Monohansett was asidewheel steamer operating as aferry serving the island ofMartha's Vineyard during the late nineteenth century. She was named afterMonohansett Island, a tiny 12-acre (4.9-hectare) island offNaushon Island.[1]
Monohansett was built in 1862 by theNew Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, & Nantucket Steamboat Company as a replacement for the steamerEagle's Wing, which had caught fire during a race on theProvidence River offPawtuxet in 1861 and was destroyed. The engine fromEagle's Wing was fitted into the new vessel.[2]Monohansett was built in five months in the shipyard of Thomas Collier ofNew York under the supervision ofMonohansett's designer Captain Benjamin C. Cromwell ofVineyard Haven,Massachusetts. She was 182 feet (55 m) long, with a beam of 28 feet (8.5 m), 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m) depth, and had agross register tonnage of 489.[1] Herkeel was made ofwhite oak, her deck timbers were ofoak andwhite chestnut, and hertops ofhackmatack and white chestnut.[3]Monohansett made her first trip to Martha's Vineyard, to theEdgartown wharf, on June 1, 1862.[1]
Barely two months later, on August 13, 1862, theUnited States Government charteredMonohansett.[1] During theAmerican Civil War,Monohansett carried dispatches toUnited States Navy ships operating in theAtlantic Ocean offCape Hatteras andWilmington,North Carolina, as well as in theChesapeake Bay and thePotomac River. The smallscrew steamerHelen Augusta operated as the substitute ferry to Martha's Vineyard during the war.[2] By the end of the war in April 1865,Monohansett was theheadquarters boat atCity Point,Virginia, and was used byGeneralUlysses S. Grant as adispatch boat.[1] General Grant reportedly was very fond ofMonohansett, andPresidentAbraham Lincoln and his wife also spent time aboard her.[3]
Monohansett returned to service as a Martha's Vineyard ferry in June 1865.[4] In the summer of 1874, now-President Grant used theMonohansett to visit Martha's Vineyard, arriving in Cottage City (nowOak Bluffs).[1]
Monohansett was first commanded byCaptain Benjamin C. Cromwell, her designer, and during the American Civil War by Hiram Crowell.[3] Captain Charles C. Smith (b. 1826), who served asfirst mate under Captain Crowell during war duty, became captain ofMonohansett in 1867 and was still master in 1885.[4]
AlthoughMonohansett was primarily a Vineyard boat, she occasionally would make trips toNantucket, especially during wintertime "freeze-ups," whenMonohansett would force her way through the ice to relieve the isolated Nantucket residents.[2]
Monohansett was sold in 1901[1] or 1903[3] (sources vary), and was used aroundBoston, Massachusetts, and the MassachusettsNorth Shore. On 3 August 1904,[5] she was wrecked in a densefog on Little Misery Island in theMisery Islands inSalem Harbor, Massachusetts, while headed to Boston fromGloucester, Massachusetts.[2]
42°32′45.65″N70°47′48.12″W / 42.5460139°N 70.7967000°W /42.5460139; -70.7967000
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