Goodbye Nantucket!!

FINALLY!

It is here - the LAST DAY of this 2 week academic adventure/fishbowl experiment.

We have one more block of instruction and discussion this morning and then we are supposed to be back at the condos by 12:00 noon so that I can start my trek back home via the Hy-Line Hi-Speed Ferry from the dock.

While I do not have any second thoughts or regrets about leaving this island affectionately referred to as the "Little Grey Lady of the Sea", because of the grey shingles and frequent fog, I have mad some good friends, had some good laughs and I will certainly miss them!!



A bit of Nantucket trivia:

Nantucket is an island, a county, and a town. It is the only place in America with the same name for all three.

The name Nantucket is derived from a Native American word meaning "faraway island" or "land far out to sea."

• Nantucket was populated with approximately 1,500 Native Americans of the Wampanoag Tribe when it was discovered and charted in 1602 by Captain Bartholomew Gosnold.

• The history of Nantucket's settlement by the English begins in 1659, when Thomas Mayhew sold his interests to the "nine original purchasers": Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swayne, Thomas Bernard, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleafe, John Swayne, and William Pike for, "thirty pounds...and two Beaver hats one for myself and one for my wife."

• During its whaling days, Nantucket was the third largest city in Massachusetts, with a population of 10,000. Only Boston and Salem were larger.

• At its peak, there were 88 Nantucket whaling ships sailing around the world. Nantucket Island was considered the Whaling Capital of the World from 1800 to 1840.

• The Great Fire of 1846 destroyed the wharves and much of the business district. This fire, the dwindling demand for whale oil, the silting-up of the harbor, and the discovery of gold in California in 1849, all marked the end of the whaling-era prosperity and the beginning of an economic depression that lasted until tourism replaced whaling as Nantucket's economic base.