She was christened by the eight-year-old daughter of Jimmy Cagney. A truckload of 200 live quail once opened up her freight deck (“They were pulling them out of the rafters,” Donna Honig of Edgartown said of the crewmen that trip in 1991. “They were diving after them”). And once on a night back in the fall of 1972, an assassination nearly took place on her darkened hurricane deck when a man, angered by Robert S. McNamara’s role in the Viet Nam war, tried to throw the former Secretary of Defense over the side.

The Steamship Authority’s newest acquisition is now sailing between Woods Hole and the Island. Tuesday morning, Capt. James Corbett and his crew steered the loaded freight boat M/V Governor through Vineyard Sound and into her slip with confidence.

“The Governor is not the queen of the fleet, but she grows on you,” Captain Corbett said, standing at her helm. “She’s come a long way since we first picked it up in New York, and so far she’s worked out very well for us.”

The troublesome Sankaty went into service last Friday, March 25, becoming the Steamship Authority’s newest vessel in operation. The Sankaty is running with the Eagle to and from Nantucket.

The Sankaty, a vessel that SSA officials have called an embarrassment, went on line about 10 months late and more than $2 million over budget.

But at least the Nantucket passengers seemed to liker her. “They were delighted,” said Ray Martin of the SSA. “They were all razzle dazzle.”

Mr. Martin said the Sankaty ran without a hitch with Capt. Ed Jackson at the helm.

The vessel Uncatena, the smallest and least celebrated member of the Steamship Authority’s fleet, is slated for sale this summer, pending approval of the board of governors next week.

Barry O. Fuller, general manager of the boat line, yesterday said his staff had already sent out advertisements to local newspapers, and said he hopes the boat can be sold soon after the new vessel Martha’s Vineyard comes on line at the end of this year.

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.

The 233-foot M.V. Eagle, the Steamship Authority’s largest and most extravagant ferry, arrived in Woods Hole 24 hours ahead of schedule on Tuesday. Sailing out of a cold fog bank into the Vineyard Sound beneath a torrent of sleet and rain, the $8-million ferry completed her voyage from Louisiana.

The Steamship Authority’s newest all-purpose vessel, the MV Gay Head, sailed into Vineyard waters early this month with none of the hype or fanfare typical of the arrival of a new passenger vessel.

It has not been christened with its new name and plans to hold an open house on board have been put off. But to the standby passengers it will carry in years to come and to those who sail the vessel, its virtues will not be underestimated.

“A lot of the time these ships go unnoticed but they’re real workhorses,” said Capt. Edward B. Jackson, who currently pilots the Gay Head.

Welcome aboard the MV Katama, the latest addition to the Steamship Authority fleet. She is now on line in Vineyard waters. And in the years ahead she will sail with us and we with her on thousands of trips to the mainland and back. The Katama, with a new, more spacious look and lines similar to the MV Auriga freight vessel, is 180 feet long, carries 149 passengers and 32 cars. She comes to the Vineyard from the more placid waters of the Gulf of Mexico where she has sailed since launch in 1981 as an oil exploration vessel.

The SS Naushon collided head-on with the freight boat Auriga in thick fog at 8:55 yesterday morning.

The two Steamship Authority vessels hit one another about one mile east of Nobska lighthouse at Woods Hole. The Coast Guard said that at the time of the collision, seas were calm and the visibility was zero.

Fourteen people were injured, 11 passengers aboard the Naushon and three crew members on the Auriga. All were taken to Falmouth Hospital, but were released later in the day.