Current Vessels

Staten Island Ferry Current Ferries

Dorothy Day

Commission Date

2021

Gross Tonnage

4570 Estimated

Passengers / Cars

4500 / 0

Builder

Eastern Shipbuilding

Design

Elliott Bay Design Group

Engines

EMD 12V-710 (X4)

Propulsion

Voith Schneider Propeller

Horsepower

10,000

Length / Width

320' / 70'

Dorothy Day (November 8, 1897 – November 29, 1980) was an American journalist, social activist, and anarchist who, after a bohemian youth, became a Catholic Christian without abandoning her social and anarchist activism. She was perhaps the best-known political radical in the American Catholic Church. Day’s conversion is described in her 1952 autobiography, The Long Loneliness. Day was also an active journalist and described her social activism in her writings. In 1917 she was imprisoned as a member of suffragist Alice Paul’s nonviolent Silent Sentinels. In the 1930s, Day worked closely with fellow activist Peter Maurin to establish the Catholic Worker Movement, a pacifist movement that combines direct aid for the poor and homeless with nonviolent direct action on their behalf. She practiced civil disobedience, which led to additional arrests in 1955, 1957, and in 1973 at the age of seventy-five. As part of the Catholic Worker Movement, Day co-founded the Catholic Worker newspaper in 1933, and served as its editor from 1933 until her death in 1980. In this newspaper, Day advocated the Catholic economic theory of distributism, which she considered a third way between capitalism and socialism. Pope Benedict XVI used her conversion story as an example of how to “journey towards faith … in a secularized environment.” In an address before the United States Congress, Pope Francis included her in a list of four exemplary Americans who “built a better future”. The Church has opened the cause for Day’s possible canonization, which was accepted by the Holy See for investigation. For that reason, the Church refers to her with the title of Servant of God.

Sandy Ground

Commission Date

2021

Gross Tonnage

4570 Estimated

Passengers / Cars

4500 / 0

Builder

Eastern Shipbuilding

Design

Elliott Bay Design Group

Engines

EMD 12V-710 (X4)

Propulsion

Voith Schneider Propeller

Horsepower

10,000

10,000

320' / 70'

After slavery in New York was abolished in 1827, freed men settled in the area known since colonial times as Sandy Ground, which was located in the area around what is now the intersection of Bloomingdale and Woodrow Roads in Rossville. These early settlers were skilled in the oyster trade, and brought this knowledge with them to Staten Island. Oyster harvesting on Staten Island was mainly conducted on the island’s south shore. The area of Prince’s Bay was the main hub and was within walking distance from Sandy Ground. Sandy Ground also served as an important stop on the Underground Railroad, and is the oldest continuously settled free black community in the United States.

Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis

Commission Date

2021

Gross Tonnage

4570 Estimated

Passengers / Cars

4500 / 0

Builder

Eastern Shipbuilding

Design

Elliott Bay Design Group

Engines

EMD 12V-710 (X4)

Propulsion

Voith Schneider Propeller

Horsepower

10,000

10,000

320' / 70'

Staff Sergeant Ollis served one tour of duty in Iraq and two tours in Afghanistan. He left for his third deployment in January 2013 and was due home in October of that same year. That, however, was not meant to be. On August 28, the forward operating base in Ghazni, Afghanistan, where Mr. Ollis was stationed, was attacked by insurgent forces. In the course of meeting the enemy, Staff Sergeant Ollis stepped in front of a wounded Polish officer in order to protect him from an insurgent wearing a suicide vest. Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis was killed. He was 24 years old.Mr. Ollis’ heroism has been honored by the Polish government with their highest military award, the Polish Gold Star Medal of Honor, as well as the Afghani Star. Among the many awards received posthumously by the United States, Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis has been honored with the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the Silver Star and the Audie Murphy Medallion.

Spirit of America

Commission Date

12/18/2004

Gross Tonnage

3200

Passengers / Cars

4400 / 30

Builder

Marinette Marine. Wisconsin

Engines

GM-EMD 710GB16 (X3)

Propulsion

Diesel Electric 4160 volts AC

Horsepower

10,000 SHP

10,000

310' / 70'

First trip Tuesday April 4, 2006 at 10:00 AM out of St. George. Keel built with steel from The World Trade Center Towers. Named to Honor the Spirit and Unity of America after the attacks. Never forget those who were killed and the Civil Servants who died trying to save them.

Senator John J. Marchi

Commission Date

05/08/2004

Gross Tonnage

3200

Passengers / Cars

4400 / 30

Builder

Marinette Marine. Wisconsin

Engines

GM-EMD 710GB16 (X3)

Propulsion

Diesel Electric 4160 volts AC

Horsepower

10,000 SHP

10,000

310' / 70'

