Time and Tide Nantucket

On this installment of The Shellfish Series we welcome Rob Garrison to the show.  Rob's name kept coming up at the top of our list of guests who could really shed some light on the early years of aquaculture on the island.  Him and Martin Ceely were the founding partners of the first oyster farm on Nantucket in the 1980's, and Rob was also integral in developing and constructing the firs...

On this episode we do a deep dive on a number of subjects related to oyster farming on the island today, the operations at the shellfish hatchery on Brant Point and a look into the work of the Nantucket Shellfish Association.  The group includes Sam Denette, Executive Director of the Nantucket Shellfish Association, Tara Riley, Shellfish and Aquatic Resource Manager at the Shellfish Hatchery and M...

A round table discussion with Bill Klein, Chuck Gieg and Renee Ceeley that recalls the first days of clam/oyster aquaculture on Nantucket.  Special thanks to all who lent a voice to this project! Production, Editing and Music by Evan Schwanfelder © Egan Maritime Institute, 2023

We’ve got something a bit different for you all on this episode, and I’m excited to see what you all think about this one. This past fall we were coming up with program ideas to get people out to the museum in the off season. One that we wanted to try was a live quiz show centered on Nantucket with a maritime theme. Styled after a few different radio quiz show formats, we had a panel of guests, au...

Part Two of the South Shore Shipwreck Series.  Since the release of part one, a significant new wreck fragment has been uncovered roughly 1,000 ft west of the original site.  Based on new clues, yet to be discussed publicly, can we conclude, beyond a shadow of doubt, that these are the remains of the Warren Sawyer ?  Join host Evan Schwanfelder as he sits down and does a deep dive with Massachuset...

"South Shore Shipwreck Part 1: The Find" is the first episode in a two part series that documents the rediscovery of substantial shipwreck remains recently uncovered on Nantucket's South Shore in late November 2022.   We go in depth on the research and archeological process with first hand accounts from the many generous and knowledgable people who helped along the way.   I hope you...

We are very thankful to the Nantucket Atheneum for reaching out to see if Time and Tide would be interested in collaborating on a podcast for this year’s 1 Book 1 Island series of events.  The book “The Yellow House” is a powerful memoir by author Sarah Broom, that tells the story of her family’s house in New Orleans, the loss of the house during Hurricane Katrina, and ties in the mythology of the...

Part 4 of 4 - Discussion at the end of Episode The Experiences of William S. Cary, a Nantucket man.  The sole survivor of the crew of the whaleship Oeno, who lived for nine years among cannibals of the South Pacific. "Cary's log of his experiences is a most graphic depiction of life among the Fiji Islanders.  His capture and adoption by the king of the tribe, the life and customs of the...

Part 3 of 4 The Experiences of William S. Cary, a Nantucket man.  The sole survivor of the crew of the whaleship Oeno, who lived for nine years among cannibals of the South Pacific. "Cary's log of his experiences is a most graphic depiction of life among the Fiji Islanders.  His capture and adoption by the king of the tribe, the life and customs of the natives, his escape and return home...

Part 2 of 4 The Experiences of William S. Cary, a Nantucket man.  The sole survivor of the crew of the whaleship Oeno, who lived for nine years among cannibals of the South Pacific. "Cary's log of his experiences is a most graphic depiction of life among the Fiji Islanders.  His capture and adoption by the king of the tribe, the life and customs of the natives, his escape and return home...

Part 1 of 4 The Experiences of William S. Cary, a Nantucket man.  The sole survivor of the crew of the whaleship Oeno, who lived for nine years  among cannibals of the South Pacific.  "Cary's log of his experiences is a most graphic depiction of life among the Fiji Islanders.  His capture and adoption by the king of the tribe, the life and customs of the natives, his escape and return ho...

In this episode we present a series of short vignettes and first person accounts of major freeze up events in 19th century Nantucket.  These were the days before fast ferries and airplanes, when news of the day and word from loved ones travelled only by mail.  Sailing ships and later, steamboats, were the only lifeline to the mainland carrying mail, fuel, supplies and people.  During large freeze...

This story goes back to the early 1980's on Nantucket.  Capt. Pete Kaizer was in his early years of fishing on the island when a local market for bluefish developed.  Pete used gillnetting strategies he had learned while fishing the winter seasons in Florida, and applied them to Nantucket's inshore fishery.  One August afternoon, Pete and his mate found a large school of fish just north...

