New Haven

Aldarion was the son and heir of Númenor's fifth King, Tar-Meneldur. As a great mariner and adventurer, Aldarion was often away from his island home, but his father the King did not approve of Aldarion's voyaging. To curb his son's adventuring, Tar-Meneldur placed a limit on the timber that Aldarion could cut in Númenor for the building of his ships.

Having voyaged to Middle-earth, Aldarion knew of the immense forests to be found there. At that time in the early part of the Second Age, those forests indeed filled most of the western lands, and Aldarion planned to create a haven on the shores of Middle-earth that he could use to repair and refit his vessels. He chose a location near the mouth of the river then called Gwathir (later known as the Gwathló or Greyflood) as the site of his new harbour.

The name Aldarion chose for his port was Vinyalondë, the New Haven, and this was the first Númenórean settlement of any kind in Middle-earth. Over time the New Haven grew, being used for the building of ships rather than just their repair. Aldarion visited it as part of a great southward voyage that took him into distant seas, but when he returned he found that the original haven at Vinyalondë had been broken by rough seas, and what remained had fallen into the hands of native Men of Middle-earth. Returning on a later voyage, Aldarion found the New Haven utterly ruined.

Aldarion attempted to reclaim the ruins, but he never fulfilled his plans. Nonetheless even the surviving harbour works were sufficient to allow his descendant Tar-Minastir to land troops there centuries later, leading to the defeat of the Dark Lord in the War of the Elves and Sauron. This was nearly a thousand years after the 'New Haven' had been established, but it was not recorded by that name after Aldarion's time. At some point the haven was rebuilt, but later accounts give it the name Lond Daer the 'Great Haven'.