Nantucket
A whaling island thirty miles out, whose fortune ended in the 1840s and whose town survived because nothing replaced it.
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Nantucket ran the world's whale oil trade for a century - at its peak the island's ships lit lamps across Europe and America - and the grey-shingled and clapboard town, with its cobbled Main Street and the captains' houses on upper Main, was built on it. The industry collapsed in the 1840s and 50s as whale stocks fell, the Great Fire of 1846 took the waterfront, and petroleum finished it. Nothing replaced the money for decades, which is precisely why so little was demolished. The Whaling Museum in an old candle factory holds a 14-metre sperm whale skeleton and the story of the Essex, the ship rammed and sunk by a whale in 1820 that Melville used for Moby-Dick.
What you actually see
- A town preserved by economic collapse - nothing replaced whaling.
- Cobbled Main Street and captains' houses - built on whale oil.
- The Whaling Museum - a sperm whale skeleton and the Essex story.
- Grey shingle everywhere - the island's building convention.
When to go
June to October. A full day, better with a night.
Honest expectations
It is expensive - among the priciest places in the country in season. Ferries and flights book out and cancel in fog. Cars need reservations far ahead and are unnecessary. Off season much of the island shuts.
Nearby
Martha's Vineyard is west; Cape Cod is north.
What to pack for Nantucket
Chosen from what this place is for. Tap a kit for the full checklist.
Opening times, ticket prices and seasonal closures change - check the official source before you go: official site.
