Remember back in May when with some fanfare the city started using the first new large SI Ferry in decades? Or at least you remember when it was christened two years ago out in Wisconsin (above). Yeah, well, that brand spanking new ferry broke yesterday.
The boat, which had its first run on May 20, left Staten (and by the by, we've been wanting to do this since elementary school: Can we all just drop the Island? Wouldn't Staten be somehow more legitimate than Staten Island? Does anyone call really call Manhattan Manhattan Island? Just saying...) around 11:30 a.m. yesterday. About 15 minutes into the journey to Manhattan the "lights went out and everything just stopped and that's it." Three tugboats and a Coast Guard went out and brought the ferry back to Staten by 12:50. And so goes the story of the John J. Marchi ferry's first breakdown.
Gothamist on the Staten Ferry, the Ferry Information Page and here is a classic Ferry Fan Page.
