Bay of Fundy - History

History

The Mi'kmaq had fished in the Bay of Fundy and lived in communities around the bay for centuries. The first European settlement was at Île-Saint-Croix and then Port Royal was founded by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons and Samuel de Champlain in 1605. The village was the first permanent European settlement north of St. Augustine, Florida. (Two years later, the English made their first permanent settlement in Jamestown, Virginia.) Approximately seventy-five years after Port Royal was founded, Acadians migrated from the capital and established what would become the other major Acadian settlements before the Expulsion of the Acadians: Grand Pré, Chignecto, Cobequid (present-day Truro, Nova Scotia) and Pisiguit (present-day Windsor, Nova Scotia).

There were numerous naval battles as well as naval attacks on the settlements surrounding the Bay of Fundy. Port Royal was raided numerous times during the Acadian Civil War. There were also numerous battles and raids during six wars that engulfed the region over a period of 75 years: the four French and Indian Wars, Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War. During King William's War, there was the naval Action of July 14, 1696 off Saint John, New Brunswick and Major Benjamin Church arrived by sea from Boston and raided various Acadian communities around the Bay (See Raid on Chignecto (1696)). During Queen Anne's War, Church attacked the Acadian communities around the Bay again (See Raid on Grand Pré).

During Father Le Loutre's War, there were naval assaults on the communities of Chignecto (See Battle at Chignecto). Finally, during the last French and Indian War, the British expelled the Acadians in the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755), which was followed three years later with campaigns which targeted the Saint John River and the Petitcodiac River.

During the American Revolution, American Patriots attacked by sea both Saint John, New Brunswick and Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. After the War, the boundary between the United States and the newly-created province of New Brunswick remained uncertain, resulting in a thriving smuggling trade in the region, especially on the waters of Passamaquoddy Bay. The Bay saw some action during the War of 1812 as well, mostly in the form of privateering and small patrol ships. After the War of 1812, the smuggling resumed and culminated in the so-called "plaster war" of 1820.