Abner West News Today

It’s Labor Day, 1929, at the New Bedford, Martha’s Vineyard & Nantucket Steamboat company wharf in Oak Bluffs. The last steamer has departed for the night. The terminal staff has gone home after a busy three-day weekend; 4,000 passengers passed through that day alone. A shadowy figure — or is it two? — climbs unseen […]

Capt. Abner West (1811–1902) of Vineyard Haven had just about retired from the sea. He had been aboard ship most of his life, having begun his whaling career as a mess boy at the age of 10. He had whaled ever since, commanding at least four different ships on more than a half-dozen lengthy voyages […]