In just four and one-half months from the time her keel was stretched on Nov. 10 last, the steel steamer Nobska, built for the New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket steamboat line of the New England Steamship Company, was launched at 12:43 Tuesday afternoon by the Bath Iron Works, Ltd., at Bath, Maine.

There was no formal christening but the Nobska answered the salutes of numerous water craft and industrial plants along the shore. There was steam in her boilers and she is so far advanced that it was planned for her dock trials to take place Thursday. The official tests off the Maine coast will take place next Tuesday and she will be ready for delivery in about ten days at Newport, where she will join the Islander of which she is a duplicate and which was built by the same firm two years ago.

There were many officials of the line and guests present at the launching, including Captain J. O. Sandsbury, who will command the Nobska.