Provincetown Harbor

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Provincetown Harbor is located off of the town of Provincetown, Massachusetts.

It was the initial anchoring place of the Pilgrims traveling on the Mayflower in 1620, before they proceeded to Plymouth, Massachusetts. Peregrine White, the first child born to the Pilgrims in New England, was born in Provincetown Harbor. Dorothy Bradford was the first adult Pilgrim to die in the New World. According to the Pilgrims' records, she fell overboard from the Mayflower in Provincetown Harbor. A recent book by Delores Bird Carpenter investigating the papers of Warren Sears Nickerson suggested that she may instead have committed suicide there.

It is recorded that the Mayflower passengers did not get a friendly reception by the natives. Muskets traded shots for arrows in their first encounter in Eastham.

Viking Princess Harbor Cruises offers the only in-depth, historical review of the harbor in their Harbor Tour and the only in-depth review of harbor marine life in their Critter Cruise.

Lewis Wharf extended more than 100 feet into Provincetown Harbor from the East End of Provincetown. This wharf was purchased by Mary Heaton Vorse O'Brien and its old fish shack converted into a theater which beecame the home of the Provincetown Players. Eugene O'Neill debuted his first play there, Bound East for Cardiff, in 1916.

Captain Jack's Wharf is on the West End of Provincetown. At another theater on that wharf, Tennessee Williams debuted A Streetcar Named Desire.

Provincetown Harbor is one of the world's larger natural harbors, being mostly 30 to 90 feet deep, roughly one mile from north to south and two miles from east to west, i.e., one large, deep bowl with no channel necessary for boats to come in and out.

In both 1907 and 1910, when the Pilgrim Memorial Monument began construction and when it was dedicated, the entire Atlantic fleet of the U.S. Navy was inside the harbor for large ceremonies which included visits by Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, respectively.

The harbor affords views of three working lighthouses, Long Point, Wood End, and Highland (or Cape Cod) Light, and most of the buildings of the town.

Local marine life include striped bass, bluefish, Atlantic white-sided dolphin, American lobster, rock crab, jonah crab, Forbes' sea star, and much more.

MacMillan Pier, the town pier of Provincetown, extends well into the harbor and was significantly renovated and expanded during 2003-2005.