The Winnisimmet Ferry was a ferry between Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States, and Boston's North End. Founded in 1631, when Chelsea was called Winnisimmet, it was the oldest ferry in the country.[1] It ceased operations in 1917.[2][3] The original ferry was started by Thomas Williams (alias Harris) on 18 May 1631.[4] After Harris' untimely death in 1634, William Stitson (who married Thomas' widow Elizabeth) took over the ferry.[5]

A woodcutting of the ferry

The Montgomery & Howard shipyard in Chelsea, Massachusetts, built passenger steamboats, pilot boats, and ferryboats. They built for the Winnisimmet Ferry Company, Old Colony Steamship Company and the Fall River Line.[6]

A temporary ferry service under the same name began on May 15, 1990, during early Big Dig construction, running between Chelsea and Rowes Wharf in Boston.[7]

References

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  1. ^ "The Ferry Five". Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
  2. ^ Hudson, George S. (May 1917). "Boston Bay News". Marine Review. Vol. 47, no. 5. p. 186 – via Google Books.
  3. ^ Brown, Gerard (August 11, 2004). Chelsea. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0738536091.
  4. ^ Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay: 1628–1686- Nathaniel Shurtleff, Ed., Boston, 1853- Vol. I, p. 87
  5. ^ [Middlesex County Court records, 1671-1680, p 297]
  6. ^ Gillespie, Charles Bancroft (1898). The City of Chelsea. Chelsea, Massachusetts: Chelsea Gazette. p. 137.
  7. ^ Rosenberg, Ronald (May 14, 1990). "Chelsea-Boston ferry to begin tomorrow". Boston Globe. p. 18 – via Newspapers.com.