How New Bedford’s Beloved Ferry Schamonchi Looks Today

With the recent arrival of commuter rail service in New Bedford, some are looking at it as the future of transportation on the SouthCoast, while those old enough to remember when the region had rail service nearly 70 years ago consider it something more nostalgic.

While these days, high-speed is all the rage, there once was a time when those visiting Martha’s Vineyard were more than happy to take the slow-sailing Schamonchi ferry from New Bedford.

While the current Seastreak ferry can get you to the island in about an hour, the Schamonchi took 90 minutes (and sometimes longer) while advertising it as a “leisurely” and “scenic” trip to Martha’s Vineyard.

It was also used for harbor cruises around New Bedford, and could be privately chartered.

The Beginning and the End of the Schamonchi

The 450-passenger Schamonchi was built in East Boothbay, Maine in 1978 and sailed from New Bedford Harbor until 2003, when the Steamship Authority (which had taken over operations of the ferry and the route in 2001) shut it down due to significant financial loss.

After more than 20 years of ferry service, she had a good run, but her time on the New Bedford-Martha's Vineyard route had come to an abrupt end.

It was sold to a New York company and eventually ended up in a creek between Brooklyn and Queens, where it still rests today.

As we previously reported, the former ferry was turned into a party boat, and then later became an artist colony/crash pad for those who used it as a shelter. Some lived on the boat for years at a time. Eventually, the New York Fire Department forced them all to vacate the Schamonchi, and now it sits in Newtown Creek, abandoned and forgotten while slowly sinking below the surface some 200 miles away from the SouthCoast waters it once called home.

READ MORE: A Sad Ending for the New Bedford-Vineyard Ferry Schamonchi

What the Schamonchi Looks Like Today

About a month ago, Matt Dolitsky of the YouTube channel Two Feet Outdoors kayaked his way down Newtown Creek to the site of the Schamonchi, even boarding the ferry to see what remained of its storied past. He also explored some “outlaw houseboats” in the area.

“This area is home to a unique community of urban dwellers that have chosen an alternative way of life on the water,” he wrote on his YouTube channel. “This was a bit of a sketchy adventure, but I am grateful I was able to get a glimpse into a unique part of NYC.”

Take a look at what the Schamonchi looks like today as Dolitsky made his way toward the ship:

Fun Fact No. 1: The Schamonchi Still Has a Connection to Home

The Schamonchi now rests a couple of miles from a bridge that crosses Newtown Creek. That would be the Pulaski Bridge, named for the same Revolutionary War hero, Casimir Pulaski, as the elementary school in the Schamonchi’s former home of New Bedford.

READ MORE: New Bedford's Pulaski School Was Named for a Revolutionary War Hero

Fun Fact No. 2: What Schamonchi Actually Means

Many might think, given the ferry’s origins here on the SouthCoast, that schamonchi might be a Native American word, likely from the Wampanoag language.

However, the word is Gaelic, and it means “spirit in the sea.”

Considering what remains of New Bedford’s much-beloved ferry is now more of a ghost than anything else, the name is more fitting than ever.