New England Islands Cruise: Expert Review
By Ted Scull.
For an extended Memorial Day Weekend, my wife and I chose an early season coastal New England Islands itinerary sailing out of Providence, Rhode Island.
We arrived from New York via Amtrak’s scenic Shore Line Route. The embarkation dock, located at the head of Narragansett Bay, was just 10 minutes by taxi from the railroad station, and from several downtown hotels and the city’s nearby airport.
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The Breakers, one of Newport’s grandest summer cottages. * Photo: Ted Scull
We simply showed our ticket at the gangway and walked on with our luggage trailing right behind.
How easy could an embarkation be.
Our destinations would be New Bedford, Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island, Newport and Bristol, the first three in Massachusetts and the second trio in Rhode Island.
This report will focus on the itinerary rather than the ship, though for the record, the ship we sailed on seen below belonged to American Cruise Lines.
American Cruise Lines, with multiple departures throughout the summer season is currently the only operator of New England Island cruises. * Photo: Vineyard Haven, M.V. by Ted Scull
Personal Connections
Our cruise would be a heavy dose of nostalgia, returning to places I remembered fondly from an early age and on up to the present day.
New Bedford had been our overnight stop when we first embarked by steamer for Nantucket. Martha’s Vineyard, we tried out for one August years ago. and have since stayed on the island with friends numerous times.
RELATED: It All Started with a Nantucket Steamer. by Ted Scull.
I first visited Block Island with a college friend, and my wife and I returned for several days some years later, in December no less.
Newport would recall three years at boarding school and many Sundays enjoying the Cliff Walk. It was one of the few off-campus places we were permitted to go to as Newport was, in parts, a rough Navy town back then.
Bristol would be altogether new.
Casting Off for New Bedford
By noon, with all embarked, we sailed south amongst Narragansett Bay’s numerous islands then under the Mount Hope and Tiverton bridges, rounding Sakonnet Point Lighthouse and sailing out into the Atlantic.
This ship has stabilizers, but we did not need them then nor in the days to come. However, it’s reassuring to know they are available if needed.
By 9pm the ship slipped through the flood barrier into New Bedford’s large harbor basin to tie up at the State Pier surrounded by a vast fleet of fishing vessels. I glanced up the hill to catch sight of the former New Bedford Hotel where we had stayed, now an apartment house.
A pair of New Bedford fishing boats. * Photo: Ted Scull
In the morning, we were free to visit New Bedford by rubber-tired trolley or on foot. We chose our own two feet, and as we had been to the outstanding whaling museum and historic Seaman’s Bethel (an old chapel built for early sailors), we opened a street map and headed inland past impressive civic buildings to the residential district.
Above, one of the many large houses that date from New Bedford’s prosperous whaling days. They exhibit a number of different styles from the 19th and early 20th centuries. *Photo: Ted Scull
While admiring an unusual looking one from the sidewalk, the owner stepped outside and invited us in to see how she had made over a storage barn into a cozy two-story house.
After lunch, we boarded a boat for a 90-minute harbor tour and learned that in terms of value of the catch, New Bedford ranks number one in the U.S., with deep-sea scallops the main source, followed by fish, clams, and crabs.
One boat had recently returned after 10 days at sea and sold its catch of scallops for $615,000, resulting in a $30,000 pay out each for the seven crew members. Not all fisher folk are that fortunate! WOW who knew!!
New Bedford is a true working harbor unlike others that are mostly recreational. * Photo: Ted Scull
When we returned to the dock, the annual Cape Verde Islands’ food and music festival was well underway, as many residents or their forbearers are descended from the former Portuguese archipelago located off the West African coast. We enjoyed great food samplings at the stalls.
Out to Sea & Nantucket Island
Sailing quietly at 3:00am we passed among the Elizabeth Islands, skirted Woods Hole with its oceanographic and marine biology institutions and research centers, and out into Nantucket Sound.
Two hours later as we approached Nantucket, I picked out the house we first rented high on the cliff. Our ship slipped in between the jetties as a regatta of several dozen sailing yachts headed out into open water. Off Brant Point we dropped anchor for the day, and a launch brought us to the Town Dock, a 15-minute walk to Main Street.
Nantucket town seen from the Steamship Authority ‘s ferry. * Photo: Ted Scull
With a rich whaling history, Nantucket Island is a National Historic District, while the town is an absolute treasure trove of New England architecture. From simple grey shingle-style salt boxes and larger clapboard houses topped with widows’ walks, to large Federal-style brick mansions, the scene is a photographer’s dream
Among the most prominent are the elegant “Three Bricks” on Upper Main Street, built in 1836-38 by whaling merchant Joseph Starbuck for his three sons.
Two of three Starbuck’s red brick houses on Main Street, Nantucket Island. * Photo: Ted Scull
A Day Ashore
My wife and I planned an all-day trek that would take us to the half-dozen houses my family had rented and one that we owned, following on my grandparents’ long association with the island beginning in the 1920s.
