Problems Even Before a Ferryboat’s First Voyage

 

Its engine promptly failed, the steering mechanism went dead, and the vessel ran aground near Governors Island.

On Saturday, the Barberi again crashed on its approach to Staten Island, apparently because the system that slows the boat failed, causing the ferry to slam into a pier, injuring about three dozen passengers. Its hull cracked in two places, the Barberi was once more taken out of service.

The city’s Department of Transportation, which runs the ferry service, said early signs suggested a mechanical failure, and the transportation commissioner said Saturday’s crash was “a very different situation” from the 2003 disaster.

But accidents have punctuated the history of the 310-foot Barberi. An accident in 1995 involved a similar failure of its propulsion system, a sophisticated contraption that is considered expensive to maintain and was not installed on more recent ferries bought by the city, according to several officials and former employees familiar with the operations of the Staten Island Ferry.

The system, known as a Voith Schneider Propeller, is considered one of the most maneuverable in the maritime world. It resembles a circle of knives that hang straight down in the water. The blades rotate to create momentum and pivot individually to provide direction, essentially acting as their own rudder.

“It’s like an eggbeater,” said Theodore Costa, 85, a former pilot on the Barberi. The propeller is particularly agile, allowing for quick changes in direction. But three new ferries that began service in 2005 all carried a more conventional propeller.

“They are high-maintenance because there are a lot of moving parts,” said Steven Kalil, the president of Caddell Dry Dock and Repair, which performed the $9 million in repairs to the Barberi after the crash in 2003. Mr. Kalil’s company took apart and serviced the propeller as part of its repair work, though the bulk of the work focused on repairing the mangled steel hull and replacing seats and decks. Surveillance cameras and an improved public announcement system were also added, to conform to more stringent safety standards.

A plaque with the names of the victims of the 2003 accident was affixed to one of the Barberi’s bulkheads when the ship returned to service in 2004.

Some relatives of victims wanted the ferry renamed, but officials refused, citing the civic contributions of the boat’s namesake, Andrew J. Barberi, who was considered the greatest high school football coach in Staten Island’s history.

Mr. Barberi, who died in 1979 at age 64, was a star football player for Curtis High School, where he played a few blocks from St. George terminal, and at New York University. He returned to Curtis as the team’s coach, motivating players with a perennial cigar wedged between his teeth.

“They honored his name by putting it on a ferry, and now the name will go down in infamy because of the crashes,” said Anthony Bisignano, a lawyer who knew Mr. Barberi when he played on a rival school’s football team and who represented passengers suing the city after the 2003 crash.

Late Saturday, Mr. Barberi’s son, Bruce Barberi, a physical education teacher now living in Bennington, Neb., said: “Papa would be concerned about the ferry. He’d say, ‘If the boat has safety problems, get rid of it.’ ”

Mr. Koch announced in 1980 that the city planned to buy a new ferry to be named after Mr. Barberi. But the boat arrived two and a half years late, after failing early trials in the Gulf of Mexico.

With a capacity of 6,000 passengers, the Barberi is by far the biggest of the eight ferries that make the 25-minute, 5.2-mile run between Staten Island and Lower Manhattan.

Like the other ferries, the Barberi is inspected four times a year by the Coast Guard and undergoes a more extensive two-week examination once a year.

“On neither of those occasions did we find any reason not to certify the vessel as seaworthy and able to transport passengers,” said Charles Rowe, a Coast Guard spokesman.

Tara Canini, 33, whose father, Pio, was killed in the 2003 crash, said she tried to avoid the Barberi whenever she took the ferry. But when she does, said Ms. Canini, who lives on Staten Island, she sits near the plaque that bears her father’s name.

“Of course the crash today brings back memories,” Ms. Canini said Saturday. “We never wanted the boat to go back into service in the first place.”

Russ Buettner and Corey Kilgannon contributed reporting.