From the Jan. 26, 1940 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:
Did anyone see the old Sankaty passing the Vineyard on her way north? This question is asked by G. M. Codding of Stamford, Conn., summer resident of the Island, who has passed along the clipping from the Stamford Advocate, reprinted below, relating the latest chapter in the career of the beautiful steamer once part of the Island line:
The 18-year-old Sankaty (actually she is 28.—Ed.) Sound ferry, operated by the Stamford-Oyster Bay Ferries Corp., which sold her at public auction for $3,600 in November, left here yesterday (Jan. 18) under the British flag for the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where she will be put in service between Prince Edward Island and Sydney.
Piloted out of Stamford harbor by Capt. John J. Ryle, who said it marked the end of ferry service from this city, the boat turned over by Harbormaster Ryle to a crew of fifteen.
While the ship plans to hug the coast, the trip for a boat of its kind at this season will be hazardous, Captain Ryle said. Captain Ryle said she was licensed for 600 passengers and could carry forty automobiles. She was a coal-burning vessel with four boilers of 1,200 horsepower. Built for service from New Bedford to Nantucket, she ran for a few years and then burned to a skeleton. After laying idle for a number of years, she was rebuilt and brought to Stamford in 1931.
The new owner of the Sankaty is the Northumberland Ferries, Limited, of Sydney, which purchased her from the Washington Trust Co. of Westerly, R.I., successful bidders at last November’s auction.
The bank said it understood the Sankaty would replace a boat taken from the Sydney-Prince Edward Island run by the Canadian government.
So the Sankaty is now flying the Canadian Flag! She has gone north and east to a new duty, that of running between Prince Edward Island and Sydney, and we hope she will do honor to the service and to her new colors. It is too bad that she could not have called at Vineyard Haven on her way to Canada, so that she could be saluted by many who remember her when she was new and remember, too, the bright promise that she represented.
It never seemed quite right for the Sankaty to be a ferry, and she appears to be moving up in life once more, still under her old name.
The Sankaty was launched in February, 1911, and she was to begin a new era. She was the first propeller of modern times on the Island line, and she was as graceful and fair as a yacht. In due time many landlubbers did not like her because she rolled, but most old timers and most well salted travelers liked her well indeed. The pity of it was that with all her grace and departure from tradition she had scant room for transporting automobiles, and the period of automobile travel was just opening in earnest.
We have wondered sometimes what would have happened to the Sankaty if she had not burned in New Bedford on June 30m 1924. She was a fine steamer but she was soon outmoded so far as the demands upon the line were concerned, so she may have burned at a fortunate time for her fame. She was sold as a hulk by the insurance companies for $1,000 and in 1925 rebuilt at Rockland, Me. Now, we believe, she is the last of the retired steamers of the Island line in commission.
Edgartown Great Pond is on many tongues again, although it is not a matter of argument this time. It is the ice that is talked about, and the various activities connected with its frozen surface.
A harvest of ice was cut above the dam at Wintucket Cove, starting Sunday, by Capt. St. Clair Brown and Wilfred Barriault. The ice is stored in the house above the herring creek, owned by the creek, and it was filled with all it could hold, 130 tons of seven inch, clear ice. Fourteen men were employed Sunday and twelve Monday in the cutting operations. Lloyd Shepard, superintendent of the Edgartown Water Co., who, with his family, is living at Wintucket, reported a 2 below zero reading about 6 Friday night.
The skating at the pond was at its best for only a short time, before the snow of last week covered it. This did not wholly prevent the sport, however, and skaters were out at different points over the weekend, gliding over thinly-snow-coated sections.
An iceboat owned by Warren Norton and John Black has received a great deal of enthusiastic attention, and this week Manuel S. Roberts’ shop, with Manuel in charge, a similar craft was laid down by Hollis Fisher and Robert L. Jackson Jr. The tiller for this iceboat is an ancient one said to be an integral part of a craft once making two minute time from Cape Pogue to town.
A skate sail, owned and operated with considerable skill by Wallace E. Tobin of Vineyard Haven, figured in weekend sport at the Arthur B. Hillman camp.
On Saturday a couple of planes flown by Raymond Arno and Edmond Richard made several landings on the pond.
Compiled by Hilary Wallcox
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