At the helm: Steamship captain serves more than half a century

After his first summer working on Steamship Authority vessels, Sean O’Connor knew his calling. 

He remembers vividly the day it happened. “I started June 12 of 1974,” O’Connor said. “I graduated high school on a Sunday. My father drove me down to Woods Hole, and told me, ‘That boat will take you to Vineyard Haven, where your boat is. Have a good summer.’”

O’Connor worked at the Steamship during the summer while undergoing a two-year stint studying mathematics in Providence College. It was during his summer experience that he heard the siren song of a life aboard the ferries.

“I never really wanted to do anything else but work on these vessels,” he said, albeit he couldn’t quite pinpoint what drew him to the ferries so strongly. “I was probably one of the luckiest people that ever worked here. Whenever I got a license, somebody retired or they bought another ferry or they built another ferry, and I just got moved up at a very young age. I was in the right place at the right time.”

O’Connor, after 51 years, is retiring as a captain from the Steamship Authority fleet.

Inside the wheelhouse of the vessel that shares the name of the Island where he currently resides — the Martha’s Vineyard — and on a dazzlingly bright and breezy August morning, O’Connor told The Times this was his vessel from 1993 to 2007.

“This being my last summer, I wanted to work [on] this vessel one last time,” he said, gazing at a flock of rubber ducks on the wheelhouse control panel. 

This Times reporter took a ride along with O’Connor on August 26, just nine days before his retirement; the captain gave a tour of the Martha’s Vineyard, through the vessel’s narrow corridors, below the vehicle deck to the crews’ bedrooms and kitchen, and the engine room, even farther below. 

O’Connor has led multiple ships since becoming a Steamship Authority captain in 1984 — although he didn’t sail as a full-time captain until 1986. He was the first captain on the Eagle, when that vessel joined the ferry fleet in 1987. He was also captain of several vessels that are no longer in service, like the Auriga and the Uncatena, which was the first ferry he captained, in 1984. 

Working on the ferry vessels for over five decades, O’Connor has experienced a bit of everything that has to do with the Steamship Authority. One of the most memorable moments — and perhaps least favorite — was during the 1978 blizzard, when he said the Islander nearly sank. The generators were overheating, and trucks were going up on two wheels while a “blinding blizzard” with fierce winds was raging outside. “It’s still in my mind like it was yesterday,” he said. 

O’Connor said he was also hit by a storm aboard the Nantucket on Veterans Day in 1986, when he first fully joined the ferry service as a captain. 

Despite some difficulties with the authority, O’Connor said he “wouldn’t change a thing” from his time crossing the seas between the Cape and the Islands. 

“I had a ball. It was just fun,” O’Connor said. “I worked with so many great people. Some stressful days, some hot days, you have arguments with people, but you have to get right over it, because you’re going to work with them for another 10, 15 years.” 

O’Connor said after he retrieved the Island Home from down South in 2007, he would transition to the freight vessels, because “it was a lot easier.” 

“We’ve gotten almost 40 years of usage out of them,” he said regarding the Katama and the Gay Head, two freight ferries sailed by the Steamship Authority since 1988 and 1989 respectively, which are now being sold. “They’re pretty much at the end of their life expectancy because of the way we use them.”

Still, the captain said he looked forward to the three identical sister vessels — the Barnstable, the Aquinnah, and the Monomoy — that will be taking the Katama and the Gay Head’s roster spots. 

Over the years, O’Connor has also seen various changes implemented at the Steamship Authority. Up until 10 years ago, the ferry line hired cooks to whip up food for the crew. O’Connor said you could tell who was cooking on a given day, depending on how the food tasted. He particularly looked back on the soup with fondness. 

“If they call me now, [asking me] to come in on my day off, the first thing I have to do is look in the refrigerator and see what I can eat for the next eight to 12 hours,” he said. “Back then, all I had to do was get a clean uniform, get on the vessel, and I had a place to sleep, I had food for the day — I really miss the food, probably more than anybody.” 

The biggest change he experienced was the hours the ferry line expected out of crew members. 

Although the industry standard is working 12 hours within a 24-hour period, more than 20 years ago the Steamship Authority received an exemption from the U.S. Coast Guard to allow for 18 hours within a 24-hour work period. Teamsters Local 59, the labor union representing captains and pilots, has been pushing for reduced hours, and other Steamship Authority captains have also voiced their concerns that the current hours are unsustainable. 

“Even 20 years ago … most of the vessels tied up by 8:30, 9:30 at night,” O’Connor said. “Now … every vessel is running the maximum number of hours allowed by Coast Guard law. You come off the vessel a lot more tired than you did 20 years ago. Being 67, almost 68 years old, I’m really tired.”

O’Connor said another change for personnel was the consistency of crew members. 

“Even as late as 2006, I had the same crew,” he said. “The crew would come with me in the middle of May, and I would work with them until the middle of October.” 

Now, O’Connor said, there are a lot of crew inconsistencies with staff, which he attributed to employees being “constantly” moved around to accommodate crew shortages. He said he did not envy the Steamship Authority front office that organizes vessel dispatches. 

“We used to have 17, 18 people in a crew,” he said. “Today we may have 12 or 13, so we’re at minimum manning. So if we lose anybody, we have to tie up.” 

And licensing requirements for pilots and captains have become more stringent, and expensive, over the years, O’Connor said. Still, he expects the three new freight ferries having identical systems will likely speed up training times. 

The crewing issues are exacerbated by an aging workforce, according to O’Connor. “This tells you where everybody’s going: off to medical leave, off to medical leave, off to medical leave, off to medical leave,” he said, pointing to several names of older employees in a list of crew member assignments. 

O’Connor said there were around 36 captains in 2014. The most recent hiring numbers from the Steamship Authority’s human resources department lists 29 captains, the amount the organization has budgeted for. 

The captain isn’t the only one who’s enjoyed a long career at the Steamship Authority. O’Connor pointed to other longtime employees of the Steamship Authority that recently retired, like Captains Mark Nickowal and Mike Mazza, who also had careers that spanned decades with the ferry line. 

From pilots to chief engineers, O’Connor said, working with the crew was like living with a family. 

“For years, I would spend as much time with these guys as I do with my family,” O’Connor said. “You just come on board, and you live together for 24 hours.” 

And that bond remains steadfast. Steamship Authority employees put together a jovial — and packed — retirement party for several of their departing colleagues on the second floor of the Leeside Pub in Woods Hole on August 21. 

O’Connor’s final watch over a Steamship Authority ferry was on Sept. 3, and he stepped off of the vessel as a captain for the last time on Sept. 4. Now, with retirement on the horizon, O’Connor will be able to golf to his heart’s content. 

As the sign on the captain’s quarters doorknob, counting down the days to retirement, hung by his wife, reads: “Next stop: Juno Beach.” 

Or maybe O’Connor will get more mileage out of his Farm Neck Golf Club membership.