Editorial — "A Maritime Community"

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A Maritime Community

An Editorial

THROUGH VARIOUS mediums — books, radio, motion picture, and television — Nantucket has received remarkable coverage during recent times. As an underlying attraction for the writers, artists and producers the town and island has its basic history — that of a maritime community. None of its singular or collective attributes — its summer clime, recreational facilities, cultural activities — has the appeal of its seafaring past, those combined elements which created an historic seaport. It is a spirit of a people who built this town. While we have fortunately the physical evidences of this past to serve as a striking picture of those times when Nantucket led the world as a whaling port, it is the spirit of the creators that remains strongest in its appeal and its challenge.

In these days of economic stress the story of Nantucket as a maritime community is doubly important as an inspirational force. True, the spirit of our past is as elusive as history's yesterdays but it is present in our streets and lanes, our humble homes and proud mansions, our rolling heath and sandy beaches. The seeker will find the spirit and be refreshed. The visible evidences of our seafaring past convey the intangible; traditions are recovered through a study of the written word; a living force is recreated, and the character of the men and women of three centuries of Nantucket life becomes once again an important influence of the modern world.

Not only do we have visitors from other parts of the country who enjoy our maritime community but we have people from other nations arriving on our shores. In p re-Revolutionary War periods we had commercial relations with London, Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Paris; a century and a quarter ago a Nantucket whaling master discovered the Japanese Bonin Islands; in another century an American consul at Paita, Peru, was a Nantucket scientist, Dr. Charles F. Winslow. Today, visitors from countries and continents find their way to Nantucket "out-ofseason." Our island town finds its maritime history coming full cycle.

To preserve the maritime community is to keep alive the traditions which created Nantucket and have given it a true spirit of a stirring and valuable past.