New York City has finally found a buyer for a decommissioned Staten Island Ferry boat involved in a fatal crash two decades ago, letting go of the vessel for $101,000.
The ferry, the Andrew J. Barberi, had been up for auction for the past month but did not receive a single bid, even after the city’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) dropped the starting bid price by a third, from $155,000 to $100,000.
But following initial publication of this story, a spokesperson for DCAS said that the 310-foot orange ferry had finally found a purchaser, who swooped in as the auction was closing and bid just north of the asking price. The purchaser’s identity has not been released.
The Barberi, named for a celebrated football coach at Staten Island’s Curtis High School, entered service in 1981, and by the time it was decommissioned in 2023, it had two major accidents under its belt.
The first was in October 2003, when a pilot under the influence of prescription painkillers passed out at the helm, causing the 3,300-ton Barberi to smash into a concrete pier at full speed near the St. George Terminal, killing 11 people and injuring 70 more. The pilot, Richard J. Smith, abandoned ship after the crash.
Smith eventually pled guilty to 11 counts of seaman’s manslaughter and falsifying medical records, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Meanwhile, the city’s ferry director, Patrick Ryan, also pled guilty to seaman’s manslaughter and failing to enforce a rule requiring two pilots at the helm during docking; he was sentenced to a year-and-a-day in the slammer.
The rough times didn’t end there for the Barberi: it crashed again in St. George in May 2010, hitting a pedestrian bridge and injuring 40 passengers. The National Transportation Safety Board said this crash was due to issues with the ship’s propulsion system.
The scallywag who purchased the Barberi is assuming control of a seacraft that is not in working order, and will have to arrange and pay for towing it out of St. George themselves. They’re also be on the hook for refurbishing a vessel that bears 40 years worth of wear-and-tear from daily commuting operations across New York Harbor.
Perhaps no one knows the pitfalls of that better than Pete Davidson and Colin Jost, the Saturday Night Live comedians and Staten Island natives who in 2022 purchased the decommissioned John F. Kennedy ferry for $280,000.
The funnymen boasted of grand plans to turn the boat into a massive entertainment venue replete with bars, clubs, and outdoor event spaces. But while the pair still insist the plans are in the pipeline, two years later the Kennedy is still sitting unoccupied at a dock in the Kill Van Kull.
This story was updated to note the ferry was purchased on the evening of June 17.
