750
40
NANTUCKET
Built Camden, N. J., 1957 Length, 213 ft. 2,652 tons
By 1940 it looked as if building of steamboats had ended in this country. For 17
years, during which we built history's greatest fleet of ocean-going steamships for
war use, this was a fact. Then in 1957 came the Nantucket, a true steamboat. Her
white superstructure is high and significantly wider than her hull. She carries
passengers and cars to the Massachusetts islands of Martha's Vineyard and
Nantucket. Her twin screws are turned by steam, not by the diesel power now given
most vessels of her size. But she is not old-fashioned. Because much freight now
moves by truck and many travelers wish to take their cars with them, she has a
high-clearance vehicle deck, with loading doors at bow and stern. Her engines are
of the latest uniflow type, and she blows a steam horn, not a whistle. But she is a
real steamboat, perhaps the last in North America's steamboat-studded history.
R. LOREN GRAHAM
