The ferry Islander of the Massachusetts Steamship Lines will make her shake-down cruise on Sunday and begin regular operation Monday, April 15, with four round trips daily between Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven, according to the schedule released today and announced by the line’s president, Paul E. Thurlow.
The ferry is the former Hackensack, used on the run across the Hudson between New York city and New Jersey. She can carry fifty automobiles and seat 500 passengers in service between Woods Hole and Vineyard Haven. Her scheduled time is one hour form slip to slip.
The good ship Chappy, huge freight scow which will this summer transport freight and automobiles over to Chappaquiddick Point and back, was the cynosure of all eyes Sunday, when she steamed all over the harbor. With Engineers Joe Costa and Jesse Jeffers coaxing the automobile engine turning the propeller, Capt. Tony Bettencourt walking the bridge, Joe Brown and Oscar at the tiller ropes, swinging the craft around in her own length, the scow made triumphant progress, loaded to the ribands with free passengers and accompanied by a great deal of assorted and uncalled for advice.
Steamer Nantucket was still fast in the sand of Sturgeon Flats this morning, with the prospect that more powerful towing equipment or the aid of a dredger will be needed to get her clear. Attempts were made to float her at high tide last night, and the working vessels were heard tooting again this morning in the thick fog which surrounded all the craft and made them invisible from the shore.
Ferry boat service will link Martha’s Vineyard with the mainland within a few days time, according to an announcement made by Charles S. Norton, director of the New England Steamship company, yesterday.
The ferry, which has become necessary because of the greatly increased automobile traffic, will operated between Vineyard Haven and Woods Hole in connection with the regular New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket steamship line, supplementing that service on a regular schedule timed between the trips of the larger steamers.
Steamboat company officials, town and county officers of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, together with numerous representative men from the Islands and the mainland, were guests of the New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamboat company aboard the new steamer Naushon which made her first trip over the Island run on Tuesday. Never dawned a finer day for such an event, nor did a new creation of the hand of man ever perform more satisfactorily, and the run from New Bedford with stops at Oak Bluffs and Woods Hole each way was a truly enjoyable event to every person aboard.
Christened with a smile, by Miss Alice C. Seaver, the New Bedford, the latest addition to the fleet of the N. B., M. V. and N. Steamboat Co., took to the water Saturday. With her flags flying in the sunshine she slid from the ways at the fore River shipyard at Quincy before an audience of several hundred.
Two tugs awaited the steamer which slid smoothly down the ways, and within two minutes they had lines aboard the vessel. They towed her to a nearby dock, where she was tied up until after luncheon was served to the launching party, which then proceeded to inspect the steamer.