Whoopi Goldberg is the proud godmother of Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises’ newest vessel, the Manhattan, which is the first of three new boats the iconic tour company is building for New York City in the next year.
“If you didn’t know that there was a big ocean out there, the Circle Line was what you had, and for me, for all of my youth, for all of my youth, the Circle Line meant that summertime was here. It meant that my mom would not have to sweat where she was going to take my brother and I because we knew that we were going on the boat. That was our boat. We saw people on television, people had yachts and things. We had the Circle Line. That was ours. That belonged to us, and other peple like us,” Goldberg said at Wednesday’s naming ceremony at Pier 81 on the East River. “This city is in my blood. Circle Line is in my blood.”
Watch the video of Goldberg talking about what Circle Line boats meant to her as a kid growing up in Manhattan (at 26th and 10th):
It’s the first time the 63-year old company has gotten a “new” vessel. Most of its fleet were built to transport U.S. troops to enemy beaches during World War II. The $5 million Manhattan, which is designed to look like the old boats on the outside, has several new features on the inside.
For one, it’s bigger: the new 165-foot boat can fit 600 people, the ceilings are a few inches higher and the boat itself is 34-feet wider. And while it’s slightly taller, it had to stay below the 24-foot clearance of the lowest bridge around Manhattan, the Broadway Bridge on the Harlem River.
The all-steel Manhattan has air conditioning, bigger windows, almost double the outside deck space, and a downstairs space entirely free of stanchions, which was a “real pain in the neck” to design, according to naval architect Andy Lebet. (See the DeJong and Lebet website for pictures of the Manhattan’s construction.)
The next new boats will be called the Brooklyn and the Queens. They’re expected to arrive in the spring.
With the three new vessels coming into service, that means others will be retiring. The plan is to convert Circle Line VIII into a floating dock in 2009. Circle Line XI (pictured, above) will be retiring later this year, and the company is in talks to find a home for her - possibly at the Hudson Maritime Museum or as a Coast Guard training vessel.
In her remarks at Wednesday’s ceremony, NYC City Council Speaker Christine Quinn noting that it’s only been in recent years that New York’s waterfront has been getting cleaned up with the addition of parks and public access. “For a long time, Circle Line was really the only thing on the river,” she said. ‘New York’s a river city and for a long time we turned our back on that. And Circle Line never did.”
The Manhattan next week will go into the regular rotation with the other vessels, so the only way to make sure you get on the new boat is to ask for that day’s schedule before buying your tickets.
Circle Line called Wednesday’s debut its “first new vessel in its 63 year history,” but that point does warrant some clarification. While all of Circle Line’s primary tour boats are converted WW II ships, its Beast, a 70-foot speedboat was custom-made in 1998. NewYorkology doesn’t pretend to be a master of nautical terminology, so we’ll defer to the Circle Line spokesman on this: The Beast, a speedboat, isn’t big enough to be classified as a “vessel.”
Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, or Circle Line 42, or Circle Line Uptown, is a completely different company than Circle Line Downtown. Neither operate the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island ferry; since January 1, 2008, that’s been Statue Cruises’ run.
Two great facts from Circle Line’s history timeline:
1895: The opening of the Harlem Ship Canal makes circumnavigation of Manhattan Island possible.
1908: A steamer named the Tourist piloted and owned by Captain John Roberts, offers a sightseeing cruise around Manhattan.
