Power outage left ferry ‘dead in the water’

The Coast Guard and the Steamship Authority are investigating what caused a ferry carrying 78 passengers to lose power shortly after leaving Martha’s Vineyard Saturday night.

The ferry’s main engines lost power about 15 minutes into a trip to Woods Hole after leaving Martha’s Vineyard about 8:30 p.m., according to Steamship Authority General Manager Robert Davis.

Two Coast Guard vessels were dispatched to the scene and three tugboats brought the ferry back to Vineyard Haven about 2 a.m., Davis said in a statement.

Passengers were put up overnight at a nearby hotel by the Steamship Authority.

According to the Coast Guard, all 78 passengers and 10 crew members disembarked without incident and no injuries were reported.

The last incident involving a Steamship Authority vessel happened off the coast of Hyannis less than a year ago and left 15 passengers with injuries.

“The lights went out and everything went dead,” said passenger Don McInnes, 77, of West Falmouth, who was on the ferry with his wife and dog. “It was hard to tell exactly where we were and then the lights came back on a little dimmer, but they couldn’t get the engines started and finally told us we were dead in the water.”

Davis said an emergency generator restored electrical power to the vessel but was not able to move the propellers so an anchor was dropped to keep the vessel from drifting.

“Everybody was very calm during the whole thing and the lights weren’t out very long,” McInnes said.

As they awaited help from the Coast Guard and the tugboats, which arrived at 10 p.m., passengers were given free food and water. McInnes said while some passengers were upset, most stayed calm.