By Ross Sneyd

Peaks Island News

 

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. – Casco Bay Lines’ Battery Steele car ferry was officially commissioned with the crack of a champagne bottle across her bow early Wednesday, inching the new vessel closer to service on the Peaks Island–Portland run.

 

Bay Lines board President Jen Lavanture led a small delegation from Portland to do the honors of christening the new boat as it sat aboard a drydock barge. 

 

“Today marks an important milestone for the district with the christening of the Battery Steele,” Lavanture said moments before boarding the vessel and formally inaugurating her. 

 

The Battery Steele was cocooned inside a floating drydock, hiding most of the new boat. A cold wind whipped off of Narragansett Bay as the small group gathered on the drydock while Lavanture and Senesco Marine project manager Gary Lima climbed aboard to crack champagne across Battery Steele’s bow.

 

The brief ceremony was staged at Senesco Marine, where construction resumed after the 164-foot diesel-electric hybrid boat was tied up at the pier. Almost immediately after the christening, seawater was pumped into the barge, allowing the Battery Steele to float on its own before it was towed alongside the pier. 

 

About two months of construction, final commissioning and sea trials are ahead.

 

If all of that goes according to plan, the $21 million Battery Steele will be sailed up the New England coast to Portland sometime in June, where another six to eight weeks of commissioning and sea trials are expected before the ship goes into service.

 

And the construction history of this boat suggests that it could be longer before she carries passengers. Bay Lines first began discussing a replacement for the Machigonne II in 2015 and sought a request for design proposals in 2018. Through a series of often contentious meetings, the design for a boat, with a capacity of up to 16 cars and 599 passengers, was developed and the board gave final approval in February 2021.

 

Lavanture acknowledged the challenging path the Battery Steele has followed in her commissioning remarks.

 

“It's important to acknowledge that projects of this scale are complex. The vessel arrives after a longer and more challenging path than originally anticipated, and its introduction will require thoughtful integration into our operations,” she said. “Our focus must now be on ensuring the Battery Steele is deployed in a way that strengthens the system, is operationally sound, financially responsible, and aligned with the needs of the community we serve.” 

 

In another sign of the delays that could ensue, the Almer Dinsmore was tied at the opposite side of the pier awaiting delivery to the Maine State Ferry service. That boat, also built by Senesco, was completed months ago but required modifications after it went into the water. It is expected to sail to Maine soon, though.

 

Senesco, which won the contract to build the boat, initially committed to deliver it to Portland by June 2024, but a series of delays, driven in part by the pandemic and the labor and supply chain disruptions that followed, repeatedly pushed that date back.

 

Casco Bay Lines has withheld some payments from Senesco because of those delays, as provided in its contract.

 

The new boat is quite a departure for the five-vessel Casco Bay Lines fleet. Battery Steele designed to be powered primarily by electricity from a charging port at the Portland terminal. 

 

The boat will plug into the power grid to top off its batteries before most runs to Peaks Island. The boat will not be charged during certain hours of the day when electricity costs are highest. Diesel engines aboard the boat can be used to generate electricity when necessary. 

 

And the car ferry will not have to turn around when docking in Portland or leaving Peaks Island, because the Battery Steele has a double-ended hull.

 

The vehicle deck of the boat is slightly wider and much longer than the Machigonne. Bay Lines says that will enable deckhands to direct trucks onto the boat in a single lane instead of taking up double the space that is often required on the Machigonne. Dedicated space for freight and bicycles is also included on the Battery Steele.

 

Most of the benches are installed in the cabins and the pilot house’s equipment in place. But a lot of finish work remains and that began immediately after the boat was tied up at the pier, with a “stabilization” test.

 

The boat’s name was chosen by the board as a nod both to the landmark World War II defensive battery on the Back Shore of Peaks and to the vessel’s electric batteries.

 

A larger, more formal commissioning ceremony is expected in Portland once the boat is delivered this summer.