Sankaty
{{Short description|Historic ferry operated on many important routes}}
{{for|the lighthouse|Sankaty Head Lighthouse}}
| {{Infobox ship begin |display title=ital}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Hsl-pc-ob-Steamer Sankaty.jpg |Ship caption=Postcard image of the steamer Sankaty off of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship name=* Sankaty (1911–1947)
|Ship namesake= |Ship owner=* New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company (1911–1924)
|Ship operator= |Ship registry= * {{flagicon|USA|1912}} New Bedford, Massachusetts (1911–1925)
|Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= Fore River Works, Quincy |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number=192 |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=February 2, 1911 |Ship completed=April 1911 |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service=1964 |Ship struck= |Ship identification= |Ship fate=Sunk in 1964 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|Canada|naval-1911}} |Ship country=Canada |Ship name=Sankaty |Ship acquired=1940 |Ship commissioned=September 24, 1940 |Ship decommissioned= August 18, 1945 |Ship identification= |Ship fate=Returned to commercial service 1945 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption=as built |Ship tonnage={{GRT|677}} |Ship displacement= |Ship length= {{convert|195|ft|m|abbr=on|0}} |Ship beam=* {{convert|32|ft|m|abbr=on|0}} (at waterline)
|Ship height= |Ship draught={{convert|9.6|ft|m|abbr=on|1}} |Ship draft= |Ship depth={{convert|13|ft|m|abbr=on|0}} |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power=Triple expansion engine |Ship propulsion=2 propellers |Ship speed={{convert|16|mph|kn|order=flip}} |Ship capacity= |Ship crew= |Ship notes= }} |
Sankaty (a.k.a. HMCS Sankaty, a.k.a. Charles A. Dunning) was a propeller-driven steamer that served as a ferry to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts; in Rockland, Maine; Stamford, Connecticut and Oyster Bay, Long Island in the United States from 1911 to 1940. During World War II, the ship was requisitioned by the Royal Canadian Navy for service as a minelayer and maintenance vessel along the Canadian Atlantic coast. Following the war the ship returned to a ferry, working the Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island and Caribou, Nova Scotia route in Canada from 1947 until 1964. While being towed to the breaker's yard, the ship sank off the coast of Nova Scotia on October 27, 1964.
Description
Sankaty was designed by Chauncey G. Whiton.{{citation
| chapter-url = http://sdr.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mdp/pt?seq=102&view=image&size=100&id=mdp.39015020219674&u=1&num=245
| title = Steamboat Days
| first1 = Fred Erving
| last1 = Dayton
| chapter = Nantucket Sound
| publisher = Frederick A. Stokes company
| pages = 245–46
| year = 1925
}} The ship was {{convert|195|ft|m}} long, a slim vessel with twin propellers and twin smokestacks.The Dukes County Intelligencer. Vol. 7, No. 4. May 1966 She had a {{convert|36|ft|m|adj=on}} beam,Douglas-Lithgow, Robert Alexander. Nantucket, A History G. P. Putnam, 1914. and {{convert|32|ft|m|0}} at the waterline and drew {{convert|9|ft|6|in|m|1}} of water. The ship had a depth of hold of {{convert|13|ft|m}}. The ship had a gross register tonnage (GRT) of 657 tons. Sankaty rolled much more than the sidewheelers that preceded it. Because of this, the ladies' parlor and toilet was situated on the upper deck in a location to reduce the motion and vibration while on the rough waters of Vineyard Sound.{{csr|register=MSI|id=2208399|shipname=Sankaty |accessdate=6 May 2018}}
The ship was powered by a triple expansion engine fed by steam from four Almy water-tube boilers turning the two propellers. The ship had a maximum speed of {{convert|16|mph|kn|order=flip|lk=on}}. In Canadian naval service, the ship had standard displacement of {{convert|459|LT|t}}, a complement of 3 officers and 39 ratings and the vessel was armed with one .303 machine gun.{{cite book |last1=Macpherson |first1=Ken |last2=Barrie |first2=Ron |name-list-style=amp |year=2002 |title=The Ships of Canada's Naval Forces 1910–2002 |edition=Third |publisher=Vanwell Publishing |location=St. Catharines, Ontario |isbn=1-55125-072-1 |pages=229}}
Career
=Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Ferry=
Sankaty built by the Fore River Works in Quincy, Massachusetts{{cite journal|title=Steamer Tested by Naval Architects |journal=The Technology Review |volume=XIII |number=1 |date=January 1911 |publisher=MIT Alumni Association |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gg0AAAAAMAAJ&q=steamer+%2BSankaty |page=173}} with the yard number 192. The ship was launched on 2 February 1911 and completed in April.The Dukes County Intelligencer. Vol. 24, No. 4. May 1983 From her construction in 1911 until 1924, Sankaty operated as a ferry for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company, serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. While not the first propeller-driven steamer to serve these islands (which was Helen Augusta which substituted for {{ship||Monohansett|steamboat|2}} during the American Civil War) it marked the end of the paddlewheel steamer era for the Cape and Islands.
