The Nantucket was a sidewheel steamer

Paddle steamer

A paddle steamer is a steamship or riverboat, powered by a steam engine, using paddle wheels to propel it through the water. In antiquity, Paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans...

 operating as a ferry

Ferry

A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...

 serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard

Martha's Vineyard

Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....

 and Nantucket during the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. On the Vineyard it docked at Cottage City (later Oak Bluffs, MA), Vineyard Haven, and the West Chop

West Chop

West Chop is a residential area located in the town of Tisbury, Massachusetts on the north end of the island of Martha's Vineyard. It is a peninsula surrounded on the north and west by Vineyard Sound and on the east by Vineyard Haven Harbor. A lighthouse, West Chop Light, stands at the north end of...

 Wharf.

The Nantucket, a 629-ton vessel, was built in 1886 in Wilmington, DE for service with the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Co. fleet,, later reorganized as the Steamship Authority.

According to a 1961 Vineyard Gazette article, the Nantucket "had decorated paddleboxes that made large, rhythmic and beautiful half-circles on the sides."

Nantucket measured 190 feet long with a beam of 33 feet. It was copper fastened, and its double frame made of oak

Oak

An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...

, hackmatack and cedar

Cedar wood

Cedar wood comes from several different trees that grow in different parts of the world, and may have different uses.* California incense-cedar, from Calocedrus decurrens, is the primary type of wood used for making pencils...

. Its hull had three watertight bulkheads

Bulkhead (partition)

A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship or within the fuselage of an airplane. Other kinds of partition elements within a ship are decks and deckheads.-Etymology:...

, and drew four-and-a-half feet of water.

A new ferry, the M/V Nantucket, with built in 1974 and named after this old sidewheeler.