Most of our houses, variously sited on high bluffs, close to the beach or in town, were happily found largely unchanged. However, two had been enlarged and just one torn down and replaced.
Meanwhile, the other passengers took the three-hour island tour or used the inexpensive local buses to reach the tiny village of ‘Sconset, Surfside for the Atlantic breakers or simply enjoyed the enchanting town and its attractive commercial center, cobbled Main Street and historic houses.
Nantucket Town’s cobbled Main Street. * Photo: Ted Scull
But unlike the Vineyard, Nantucket saw few Victorian-style houses built, as by that era, the island’s fortunes had taken a nosedive following the collapse of the whaling industry.
Over to Martha’s Vineyard
Re-embarking later in the day, and having walked a good 12 miles, we joined the evening social hour, this time taking seats on one of the sofas to rest our weary feet. We weighed anchor and headed across the Sound to Martha’s Vineyard, docking at Vineyard Haven just after dinner.
Here is a but small section of the many colorful Victorians that make up the Methodist Camp Association settlement at Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard Island. * Photo: Ted Scull
Methodist Camp Association houses on Martha’s Vineyard. * Photo: Ted Scull
The next morning, some opted for island tours to the towns of Oak Bluffs and Edgartown and the dramatic headlands at Aquinnah (formerly Gay Head), while the independent-minded used the island’s subsidized bus network that served many of the same places.
We were met by a friend who owns a tiny gingerbread Victorian in Oak Bluffs, one of over 200 built as part of the Methodist Camp Meeting Association settlement established in the 19th century.
Ted and Suellyn aboard American Cruise Line’s vessel in Vineyard Haven. * Photo: Bill Ewen
The compound is a National Historic Landmark and an enchanting and colorful time warp that encircles the central gazebo and handsome wooden church.
As I had spent a summer in Edgartown, we had a walk along South Water Street where we shared a house with another family. Little had changed, though many more tourists were admiring the quaintness, an aspect we had never considered back then.
Block Island Delights
In the middle of the night we pushed off for a seven-hour sail out to Block Island, a small dot in the Atlantic that a good walker can navigate in a day. The island rose to utterly charming prominence in the second half of the 19th century when several wooden New England-style hotels were built facing the Old Harbor or just inland on high ground.
One of the Victorian-era hotels on Block Island. * Photo: Ted Scull
While vans tours explored the undulating island with its lovely freshwater ponds, steep cliffs, bird sightings and the main attraction, the hugely impressive Southeast Lighthouse overlooking the Atlantic, my wife and I accomplished roughly the same route on foot.
Block Island Lighthouse in a thick fog. * Photo: Ted Scull
We walked into the Spring House, high on a hill with its sweeping views where I had stayed some years ago long before it got all tarted up and expensive. And we had a second look at the 1661 House where we stayed in mid-December two decades ago. Twinned with the Hotel Manisses, the kitchen garden still produces fresh produce for the dining room.
Newport’s Attractions
The short sail across Block Island Sound to Newport had us tie up at Fort Adams, a military defense built following the War of 1812. We used the launch service to reach the downtown and explored the port’s original town center and narrow lanes, just two blocks inland from Thames Street’s tourist shops.
Scheduled rubber tire trolleys and a ship’s tour operated to the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum and the Breakers, one of the dozen extravagant mansions along Bellevue Avenue that are open to the public.
The Cliff Walk gives you a frontal view of most mansions facing the water. * Photo: Ted Scull
We headed for the dramatic Cliff Walk that I frequented during my boarding school years, the path affording front-yard views of many estates.
Some parts are easy going and some sections, because of recent storms, are rough under foot.
This time we visited tobacco heiress Doris Duke’s Rough Point estate filled with collectibles gathered from her worldwide travels.
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Bristol’s Boatbuilding Background
The final stop at Bristol, Rhode Island, a charming waterfront setting facing Narragansett Bay, put us right across the street from the Herreshoff Marine Museum. It’s set on the site of the former shipyard that once produced and now recalls eight America’s Cup defenders, sleek private steam and sailing yachts, fast torpedo boats for the U.S. Navy, and waterline models.
The museum is full of racing yacht designs. * Photo: Ted Scull
A wonderfully-produced documentary illustrated how two brothers developed the business and then retooled for the demands of World War II.
Others went to Fall River to see the battleship USS Massachusetts and the Fall River Maritime Museum with its New England steamboat-era exhibits, both of which we had seen on other trips to New England.
Later in the afternoon, we sailed north to the head of the bay, returning to Providence for disembarkation the next morning following breakfast.
Providence has an historic district of impressive houses adjacent to Brown University. * Photo: Ted Scull
The Take Away
For nearly all the passengers, New England was a first-time experience, and with three islands involved, an itinerary such as this would be very difficult to duplicate any other way.
Lunchtime encourages the passengers to share their take on New England’s islands and coastal ports. * Photo: Ted Scull
It is a region we have known over a lifetime, and one that we cannot get enough of. The easy social life aboard American Cruise Lines was the icing on a delicious cake.
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HEIDI SARNA
