The New Hampshire Seacoast
Beginning at Portsmouth to the north and stretching 17 miles south to the town of Seabrook, the New Hampshire Seacoast has many personalities along the way.
The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard originally built sailing ships for the Colonial Navy; they now refurbish US Navy nuclear submarines.
Settled in 1623, Portsmouth lays claim to being the third oldest city in the United States and is steeped in history dating to well before the American Revolution of 1776. Few history books report this story but Paul Revere actually made another famous midnight ride from Boston 4 months before the one most of us know about.
He rode into Portsmouth to warm the colonists that the British were coming to seize all their gunpowder and shot.
The local colonists stormed the King’s royal armory on New Castle Island and spirited away the gunpowder stored there. It was later used to great effect during the battle of Bunker Hill.
The Moran Company tugboats guide oceangoing ships to their Portsmouth berths.
Portsmouth is also a working sea port town and home to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the nation’s oldest shipyard. John Paul Jones' ship the Ranger was built here in 1777.
Here's a Portsmouth lobsterman heading into port with his catch of delicious lobster.
Follow Route 1A/Ocean Boulevard down the New Hampshire coastline and you’ll pass through Wallis Sands, Rye North Beach, Rye Beach, Hampton, finally arriving at Seabrook beach.
Go any further and you’re in Massachusetts. In fact New Hampshire’s 17 miles of coastline is the shortest of any of the US coastal states. It’s a beautiful drive, albeit a short one.
Atlantic ocean waves washing onto Rye Beach, New Hampshire
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