Brooklyn Bridge News

A software flaw combined with the captain’s failure to use back-up controls led to the grounding of a passenger ferry last year in New York City, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.The high-speed passenger ferry Commodore, owned and operated by Seastreak, was transiting northbound on the East River on June 5, 2021, when the catamaran lost primary steering and speed control to both of its port hull water jets and then grounded. One minor injury was reported among the seven crewmembers and 107 passengers on board.

On the night of March 23, 2008, most of the crew sleeps while fishing vessel Alaska Ranger makes her way to the rich fishing grounds off the coast of Alaska. As the Engineer makes his nightly rounds, he discovers a serious flood in the rudder room. He raises the alarm and the captain issues a Mayday call. But before the crew can investigate the source of the leak, the rising water reaches their electrical systems and the ship loses power. With the ship listing and in danger of sinking, the captain orders the crew to abandon ship.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the Citywide Ferry Service is on track to launch in 2017, with the selection of Hornblower, Inc. as its operator. The new service, which will include up to 20 boats and connect 21 New York City eighborhoods for the price of a single subway ride ($2.75) is scheduled to be fully operational by 2018, and is estimated to carry 4.6 million trips per year across six routes. “For the price of a single subway ride, tens-of-thousands of New Yorkers are going to have a new public transit option linking them to jobs…

A container carrying the twenty-four foot Brazilian built ocean rowboat, Spirit of Malabo, left the Port of Cap Haitian on Saturday en-route to Port Everglades Terminals (PET) in Florida aboard Antillean Marine Shipping Corporation vessel RUMBA. The oarsman, Victor Mooney of Queens, New York who successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean last year from the Canary Islands to Saint Martin, French West Indies in one-hundred and twenty-nine days, was robbed off the coast of Haiti and had to stop his row. Mr. Mooney’s row was in honor of his brother who died of AIDS in 1983 and to encourage voluntary HIV testing. Mr. Mooney tried the Atlantic Ocean crossing three times over a ten year period without success.

An historic U.S. Navy vessel that was originally deployed during Vietnam and later used to train U.S. helicopter pilots will temporarily dock at Pier 5 of Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) and for the first time be open for public tours. Free walk-up tours of the 'Baylander' are currently scheduled for weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. beginning July 26 through Labor Day, inform the owners, the Trenk Family Foundation. In advance of construction of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Marina, the Baylander IX-514 will open for tours as part of a larger program designed to highlight the history of the ship and its extraordinary background, as well as facilitate the Marina's community boating program.

The Goree Challenge is a 5,000 mile solo transatlantic row from the Canary Islands to New York. Kingsborough Community College is providing technical assistance for the ocean rowboat, christened The Spirit of Malabo. The Spirit of Malabo, a 24-foot ocean rowboat, arrived at Kingsborough Community College, of the City University of New York (CUNY) on Thursday from Brazil. The Spirit of Malabo will be used for a 5,000 mile solo transatlantic row from the Canary Islands to New York's Brooklyn Bridge, with a re-supply in the British Virgin Islands later this year.

Many marine service companies are acquiring boat-towed metal detectors and magnetometers to assist in salvage operations and geophysical surveys. These devices can locate a variety of targets including sunken vessels, ship anchors and propellers, pipelines, cables and metal debris which must be removed from an area before dredging. The two primary pieces of equipment used in these operations are a magnetometer and the pulse induction (PI) metal detector. Magnetometers are super sensitive instruments that can detect iron and steel objects at hundreds of feet away.

The U.S. Coast Guard expanded the advisory notice issued Saturday to include all waters within 100 yards of the southern Manhattan Pierhead Line between the North Cove Yacht Harbor and the Brooklyn Bridge. Recreational vessels are not authorized to operate within this area, except for those requiring access to the North Cove Yacht Harbor. Ferries and charter boats that normally operate in this area and recreational vessels requiring access to the yacht harbor must contact the USCG. The East River Deepwater Range remains open to transiting commercial traffic. In addition, the security level for the security zone in the west channel of the East River at the United Nations Headquarters has been raised to MARSEC 2.

The USCG Captain of the Port for New York issued a Notice stating that, effective through February 1, 2005, Maritime Security (MARSEC) Level 2 has been designated for selected maritime locations adjacent to the New York City Financial District and the United Nations Headquarters. The regulated navigation area in which MARSEC 2 applies includes all waters of the East and Hudson Rivers extending 100 yards out from the Pierhead Line from and including the northernmost side of the North Cove Yacht Harbor extending around the southern tip of Manhattan Island to and including the Brooklyn Bridge. Commercial vessels transiting the west channel…

If you want to call yourself a taxi in New York, you've got things to live up to. Take tradition. A New York taxi always beat everybody to the punch. It was the first away when the light changed, weaving through otherwise orderly rows of cars and trucks, just in time to beat the next light. The ride not only was fast, it looked fast. The driver, all the while, dispensed worldly wisdom on any theme, and if you asked, could name the best oyster bar in the entire city. He spoke New Yorkese - an "R," (if pronounced at all) could be a "W" or a "V" - but it was English. Etched in his mind was the map of the five boroughs, and all their one-way streets. He was friendly, considerate, and caring - waited until you were indoors when he dropped you off, before cruising away for the next fare.

Annual funding to protect the perimeters of New York's and New Jersey's ports will be boosted nearly fourfold, the Department of Homeland Security was to announce Monday. The increase, from $6.6 million to $25.7 million, follows a public outcry sparked in June, when the agency decided to slash New York City's share of terror grants for cities by 40 percent, or $83 million. The new money is meant to help ports guard against attacks by land or sea but is not designed to pay for cargo screening or container inspections. The change in funding was confirmed Sunday by Rep. Peter King, R-Long Island, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee. In justifying their decision to cut New York's share, federal authorities said their review process found no national monuments or icons in the city.

New York was hardly unique for developing ferry services, but this city of islands was one of the most prolific. At their height, more than 60 routes linked Manhattan, New Jersey, and the four other boroughs. Before there were skyscrapers, before there were subways, the city was famous for its ferrryboats, woven together by them - who could imagine getting around without them? City planners could. After the Civil War, New York entered a bridge-building boom that lasted a century. From the Brooklyn Bridge to the Verrazano, New York erected wonders famous to every tourist. Dozens more, less fabled, are known better to mariners. Open 24/7…