Islanders had plenty to say to Steamship Authority governors and senior managers Monday morning, at the first meeting on the Vineyard since last month’s calamitous run of ferry breakdowns and cancellations.

“We have a reputation problem here that has damaged the Island for the forseeable future,” said Josh Goldstein, owner of the Mansion House hotel in Vineyard Haven and one of more than a dozen Vineyard residents who spoke during the public comment period of the meeting at the Katharine Cornell Theatre in Vineyard Haven.

“This is our lifeline,” said Tisbury selectman Tristan Israel. “It’s important not to give short shrift to that.”

Other Islanders detailed disappointments and inconveniences such as missing medical appointments, waiting 45 minutes for shuttle buses and lining up fruitlessly for canceled boats with no information from the boat line.

“There were hundreds of people stranded in Woods Hole,” said Tisbury resident Jaime Hamlin, who was trying to get home to the Vineyard during the cancellation crisis. “AT&T was down. The website was crashed. Nobody came out and said we needed to get a hotel.”

Not every comment was aggrieved in tone. Mike Carroll of Tisbury praised the board.

“I would not want any of you people’s job,” Mr. Carroll said. “I think you did a great job with what you had to work with . . . Nobody starved. Nobody ran out of heat. Nobody ran out of gasoline. I think that says it all.”

Communication — specifically, the lack or insufficiency of communication between the boat line and the public — was a theme of the meeting both before and during the public comment period.

Reading from a long prepared statement at the outset, SSA general manager Robert Davis said the boat line will begin interviewing candidates for the recently-created position of communications director. The application deadline is April 27. A significant number of people have applied, he said.

Mr. Davis added that the SSA will make changes to its email program, which has delivered some messages days after they were sent.

Two other areas Mr. Davis cited as needing immediate improvement were information technology — SSA computers have crashed multiple times this year — and vessel operations, including scheduling turnaround times so that ferries are not delayed by loading and unloading.

“We would like to review arrival and departure times,” he said.

But Mr. Davis as well as most of the board stopped short of backing Vineyard governor Marc Hanover’s call for the speedy hiring of a consultant for an overall review.

“One area we may need a consultant to look at is our maintenance program,” Mr. Davis said, adding that he has identified an experienced contractor who could begin work soon.

Mr. Hanover pushed back. “I’m just not sure it can be done in-house,” he said. But he received scant support from the other governors, including the Nantucket governor Rob Ranney.

“I have a problem with spending a lot of money on this,” Mr. Ranney said, adding that he has confidence in Mr. Davis’s ability to address the problems.

“I would hate to have a lot of time and resources diverted to something that could be done and should be done in-house,” said Falmouth governor Elizabeth Gladfelter.

Barnstable governor Robert Jones also spoke up for boat line staff.

“If there was a huge problem internally, we would know it,” Mr. Jones said. I think this is basically a matter of fine-tuning what we have.”

Only New Bedford governor Moira Tierney sided with Mr. Hanover.

“None of us live on the Island . . . serving the Vineyard and Nantucket — that’s our primary purpose,” she said.

In the end no vote was taken; instead the governors instructed Mr. Davis to have an internal review prepared within two weeks.

Also at the meeting, Mr. Davis announced that the ferry Martha’s Vineyard had once again been pulled from service and sent to the boat line’s maintenance facility in Fairhaven. SSA maintenance technicians will work alongside staff from Senesco Marine, which is finishing a more than $17 million mid-life refurbishment of the vessel.

The punch list of remaining tasks has dwindled to 126, ranging from ceiling tiles with mismatched colors to “periodic sewer gas odors,” Mr. Davis said.

“The work is expected to be done by May 3 so the vessel can be back on the run for Chili Fest,” May 5 in Vineyard Haven, he said. The Woods Hole is filling in for the Martha’s Vineyard’s runs, with the Katama subbing similarly for the Woods Hole.