn the southern shores of Great Britain.

One can easily imagine the child of one of Rhode Island’s early settlers gazing longingly upon Block Island’s majestic Mohegan Bluffs from a ship that will never return to its Motherland, saying, “Look Mummy, I can see Shoreham, we’re home at last!”

Today, hundreds of years after little Rhode Islanders first cast their eyes upon her beauty, a child’s first ride on the Block Island ferry – despite any recent “unrest” which may have been reported – is still a foundational journey toward a lifetime full of priceless memories.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Block Island off Rhode Island coast called 'Little God's Island'