Princess Anne rides Staten Island ferry on surprise visit to New York
Princess Anne took a ride on a quintessential New York tourist attraction and commuter staple – the Staten Island ferry that plies the harbor – during a visit to city this week, just under a month since the death of Queen Elizabeth, her mother and Britain’s longestreigning monarch.
Anne, now sister to the new monarch, King Charles III, was ushered to the ferry’s pilothouse as the ship crossed the harbor on Tuesday, sailing towards the skyscrapers of Manhattan and some of the city’s most well-known landmarks such as the Empire State Building and One World Trade, which replaced the twin towers of the World Trade Centre after they were destroyed in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.
Her short voyage was escorted by police boats and a fireboat greeted the ferry with a sky-high water display just before docking, according to silive.com.
The trip on the distinctive orangehulled ferry, which also gives visitors and New Yorkers alike a free closeup of the Statue of Liberty with every leg of its regular toing-and-froing, came after the princess took a tour of the National Lighthouse Museum, based in the city borough of Staten Island.
The visit included an unveiling of a miniature figurine of Needles Lighthouse, in the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England, in memory of her parents.
Princess Anne, also known as the Princess Royal, is the only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II. She has three brothers, Charles, Andrew and Edward.
The princess attended a luncheon in Manhattan after the ferry trip and praised the lighthouse museum in a speech.
“The lighthouse still has a really important part to play,” she said. “The story that goes with lighthouses and how we got here is just as important, and [the] museum has made an astonishing impact in telling that story.”