The M/V Barnstable, a repurposed offshore oil vessel, could join the boat line’s fleet later this fall after more than a year’s work at the Alabama Shipyard in Mobile.
The Steamship Authority’s second largest vehicle ferry will be sidelined until at least Friday due to damage on the vessel's portside propeller blades.
On Tuesday, the Steamship board of governors voted to run the same scaled back summer schedule next year in light of crew shortages, but some members wondered if that was even possible as cancellations due to lack of staff pile up.
At the beginning of the summer season, the Steamship Authority decided to cut back on its schedule to reduce the risk of unexpected cancellations due to razor thin staffing margins. And yet, the cancellations keep coming.
The Steamship Authority got off to a rocky start this weekend after the reservation office in Mashpee lost power in a storm and several runs on the Vineyard Route were canceled.
The Steamship board of governors this week learned that the chances of a new reservation system before 2026 grow increasingly remote, and it will likely require broad organizational changes across several departments.
