The Gay Head was a sidewheel steamer operating as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket during the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth.

It was named after the town of Gay Head, Massachusetts, later renamed Aquinnah.

The Gay Head was built in 1891 in Philadelphia for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Co.[1] It was 701 tons, 203 feet long, 34 foot beam, a draft of 5½ feet, with encased paddlewheels.

[3] According to a 1961 Vineyard Gazette article: Gay Head was commanded initially in 1891 by Capt.

[2] In July 1898, the Gay Head collided with the steamer Nantucket while crossing Vineyard Sound in a dense fog.