New York State’s First Electric Ferry Launches for Governors Island
Just in time to mark the 20th anniversary of Governors Island opening to the public in 2005, a new hybrid-electric ferry, the Harbor Charger, is taking passengers from the historic Battery Maritime Building in Lower Manhattan to Soissons Landing.
Clare Newman, president of the Trust for Governors Island, said, “the Harbor Charger joining our fleet of passenger ferries is a momentous day for the Trust,” calling the vessel “a cleaner, greener mode of transportation to the island for the nearly one million individuals that travel here each year.”
Community Board 1 chair Tammy Meltzer noted that the vessel “not only speeds people to the island faster, but also reduces emissions and offers a quieter, cleaner ride with this next-generation sustainable ferry design.”
Launched in mid-August, the $33-million vessel, which is the first hybrid-electric public ferry anywhere in New York State and a model for sustainable maritime transportation, was built at Conrad Shipyard in Morgan City, Louisiana, where it was fashioned from 465 tons of steel (roughly equivalent to 11 subway cars). Originally slated for delivery last summer, it was not completed until earlier this year, at which point the Harbor Charger began the two-week journey northwards along the eastern seaboard, arriving in New York in March, where it began testing and certification runs, and secured the regulatory approvals required before taking on passengers.
Able to travel at speeds of ten to 12 knots (66 percent faster than older Governors Island ferries), the Harbor Charger can carry up to 1,200 passengers and 30 vehicles. It will replace the diesel-powered Lt. Samuel S. Coursen – the Trust’s current vehicle and passenger ferry (named for a Medal of Honor winner who died in the Korean War), which was commissioned by the U.S. Army in 1956 and has been in continuous service ever since.
The Harbor Charger is equipped with a hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system and 122 lithium-ion batteries, which can provide for all the vessel’s power needs for between two and three hours. For the time being, the Harbor Charger will operate primarily in battery-assisted hybrid mode with diesel backup, which is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 600 tons annually. But the next phase of the plan is to install rapid-charging facilities (currently in the design phase) at the Soissons Landing dock. This will allow the boat to run almost entirely on electric power, using the diesel motors only as a backup system, and save an additional 800 tons of annual carbon emissions.
The new ferry was christened following a City-wide naming competition that drew more than 800 submissions from wannabe nomenclators across the five boroughs. The winning suggestion was submitted by David Kurnov of Brooklyn. After City Hall and the Trust announced this contest in April 2023, there was some fear it might spark a reprise of a controversial 2016 crowdsourced prank in which the British public were invited to vote on the name of a new oceanographic research vessel. By an overwhelming majority, respondents demanded that the ship be christened “Boaty McBoatface.” (This was apparently inspired by “Hooty McOwlface,” the name given to the mascot of an online Adopt-A-Bird drive several years earlier.) In the event, Britain’s science minister chose to defy popular opinion and name the new boat after the acclaimed naturalist, Sir David Attenborough. This immediately triggered a second online campaign, which sought to persuade Mr. Attenborough to change his name legally to Boaty McBoatface. That crusade was no more successful than its predecessor. The Broadsheet’s suggestion for the new Governors Island vessel, “Ferry McFerryface,” appears to have sunk without a trace.