The Vineyard Gazette
It happened yesterday. One minute before 11 a.m., the Island boat line was administered by the officers and directors of the Massachusetts Steamship Lines Inc., as constituted for some time past; one minute after 11, the management was in the hands of new officers and directors, the responsibility of the New Bedford, Woods Hole, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Steamboat Authority.
Steamships and Ferries
Steamship Authority
Vineyard Gazette
Only the signature of Governor Furcolo now remains to turn into law the bill setting up a new Steamship Authority with three members, locally appointed, to represent the Vineyard Nantucket, and F
Steamships and Ferries
Steamship Authority

2004

Business Leaders Want to Say: Boat Reservations Are a Mess

By ALEXIS TONTI

The Steamship Authority vehicle reservation system is broken.

That was the take-home message this week at a forum that started as
a focused debate about the boat line's new guaranteed standby
policy and expanded to a broad indictment of the way the SSA books
passengers.

The forum, hosted by the Dukes County Commission, was held Wednesday
at the Vineyard Transit Authority administration building.

With a contract that expired more than a year ago and no real end in sight at the bargaining table, tension has begun to escalate between management and vessel workers at the Steamship Authority.

Union workers picketed SSA terminals on both sides of the sound over Memorial Day weekend, waving signs that put the spotlight on a simmering and now long-running dispute over manning levels, wages and retirement benefits.

SSA Management Sets a Course for Collision on Security Measures

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

Turning a deaf ear on the growing uproar among Islanders over a
controversial new policy that will bar people from staying in their cars
on board ferries, senior managers at the Steamship Authority announced
flatly this week that the policy is expected to go into effect sometime
later this month.

2003

A proposal by the Steamship Authority to close down the Oak Bluffs
terminal at the end of September instead of mid-October has stirred up
protest from business leaders in town.

SSA Declines Release of Report on Accident

By JULIA WELLS

Three months after an accident that nearly claimed the life of one
of its employees during a routine training exercise, the Steamship
Authority is refusing to release the results of its own internal
investigation into the mishap.

Traffic was down, but parking tickets were up. The weather was changeable; ditto for the restaurant and retail business. The wild blueberries were not so hot, but the fishing was great - lots of big bass and small bluefish, and on the full moon in July the fluke were so thick in some places you could practically throw out an old shoe and catch one.

These are the benchmarks of the summer of 2003, and as the official summer season came to a close this week, the people of the Vineyard took a quick look back, and most could agree on two things:

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