For 48 years, until the Nobska was withdrawn from service in 1973 by owner the Steamship Authority, the classic white-and-black vessel with its straight bows, tall buff-colored funnel and ear-piercing whistle, was the reigning queen of the waters of the Nantucket Sound, transporting generations of happy vacationers, automobiles and freight to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard from its mainland terminal.
The 210-foot long Nobska, named after Nobska Point, Woods Hole, on Cape Cod, was built for the New England Steamship Co. at Bath Iron Works in Maine, and was launched in 1925 when its steel plates were first caressed by the chilly waters of the Kennebec River.
Power for the vessel were two Babcock and Wilcox watertube boilers which generated steam at 200 pounds of pressure to the ship’s four-cylinder, triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine, which allowed the vessel to steam at 14 knots.
Outfitted with the latest amenities, the Nobska featured 10 private day staterooms and could accomodate 30 automobiles.
The vessel had its loyal following which included many celebrities vacationing on either The Cape or Nantucket including actors Jimmy Cagney and Katherine Cornell, John F. Kennedy, and Charles A. Lindbergh.
The Nobska became a reliable old friend to islanders who knew she’d make her way despite blizzards and storms.
By 1965, larger diesel-powered ferries, which were less glamorous but had a greater capacity for passengers, autos and trucks, joined the fleet, which left the Nobska only sailing during the summer on the Woods Hole-Oak Bluffs-Nantucket route.
The Steamship Authority expanded service from Hyannis and Nantucket and the old vessel’s days were numbered.
Removed from service in 1973, it was sold two years later by its owner for $61,750 to Albert M. Johnston, a Philadelphia builder, who sold it to the city of Baltimore for $175,000, and then leased it from the city for $24,000 a year.
Docked in the west basin of the Inner Harbor, across the street from the now-demolished McCormick spice plant on Light Street, Johnston sublet the Nobska to Vincent Piro, a restauranteur.
Gutted of its interior — only its engine remained which was maintained by a hearty band of New Englanders, Friends of the Nobska, who would arrive in Baltimore several times a year to work on it — while Piro tried unsuccessfully to make it into a dining destination.
Seafood — lobster, crab, oysters, shrimp, and fish were at the core of its menu with “Surf and Turf Nobska Stye” — a combination of half a Maine lobster stuffed with ith lobster imperial and a N.Y. sirloin steak and drawn butter — which would set back a happy eater $9.95.
Crepes de la mer, a delicious combination of lobster, shrimp, scallops and crabmeat all set in a Sauce Morney bath, was another favorite.
In 1980, Adam Spiegel, heir to the Chicago mail-order fortune, former Evening Sun reporter and former publisher of the Carroll County Times, continued the renovations after receiving $2 million in loans from the city.
By 1982, Spiegel had grown frustrated by the project, and in 1988 the ship left Baltimore after being purchased by the New England Steamship Foundation, established in 1975 as successor to the Friends of the Nobska.
The Nobska was towed back to New England where it wandered around the backwaters of Fall River, Massachusetts, to Providence, Rhode Island., to New Bedford, Massachusetts, and finally to its final port of call in 1995, in a drydock at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston.
Her two neighbors were the historic USS Constitution, better known as Old Ironsides, built in 1797, and USS Cassin Young, a World War II destroyer.
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, financial considerations continued to plague restoration of the beloved Nobska which were estimated to be $20 million to rebuild and restore the steamer to operation.
After a decade at Charlestown and with funding not a possibility and the Navy’s need for the drydock, the vessel, which was the nation’s last surviving coastal steam, met its fate at the hand of scrappers.
Thankfully, her massive engine and whistle had been removed for preservation.
In 2024, the engine and other artifacts had been sent to the New England Wireless and steam Museum in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
For sentimentalists and ship buffs, the Nobska isn’t entirely gone, as her voice still lives as it calls out over the waters.
In 2006, the Steamship Authority installed her steam-powered whistle on the Eagle, built in 1987, which is now air-powered, and plies the route of her sister vessel.
