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, often at the last minute, leaving passengers scrambling to find alternative slots or waiting hours in standby lines.
On Saturday, the boat line had to cancel eight trips on the Vineyard route due to crew shortages, sending ripples through the schedule on one of the busiest weekends of the year and ringing alarm bells for Steamship officials.
More trips were sidelined on Sunday, and the Steamship had other cancellations on Monday and Tuesday, some for mechanical breakdowns. On Thursday this week, eight more trips on the Vineyard route were canceled because of the lack of crew.
The rise in cancellations has been frustrating for James Malkin, the Vineyard’s representative on the Steamship board.
“I am very unhappy and very concerned that the sudden surge in trip cancellations due to lack of crew is adversely impacting Islanders,” he said this week.
Customers wait in line at the Vineyard Haven terminal earlier this summer. — Ray Ewing
With almost half of the year still to be tallied up, Steamship Authority cancellations on the Vineyard and Nantucket are nearly as high as all of 2023. Last year, the Steamship Authority canceled 1,030 ferries for the entire year; in just the first seven months of 2024, the boat line canceled 987, a majority due to crew shortages.
Cancellations encompass scheduled trips that were not run due to mechanical, weather, crewing and other reasons, including consolidated trips. From January to July 2024, 417 trips were canceled due to a lack of crew, compared to 277 for all of 2023, according to Steamship data provided to the Gazette.
“We’ve already reduced the schedule this summer and we are still missing trips because of shortages,” Mr. Malkin said.
The Steamship Authority noted some caveats in the figures to consider. Boat line spokesperson Sean Driscoll pointed out that 138 cancellations on the Vineyard route counted in the tally were previously scheduled trips aboard the Sankaty ferry, which were later cut entirely as part of the scheduled scale-back in June due to the lack of crew.
That’s not the typical cancellation for a call out sick, and the larger Woods Hole ferry was shifted over to the Vineyard route to cover for the Sankaty’s absence, resulting in about the same number of vehicle spaces available.
But the lack of crew and the potential for cascading cancellations was on display when just a single absence by a licensed deck officer on Saturday left customers scrambling more than 24 hours later.
On Saturday, one crew member aboard the M/V Woods Hole could not make their scheduled shift on the Vineyard route, resulting in four canceled round trips aboard the Steamship Authority’s second largest vessel.
Those customers got pushed to other boats, when space was available, and the cancellations led to boarding delays throughout the day as the Steamship tried to accommodate people. The delays created longer hours for employees, which then skewed their schedules on Sunday in order to meet mandatory rest periods from the U.S. Coast Guard. That prompted the Steamship Authority to cancel ferries on Sunday to get the schedule back on track.
“We understand the inconvenience and how disappointing . . . it can be for people trying to travel,” Mr. Driscoll said. “Everyone is trying to get everyone where they need to go.”
Ebba Hierta, an Edgartown resident, was one of the travelers caught up in the chaos.
Ms. Hierta was scheduled to leave the Island Sunday evening to get to Boston ahead of an early Monday morning medical appointment. Her 6:15 p.m. departure was one of the ferries canceled.
She called the reservation office and was told to go to Vineyard Haven with her proof of appointment to get into medical standby. Behind the scenes, employees at Steamship Authority were able to get her on a 5:20 p.m. boat out of Oak Bluffs, so she drove across Lagoon Pond to the neighboring town.
She blamed upper management for communication breakdowns between customers and passengers, but heaped praise on frontline staff who were doing everything they could to make the best of the bad situation.
The Woods Hole, the second largest ferry in the Steamship fleet, has been sidelined twice in the last week due to crew shortages. — Ray Ewing
“The level of coordination by the frontline people who make this outfit run was astounding,” Ms. Hierta said. “I was so grateful that these people who are in the midst of chaos could still be cool, calm and collected to help an Islander in need.”
But with the short-staffed crews, Ms. Hierta worried that the issue would persist.
“Before, [cancellations due to crew shortages] was such a rarity and now it’s the norm,” she said. “[General Manager Robert Davis] hasn’t done anything to make sure that they are an attractive employer and they can compete in the marketplace.”
Earlier this summer, the Steamship Authority said it was about 10 officers short of the number of captains and pilots the boat line would want in an ideal world. The Steamship Authority has struggled to attract officers. One captain also retired this week and the boat line is expecting more retirements later this year.
The issue is part of a lack of licensed deck officers across the country and beyond, according to Mr. Driscoll.
“It’s not a secret that there is a global shortage of qualified mariners and it’s not a secret that we are a victim of that as well,” he said.
The Steamship Authority is currently in contract negotiations with its licensed deck officer union, Teamsters Local No. 59. Captains with the union have said that pay below the industry standard and longer hours working at the Steamship Authority remain the focus for the union.
One captain told the Gazette last week that both the Steamship Authority and the union were working diligently to get a contract in place.
Union spokesperson Matt McQuaid denied that any call-outs were the result of a coordinated work stoppage.
“This was in no way, shape or form the result of an intentional or coordinated work stoppage,” Mr. McQuaid said. “Not by Teamsters Local 59, nor by any of our members. Crew shortages are a problem that many steamship operators across the country are currently grappling with.”
Mr. Driscoll declined to go into detail about the closed-door contract talks.
From his perspective on the board, Mr. Malkin wanted the boat line’s senior management to come up with ideas to alleviate the lack of crew members, as well as let travelers know when issues arise. He said something as simple as electronic signs at the terminal letting customers know about delays — like at an airport — would go a long way.
“These are simple things that I have been talking about that haven’t happened,” he said. “People who travel here are used to airplanes.”
Both the Steamship Authority and the union have acknowledged that turning around the worker shortage issue will take time. Even if the Steamship Authority could hire captains tomorrow, they need to get acclimated to the region and learn how to navigate the different boats on the two routes.
In the meantime, the expected cancellations will likely continue when deck officers get sick, stretching schedules and people’s tempers. Mr. Driscoll said every effort is made before canceling a boat, but there’s only so many people who can pilot the ferries.
“When these things happen, we always check with everyone,” he said. “You can’t run a vessel without the right mix of crew and you certainly can’t run without the right mix of licensed deck officers.”
According to Mr. Malkin, the boat line needs to work harder to create an environment where people want to come work.
“The current status quo is not satisfying to the Islanders of Martha’s Vineyard,” he said.
