Cape May Coast

Cape May marks the northern side of the entrance to Delaware Bay, where sandy shores meet the Atlantic. Henry Hudson sailed into the bay in 1609, and the cape later took the name of the Dutch navigator Cornelius Jacobsen Mey. By the late seventeenth century, shore whalers watched these waters for passing whales and launched small boats in pursuit. Their industry formed part of an early maritime economy along the bay and the neighbouring coast.