The Naufrage Snack Shack

Naufrage, French for “shipwreck,” earned its name the hard way. The first European settlers arrived here in 1719 aboard a vessel that promptly wrecked off the coast. Over the centuries, dozens more ships met similar fates in these treacherous waters, from the Asia in 1839 to four vessels in a single week in 1906. Today, in this hamlet of 100 souls where over 100 lobster boats still fish the harbor, a cheerful snack shack serves fries and ice cream to summer visitors, a considerably more pleasant reason to end up in Naufrage than the original arrivals had.

The wrecked ship that gave Naufrage its name is otherwise nameless. History recorded that it went down and that survivors made it ashore, then declined to write down anything else, as though the point had been made and further detail seemed unnecessary. The Asia fared no better eight decades later, driven onto the beach in a September storm with her crew of nine lost. By 1906, the coastline had apparently settled into a rhythm, since four separate vessels ran aground within the same seven days, scattered between Naufrage, Priest Pond, and Cable Head, as if the sea had decided to clear its schedule all at once.