World War II

Uncle Sam on the Vineyard
Friday July 4, 1941
Vineyard Gazette

Apropos the observation station at Peaked Hill, where a drive to the summit is now under construction, and likewise the report of a similar station to be constructed at Gay Head, near the lighthouse, it now becomes known that the reason for two such stations so close together is that the boundary lines dividing the Boston and Newport coastal defense areas converge on the Vineyard in such a way as to leave part of the Island in each district.

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539 Register As Island Man-Power
Friday October 18, 1940
Vineyard Gazette

The eligible, man-power of Dukes County registered for the selective draft on Wednesday, the total number of registrants reaching 539. The figures for registration in the several towns are as follows: Tisbury, 174 resdents, 21 non-residents; Edgartown, 140 residents, 6 non-residents; Oak Bluffs, 132 residents, 6 non-residents; West Tisbury, 27 residents, 1 non-resident; Chilmark, 19 residents, 2 non-residents; Gay Head, 6 residents; Gosnold, 3 residents, 2 non-residents.

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Now Hospital Ship: Naushon Has Picture in A.E.F. Paper
Friday September 3, 1943
Vineyard Gazette
The whereabouts and occupation of the favorite Island steamer Naushon, long queen of the Island line, has been officially revealed in a story in the Stars and Stripes, newspaper of the American forces overseas. A clip­ping of the story, with a picture of the Naushon in her new role, has come to Mrs. Joseph De Witt of Ed­gartown from her brother, Pvt. Morris Shapiro, who is serving somewhere in England.
 
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Training, Patrol Work, Both Functions of Station
Friday December 24, 1943
Vineyard Gazette
A removal for the first time of the restrictions which have prevented pub­lication of any material regarding the types of planes at the Martha’s Vineyard Naval Auxiliary Air Facility, the activities at thee field, or the purposes for which it is designated, is marked by publication of an article, illustrated by drawings, in a recent issue of the Providence Journal. Some of the ma­terial in the article has been common knowledge on the Vineyard for a long time, but strict orders have prevented its publication.
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Pearl Harbor Horror as the Wives and Children of the Army Saw it Related by Visitor
Tuesday July 13, 1943
Vineyard Gazette
As the planes swooped and roared past the windows of his home, the young Army officer, seeing the big red suns which marked them - for the great power which sent them on their errand still thought then that the sun was rising on the land it ruled - cried out: “It’s Japan! It’s war!”
 
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Airport Is Carved Out of Wilderness
Friday April 16, 1943
Vineyard Gazette
The airfield on the central plain of Martha’s Vineyard is beginning to shape up as something more than raw earth, mud, and the destination of building materials trucked over the roads from the steamboat landing. The time has arrived, also, when the United States Navy feels that the public may know something of this project which has brought life and a strange new pattern to a domain where only the hawks, rabbits and wildflowers have dwelt for many generations.
 
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Government Takes the New Bedford
Tuesday August 4, 1942
Vineyard Gazette
The steamer New Bedford of the New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamboat Line, is being requisitioned by the government as of noon today. This is the second boat to be taken from the line under the war power of the government, and her departure follows by little more than three weeks the requisitioning of the line’s flagships, the Naushon.
 
Every assurance has been given, it is learned, that no more steamers will be taken from the Island line.
 
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Unexploded Depth Charge Lies in the Edgartown Harbor
Friday July 24, 1942
Vineyard Gazette
One of three PT boat of the United States Navy, leaving Edgartown har­bor yesterday afternoon, dropped a live depth charge loaded with TNT in the outer harbor and the charge failed to explode. A radio report to the office of the Coast Guard at Vineyard Haven was made immediately, and two boats turned back, one of them tieing up for a second time at the Edgartown Yacht Club wharf to make a report of the incident.
 
The charge was still unexploded this morning.
 
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Government Takes Steamer Naushon
Friday July 10, 1942
Vineyard Gazette
The Naushon, pride of the Island Fleet of steamers, yesterday took her last look at the Island which she has served since she was built in 1929. For the last time she breasted the Island waters which on countless trips have offered their caress or attacked her with savage force. She has been taken over by the federal government and will play her part in the war effort, in some capacity not divulged.
 
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P.T. Boats Drop In
Friday July 3, 1942
Vineyard Gazette
Edgartown, its ears unconsciously expectant of the crash of bombs, had a thrilling experience Monday morn­ing when the quiet June air was blasted by what sounded like nothing less than a fleet of bombing planes. The sky proving as blue, and benig­nant as it should on a proper June day in Edgartown, the population, or a large part of it, followed the sound to the harborfront, and was rewarded by the sight of a fleet of menacing looking mosquito boats.
 
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