On Saturday morning, the passenger ferry, Provincetown III, was delivering 149 passengers from Boston to the north-eastern tip of Cape Cod when it slowed to an abrupt halt near Boston Harbor’s President’s Roads channel.
According to the ferry operator, Bay State Cruise Co., the grounding was due to operational error on the part of the captain. Michael Glasfeld, spokesman for Bay State Cruise Co., wrote in the statement,
“At this time, it appears to us that it was a matter of operator error, clear and simple. Our electronic equipment is top notch, and there is no excuse for having missed the navigational marks and being as far out of position as they were.”
As is typical in such a case, the captain has since been fired by the ferry operator.
By 5PM that day however, the rising tide freed the ferry which sustained little to no damage and is now back in service.
Thankfully, the passengers weren’t in too much of a hurry and they had a sense of humor and/or were drinking beer…