Cape May County

New Jersey's historic Cape May County, on a peninsula situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware Bay, was named for Cornelis Mey (later May), a Dutch captain who sailed past her shores in the early 1600s. English-speaking whalers and farmers from New England settled here in the late 1600s, buying large tracts they called plantations. Shipbuilding became an important industry in the 19th century, employing hundreds who crafted sloops and schooners used for coastal trading. Although...