Frenchman Bay is a bay in Hancock County, Maine, named for Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who visited the area in 1604. Frenchman Bay may have been the location of the Jesuit , established in 1613. In a 1960 book titled, "The Story of Mount Desert Island", Samuel Eliot Morison wrote, "Frenchmans Bay was so called because it became a staging point for French warships preparing to fight the English." The bay extends for roughly 15 miles (24 km) and spans 7 miles (11 km) at its widest.