Arrived in NY Harbor on 3/20/2005. First trip May /20 /2005 @ 13:30 out of St. George. John J. Marchi (May 0, 1921 – April 5, 2009) was a New York State Senator who represented Staten Island for a record 50 years. Marchi, a Republican, retired on December 31, 2006, from the seat that he had held since January 1, 1957. Marchi was first elected on November 6, 1956, after having served as a Senate aide. An attorney, Marchi has been active in conservative issues, particularly of a fiscal nature, during his long Senate tenure. He has also been a strong advocate for Staten Island issues. Marchi wrote the state laws to help New York City recover from its fiscal crisis and near bankruptcy in the 1970s. Marchi has been a long advocate for the secession of Staten Island from the rest of New York City. He wrote a law which backed a secession referendum in 1993. While the referendum passed, the legislature has not allowed Staten Island to become its own city. As a part of his Staten Island secession work, Marchi drafted a model city charter for a new City of Staten Island. Marchi also drafted the law to close the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island. Marchi ran twice for Mayor of New York City. He won a surprise upset over Mayor John V. Lindsay in the 1969 Republican primary. He ran in the general election against Lindsay, who was still the Liberal Party nominee, and Democratic Comptroller Mario Procaccino. Marchi and Procaccino lost to Lindsay. Marchi was the Republican nominee again in 1973, but he lost to Comptroller Abraham D. Beame, the Democrat that Lindsay had defeated in 1965. In 1961 he lost a race for Borough President of Staten Island. Marchi was the only Republican member of the State Senate who opposed the death penalty. Marchi was a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Governors of the Council of State Governments. He was appointed by U.S. President Richard M. Nixon to the National Advisory Committee on Drug Abuse Prevention.

Guy V. Molinari

Commission Date

09/20/2003

Gross Tonnage

3200

Passengers / Cars

4400 / 30

Builder

Marinette Marine. Wisconsin

Engines

GM-EMD 710GB16 (X3)

Propulsion

Diesel Electric 4160 volts AC

Horsepower

10,000 SHP

10,000

310' / 70'

First Trip on January 26, 2005
MOLINARI, Guy Victor, a Representative from New York; born in New York City, November 3, 1928; attended private schools; graduated, New Dorp High School, Staten Island, 1945; B.A., Wagner College, Staten Island, 1949; LL.B., New York Law School, New York City, 1951; served in the United States Marine Corps, sergeant, 1951-1953; admitted to the New York bar in 1953 and commenced practice in Staten Island; member, New York State assembly, 1974-1980; delegate, New York State Republican conventions, 1979-1980; delegate, Republican National Convention, 1980 and 1984; elected as a Republican to the Ninety-seventh and to the four succeeding Congresses and served from January 3, 1981, until his resignation January 1, 1990, to become borough president of Staten Island for the four-year term beginning the same day; is a resident of Staten Island, N.Y.

Samuel I. Newhouse

Commission Date

1981

Gross Tonnage

3335 Estimated

Passengers / Cars

6000 / 0

Builder

Equitable Shipyards

Design

Elliott Bay Design Group

Engines

GM-EMD 645E16 (X4)

Propulsion

Voith Schneider Propeller

Horsepower

8.000

10,000

300' / 70'

Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr. (May 4, 1895 – August 9, 1979) was a Jewish-American broadcasting businessman, magazine and newspaper publisher. Born in 1895, his original name was Solomon Neuhaus. Newhouse is the namesake of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the founder of Advance Publications, eventually taken over by his son, Samuel Irving Newhouse, Jr. Advance Publications, Inc., is an American media company. It is named after the Staten Island Advance, the first newspaper owned by the Newhouse family. As of 2009, it is ranked as the 46th largest private company in the United States according to Forbes. The Newhouse and Barberi are the highest passenger capacity vessels in the world at 6000 passengers each.

John Noble

Commission Date

1986

Gross Tonnage

500

Passengers / Cars

1280 / 0

Builder

Derektor Shipyards

Engines

Caterpillar 3516 (X2)

Propulsion

Voith Schnieder

Horsepower

4,000 SHP

10,000

196' / 40'

A renowned maritime artist. Born in Paris in 1913, John A. Noble was the son of the noted American painter, John (“Wichita Bill”) Noble. He spent his early years in the studios of his father and his father’s contemporaries, innovative artists and writers of the early part of the 20TH century. He moved with his family to this country in 1919, a year which had great significance to him and foreshadowed his life’s work.

Alice Austen

Commission Date

1986

Gross Tonnage

500

Passengers / Cars

1280 / 0

Builder

Derektor Shipyards

Engines

Caterpillar 3516 (X2)

Propulsion

Voith Schnieder

Horsepower

4,000 SHP

Length / Width

196' / 40'

American photographer. She was introduced to photography by a friend, Oswall Muller, sometime around 1876, and quickly learnd the complexities of working with a variety of cumbersome cameras, dry-plate negatives and contact printing. As an avid amateur photographer, she documented a social history of a bygone era. Her work, dating between the 1880s and 1930s, recorded a charming portrait of the genteel activities of upper middle-class society on Staten Island. Although her photographs primarily documented the everyday life of the wealthy inhabitants and friends of her home, Comfort House, which overlooked New York’s Upper Bay, she also produced a challenging series of images of New York’s Lower East Side. These street types were published as a portfolio by the Albertype Company in 1896.

Micheal Cosgrove

Commission Date

--

Gross Tonnage

--

Passengers / Cars

--

Builder

--

Engines

--

Propulsion

--

Horsepower

--

Length / Width

--

Some Interesting Facts