Coastal jewels

PEMBERTON POINT
183 Main Street, Hull
Serves Grape, Bumpkin, Peddocks, Georges, and Lovells Islands. Free parking is available at Hull High School, which is across the road from the pier.

FORE RIVER SHIPYARD
Washington Street, Quincy
Serves Georges Island, with free connections to Spectacle. Daily parking is $1; overnight parking is $6. The ferry pier is not located right on Washington Street, but on an unnamed street, next to the USS Salem.

Echoes of the Civil War

The history of the Boston Harbor Islands is entwined with the South Shore and the Civil War. Among those connections:

► Granite from the Quincy quarries was used to build Fort Warren on Georges Island.

►During the Civil War, Fort Warren’s prisoners included the mayor of Baltimore, the governor of Kentucky, and several members of the Maryland Legislature.

► Sheep Island was deeded to the town of Weymouth in 1636, and was once used for grazing sheep. Back in those days, it was also called Round Island and covered 25 acres. But due to erosion, the island has since shrunk to 3 acres.

►Nut Island was once called Houghs Thumb.

► Edward Rowe Snow of Marshfield was a longtime champion of the islands and authored numerous stories about island lore and their historic significance. Snow used to say that Fort Warren “has more memories of the Civil War days than any other place in New England.’’ And the head of the Massachusetts Historical Society has said of Snow: “Fort Warren on Georges Island stands today because he would not let it disappear.’’

► In the days of the Civil War, an Irish heritage unit known as the Massachusetts 9th Infantry once trained on Long Island.

► Georges Island was the birthplace of the famous battle song “John Brown’s Body.’’ It’s believed that soldiers at Fort Warren came up with the lyrics, and the song became so popular among the troops that it inspired Julia Ward Howe to write the patriotic tune “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.’’

SOURCES: National Park Service; www.BostonHarborIslands.org