The Vineyard will lose Hy-Line Cruises’ high-speed ferry connection to Hyannis for the remainder of the season, following a major fire aboard the vessel Lady Martha last week.

Hy-Line vice president for marketing Philip Scudder said yesterday there was no way the damaged ferry could be back in service before the end of the season, Oct. 31, and he said the company’s efforts to find an alternative vessel had been unsuccessful.

Both of the Lady Martha’s engines will have to be removed, and at least one of them replaced, along with wiring throughout the vessel.

The fire broke out shortly before 9 a.m. on Thursday as the ferry was approaching the dock in Hyannis, when a seal on the oil filter on the starboard engine ruptured, spraying oil, which then ignited.

There were six passengers and four crew on board. The passengers were uninjured, but crew members were briefly hospitalized for smoke inhalation. One firefighter also suffered a slight shoulder injury.

“Fortunately they were only a couple of minutes from the dock when it happened,” Mr. Scudder said.

“The engines on the Lady Martha run at a very high oil pressure, about 120 pounds, or twice the normal pressure of most engines. So oil went everywhere, including onto hot exhausts.

“There was a lot of smoke initially, but it eventually ignited the oil.”

While damage was confined to the engine room, it was severe, he said.

“One engine will certainly need to be replaced. It’s unknown at this stage how badly in need of repair the other engine is. And it may require rewiring of the whole vessel.

“A repair yard is yet to be determined,” Mr. Scudder said. “We are working with our insurers and shipyards to get idea of the best place to take her.”

The company hopes repair work will be finished in time for the beginning of next year’s season, at the start of next May.

The Lady Martha, which can carry up to 150 passengers, was scheduled to make five daily runs to the Island until the start of October, and four until the end of the month.

Mr. Scudder said Hy-Line had contacted another company, New England Fast Ferry, to see if they could lease one of their high-speed ferries.

“We’ve leased one of theirs before, and they are using only one on their route here,” he said. “But their second vessel is currently operating in New York.”

Nor, he said, is there any prospect of increasing the number of trips made by Hy-Line’s conventional ferry, the Brandt Point, which now makes one round trip per day.

“We just can’t get her back and forth enough to cover a reasonable schedule,” Mr. Scudder said.

The ferry line’s booking agents are now in the process of contacting a couple of hundred people who held bookings on the Lady Martha for coming weeks. The tickets are good for a year, so people holding them are being told they can either use them next year, or get refunds.