THE DATE WAS JUNE 13, 1970. At 9:30 a.m., a shrill whistle sounded from the top of the pilothouse to say that the vessel was leaving the pier. In the pilothouse, Captain Everett Henry slid the two brass throttles forward and the newly built stern-loading vessel M/V Manitou was underway on her maiden voyage to Block Island, Rhode Island, from Galilee. The Manitou signaled the beginning of the end for the side-loading vessels that had served the island for over a century. From that day forward, the Manitou would become "Block Island's Winter Lifeline," replacing the veteran Sprigg Carroll. Yankee Magazine did an article in 1957 about the Sprigg Carroll and her role as the winter lifeline. Manitou wasn't the first vessel slated to replace the Sprigg Carroll. In the late 1950s or early 1960s, Interstate Navigation purchased the former Welfare Island steamer Welfare from New York City and brought her' to Shaws Cove in New London, Connecticut. She was stripped down to her main deck and a design was drawn up to rebuild her as a diesel-powered, side-loading vessel. The reconstruction was started and stopped and started again many times. But, by the late 1960s, interest in her had dwindled and a stern-loading vessel seemed more practical, so Interstate hired naval architect Robert Simons of Paramus, New Jersey, to design a stern-loading vessel that became the Manitou. The Welfare was then sold to a Providence, Rhode Island, restauranteur and towed to Providence for use as a dockside restaurant renamed Victoria.
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