Nantucket Shipbuilding - Shipbuilding at Brant Point

Shipbuilding At Brant Point

By the late 17th century, the few groves of forest trees on Nantucket were gone except for small numbers of isolated oak and beech trees. These relatively few Nantucket forest trees were cut for firewood, fence posts, and short boards for diverse construction projects. Land was taken for agriculture and stock raising. Reforestation and 'tree farming' would have to wait for the 20th century. Within this historical context, it is surprising that any large ships were built on Nantucket because wood of the required dimensions would have to be imported. There was a thriving ship building industry in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a town whose prominence in whaling and maritime commerce equaled that of Nantucket. Nonetheless, two 'small' clipper ships and several whalers were built on Nantucket Island. Their circumstances provide an interesting footnote to the history of wooden ship building in New England, and the whaling trade in particular.

Brant Point on the north side of Nantucket harbor still has the sandy beach that was a good site for building large wooden ships and it is the locality for the famous Brant Point Light. This historic lighthouse has been destroyed and rebuilt 7 times since first established in 1746 and is still in operation. "Brant Point was lined with ship-yards, and there were shipways, where we took up ships for repairs. Some famous vessels we turned out – stout, oak-bowed whalers, clipper ships, and fleet Schooners that would run down to Havana and be back with a cargo of fruit in less than no time."