Steamship Authority Sells Freight Boat, M/V Gay Head, For $200,000

The Steamship Authority freight boat with perhaps the most distinctive name in the fleet has made its last run to the islands.

The boat line on Monday finalized the sale of the M/V Gay Head for $200,000 to the Robert B. Our Company, the Harwich, MA- based construction firm that has completed several large projects on Nantucket and is currently working on the multi-year, multi-million-dollar sewer main replacement project.

The Gay Head spent 35 years with the Steamship, making 55,000 trips and traveling 1.2 million miles to both Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.

With the Steamship Authority's acquisition of three new offshore supply vessels, the boat line's aging freight vessels - including the M/V Katama and M/V Sankaty - will all be sold to the highest bidder. The first of the new OSVs, the M/V Barnstable, was just delivered to the Steamship Authority's maintenance facility in Fairhaven and will soon make its first run to Nantucket next Monday for a commissioning ceremony.

As for the M/V Gay Head, a Robert B. Our Co. official had little to say about the company's plans for the vessel for now.

"We have some exciting opportunities on the horizon to keep the boat local, so happy to add it to our fleet," the company official said. "At this time, that is all we will be saying."

Here are some photos of the Gay Head through the years: