From the April 10, 1924 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:

Very few men live to realize their highest ambition. Yet this has actually happened in the case of William V. Ripley, well-known victualer of Oak Bluffs. The story of Mr. Ripley’s rise to fame in the lunchcart business is a real romance. Starting some thirty years ago in a tiny cart, the dimensions of which were some fourteen by five, this Babe Ruth of the feeding industry has persistently and consistently expanded, not only in volume in business, but likewise in capacity of his buildings, with the result that he is soon to be the proud proprietor of the largest and best cart of its kind in the world.

Inside of a month this unique rolling restaurant will be exerting its attractive power on hungry humans from all parts of the island and luring them to its marble counters as they enter Cottage City.

We have the following authentic description from Mr. Ripley. It will have a length of forty-five feet, with a fourteen foot width. There will be stools to accommodate forty patrons at once, all of whom will have ample elbow space. The floors will be of tile, as will also be the foot rail. The counter itself is of beautiful brown marble. Electric fans will keep the patrons cool during the warmer days of summer, while other fans will be employed to suck out the cooking fumes from the cart and throw them to the outside winds.

The equipment is designed for faultless service. There are to be three distinct cooking ranges: for short, medium and long orders respectively. Every feature of the wagon has been chosen with view to preserving the best conditions of sanitation.

The builder of the cart is Jerry O. Mahoney, of Bayonne, N.J. He frankly admits never having seen or built a lunchcart of this magnificence in his career. Because of its size and weight, it will be transported to the island on a special lighter. Mr. Ripley looks for its appearance within two weeks.

Truly, Martha’s Vineyard is to add one more to its many attractions and many a visitor to our shores will go away to describe the marvels of this unique institution of eating.

Incidentally, it will be a pleasant experience for the friends of Mr. Ripley to greet him in his new castle and offer him congratulations on the successful pursuit of his ambition.

Lester de Frates, the Gazette is informed, has sold one store building and lot on Main street, Edgartown, purchased not long ago by Mr. de Frates from the estate of Jonathan H. Munroe, to Clement Studley, of Oak Bluffs, who we understand will use the same for business purposes, beginning soon after the first of May.

Mr. de Frates has purchased from Charles S. Simpson, the two-story house and lot of land on Main street, corner North Summer, known for many years as the Blanchard place. Most of the lower floor of the house will be made into two stores, with attractive fronts, one of which will be used by Mr. de Frates in his various lines of business, and one will be let. The upper rooms will be used, as now, as a tenement. Contractor Elmer E. West will have the changes and improvements in charge, and we understand work will begin at once and pushed rapidly.

Steamer Gay Head, the oldest steamer in the service of the New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamboat Company, has been sold to the Hartford and New York Transportation Company. The steamer is to be delivered at once, going from Newport, where she has been in winter quarters, since January, taken there from New Bedford following her withdrawal from the Vineyard line. The Gay Head will be used as an excursion boat on the Connecticut river, running out of Hartford.

The passing of the Gay Head is almost like the removal of a landmark for patrons of the island line come to have an almost human regard for the steamers that link the Vineyard and Nantucket with the mainland. The Gay Head is the oldest boat of the island fleet. She was retired from the service in August, 1923, when she was replaced by the newest steamer, Islander, following a period of service of 32 years.

The Gay Head has some years of life left before she joins the fleet of lost ships, but she had become too old for the island line. There is need of steamers on this line to stand bold water, and the Gay Head in her old age retires to the more quiet waters of the Connecticut river. The Gay Head was built in Philadelphia in 1891, by Pusey, Jones & Company, and she made her first trip to Nantucket on July 8, 1891, going on to the Vineyard line as one of the permanent boats in August of that year. The Gay Head is 203 feet long and she was for a long time the largest vessel of the Vineyard line fleet.

When the Gay Head came to the Vineyard line in 1891, she was the newest of the fleet of four steamers. The River Queen had been sold in 1888, and when the Gay Head joined the fleet three years later, her sister steamers were the Martha’s Vineyard, Monahansett and Nantucket.

Compiled by Hilary Wallcox

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