The Frank E. Gannett was the first true ferry ever to serve Martha’s Vineyard. Formerly an East River ferry in New York, she was hired by the New England Steamship Company for seven weeks starting on August 23, 1929 – seventy-five years ago this summer – to help clear up a backload of cars on the Vineyard.

By 1929, cars were all over the Vineyard – Oak Bluffs had gotten a traffic light at the entrance to Circuit Avenue only one week before the Gannett began her service – and an astonishing 8,710 cars would pass Monument Square in that town on that Labor Day. The ferry, 145 feet long and painted a bilious green, was warmly welcomed; for one thing, she could handle trucks – unlike the  side-loading steamers serving the Islands in those days – and Vineyard businessmen could send and receive freight directly, without having to pay to transfer goods to and from dollies on the wharves. The Gannett carried 40 cars and made 5 round trips a day over much choppier water than she was designed for, but she handled Vineyard Sound admirably that summer and fall. After she returned to New York, the Depression and World War II knocked down the volume of cars traveling to and from the Vineyard, and no ferry was needed again until after the war. The present-day ferry Islander, built in 1950, is now the oldest ferry in service on the East Coast, and a replacement is on the drawing boards for 2006 or 2007.