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Remembering The Seaport Line – 20 Years Ago - Spring 1986
Replica excursion steamboats that sailed for the South Street Seaport Museum
By Theodore W. Scull (All photographs were taken on either May 10 or June 17, 1986 by Theodore W. Scull)
The Seaport Line’s 400-passenger ANDREW FLETCHER, a diesel-driven side-wheeler, made harbor trips from the South Street Seaport Museum’s Pier 16. To the right are the lightship AMBROSE and tiny wooden tugboat W. O. DECKER, while the four masts sprout from the bark PEKING.
The former lightship AMBROSE, built in 1908, held down duties at both Ambrose and Scotland stations marking the channels leading to New York Harbor. The lightship came to the South Street Seaport in 1968 as the museum’s first historic vessel.
The PEKING, built in Germany in 1911 for the famous Flying P Line, traded to the West Coast of South America carrying general cargo out and nitrates on the return voyage until 1931 when she become British boys’ school stationary training ship. She was bought for the South Street Seaport Museum in 1974. To the right is the former New York City ferryboat MAJ. GEN. WM. H. HART, built in 1925 as the JOHN A. LYNCH. She carried up to 24 cars and 480 passengers between Queens and The Bronx and Brooklyn and Staten Island until sold to the U.S. Army for Governors Island service and then to the U. S. Coast Guard. She came to the Seaport in 1970.
The lightship AMBROSE is open to visitors with the restaurant and shopping destination Pier 17 in the background.
The white bow belongs to the sidewheeler ANDREW FLETCHER.
W.O. DECKER was first built in 1930 as the wooden steam tugboat RUSSELL I for service in Newtown Creek, the industrial waterway that divides Brooklyn and Queens. In 1947, she was re-engined as a diesel vessel when bought by the Decker family and came to the Seaport in 1977 with a license to carry a half-dozen passengers.
The ANDREW FLETCHER, before sailing on one of her 90-minute harbor trips from Pier 16 at the Seaport Museum, shows her paddle box, sheer, single tall stack and straight stem. She arrived in 1985 and was designed by William G. Muller, a well-known marine artist whose works decorated the grand saloon.
The ANDREW FLETCHER passes Pier A (1883), home to Marine Company No. 1, with the fireboat SEN. ROBERT F. WAGNER
docked on the north side and a second fireboat tied up on the opposite side.
The inbound party fishing boat PALACE was once a regular fixture in the harbor sailing from Hoboken and the West Side of Manhattan to the fishing grounds off Long Island and the North Jersey Coast.
A McAllister tug, towing a barge of containers south from the East River into Upper New York Bay, is seen from a harbor cruise aboard the ANDREW FLETCHER.
The Seaport Line’s ANDREW FLETCHER is returning to Pier 16 after a harbor cruise that included a pass beneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The Manhattan Bridge can be seen in the background.
On June 17, 1986, a New York City fireboat with Brooklyn Heights in the background is welcoming a new excursion boat to the Seaport Line.
The DE WITT CLINTON, named after a former Mayor of New York City and Governor of New York State, arrives for the first time on June 17, 1986 to take up her role for the Seaport Line. She was christened by Mathilda Cuomo, wife of Governor Mario Cuomo, and was also designed by marine artist William G. Muller. Several knots faster than the ANDREW FLETCHER, she could make more extensive harbor trips.
The DE WITT CLINTON, with her graceful sheer, straight stem, and tall black stack, cuts a handsome profile as she docks at the Seaport Museum’s Pier 16.
A frequent caller to the South Street Seaport in the 1980s was the handsome COLONIAL EXPLORER (seen here on June 17, 1986), a steamer-style U.S. flag coastal passenger vessel built in 1984 as the PILGRIM BELLE for Coastwise Cruise Lines. She later became the VICTORIAN EMPRESS for St. Lawrence Cruise Lines and now operates as the SPIRIT OF ’98 for Cruise West of Seattle.
N.B. Sadly the Seaport Line did not last and the boats were sold to new owners.