2009 • 158 pages • Softcover
ISBN: 978-1-59629-687-9
One of America’s most storied waterways, Nantucket Sound was and is a bustling ‘city on the water.’
Steamship ferries carried tourists from mainland to Nantucket, captains and sailors aboard schooners and tall ships transited across the Sound, and recreational and professional fishermen crisscrossed the waves between Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Cape Cod. Forty-four lighthouses dotted Massachusetts shorelines between 1746 and 1961. Thirty-nine were in Cape Cod waters, and many of those were in Nantucket Sound. Today, the wind carries the silent voices of ghosts of this ancient fishing ground, vital shipping passage and final resting place for vessels unable to navigate its shallow sand bars.
Nantucket Sound sits at the juncture where cold Labrador currents meet the warm Gulf Stream and touches the Islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, including the smaller chain of Elizabeth Islands. It’s also part of the larger Nantucket Shelf Region where its southeastern boundary drops into underwater canyons with names such as Atlantis and Munson. Explore this iconic waterway and its modern ties through unique and thought-provoking essays from Native Peoples to modern times.
The six-masted schooner Wyoming was the largest of its class ever built. She foundered east of Pollock Rip in Nantucket Sound in March 1924, with all 14 crewmen lost. Image courtesy of Captains Douglas K. and Linda Lee.
The bow of the Wentworth, one of Martha Vineyard’s most celebrated coastal schooners. Image courtesy of Detrick Lawrence Productions.
Description and credits:
Book cover: Sails raised and underway on Nantucket Sound. Painting by William R. Davis courtesy of Susan and DeWitt Davenport, South Yarmouth.
Banner: For centuries, small boats and larger ships sailed across Nantucket Sound. Painting by William R. Davis courtesy of Susan and DeWitt Davenport, South Yarmouth.
