Just before 4 p.m., a ferry was midway through its fourth trip of the day, to and from Provincetown and Boston, when the vessel was hit by a large set of waves that broke two of the seven windows in the pilot house, Bay State Cruise Company officials said in a statement.
The two windows that broke were in the center of the pilot house, which is where the captain navigates from.
Officials said windws in the passengers cabin, which is under the pilot house, were not broken and it appeared as though the waves were at an angle and height that they only struck at the pilot house level, which is about 20 feet above the water.
After the large waves hit the ferry, seas returned to the normal wave pattern of about 5 feet, officials said.
When the windows were broken, water took the vessel's control systems offline, officials said.
The captain was eventually able to get the starboard engine up to speed, but could not restart the port engine.
"We can only imagine the amount of concern and alarm that the passengers must have felt when the vessel decelerated so suddenly and then had to wait until the propulsion came back online," officials said in a statement.
No injuries were reported to any of the passengers, but the captain did suffer from cuts to his hand, which he had wrapped.
That was so cool of that guy to play his trumpet in an effort to calm his frightened fellow passengers. He is a good player too, what a sweet act of kindness that came from such a stressful event. That young man must have a big heart, Thank you brother!