His first summer job was in a hardware store where he learned how to fix screen doors.

Today at age 53, Wayne Lamson has been called on to fix something bigger than a screen door - way bigger - but those who know the soft-spoken, highly capable Steamship Authority treasurer think he is more than up to the job.

For the fifth time in three decades, this week Mr. Lamson stepped in as interim general manager of the SSA.

On Tuesday morning the ferry Martha's Vineyard sounded her horn as she pulled into the slip in Woods Hole. Inside the central boat line office, Mr. Lamson sat at his desk, the bulk of the ferry filling the window behind him like a picture in a frame. Mr. Lamson looked around the room.

"I haven't really moved in yet," he said with a small smile.

In truth Wayne Lamson moved in 32 years ago.

His own story, he says, is "dull, dull," but probably it was dull in Ward and June Cleaver's family, too.

The Lamson family moved to Falmouth when Wayne was five years old. He grew up in North Falmouth and was educated in the public schools. He was graduated from Lawrence High School in 1968 and went on to Bentley College where he was graduated in 1972 with a degree in accounting.

He runs three miles every day, plays a little golf but by his own admission not so much that he doesn't enjoy it. He is married with four grown children. He has been active in his community over the years and is a former director of the Falmouth Bank, a former director of the Falmouth Chamber of Commerce and a current member of the town finance committee.

For three summers when he was in college he worked as a ticket seller at the Steamship Authority, and the job extended into weekends through the holidays. It was the start of his long love affair with the boat line. "I don't know, there was something in the air around the holidays, on Labor Day and at Thanksgiving, with people going home . . . and it was kind of a thrill for me as a kid when James Taylor came up to the window to buy a ticket," he said.

Mr. Lamson had intended to pursue a career in public accounting and after he was graduated from Bentley, he had offers from more than one of the big firms.

But John J. McCue, then general manager of the boat line, offered to hire him as an auditor, and Mr. Lamson took the job. One year later he was made chief auditor, a job he held for 10 years, when the title was changed to treasurer. He smiled at the memory of what Phil Read, the boat line governor from Nantucket, said at the time.

"He said give me liberty or give me Lamson."

The story of Mr. Lamson's long career reads like a historical narrative of the boat line - over the last 30 years he has seen six general managers come and go. With the characteristic precision of an old-fashioned comptroller, he recalled the style of each one.

John McCue was tough but conservative. "He asked a question and he already knew the answer," Mr. Lamson said.

Mr. McCue was followed by Ron Eastman, a career Coast Guard man who actually had two stints as general manager.

Then came Joseph J. McCormack, and the general manager job title was changed to executive director. Mr. Lamson said Mr. McCormack was the first person to usher in a team approach involving the senior staff. "I liked that style, he was a good administrator, he didn't have any boat line experience but he knew how to manage things," he said.

Mr. McCormack was fired by the boat line governors during one of many periods of bitter political warfare at the SSA, and in 1985 Mr. Lamson suddenly found himself named interim general manager.

"Mr. Lamson says he did not ask for the general manager's job and he did not want it," the Vineyard Gazette reported in December of 1985.

It was a pattern that would persist for the next 17 years.

After the second stint by Mr. Eastman, Mr. Lamson was again named interim general manager, and again he made it clear that he did not want the top spot.

The next general manager was Barry Fuller, a former captain who had risen through the ranks of the boat line.

"He was well-liked and is still well-liked inside the organization," Mr. Lamson said. He said Mr. Fuller took on some big projects, including the repowering of the ferry Islander and the modification of the freight ferry Sankaty. "It was the first time we had taken on some of these projects in-house," Mr. Lamson said. The Barry Fuller era was also marked by the McKinsey study, which put the spotlight on an array of management flaws at the boat line.

Mr. Fuller left in 1994 and Mr. Lamson was named interim general manager for the third time.

In 1995 Armand Tiberio was named general manager. A company man from the Washington state ferry system, Mr. Tiberio presided over yet another era of new wrinkles at the SSA.

"Armand tried to move the organization along with a strategic plan, more long-range projects, a new service model, looking at New Bedford and how we could upgrade our fleet," Mr. Lamson recalled.

But in the end much of the strategic planning never got traction.

"There was a lot of work involved in explaining it, we would go out in teams on the vessels and try to explain it to the employees and the crew . . . but if it didn't move forward you lost credibility," Mr. Lamson said.

Mr. Tiberio left in 2001, and by now the pattern was familiar enough: Mr. Lamson was named interim, again making it clear that he did not want the job on a permanent basis.

In 2002 Fred Raskin was named chief executive officer. Mr. Raskin came from a long career in marine transportation in the private sector.

"Fred was very smart and very funny and fun to work for," Mr. Lamson said. "I just don't know if he knew what he was getting into when he took the job and how difficult it was going to be. . . . There are different types of pressures in a company where you have stockholders and you are looking at earnings - in this company the main issue is the rates, the rates are really the bottom line and you've got to try and keep a lid on raising rates," Mr. Lamson said.

Two weeks ago Mr. Lamson was named interim general manager for the fifth time in his career.

But this time there was a twist: SSA governors will soon launch a formal search for a new general manager, and Mr. Lamson said he is interested in applying for the permanent post.

On Tuesday the new Wayne Lamson talked about the change.

"It's a chance to step forward, whereas in other times I have been a gatekeeper. This time I feel like there are a number of things we could be working on," he said simply. He continued:

"The Steamship Authority has been good to me, starting with John McCue - he gave me a chance and a start. Mine is a slow approach, a more gradual approach. We go to meetings, I sit there and I hear the same problems, people complaining about the same things. I think about Joe McCormack and his team approach, and John McCue and his conservative approach. I'd like to combine the two things, I think, to work on these problems."

Three days into the job, change is already evident inside the boat line.

Among other things, as Mr. Raskin was on his way out the door, Paula Peters, the recently hired director of marketing and communications, resigned.

"I wish her well," Mr. Lamson said. "She was uncertain about how things were going to play out with Fred leaving. I don't expect to fill that position right away, and I will be handling the media myself, using Reagan Communications on an as-needed basis," he added.

Mr. Lamson also said he intends to "tone down" a recent push to develop an array of untested advertising ventures.

"Let me put it this way," he began. "We have computer programmers, and their priorities can include getting ads up on the web site, or they can fix some of the problems we are having so that people can have an easier time making reservations online.

"I think I know what the priority is."

He concluded:

"I hate to be a Monday morning quarterback, but I do think looking back on the last year that there were some things done that were just insensitive to the Islands, and I think they could have been avoided. So now we are going to see if we can all work together again."