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.
The new ferryboat Nantucket, hailing (God save the mark!) from New Bedford, stopped briefly at Vineyard Haven on Tuesday – about an hour and a half – to give the people who are paying half the bill an opportunity to see the new boat. Some of them did, but the view was hardly satisfactory, the time being limited and the boat swarming with children taking advantage of the spring vacation from school.
Verification of the sale of the Marine Hospital, Vineyard Haven, to the Boston Seaman’s Friend Society, as reported by the Gazette last week, was made early this week by the General Services Administration in Washington, D. C. The price was $18,000.
It is credibly reported that the U. S. Marine Hospital property in Vineyard Haven has been sold to the Boston Seaman’s Friend Society, the sale having been consummated within the past week. Attempts to reach the Boston office of the society yesterday to confirm the transaction were unavailing. It has been known for some time that the society was interested in the property, and that committees have visited it several times, with a view to reporting on various details.
The curtain fell on the eleventh annual fishing derby on Monday, an event that has brought the Vineyard much publicity and gained for the Island many new friends. This particular derby did not measure up to average in some particulars, although it surpassed all other derbies the Island has held in others.