Lighthouse baskets typically were round and built on a mold with flat wooden bottoms to which staves (ribs) were attached to form the basic shape. Cane, also known as rattan, was then woven in and around the staves from bottom to top. Each basket was finished with a wooden handle. Tops and decora- tive elements weren’t added until later. These baskets became popular with locals and tourists and thus became known as Nantucket lightship baskets.They’re very desirable today among collectors. Basketmaking Enters the 20th Century By 1905, the last man from Nantucket manned a local lightship. Shortly thereafter, the federal government banned basket- making aboard lightships to end moon- lighting commerce.The craft then moved on island where it was taken up by a new generation of basket weavers who began personalizing their work and looking for ways to make them stand out and appeal to the growing tourist trade. One of the most significant of this new generation of basket makers was
their mounts and spilling hot coals during fierce storms that churned up mountain- ous waves that crashed over the ship. It was lonely, too. I’ve read how life on a lightship was likened to a term of solitary confinement combined with the horrors of seasickness. It’s no wonder these men began making baskets to while away the time. According to several sources, it is likely a man named Thomas James introduced basketmaking to men on the lightships. James, the story goes, had worked in the whaling industry and during his voyages supposedly made baskets in his spare time. When he began working on the South Shoals Lightboat, he took up his old pastime while on duty and sold his work on leave in Nantucket town. It wasn’t long before he taught his skill to his fellow lightship men. Though the classic Nantucket basket is attributed to men aboard lightships in the mid-19th century, it’s important to remember that its distinctive design was probably inspired by baskets originally woven with ash wood by the Wampanoags, the island’s indigenous people.
Life on a lightship was likened to a term of solitary confinement combined with the horrors of seasickness
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