|
|
SubTitle: Smokes, Shines & Navigation
Posted by: J. Ritter (ritter@interserf.net) on 11/21/1997@16:04hrs:
In Reply to: The Staten Island Ferry posted by: rs on 11/21/1997@00:30hrs:
The missing part of the story is the smoking rooms on the first deck and the guys who did the shoe shining. It seemed that on the older boats you could almost peal the stuff off the walls. After traveling by bus or train to get to St. George the commuters natural low level nicotine alarm went off, and had to do a big refill before getting off the boat and into the subway. I bet today they don't even have smoking rooms.
My dad had a friend who was a Captain on one of the Boats. Got to see the operation from the lowest bildge in the engine room to the Pilot House. When I got older the girls were really impressed by my ability to get them up to where the boats were operated. I bet they don't do that anymore either. The ferry boat was a nice part of a date back then. Especially if you did not have a drivers licence. The upper side decks on the newer boats like the Merrell and Big "V" had nice privacy spots ;-). There were even some spots inside on the top deck that were blocked by the uptakes to the stacks. Lots of times a movie at the St. George was followed up by a nickel boat ride to look at the city lights or the stars.
By the way, part of the Captains Eaxm they gave you a blank harbor chart of NYC with just the land. You had to fillin the channel, all the navigation aids, debth of water, etc. from memory. The chart covered an area from Sandy Hook almost to West Point. They gave you eight hours to complete the map.
oldnacl