When my wife and I make our annual vacation trip to Acadia, we will go to places we have seen before or patronize restaurants or stores we have previously experienced. We also make a point of seeing or doing something we have not done on previous trips.
On the trip we just finished earlier this month, among the new experiences was a history cruise. We went on a boat out of Northeast Harbor for a narrated cruise.
One of the sights we passed is pictured above. A mile or so off of Mount Desert Island is a feature called Bunker Ledge. It is actually two ledges (often referred to as Bunker Ledge and East Bunker Ledge). One of them has the stone pyramid on it as an aid to navigation, and allegedly it was built when George Washington was President.
For those who aren't fond of referring to Bunker or East Bunker Ledge, the feature is also known as Bunker's Whore. Bunker was a common surname of some of the early settlers on the nearby Cranberry Islands. Reportedly, a Captain Bunker "took the town trollop of Southwest Harbor sailing in his sloop." While out and about, he got distracted and was "not giving his sailing his undivided attention". As a result, his vessel ran aground on the ledge. Thus the alternate name.
It is always interesting to know the history behind the choice of names for towns, mountains, bridges, lakes, etc. I also found a feature called Asshole Rock, which is between Little Cranberry Island and Baker Island, but I guess that will be a story for another time.
