Nantucket Video PostCard-Poets, Whales and Celebrities

 (Please watch the 1-minute, sound-rich Nantucket Travel Video PostCard at the end of this post)

Nantucket Island is one of those places where the images linger long after the visit.

This small island, approximately 12 miles long and maybe 5 miles wide, was once the third largest city in Massachusetts, only Salem and Boston were larger.

And in its time Nantucket was the whaling capital of the world.

Where would all the coffee-lovers be without their Starbucks Cafe Latte?

There probably wouldn’t  be a Starbucks without Herman Melville’s epic novel about the great white whale, Moby-Dick.

The book was based on the Nantucket whaling ship, The Essex,  which was rammed by a huge whale off the coast of South America in 1820.

But, the Moby-Dick character, Starbuck, and the mad captain, Ahab, are from Nantucket, and in a twist of historic irony, the island nearly completely burned down in the “Great Fire” of 1846…fueled by whale oil.
 

From NMT Images

The 82 miles of pristine beaches (counting all the inlets and coves) are a magnet for celebrities and CEO’s.

Unofficially, the list of “stars” who have houses on Nantucket or come to stay, include the CEO of Google (Eric Schmidt); Tommy Hilfiger; Bill Clinton; Laura Bush; Bill Gates; Bill Belicheck; Sharon Stone,  and many others.

But Nantucket also belongs to poets and those seeking the solitude of the sea.

Perhaps the American poet, William Carlos Williams, got it most right in his poem,

Nantucket

Flowers through the window
lavender and yellow

Changed by white curtains –
Smell of cleanliness –

Sunshine of late afternoon –
On the glass tray

A glass pitcher, the tumbler
turned down, by which

a key is lying – And the
immaculate white bed

Travel Video PostCard: Nantucket