Telling stories, preserving history
Robert Mooney releases his fourth book
By Laura Raskin
Independent Arts Writer

Rob Benchley/The Independent

It is clear that Robert F. Mooney is not going anywhere.

Mooney’s Irish ancestors landed on the island in 1851, after a harrowing trip on the British Queen bound for New York from Dublin. The trip took eight weeks instead of four before the ship wrecked 12 miles off the Nantucket coast. Everyone eventually left for New York, except Mooney’s ancestors who did not care for another sea voyage.

The quarter board from the ship washed ashore after the wreck and was given to Mooney’s great-grandfather. It now hangs in Mooney’s living room in the house he has lived in on Orange Street since 1959. It is a house that was picked up and moved from Union Street in 1897 when the Lewis family — part-time undertakers — needed it on what was then farmland.

Behind Robert Mooney is Rodney Charman’s painting of the wreck of the British Queen, the ship that brought his grandfather to Nantucket, quite by accident,

It is Mooney’s storied pedigree that makes the local author and historian’s fourth book, “More Tales of Nantucket,” that much richer. Interspersed with the events and characters that contributed to the development of the island is the story of the British Queen ’s fate and Mooney’s own childhood memories of Nantucket in the ’20s and ’30s.

“Americans are in danger of losing their sense of history. By telling these stories, we’re preserving this,” said Mooney. “There’s more to Nantucket than whaling … that was a comparatively short era.”

In his sequel to “Tales of Nantucket,” Mooney recounts the story of the Great Fire of 1846 that wiped out 500 buildings in downtown Nantucket. There are also chapters on the large number of schoolteachers here in the late 1800s; the effect of the Gold Rush on Nantucketer James A. Folger who went to San Francisco and founded Folgers Coffee; the island’s impact on Frederick Douglass; the “king of Nantucket,” Frederick Sanford; and the Dreamland movie theater, where Mooney saw “Gone With the Wind,” among others.

Mooney said he simply chose names and events that interested him, and then used the Nantucket Atheneum and the Nantucket Historical Association to do his research. He also poured over microfilm of old Nantucket newspapers.

The personal chapter of Mooney’s book is recounted in “Mornings on Main Street.” Mooney’s father grew up on a farm in Polpis and then took a job as a policeman, eventually becoming chief of police. As his only child, the young Robert spent his childhood in the ’20s and ’30s on Nantucket’s Main Street, under the watchful eye of his father.

“It was busy with pedestrian traffic,” said Mooney. “Nantucketers used to be walkers and talkers. Now you don’t know anybody.”

“(Change) seems inevitable,” he said. “Money talks. I’d like to think we’ve seen the best of Nantucket. It’s still a very special place.”

Mooney graduated from Nantucket High School in the class of 1936. He left the island to attend Holy Cross and then Harvard Law School. He returned here to practice law and has since retired.

When asked if he ever thought of moving, Mooney doesn’t answer yes or no.

“It’s my heritage. I was born here. I have a grandson next door,” he said.

Mooney will discuss “More Tales of Nantucket” today in the Great Hall at the Nantucket Atheneum at 7 p.m. Admission is free.