The Steamship Authority announced on Thursday morning that its newest freight vessel, the Aquinnah, will be commissioned this month.
The ferry line will be holding a public celebration on Friday, May 16, at the Oak Bluffs Terminal at 9:30 am that will include self-guided tours.
MarineTraffic, a vessel-tracking site, shows the Aquinnah departed from Morehead City, N.C., on Tuesday, and is making its way north to Fairhaven.
According to a press release from the ferry line, the Aquinnah can carry roughly 50 automobiles per trip, and has an interior passenger area that can seat around 80 passengers. The vessel has two Caterpillar engines rated at 2,000 hp each, two controllable-pitch propellers, and three 950-hp thrusters to “allow for greater maneuverability.” The vessel also has “state of the art” radar, communications, navigation systems, and two marine evacuation systems, with a rescue boat. Additionally, the Aquinnah was “bisected and its midbody removed to reduce its overall length to 245 feet.”
The Aquinnah was one of three sister ships the Steamship Authority purchased in 2022 from Louisiana-based Hornbeck Offshore Services, which the release states were partly paid for by an agreement with the Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority that “yielded $28.1 million” in federal funding. The Aquinnah underwent refurbishment at Alabama Shipyard.
The other sister ferries are the Barnstable and the Monomoy. The Barnstable was commissioned in December, and the Monomoy is still undergoing refurbishment in Alabama.
For additional information on the commissioning and open house, visit steamshipauthority.com/commissioning.
At the event on Friday next week, the public can get a look inside from 10:30 to 11:30 am. The Aquinnah will then depart for Woods Hole, where another self-guided tour session will be held from 12:30 to 1:30 pm, before the vessel sails to the Steamship vessel-maintenance facility in Fairhaven.
The Steamship Authority recently shared its fuel usage numbers for each of its vessels. The fuel usage of the converted 16-year-old offshore supply vessel Barnstable (12.6 gallons/mile) is 50 percent more than the Sankaty (7.2 gallons/mile) and Katama (8.7 gallons/mile).
The fuel usage of the Barnstable (12.6 gallons/mile) is about the same as the SSA’s fleet largest vessel, the Island Home.
We can expect similarly poor fuel economy from the converted offshore supply vessel Aquinnah on the Woods Hole – Vineyard route.
Could the Steamship Authority not have done better with its most recently acquired vessels? Has the Steamship Authority not heard of the climate crisis?