Steamship Authority Owes Us A Post-Mortem On New Freight Boat Purchases

To the editor: On the heels of the Office of Inspector General report, we need to turn our focus on the mismanagement of the spend on the three offshore supply vessels (the Aquinnah, the Barnstable and the yet-to-arrive Monomoy). A few facts:

• The three offshore supply vessels were purchased for $5.6M each, with an estimated conversion cost of $10M (total: $15.6M per vessel), for a total budget of $47M.

• Current estimate of total costs has ballooned to $87M ($29M per vessel) and one boat is not here yet (was due early summer 2025).
• So far, spend has exceeded budget by 85 percent.
• The two boats that have arrived have undergone a steady series of repairs, in excess of the purchase price. These boats are already budgeted for $4.8M in repairs in 2026.
• These vessels are extremely fuel-inefficient, with the Aquinnah consuming 14.6 gallons per mile—2.5 times greater than other freight boats while offering only 20 percent more deck space.

Looking back over the Board Meeting notes on April 7, 2023, there is a request for approval of a large increase from the original vote/estimate. One board member calls it “a colossal failure." Another board member counters that the board will just have to "lick their wounds and move on". The entire board agrees to conduct a post-mortem review of what went wrong to be so far off the initial estimate.

Can we please schedule the port-mortem, which needs to be in a public session, so we can all be fully aware of what went wrong?

Thank you,

On behalf of the representatives of the Steamship Authority Citizens’ Action Group and SMART (Southeast Massachusetts Regional Transportation Citizens Task Force): Amy Cody, Margaret Hannemann, Alysha Norbury, Nat Trumbull, and Beth O'Connor