Ferryboat MV Yankee

Original use: Ferry

Current use: Community center & events location

Built: 1907, Neafie & Levi Ship Building, Philadelphia.

Dimensions: 135’ 6" x 29’ x 9’6".

Displacement:

Construction:

Speed: 15 knots

Original power:550 HP triple expansion steam engine.

Current power: 900 HP 12 cylinder GMC diesel engine (1948)

History: At the turn of the century coastal America was served by hundreds of small excursion vessels, transfer steamers and commuter boats. From this huge "mosquito fleet", Yankee is one of the few surviving examples. This historic vessel, now 94 years old and still sound has had a long and storied history. She has worked up and down the New England coast, carrying wealthy summer visitors to Maine's Casco Bay Islands and later, the immigrants to Ellis Island. She has served in both World Wars, in the First as an armed picket boat patrolling Massachusetts Bay and in the Second, as a troop carrier around Philadelphia. She was one of the earliest Statue of Liberty Ferries, a New York excursion boat, a Provincetown Boston Ferry and finally, for 40 years the beloved Block Island Ferry. For years the old boat was laid up and badly vandalized. In 1990 she was taken to New York City, not far from were she worked seventy years earlier, and the long restoration process begun.

Website:

Status: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Skipper:

Contact: 000 000 0000 or email