With budget pressures threatening to sink the South Shore’s ferries, supporters are giving the MBTA plenty of reasons to keep the routes afloat. They keep cars off the roads, offer commuters a faster route into Boston and provide economic support for businesses near their docks.
But there’s another argument for retaining these boats: Unlike other vehicles in the MBTA’s mass transit fleet, the ferries were manufactured here in Massachusetts, by a local company. The T’s buses and rail cars were made out of state, by out-of-state firms. (Although the newer Green Line trolleys were assembled in Littleton, by Italy’s AnsaldoBreda.)
Somerset-based Duclos Corp., which has done business as Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding since its launch on the Taunton River in 1955, has become the dominant manufacturer of catamaran ferries on the East Coast in recent years. The last of Massachusetts’ commercial shipbuilders, Gladding-Hearn has been owned and run by the same family since George Duclos bought out his two partners Preston Gladding and Richard Hearn in 1983.
President Peter Duclos says Gladding-Hearn started out in the 1950s building steel fishing boats. The product line expanded over the years to include an array of pilot boats, tugs, research vessels and patrol boats. But the ferries are the ones that are most familiar to people who live and work in Greater Boston. Duclos says his company first entered the “fast cat” business in the 1980s after signing a licensing agreement with Australian manufacturer Incat Crowther.
Gladding-Hearn’s first two fast ferries went to Mackinac Island in Lake Huron, the start of a profitable adventure. Duclos estimates that roughly half of his company’s orders in the past decade have been for ferries, which take about a year to manufacture.
The company, Duclos says, is working on two ferries right now. One will shuttle visitors to Dry Tortugas, a Florida island that’s even more remote than Key West. The other was ordered by Rhode Island Fast Ferry, which runs a seasonal ferry route between Quonset Point and Oak Bluffs. When those boats are complete, Gladding-Hearn will have made nearly 40 high-speed catamaran ferries.
Eight of those boats have landed in Boston Harbor. Duclos names them off like a proud parent. Quincy-based Boston’s Best Cruises operates the Flying Cloud and Lightning commuter boats, the Voyager for whale watches and some commutes, and the Nathaniel Bowditch for the seasonal trips between Salem and Boston. There are the three ferries run by Boston Harbor Cruises — the Aurora, Salacia and Nora Victoria — that travel to Winthrop, Hingham or Charlestown. And then there’s Bay State Cruise Co.’s Provincetown III, normally docked in South Boston but currently wintering in the Virgin Islands.
While the shipyard’s workforce has declined from about 160 people three years ago, Gladding-Hearn remains a major economic force in the Fall River area. Duclos says the company currently employs about 100 people, up from 80 about a year ago. The ferries can range in price from $4 million to $10 million, Duclos says, with the cost of construction roughly split evenly between labor expenses and materials.
The boat-building business isn’t easy, Duclos says, and Gladding-Hearn fights for just about every job it can get while a number of other shipyards in the Northeast have simply closed for good. Duclos attributes the company’s success to focusing on niche markets, like the fast cats, and having a family that works 12 hours a day to keep the business stable.
Bill Walker, co-owner of Boston’s Best Cruises, points to a number of reasons for Gladding-Hearn’s longevity. The company, he says, is run by smart people who provide reliable service and quality boats.
The Duclos crew picked a great ferry design by signing up with Incat, Walker says. That design, he says, ensured that his company’s first two commuter boats were 30 percent faster than the other ferries on the market, and burned up only about half as much diesel fuel.
The Flying Cloud and the Lightning together have about 2.8 million miles on them since they arrived in 1996, and they’re still going strong. Walker says there are only four or five shipbuilders in the country that can do what Gladding-Hearn can do.
Duclos recognizes that it can be tough to persuade Americans to leave their cars at home and hop on a bus, train or boat to go to work. His rule of thumb: A ferry route needs to be at least twice as fast as the equivalent trip by car to ensure success.
But Duclos obviously doesn’t think it makes sense for the MBTA to eliminate its ferry subsidies, just to save $3.7 million a year. Small ferries have a great safety record, Duclos says, and they require far less maintenance work than a commuter railroad route. The MBTA is probably the only public transit agency in the country that is currently looking to eliminate its ferry service, Duclos says. If anything, he says, ferries are becoming more popular in some metro areas.
The MBTA hasn’t made any final decisions yet, and the agency is under tremendous political pressure to keep these ferries going. But if the T does decide to end the subsidies, Gladding-Hearn could be affected if used boats are put back on the market, hurting the company’s chances of getting a new ferry-building job. If the commuter ferries go, that would also limit future opportunities for Duclos’ company to land manufacturing work in its home state.
Massachusetts has long ago lost its luster as a shipbuilding hub. But the one family-owned business that kept this tradition alive for six decades is exactly the kind of business that we should try to keep here for another six decades.