Shows
Time and Tide NantucketThe Shellfish Series Episode 3: Rob GarrisonOn 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 first generation of the shellfish hatchery on Brant Point.Rob really takes the lead in talking about the early days on this topic and has some great st...
2023-10-041h 06Time and Tide NantucketThe Shellfish Series Episode 2: Sam Denette, Tara Riley & Matt HerrOn 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 Matt Herr, local oyster farmer and owner of Grey Lady Oysters. Huge thanks to these guests for joining in on this discussion and recording their stories!Production, Editing and Music by Evan Sc...
2023-06-2554 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Shellfish Series Episode One: The PioneersA 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
2023-05-2040 minTime and Tide NantucketSalty Dog Showcase Trivia ShowWe’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, audience participation and a series of trivia games. Thus, the “Salty Dog Showcase Trivia Show” was born. At first I was a...
2023-04-051h 17Time and Tide NantucketSouth Shore Shipwreck Part 2: The SurveyPart 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 Massachusetts Underwater Archeologist, David Robinson, who gives his expert analysis on the potential identity of these pieces and what both of them reveal from an archeological point of view. ...
2023-02-2236 minTime and Tide NantucketSouth Shore Shipwreck Part 1: The Find"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 enjoy!Special thanks to Mike Campbell, Michael Harrison & Nantucket Historical Association and Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archeological ResourcesWritten, Edited and Produced by Evan SchwanfelderMusic by Evan SchwanfelderSound FX by Za...
2023-02-0219 minTime and Tide NantucketHumanitarian Work with Ritch Leone: An Episode for Nantucket Atheneum's 1 Book, 1 IslandWe 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 storied city where she grew up and the notion of what home means. At the office we put our heads together to see who on island cou...
2021-03-2443 minTime and Tide NantucketWrecked on the Feejees - Part 4Part 4 of 4 - Discussion at the end of EpisodeThe 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 are all touched upon in detail, the whole story forming one of the most thrilling tales of the se...
2021-02-2646 minTime and Tide NantucketWrecked on the Feejees - Part 3Part 3 of 4The 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 are all touched upon in detail, the whole story forming one of the most thrilling tales of the sea ever printed. And the best part of...
2021-02-1950 minTime and Tide NantucketWrecked on the Feejees - Part 2Part 2 of 4The 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 are all touched upon in detail, the whole story forming one of the most thrilling tales of the sea ever printed. And the best part of...
2021-02-1239 minTime and Tide NantucketWrecked on the Feejees - Part 1Part 1 of 4The 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 are all touched upon in detail, the whole story forming one of the most thrilling tales of the sea ever printed. And the best part of th...
2021-02-0550 minTime and Tide NantucketFrozen InIn 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 ups, lasting weeks to as long as a month, the island was completely cut off from the rest of the world. Sources:Stackpole, Edouard: "Life Sav...
2021-01-0427 minTime and Tide NantucketSurvival Off Sankaty with Capt. Pete KaizerThis 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 of Sankaty Head, but not long after setting the net a hard line of severe thunderstorms came over them. Things went from bad to worse, and ultimately the two men had to abandon ship...
2020-12-1837 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of the Joseph StarbuckThe 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 ship left Nantucket with a favorable breeze, in tow of the steamer Telegraph, for Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard, where she was to load and proceed on a whaling voyage. There were on board...
2020-09-1117 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Salvaging of the Sugar Bark MentorOn 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 water was breaking all around the vessel and the captain decided to abandon ship before the fog closed in on them again. Sources:Stackpole, Edouard: "Life Savi...
2020-08-2821 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of the Mary AnnaDuring 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 around Nantucket.On the evening of February 3, 1871, the schooner, Mary Anna, with a cargo of coal destined for Maine, was anchored off the coast of Chatham when a cold, strong gale caused her...
2020-08-1414 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of the Eveline TreatThe 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 weather the waves with hope that the Eveline Treat would survive the night and that they would be spotted after day break and rescued.Sources:Sove...
