From Gazette editions of April, 1960:

As the boatline strike entered its second full week, business continued to be brisk for the skippers of small cruisers who had set up an impromptu ferry service between the Vineyard and Woods Hole. Their port of call at the Island is the Dukes County Garage wharf in Vineyard Haven, which since the strike began has sprung into an unaccustomed role of activity and importance. On Monday the boats came and went, discharging passengers from the mainland and then picking up some more for the return trip. The tiny parking area at the edge of the wharf was jammed with vehicles. Taxi drivers hovered confidently, expecting some business from visitors who were forced to abandon their own cars on the other side of the Sound. This lively atmosphere was in sober contrast to the scene at the Steamship Authority dock a couple of hundred yards north. There, union pickets strolled across the parking lot. Behind them, idle and silent, lay the ferry Islander. It was that way, too, in Woods Hole. The massive facilities of the Authority were deathly still, but at one corner of the wharf the little boats hummed and buzzed, as they absorbed their handfuls of slightly bewildered voyagers. At the Vineyard Haven Garage wharf, the travelers betrayed an uneasy sense of adventure. One Vineyard man, clambering out of a motorboat, greeted a welcoming party with: “Well, I figured I’d make it one way or another!”

The Bonnie Jean’s skipper, Capt. William Eaton of West Falmouth, intends to rent his craft for summer fishing parties and run an excursion service to Oak Bluffs. His present shuttle operation should give him plenty of experience.

Jesse F. Morgan of Edgartown has bought the former Lima service station on Main street, and it is opening as the Depot Corner Service Station. Behind this name is a good bit of history and the desire of Mr. Morgan to perpetuate an association that most of the present-day public knows little about. At the site of the station, across from the jail, stood the Edgartown depot of the old Martha’s Vineyard Railroad, a wooden structure through which the locomotive, which bore the name Active, pulled the cars of the old line and halted at a wooden platform. The depot had plain wood sides, ornamented gables, and a louvered turret which presumably allowed engine smoke to escape. Here the passengers of the era from 1874 to 1896 boarded the cars for Cottage City or for Katama to see the surf or partake of the famous clambakes at that place.

Following a question of commercial oystering in Chilmark Pond, a motion that “it is the will of the meeting for the selectmen to issue permits for commercial taking of oysters in Chilmark Pond” was adopted. The Chilmark Pond Association had gone on record for two years as opposed to commercial fishing in the pond, and this opposition was expressed by several at the hearing. It is this group which opens the pond to the sea at appropriate intervals.

Lynn Murphy, originator of the petition to open the pond to commercial oystering, presented his views. Joseph Kraetzer said that although he personally was not opposed to the plan, it seemed to be true that every time a pond on the Island was opened commercially, there was considerable depredation, and his insurance agency received numerous claims for property damage. Bradford Norton said that the association did not open the pond enough for the propagation of oysters and that if the pond were to be used commercially, the town should be responsible for the openings.

The moderator, Benjamin C. Mayhew Jr., then took to the floor and spoke in favor of issuing the licenses. He stated he believed in maintaining property values, and that he owned property on one of the salt water ponds that had not been damaged by commercial fishing. He said that he believed there were a thousand dollars worth of oysters in Chilmark Pond, and added that a right of way had been made available.

The way of ducks in the springtime led to a case in district court at Edgartown. Gentlemen ducks belonging to Robert Marchant had entered the property of Nathan Willey, who happens to have a lady duck. Result: Mr. Willey brought a complaint against Mr. Marchant for duck trespass. The gender of the ducks was not mentioned in court, Mr. Marchant entering a plea of guilty, and the case was continued. Mr. Marchant is to build an enclosure satisfactory to the court officer, John O’Neill. It does not appear in the record, or in the underlying facts of the case, that Mr. Willey wished to frustrate the natural impulses of gentlemen ducks in the spring. But he is a gardener, and gardeners also have a tryst with spring and the growing season. His complaint was prompted by the damage the ducks were doing to his garden. The solution indicated by the court promised to be satisfactory to everyone except the ducks.

Compiled by Cynthia Meisner

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