The two newest additions to the Steamship Authority fleet will be named M/V Aquinnah and M/V Monomoy, following a unanimous vote by the boat line board of governors on a motion by Vineyard governor James Malkin Tuesday morning.
The new names will grace a pair of converted offshore service vessels (OSVs), originally built in the 2000s for use in the oil and gas industry. The SSA closed Sept. 22 on its purchase of the Lode Star Class boats from builder Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, La. for $10,147,500, including brokerage fees, boat line general manager Robert Davis told the board.
Written into the purchase and sales agreement, Mr. Davis said, is the stipulation that the two vessels — currently named Lode Star and Shooting Star — must be renamed within 30 days of changing hands.
In a three-way hybrid meeting held simultaneously at the SSA headquarters in Falmouth, the emergency services building on Nantucket and online by Zoom, the four governors in attendance quickly came to consensus on the name Aquinnah. New Bedford governor Moira Tierney was absent.
“Aquinnah makes a lot of sense to me because it will be replacing the Gay Head,” Falmouth governor Peter Jeffrey said.
Nantucket governor and board chair Robert Ranney agreed.
“It has a certain ring to it,” he said.
“That’s a Vineyard name. I would like a Nantucket-ish name,” Mr. Ranney added.
Barnstable governor Robert Jones briefly argued for the name Hyannis, but Steamship Authority staff would prefer not to name any more boats after SSA ports, Mr. Davis said, citing confusion that arises when the M/V Nantucket is on the Vineyard route.
Monomoy, which is both a Nantucket neighborhood and an uninhabited sandbar island off Chatham in Barnstable County, can do double duty for both communities, Nantucket select board member Brooke Moore told the SSA governors.
“Monomoy references both Cape Cod and Nantucket. Depending on where you’re from, it focuses on both places,” Ms. Moore said.
The two names were chosen from a short list of 10 that received 10 or more suggestions in the SSA’s recent naming contest, which drew thousands of submissions.
It’s not clear yet which vessel will bear which name — whether the Lode Star becomes the Aquinnah and the Shooting Star becomes the Monomoy, or vice versa — Mr. Davis said.
Before voting on the two names, Mr. Ranney noted that this wasn’t a permanent thumbs-down for the more than 100 others that came in during the contest.
“We have another opportunity, potentially, for a third vessel after this, so if your choice doesn’t make this round it could come up again,” Mr. Ranney said.
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