On Friday, June 26, 2020, Eastern Shipbuilding Group launched the Sandy Ground, the second of three new 4,500-passenger ferries for New York City’s Staten Island Ferry system. The Ollis Class ferries will be double-ended, with an overall length of 320 feet, beam of 70 feet, and draft of 13 feet at the design load at the waterline. The launch took place at Eastern’s Allanton facility in Panama City, Fla.
Designed by Elliott Bay Design Group, Seattle, WA, the three ferries will carry only passengers on the 5.2 mile route between the St. George Terminal on the north shore of Staten Island and Whitehall Terminal in lower Manhattan. Each of the ferries will be fitted with four diesel engines that will drive two Voith Schneider Propellers.
With over 25 million riders per year, the Staten Island ferry service is the single busiest ferry route in the United States. The new Ollis Class ferries will replace the MV Andrew J. Barberi , the MV Samuel I. Newhouse and the 54-year-old John F. Kennedy.
The first ferry, launched in November 2019, was named for the decorated staff sergeant Michael H. Ollis, from Staten Island, who died in Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom. Sandy Ground, the second ferry of the class, is named after the oldest continuously inhabited free Black settlement in the United States, on Staten Island’s South Shore. Founded in the early 19th Century, Sandy Ground arose from a settlement of free Blacks from New York, Maryland, and Delaware. By harvesting oysters and farming, this fledgling community was able to thrive and became a safe haven on the Underground Railroad.
Here is a song by Bob Wright and Harbortown Revue about oystering from Sandy Ground.