News and Events for Nantucket Island
• by Amy Jenness – author of On This Day in Nantucket History • On June 10, 1865 a ship carrying soldiers who had fought for the North in the Civil War under General William Tecumsah Sherman went aground on Smith’s Point. The ship, SS Satacona, grounded in a thick […]
by Amy Jenness author of On This Day in Nantucket History On June 1, 1796, the British brig Swallow received a “Letter of Marque,” which gave it the authority to capture French ships. The Letter of Marque and Reprisal is a government license authorizing privateers to attack enemy vessels (Britain […]
• by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History • In May of 1942, the German Navy sent 8 submarines to prowl Atlantic waters and destroy ships belonging to their enemies. The grouping, one of the Germans’ famous “wolf packs,” was called Pfadfinder and the impact of […]
• by Frances Ruley Karttunen • Nantucket’s Main Street exists in three distinct segments. The wide part from the head of Straight Wharf uphill between storefronts is known as Main Street Square. The square resulted from widening the street after the Great Fire of 1846. At the foot of the […]
• by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History • William Rotch, a prominent Nantucket shipowner and devout island Quaker died at age 94 on May 16, 1828. He was a businessman who owned a large 18th Century whaling and shipping business and helped make Nantucket the […]
• by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History • The first commercial steam-powered boat service to Nantucket was provided by the Eagle in 1818. Submarine inventor Robert Fulton had proven the viability of steam-powered boats in 1807 when he made a successful run between New York […]
On August 14, 1819, the whaleship Essex sailed out of Nantucket Harbor— Captain George Pollard, one of the youngest ever to command a whaling ship, anticipated a successful two-and-a-half year voyage; its crew of twenty hoped for greasy luck. Their experience was anything but lucky. Fifteen months after the start […]
Small Friends on Nantucket, Inc. is pleased to announce that Courtney Bridges will be joining our school as Executive Director beginning in September, 2015. Bridges will oversee all business operations and programming for our early education and child care program. Bridges is a graduate of Ohio University with a B.S. […]
• by Sarah Teach • Michelle Perkins and Scott Leonard are animal people, though they’d probably prefer to add a distinction: “non-human” animals. The past 16 years of their 25 as a couple have been spent in their home on bucolic Millbrook Road. Leonard is a handyman who can build […]