The Joseph Starbuck, named after the wealthy whaling merchant who built her, was the last one built at the Brant Point shipyard, launched in 1838.  She completed one successful voyage to the Pacific and was fitted out for her second in 1842.  She was a beautiful and highly valued ship of live oak, and copper fastened.  The vessel alone was insured for $24,000. On Sunday, November 27, 1842, the shi...

On a stormy morning in early spring, 1893, just after the sun's rays had lifted a foggy curtain from the sea, the strongly-built Norwegian bark Mentor emerged from the fog and found herself in the shoals off the east end of Nantucket.  There was a high sea running and before she could extricate herself she struck heavily, and remained fast.  It was Sunday morning, April 23rd, 1893.  White wat...

During the winter of 1871, Nantucket Sound experienced once of the worst freeze-ups in history; the ice was so thick that it was incredibly challenging and nearly impossible to cut through. At this time there was no paid lifesaving service on the island. Rather, volunteer surfmen with the Massachusetts Humane Society risked life and limb to aid mariners and passengers in distress on the shoals aro...

The two-masted schooner Eveline Treat was sailing along the south shore of Nantucket, heading to Gloucester, MA, with a cargo of coal during the early morning—around 1am—on Saturday, October 21, 1865, she struck Miacomet Rip. There were five souls aboard the ship: sixty-two year old Captain Job Philbrook, two of his sons, and two other men. Under the cloak of darkness they had no option but to wea...

During a massive freeze in the winter of 1918, the Cross Rip Lightship, anchored north of Nantucket, was held fast in a crushing ice floe.  The Captain, stranded at shore, left first mate, Henry Joy in charge.  Fearing for the life of the crew, Joy walked seven miles across the ice to Nantucket to ask permission for the crew to abandon ship.  The country was at war and his request was denied.  The...

The Nantucket South Shoals Lightship, numbered LV-117, was anchored 43 miles southeast of the island, beyond the outermost edge of the treacherous Nantucket Shoals and served as a major navigational beacon marking the western end of the trans-Atlantic shipping channel. Though prone to stormy seas and heavy fog, this position allowed incoming and outgoing vessels to heed the dangerous shoals by hom...

Whenever a shipwreck on Nantucket was mentioned by islanders in the late 19th and early 20th centuries one was always certain to be recalled - the wreck of the big, three masted schooner, T.B. Witherspoon .  The details of this tragic wreck left an indelible memory, never to be forgotten by those who chanced to be on the frozen beach at Mioxes Pond on the island's southwest shores, standing b...

On the night of July 25, 1956 the eastbound Swedish passenger liner Stockholm collided with the westbound Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria in what was to be described as the world’s first major radar assisted collision at sea. The collision happened approximately 50 miles south of Nantucket at 11:11 p.m. local time. The Andrea Doria was struck just behind and below the starboard bridge wing and a...

Beginning in the 1870s, coal shipped from the Delaware River and the Hampton Roads area of the Chesapeake Bay encouraged the building of larger and larger schooners. Three-masted schooners had long been the primary means of transporting coal to Boston and Maine, but, by the 1880s, the four-masted schooner had become more popular. The late 1890s saw five-masted schooners, and the first six-masted s...

In this episode we travel back to March of 1877 when the large sailing bark, W.F. Marshall, bound for New Brunswick, Canada from Hampton Roads, Virginia, got caught in gale force winds and fog off the southern coast of Nantucket and ran aground near shore.  The newly constructed Surfside Life Saving Station crew spotted the ship in distress and responded immediately, saving all souls aboard includ...

In the late nineteenth century, Nantucket Sound, located in between the major ports of New York and Boston, was one of the most heavily trafficked marine highways in the country.  Before the construction of the Cape Cod Canal in 1916, thousands of sailing vessels, every year, bound on coastal and transatlantic routes had one of two navigational decisions to make.  Take the longer, more exposed, oc...

Lightship service in the United Sates spans a period of 165 years from 1820-1985.  These floating lighthouses marked shifting shoals and sandbars, harbor entrances, river mouths or any other hazardous location on the water where the building of a stationary lighthouse was an impossibility.  179 lightships were built between 1820 and 1952.  In the early years the ships were made of wood, powered on...