On February 20, 1917, she went ashore on Wilburs Point at Sconticut Neck near New Bedford, Massachusetts. The vessel was refloated, repaired and returned to service.{{cite web |url=https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll001/#head86649728 |title=Records of the T.A. Scott Company, Inc. |date=20 May 2016 |publisher=Mystic Seaport Museum Collections & Research |access-date=20 April 2021}}
=1924 fire, Maine and New York Ferry Service=
On the night of June 30, 1924, Sankaty caught fire and burned down to her steel hull while tied up overnight in New Bedford harbor. She drifted across the Acushnet River in flames and crashed into the whaling ship {{ship||Charles W. Morgan|ship|2}}, setting her on fire as well.The American Neptune, 1941. Peabody & Essex Museum, Peabody Museum of Salem [https://books.google.com/books?id=xzLSFspFuKAC&q=steamer+%2BSankaty]{{cite book |publisher=Pacific Steam Navigation Company |title=Sea Breezes |volume=56 |number=443 |date=November 1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5qoPAAAAIAAJ&q=steamer+%2BSankaty}}
Sankaty was raised, sold and rebuilt with an open deck for use as a car ferry in Rockland, Maine. Owned by the New England Steamship Company, the vessel was sold to Snow Marine Company in 1925. In 1931, the vessel was sold again, this time to the Stamford-Oyster Bay Ferries Corporation to serve as a ferry between Stamford, Connecticut, and Oyster Bay, Long Island.{{cite book |last=Snow |first=Edward Rowe |title=Mysteries and Adventures Along the Atlantic Coast |publisher=Dodd, Mead |year=1948 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IbPTkRE2bR4C&q=Rockland+%2BSankaty+%2Bferry}}Morley, Christopher. Streamlines. Doubleday, Doran & Co, 1936.
=Canadian service and fate=
In 1940 Sankaty was purchased by Northumberland Ferries of Prince Edward Island, Canada, but before she began service she was requisitioned by the Royal Canadian Navy that year to serve in World War II as a minelayer, HMCS Sankaty. The ship was commissioned on 24 September 1940 at Halifax, Nova Scotia and was also used as a maintenance vessel. With the end of the war, the ship was paid off on 18 August 1945. Never entirely suitable for job as a minelayer, the ship was replaced in Canadian service by {{HMCS|Whitethroat}}.* {{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Gilbert Norman |year=1952 |title=The Naval Service of Canada, Its Official History – Volume 2: Activities on Shore During the Second World War |publisher=King's Printer |location=Ottawa |oclc=4346983 |pages=109}}
After the war she was renamed Charles A. Dunning, and served from 1946 until 1964 in the waters between Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island and Caribou, Nova Scotia. During this period her capacity was twenty-three cars and four trucks.{{cite web |url=http://www.islandregister.com/ship_data5.html |title=P.E.I.'s Coastal Vessels and Ferries |website=islandregister.com |date=June 16, 2016 |accessdate=May 6, 2018}} She was sold for scrap in 1964, but sank en route to Sydney, Nova Scotia on October 27, 1964.
The new ''Sankaty''
In 1994, The Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Steamship Authority began service of a new freight vessel Sankaty, named after this steamer.{{cite web |url=http://web1.steamshipauthority.com/ssa/ferries.cfm |title=Vessels |website=The Steamship Authority |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829222133/https://www.steamshipauthority.com/about/vessels | archivedate=August 29, 2017 |accessdate=May 6, 2018}}
Notes
{{reflist|30em}}
{{1964 shipwrecks}}
{{coord|46|30|N|61|40|W|display=title}}
Category:Ferries of Massachusetts
Category:Maritime history of the United States
Category:Ferries of Prince Edward Island
Category:Ferries of Nova Scotia
Category:Auxiliary ships of the Royal Canadian Navy
Category:Shipwrecks of the Nova Scotia coast
Category:Maritime incidents in 1964
Category:Transportation in Dukes County, Massachusetts
Category:Transportation in Nantucket, Massachusetts