![Vineyard Gazette 175](/sites/default/files/downloads/logo/175banner-150px-01.png)
Bearing the name of the famous Sankaty head of Nantucket, which was bestowed upon her by a New Bedford girl, the steamboat Sankaty was launched from the Fore River yards at 12:05 Thursday, Feb. 2d, in the presence of an enthusiastic party of citizens of New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and the U. S. naval officers on duty at the Fore River yards.
The Pusey & Jones Co., of Wilmington, Del., the builders of steamer Nantucket, have contracted to have another steamer ready to go on the line June 1st, 1891, and from the description which has been given she will excel in speed and seagoing qualities any steamboat ever on the line. The dimensions will be as follows: 210 feet long, 34 feet wide, 11 feet 6 inches deep, and draw 4 3/4 feet of water, which will allow her to go over Nantucket bar at any time of tide.
The new steamer Nantucket is about completed, and will come on the route about the 22nd of the present month. Capt. Charles C. Smith, of the steamer Monohansett, will bring her from the place of building and command her.
The new New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company consolidated from the New Bedford, Vineyard & Nantucket and the Nantucket & Cape Cod Steamboat Companies, was organized in New Bedford Thursday, 25th ult.
The new steamboat just built for the New Bedford and Vineyard Steamboat Company arrived here Monday night on her first trip, having made excellent time. The “steamboat committee” were out in full force to welcome the new boat, and a strong force from the village generally, - the “excursion committee,” we’ll call them - assisted the regular detail in their daily arduous duty.