Welcome aboard the MV Katama, the latest addition to the Steamship Authority fleet. She is now on line in Vineyard waters. And in the years ahead she will sail with us and we with her on thousands of trips to the mainland and back. The Katama, with a new, more spacious look and lines similar to the MV Auriga freight vessel, is 180 feet long, carries 149 passengers and 32 cars. She comes to the Vineyard from the more placid waters of the Gulf of Mexico where she has sailed since launch in 1981 as an oil exploration vessel.
The Steamship Authority’s newest all-purpose vessel, the MV Gay Head, sailed into Vineyard waters early this month with none of the hype or fanfare typical of the arrival of a new passenger vessel.
It has not been christened with its new name and plans to hold an open house on board have been put off. But to the standby passengers it will carry in years to come and to those who sail the vessel, its virtues will not be underestimated.
“A lot of the time these ships go unnoticed but they’re real workhorses,” said Capt. Edward B. Jackson, who currently pilots the Gay Head.
The vessel Uncatena, the smallest and least celebrated member of the Steamship Authority’s fleet, is slated for sale this summer, pending approval of the board of governors next week.
Barry O. Fuller, general manager of the boat line, yesterday said his staff had already sent out advertisements to local newspapers, and said he hopes the boat can be sold soon after the new vessel Martha’s Vineyard comes on line at the end of this year.
The troublesome Sankaty went into service last Friday, March 25, becoming the Steamship Authority’s newest vessel in operation. The Sankaty is running with the Eagle to and from Nantucket.
The Sankaty, a vessel that SSA officials have called an embarrassment, went on line about 10 months late and more than $2 million over budget.
But at least the Nantucket passengers seemed to liker her. “They were delighted,” said Ray Martin of the SSA. “They were all razzle dazzle.”
Mr. Martin said the Sankaty ran without a hitch with Capt. Ed Jackson at the helm.
She was christened by the eight-year-old daughter of Jimmy Cagney. A truckload of 200 live quail once opened up her freight deck (“They were pulling them out of the rafters,” Donna Honig of Edgartown said of the crewmen that trip in 1991. “They were diving after them”). And once on a night back in the fall of 1972, an assassination nearly took place on her darkened hurricane deck when a man, angered by Robert S. McNamara’s role in the Viet Nam war, tried to throw the former Secretary of Defense over the side.
The Steamship Authority’s newest acquisition is now sailing between Woods Hole and the Island. Tuesday morning, Capt. James Corbett and his crew steered the loaded freight boat M/V Governor through Vineyard Sound and into her slip with confidence.
“The Governor is not the queen of the fleet, but she grows on you,” Captain Corbett said, standing at her helm. “She’s come a long way since we first picked it up in New York, and so far she’s worked out very well for us.”
The burning of the steamer Sankaty at her wharf in New Bedford on Monday evening of this week, has been the most thrilling event in this section this week.
Damage estimated at $350,000 was caused by the fire which started on the dock of the New England Steamship Company and totally destroyed the dock and burned the steamer Sankaty of the Vineyard Line to the water’s edge.
The new steamer, which has been building at Wilmington, Del., for the N. B., M. V. & N. Steamboat Co., was launched yesterday afternoon and named “Uncatena.” Mrs. C. G. Whiton, wife of the agent and treasurer of the line, christened the new boat. It is understood the name is a compromise between the advocates in the directorate of the names Mattakessett and Nobska. The new steamer’s name is selected in honor of the island of Uncatena, one of the Elizabeth group.
A spectacular blaze, the cause of which is not definitely determined, destroyed the freight she and outer end of the Oak Bluffs steamboat wharf late Wednesday afternoon, involving a loss of property owned by Vincent’s Fish Market, on the dock property, the value of which was set at $30,000 and a loss to the Steamship Authority, covered by insurance, not yet even approximated. The fish market equipment was uninsured, according to David Vincent, the proprietor.
Only the signature of Governor Furcolo now remains to turn into law the bill setting up a new Steamship Authority with three members, locally appointed, to represent the Vineyard Nantucket, and Falmouth, and with final emancipation from New Bedford. State House observers and others believe that the governor will sign the measure promptly, although the strong political pressure from New Bedford is not discounted.