2020-08-0721 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Disappearance of Cross Rip Lightship #6During 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 Cross Rip, spotted from Great Point Lighthouse, was last seen flying a distress signal as the ice dragged her out to sea. The ship and crew were never...
2020-07-2423 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of LV-117The 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 homing in on the lightship's radio signal.She was a steel-hulled ship, 135 feet long, weighing in at 630 tons, with steel deckhouses fore and aft, a funnel amidship for exhaust, and two masts with electric lanterns on top...
2020-07-1720 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of the TB WitherspoonWhenever 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 by helplessly as they watched the men in the rigging of the doomed craft lose their grip in the icy shrouds and fall into the sea on that fateful day...
2020-07-1026 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of the Andrea DoriaOn 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 almost immediately took on a severe list of almost 20 degrees to starboard leaving half of her lifeboats unusable. Less than 10 minutes from the time she was struck, the Andrea Doria transmitted an SOS ca...
2020-06-2522 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wrecks of the Great Coastal SchoonersBeginning 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 schooner, George W. Wells, was built in Camden, Maine in 1900.By 1910, 45 five-masted schooners and 10 six-masted schooners, each the length of a football field, had been built, mostly by Maine shipyards. Bath was their primary...
2020-05-2119 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of the W.F. MarshallIn 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 including a large, black Newfoundland dog.This story is a favorite of families that visit that Shipwreck and Lifesaving Museum, and with the museum's opening date uncertain at this time, we thought i...
2020-05-1418 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Great Gale of 1879In 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, ocean route south of Nantucket and around the dangerous south shoals, or take the shorter, relatively more sheltered passage through Nantucket Sound. Many vessels, especially those plying the northeastern coastal trade, chose the latter. ...
2020-05-0724 minTime and Tide NantucketNantucket South Shoals LightshipLightship 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 only by sail and fitted with oil lanterns, as technology advanced, ships were eventually constructed of steel, powered by steam and diesel engines. In 1915, the peak of lightship operations, there were 54 stations in the United Sates; 36 on the east...
2020-04-3037 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of the British QueenLife in Ireland was desperate in the mid nineteenth century. The Potato Famine of the 1840's brought about a decade of starvation and illness. More than one million Irish died and another million fled their homeland, emigrating to North America On the morning of October 22, 1851 the full masted ship British Queen, with 226 immigrants on board, departed Dublin, Ireland bound for New York. The voyage was to take four to five weeks, but winter struck early that year and, eight weeks later, in a blinding snowstorm, the British Queen was driven into the dangerous Muskeget Channel west of Nantu...
2020-04-2333 minTime and Tide NantucketThe Wreck of the HazardThe wreck of the Hazard is one of the more mysterious shipwrecks in Nantucket history. The ship set sail for Boston from the Delaware Breakwater on February 12th 1881 and made good time up the coast with favorable winds and tide. However, on the eve of February 13th she encountered a gale and, the following morning, struck the shoals southeast of the island. What unfolds next is a series of questionable decisions made by the captain with a remarkable twist at the end of the story.Source:Stackpole, Edouard: "Life Saving Nantucket," Stern-Majestic Press; 1972. p. 1...
2020-04-1621 minTime and Tide NantucketSkipper Chase and The Wreck of the HP KirkhamOn the night of January, 20th 1892, the three masted schooner, HP Kirkham, encountered a violent winter squall and grounded on the Rose and Crown Shoal approximately 15 miles southeast of Nantucket's Great Point. The following day, seven lifesavers from the Coskata life saving station, embarked on what is heralded as one of the most dramatic and courageous rescues in the history of the United States Life Saving Service. Source:Stackpole, Edouard: "Life Saving Nantucket," Stern-Majestic Press; 1972. p. 182-188Music and Narration: Performed, Produced and Edited by Evan Schwanfelder.Special Tha...
2020-04-0825 min