The island of Nantucket is situated some thirty miles southeast of Massachusetts, is fifteen miles in length, with an average breadth of four or five, and presents a coast line of about seventy -five miles. Owing to the peculiar shape of the island, and the indentures made by the harbor, the coast line, especially on the northern side, is exceedingly irregular. A light sandy beach extends around the island, and with the exception of a small reef in Muskeget Channel and a few isolated ones in the immediate vicinity of the shore on the north side of the island and Tuckemuck, the coast is entirely clear of rocks. But equally to be dreaded is the vast extent of shoals which encompass it on every hand, and upon nearly every one of which some vessel has been lost. - Wrecks Around Nantucket, 1915, Arthur H Gardner