Thrice blessed, the motor vessel Uncatena slid down the ways at Blout's shipyard in Warren, R.I., with the high tide on Sunday evening. After her fitting out, she will arrive at Woods Hole before long to join the rest of the Steamship Authority's fleet.
The triple blessing came during the christening ceremony, when not just the customary one bottle of champagne but three were smashed against the Uncatena's bow, each wielded by an Authority member's wife, the whole process making for an excess of bubbled and splintered glass.
A chapter in American maritime history will close Tuesday when the last car and passenger-carrying steamboat in North America sails out of Woods Hole harbor.
The retirement of the SS Naushon from the Steamship Authority fleet marks the end of a 170-year era of steam ferry service along the Eastern seaboard.
We regret to announce the almost total loss of this splendid and favorite steamer by fire. She left here for New Bedford on Wednesday, the 24th ult., and made a fine passage to that port. Shortly after arriving there, she steamed up for Providence, with the intention of making an excursion from that city. She had proceeded to within five miles of Providence, when she was discovered to be on fire in the vicinity of the steam-chimney on the promenade deck.
The Steamer Eagle's Wing, Capt. Benj. C. Cromwell, now makes four trips per week to New Bedford, instead of three as heretofore. On Monday, she leaves Edgartown at a quarter to 7 o'clock, A.M., and returns the same day, leaving New Bedford at 2 P.M. She leaves again on Tuesday, at the same hour, and returns on Wednesday, leaving New Bedford at 11 o'clock, A.M. She again leaves for New Bedford, on Thursday, and returns on Friday, and finishes up her work for the week by going and returning on Saturday, at the same hours as on Monday.
These troubled times are not the only occasion on which inhabitants of Martha's Vineyard have had difficulty obtaining passage by boat to the mainland. Ask the oldest inhabitant as to boat service, and the chances are that he will refer to the good old days when no difficulties presented themselves and life was sweet and peaceful.
Steamer Islander, built by the Bath, (Me.) Iron Works, Ltd., for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamboat Co., was launched Wednesday afternoon of last week, at about 5 o'clock.
On those mornings or afternoons when she sailed past her older sister ship, it was possible to stand on the uppermost deck of the new steamship Islander and look down on the roof of the pilothouse of the sidewheeler Uncatena.
Steamer history is Vineyard history, even now, for the arrival of the air age has not diminished the necessity of boat service.
It is likely that regular boat service between Martha’s Vineyard and the mainland was being operated by the year 1800. This does not mean daily service, however, for in the old times the packets and even the steamboats that followed them, would run on certain days of the week. Sailings were arranged according to the time of year and the needs of traffic.
NANTUCKET - Placing a surprise trump card on the table in the
testy and complicated match over opening up ferry service from New
Bedford, Steamship Authority governors announced yesterday that they
will take immediate steps to buy the ferry Schamonchi, a privatepassenger ferry that operates between New Bedford and the Vineyard.
Time has finally run out for the Nobska, the last coastal steamer in
America and the car and passenger vessel that served the Vineyard
between 1925 and 1973. Preliminary work to dismantle the historic vessel
began in the Charlestown Navy Yard early this week, and on Wednesday the
wrecking ball came down on her upper deck.
