Wall St. ferry runs aground – riders rescued
A FERRY got caught on a sandbar made of construction soot and old pylons near Wall St. on Monday evening, briefly stranding scores of passengers and rupturing the boat’s hull, police said.
The NYC Ferry boat ran aground about 100 feet from Pier 11 in lower Manhattan around 5:15 p.m., according to authorities. None of the approximately 114 passengers and six crew aboard was hurt.
“We were crowded. We were hungry. It was wonderful. This is New York,” said Leslie Mahoney of the Rockaways, as she rushed to get onto a replacement boat.
The embarrassing incident was another setback for the ferry service, which on Monday sent three boats to join a trio of ferries already sidelined for repairs, officials said.
One ferry employee described the shoal as being “like concrete.” Another said the ferry usually goes out along the pier and then turns around in deeper water.
“This one pulled straight out and right onto (the sandbar). That’s where they got into trouble,” the worker said of the midtide mayhem.
Anthony Hogrebe of the city Economic Development Corp. said the crew knows the vessel, but it “is not an NYC Ferry crew.”
Luke Miszczuk, 31, of the Rockaways said the ferry “started trembling and a little bit after that the captain said we are stuck in the mud. He really tried to gear it up and move the boat, but it wasn’t going to move. There was a little bit of a smell of gas.”
After they were stranded for about 45 minutes, passengers were told to put on their life vests, several riders said. NYPD boats brought them back to the pier.
Beth Ward and Pepita Martindale, both of the Rockaways, said they weren’t told what was going on and the ferry crew didn’t immediately call 911.
“We had to call,” Ward said. “The passengers called 911. We tried to find out what was happening and no one was giving us any answers.”
Coast Guard divers found a small breach in the hull — but six gas-powered pumps kept the vessel from filling with water.
Hogrebe said the boat, named the Zelinsky, is owned by Hornblower, the company hired to run the city ferry service.
“It’s a boat our operator has used in the past without incident,” he said. Built in 1986, the Zelinsky was sold by the Blue & Gold fleet out of San Francisco this year because it was near the end of its useful life. Right before it went into service in New York in April, it slammed into something and had to be repaired.
Melissa Grace, a Mayor de Blasio spokeswoman, said, “We are glad all passengers were safely disembarked and regret the inconvenience.” De Blasio has heavily promoted the NYC Ferry service, and ridership has hit 1 million.
Three boats were already in shipyards being repaired for corrosion-related issues, officials said.
On Monday, after more inspections, the city pulled three more vessels made by the same company, Metal Shark. Two of those had small holes in their hulls, the third was pulled as a precaution, Hogrebe said.
The Coast Guard was investigating why the ferry ran aground, including interviewing the crew and testing them for drugs and alcohol.