Editorial — The Lightship "Nantucket" Another Challenge

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T h e L ig h tsh ip " N a n t u c k e t " A n o t h e r C h a lle n g e

A n E d it o r ial

In its decision to take over the responsibility of the lightship Nantucket as a museum vessel on Nantucket's waterfront, the Nantucket Historical Association has accepted another challenge. When the energetic William F. Macy finally obtained for the Association a headquarters for the Nantucket Whaling Museum he still faced a series of problems before finally opening the structure in 1930. His farsightedness and determination gave Nantucket a Museum which not only has become an outstanding asset but a place of world renown.

With the coming of the lightship another potential Island asset has been introduced. In an historical sense the Nantucket represents one of the finest of maritime traditions — the protection and saving of life at sea. In a symbolic sense this red-hulled vessel, with the name Nantucket so proudly displayed on either side, becomes the visual representation of an historical age. It is not a vessel retired from active service, moored in quiet waters to rust gradually into limbo. It is a proud relic of a marine service, of an era when its presence on the edge of the dangerous South Shoals was that of a guardian and a protection for ships of all nations approaching the American coast.

On its station the Nantucket was on the most exposed of lightship locations. It was the successor of a list of vessels that had served in the general area since 1854, and thus an inheritor of the proud record of them all. From Captain Samuel Bunker, of Nantucket, who commanded the very first light vessel on Old South Shoals, to the veteran masters and crews of World War I and World War II, who witnessed the activities of the submarines, to the men of today whose lives aboard the modern lightships have their own stories of endurance, the saga of Nantucket South Shoals contains the full range of experience.

The stories of these vessels, rolling and pitching in the open sea, became chapters in marine history; the adventures of the early lightships; the charting of the expanse of shoals south and east of the Island; the pioneer use of wireless from Nantucket South Shoals; the German U-Boats sinking merchantmen during World War I; the White Star Olympic's cutting down Captain Studley's lightship in 1934; the dramatic Andrea Doria-Stockholm collision of our own times — a veritable volume of adventure to bring information and inspiration.

The trans-Atlantic liner, freighter or tanker knows that the Nantucket lightship was the first bit of America to be seen on a west-bound voyage, as well as the point of departure when bound east. Best of all it was a symbol of stability; it was to be depended on — a beacon of faithfulness. Herein is the challenge which the Nantucket Historical Association has accepted.