City Buys Mass. Ferry For Governors Island Route

A ferry that once carried passengers between Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard will soon begin making regular trips between Lower Manhattan and Governors Island, the city said yesterday.

The Governors Island Preservation and Economic Corporation bought the 50-year-old Islander for $500,000 in a competitive bidding process, an agency spokeswoman, Elizabeth Rapuano, said. The governing board of the Woods Hole, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamship Authority unanimously approved the bid, the Cape Cod Times reported.

"The Islander will provide us with needed back-up and supplemental ferry service to further our ongoing and long-term goal of improving and enhancing public access to Governors Island," Ms. Rapuano said in a statement.

The 770-passenger ferry will arrive in New York by the end of the summer but will require "major refurbishments" before it is ready for use, Ms. Rapuano said. The city will likely hold a bidding process for ferry service operators later this summer, though it is not immediately known when the boat will make its maiden voyage.

Plans are under way to develop Governors Island, situated about 800 yards off Manhattan's southern tip in the New York Harbor, as a new cultural and civic center for the city.