Island Home (steamboat)
Island Home from an 1890s souvenir booklet
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| History | |
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 United States
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| Name: | Island Home |
| Operator: | Nantucket and Cape Cod Steamboat Company |
| In service: | September 1855 |
| Out of service: | 1895 or 1896 |
| Fate: |
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| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Passenger ferry |
| Tonnage: | 536 tons |
| Length: | 184 ft (56 m) |
| Beam: | 29 ft 8 in (9.04 m) |
| Propulsion: | 1 × 120 nhp vertical beam steam engine |
The Island Home was a sidewheel steamer operating as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Island Home was built in 1855 in Greenpoint, New York. Its machinery was manufactured at the Morgan Iron Works in New York. Leonard Merritt, superintending engineer of the New Haven Steamboat Company, supervised the machinery construction.
Island Home first arrived at Nantucket on September 5, 1855 under the command of Capt. Thomas Brown. It was the first purchase of the new Nantucket and Cape Cod Steamboat Co., which had been formed from the Nantucket Steamboat Co. earlier that year when the new railroad terminus wharf was built in Hyannis, Massachusetts. It was 184 feet long, with a 29'8" beam and measured 536 tons. It initially sailed the waters between Hyannis and Nantucket. Capt. Brown had previously commanded the island ferry steamers Eagle's Wing and Massachusetts. He was followed by Capt. Nathan Manter (1818–1897), who commanded the Island Home for thirty years.
Island Home is listed in the American Lloyd's Register of American and Foreign Shipping during 1859-1863 as a 450-ton, single-decked vessel. The 1858 New-York Marine Register lists the Island Home as a 536-ton vessel.
Island Home sailed the Nantucket-Hyannis route until the completion of the Woods Hole branch of the Old Colony Railroad in 1872; it subsequently sailed between Woods Hole and Nantucket.
In March 1886 the Island Home became one of the initial four steamers operating for the newly organized New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Co. (The other three were River Queen, Martha's Vineyard and Monohansett.)
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