The steam engine from the old Martha’s Vineyard ferry Nobska is now on display at its permanent home, the New England Wireless and Steam Museum in East Greenwich, R.I.
“Keeping, apparently, with the tradition of the earlier restoration efforts, the effort to move the engine here took some time,” museum director Randy Snow told the Gazette in an email.
Mr. Snow initially expected to have the engine brought to the museum a year ago from Fall River, where it had lain in storage for nearly two decades.
Built in 1925, the side-loading Nobska spent almost 50 years on the Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket routes before it was decommissioned in 1973. After a brief reincarnation as a floating restaurant in Baltimore, the Nobska came into the hands of a nonprofit formed to restore the historic ferry.
Plagued by financial and logistical woes, the nonprofit effort ultimately failed and the ferry was scrapped in 2006, after losing its shipyard berth at the Charlestown Navy Yard.
Warren Hartwell, president of the Nobska nonprofit, stored the dismantled engine at his manufacturing business in New Bedford, alongside other ferry parts such as funnels and lifeboats.
After Mr. Hartwell died, his family donated the engine to the New England Wireless and Steam Museum, where Mr. Snow plans to restore it to working order with the help of skilled museum volunteers.
In the meantime, the Nobska’s engine can be viewed on the museum grounds.
“We’ll be doing all we can to document the restoration efforts,” Mr. Snow said.
Comments
Comment policy »