From the March 27, 1959 edition of the Vineyard Gazette:
For the second time since 1871, there is no Martha’s Vineyard in the fleet of the Island boat line.
The steamer of that name has been sold by the Steamship Authority to the Rhode Island Steamship Lines Inc., of Newport, for $25,000. Her cost when she was built in 1922 and 1923 was $285,006.63, and she was carried on the Authority’s books at a depreciated book value of $43,428.87. The sale price was the highest bid obtainable, the next highest being $18,000. The steamer’s scrap value was put at between $8,000 and $15,000.
It is a commentary on the price tags for steamers that only two years after the Martha’s Vineyard was built, the cost of a virtually identical vessel, the former Nobska, had risen to $675,000. The cost today is anyone’s guess, but a million wouldn’t cover it.
In recent year the Martha’s Vineyard had been held as a standby vessel, and her disappearance from that role is likely to cause some uneasiness on the part of Islanders. But the Authority has said that the cost of keeping the boat has been excessive, considering the requirements of insurance and other regulations. So she was slated to go, and in forty-five days from last Friday she will steam away.
Where she will be taken when she clears from her old berth at New Bedford for the last time is uncertain. Theodore J. Gelinas, president of the Rhode Island Line, told the Gazette that he did not know.
“She’s still a lot of boat,” he added.
There appear to be a number of possible uses to which she may be put. One of them is operation in service to Block Island. The old steamer New Bedford of the Island line went into Block Island operation some years ago. Another possibility is service between Boston and Provincetown, in case the Wilson Line suspends its excursion service as reports indicate is not unlikely.
In any case, the Vineyard will not see the old familiar steamer again in the foreseeable future. The law establishing the Steamship Authority contains a provision that no competing service may be operated by a vessel of more than 100 tons. The Martha’s Vineyard is of 1,089 gross tons.
Mr. Gelinas is identified with the Nantucket Express line, operating summer service between Nantucket and Hyannis and between Hyannis and Oak Bluffs. But the Martha’s Vineyard draws too much water to use Hyannis as a port, and either run would be prevented in any case by the Steamship Authority law.
Work has already begun on sprucing up the vessel at New Bedford. Mr. Gelinas indicated that he finds signs of neglect about the decks, but that the hull is in good order.
As to a change of name, he told the Gazette nothing has been decided. He indicated that, since the boat will not touch at the Vineyard, there may be a change, in which case there may be renewed agitation on this Island to have the name of the ferry Island changed to Martha’s Vineyard. There are signs that to public opinion at large it is unthinkable that no boat with this name should be afloat and busy in the Vineyard service.
The first Martha’s Vineyard, a sidewheeler, went into service in 1871 and lasted until the nineteen twenties when she was sold and became the Keyport. The present Martha’s Vineyard was first named the Islander, and her christening altered in 1928 when her companion steamer, first called Nobska, was re-named Nantucket.
The present Martha’s Vineyard was designed by Albert Haas, who was then superintendent of marine construction of the New England Steamship Co., and who later became superintendent of the Island line. She was the prototype of an entirely new model, though she was not the first propeller.
The Sankaty, a propeller steamer, had proved ill adapted to the automobile age. The Martha’s Vineyard was designed for increased freight carrying capacity in general and for the handling of more automobiles in particular. Her freight deck area is 4,000 square feet, far more than that of the sidewheelers, and she was rated to carry 25 automobiles, which seemed a large number in 1922.
Her length overall is 210 feet, 3 inches, and her beam, over the guards, is 50 feet. Thus she was somewhat smaller than the old sidewheeler Gay Head, but she has many times the capacity for freight and passengers. Her success was soon established, and the construction of a new fleet of Island line vessels followed, all more or less based on her design.
First came the Nobska, later the Nantucket; then the New Bedford, and finally the queenly Naushon, largest of all and embodying many new features, yet growing out of the success of the Martha’s Vineyard.
Throughout her many years of service, the Martha’s Vineyard was a popular and in the main a lucky boat. She had one accident in the summer of 1932 when she collided with the Nantucket in dense fog near Cross Rip lightship, the impact opening a large gap above the guard rail. But no one was hurt, and the steamer proceeded to port.
Compiled by Hilary Wallcox
library@vineyardgazette.com
This article appears in March 27, 2026.