Sankaty (steamboat)

Postcard image of the steamer Sankaty off of Oak Bluffs, MA.
History
Owner:	New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat Company
Launched:	1911
Out of service:	1964
Fate:	sunk in 1964
Notes:	Designed for rough water crossing from New Bedford and Woods Hole to Nantucket.
General characteristics
Length:	195 ft (59 m)
Beam:	32 ft (9.8 m) (at water line) 36 ft (11 m) (on deck)
Draught:	9.6 ft (2.9 m)
Depth:	13 ft (4.0 m)
Installed power:	triple expansion type engine
Propulsion:	propeller
Speed:	16 miles

Sankaty (a.k.a. HMCS Sankaty, a.k.a. Charles A. Dunning) was a propeller-driven steamer that served as a ferry to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusetts; in Rockland, Maine; Stamford, Connecticut and Oyster Bay, Long Island; Staten Island, New York; Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island and Caribou, Nova Scotia; and served as a minelayer for the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II.

Sankaty was designed by Chauncey G. Whiton, built by the Fore River Works in Quincy, Massachusetts and launched in 1911. It was 188 feet (57 m) long, a slim vessel with twin propellers and twin smokestacks. She had a 36-foot (11 m) beam, and drew 9 feet 6 inches of water.

From her construction in 1911 until 1924, Sankaty operated as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket. While not the first propeller-driven steamer to serve these islands (which was Helen Augusta which substituted for Monohansett during the Civil War) it marked the end of the paddlewheel steamer era for the Cape and Islands.

Sankaty rolled much more than the sidewheelers that preceded it. Because of this, the ladies' parlor and toilet was situated on the upper deck in a location to reduce the motion and vibration while on the rough waters of Vineyard Sound.