Ferries

CHAPTER 1 / Mary Lee's Vision She hopes the ferry won't come, but if it does, she'll climb aboard. She'll tremble as she steps off the landing because she can't swim, and she can't forget the many times she's crossed this ugly brown river only to meet more ugliness on the other side. But fear has never beaten Mary Lee Bendolph, and no river can stop her.

Pam Ferris , who plays the cantankerous nun Sister Evangelina on PBS ' “Call the Midwife,” is deep in conversation about her admiration for Anglican sisters (portrayed on the series) during a recent trip to Los Angeles - “they're not judgmental” and “there's no condemnation" and "when they sing together it's so uplifting. " Then things get serious. “Oh, but I hate the wimple!" she said, referring to the garment worn around the neck and chin. "It's such a constraint.

Two commuter ferries collided in the fog of Boston Harbor, but there were no reports of serious injuries and both boats remained afloat, a Coast Guard spokesman said. The ferry Massachusetts, inbound from Hingham with 151 passengers and three crew members, collided with the ferry Laura, which had only four crew members on board, Petty Officer Zach Zubricki said.

Ferris wheels are totally old-school fun, but they're becoming the latest pop-up landmarks worldwide. Travel + Leisure magazine 's March issue names Pacific Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier among the coolest in the world for the ride that debuted in the 19th century. Here's why we should cherish our local spinner: It's the only solar-powered Ferris wheel on the planet, which makes it a pretty clean ride for those concerned about their carbon footprint, and at night it's illuminated with 160,000 energy-saving LED lights.

Federal authorities believe Washington state's ferry system has been under surveillance and could be a possible target for a terrorist attack, the Seattle Times reported Sunday. An FBI assessment determined that 19 suspicious incidents reported by law enforcement officers, ferry workers and passengers since the Sept. 11 attacks were highly likely or extremely likely to involve terrorist surveillance, the Times reported. "We may well be the target of preoperational terrorist planning," said U.S.

The British government announced Monday that it will launch a thorough inquiry into the sinking of the ferry that capsized here Friday night with the apparent loss of 134 lives. Transport Minister John Moore said all such ferries will be thoroughly checked and that orders will be issued forbidding ships to leave port with their bow doors open.

The Staten Island ferry that crashed into a pier, killing 10 passengers, was traveling at "full throttle" when it hit the structure, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday. "It neither sped up or slowed down at the time of the accident," Ellen Engleman, chairwoman of the federal panel, announced at a briefing. She also said the vessel's pilot had tested negative for alcohol and illegal drugs.

Brandishing a grenade and firing assault rifles into the night air, half a dozen hooded pirates attacked a ferry returning from the Caribbean resort isle of Cozumel. They robbed passengers of money and valuables, threw two security guards overboard and beat a crew member Monday night before speeding off in another boat, local officials said. The official news agency Notimex said the pirates made off with bags of money from an armored car that was on board.

A ferry carrying about 150 people sank Sunday night in a river near Dhaka, and only about 50 passengers were reported to have swum to shore, police said.

A bottle has been found on a beach in Belgium with a message inside that police think might have been written by victims of the Zeebrugge ferry disaster moments before their death. An estimated 134 people died in the disaster on March 6 when the British Channel ferry, Herald of Free Enterprise, suddenly keeled off just after leaving the harbor for Dover, England.

PORT MacKENZIE, Alaska - The late Sen. Ted Stevens is perhaps best remembered for the millions of dollars in federal booty he steered toward Alaska during his reign as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. One of the Republican senator's more notable legacies was the construction of a $78-million amphibious assault vessel for the Navy - a military prototype that he diverted to his home state as a ferry to haul commuters from the rapidly growing suburbs north of Anchorage to jobs downtown.

Almost on impulse, almost 35 years ago, Richard M. Walden and a friend rounded up six tons of relief supplies and a jet to ferry them to Vietnamese boat people in Malaysia. Thus was Operation California - now Operation USA - born. A Times headline soon called him the "charity buccaneer," a red-tape-slashing contrarian who fretted about the "international web of neglect," and who still has sharp words for relief efforts unmet and relief agencies that don't measure up. He has steadfast celebrity supporters, like Julie Andrews, but the advent of social media that let anyone text a few bucks to Lady Gaga's favorite charity in the middle of a concert has made things harder for brick-and-mortar charities like Operation USA. Walden soldiers on, boldly going where too many charity-come-latelies can only try to go. You began in 1979 as Operation California; now it's Operation USA. Our legal name is Operation California.

WASHINGTON -- After a weeklong delay while the Obama administration debated whether to assist French forces fighting in Mali, the Pentagon is planning to begin ferrying additional French troops and equipment to the West African nation in coming days aboard U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo jets, according to Air Force Maj. Robert Firman. But the Obama administration has so far balked at a French request to provide tanker aircraft for in-air refueling of French fighters, because the administration does not want to get directly involved in supporting combat operations.

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is preparing to ferry hundreds of additional French troops to the North African country of Mali, bolstering a rapidly evolving military campaign in the latest conflict with Al Qaeda affiliates. U.S. officials said they also were making plans to send drones or other surveillance aircraft and provide help with aerial refueling of French fighter jets, which bombed columns of Al Qaeda-allied militants in northern Mali for a fourth straight day Monday.

NEW YORK -- The captain of a commuter ferry that slammed into a Manhattan dock, leaving two passengers with critical head injuries, told investigators Thursday that the controls that are supposed to slow the boat failed as it approached the pier. The 36-year-old captain described a harrowing few seconds before the impact at Pier 11 on Wednesday, as the Seastreak Wall Street arrived in Lower Manhattan after leaving New Jersey about 45 minutes earlier.  It carried 326 passengers and five crew members, and National Transportation Safety Board investigators interviewed all the crew Thursday.

NEW YORK -- A commuter ferry hit a dock while arriving in lower Manhattan on Wednesday, and several people were injured and carried away on stretchers. The extent of the injuries was not immediately clear, but the ferry, the Seastreak Wall Street, had a large gash on its front right side, close to where passengers would have gathered to disembark. Some of the passengers were sitting upright on the dock where emergency workers had gathered, with bandages on their heads. Other passengers were strapped to stretchers and taken off the dock.

He went looking for his daughter and found bodies stacked in garbage bags. A man told him she was in bag No. 123. She wasn't. She has never been found, and that is the hardest thing, to wonder where the sea took her. In the predawn hours of Feb. 3, 2006, the ferry carrying Tareq Sharaf's family caught fire and capsized in high winds on the Red Sea between Egypt and Saudi Arabia. His wife and four of his children, along with 1,029 other passengers, drowned or died in the blaze.

A new downtown ballpark has inspired a new mode of transportation. San Diego Harbor Excursions will shuttle Padres fans across San Diego Bay from Coronado and Shelter Island to Petco Park on a water taxi. The round-trip service will run during home games and will cost $10.

NEW YORK -- A commuter ferry involved in a crash Wednesday in Lower Manhattan that left 57 people injured, two of them critically, underwent significant renovations last summer that replaced its high-speed four-engine system with a propeller system that left it lighter and more fuel efficient. The changes to the Seastreak Wall Street, a 140.7-foot-long catamaran with three decks, were detailed in the online shipping magazine Marinelog in an August 2012 report , which explained how the engines had been swapped out for propellers by a Louisiana-based company.

NEW YORK -- At least 57 people were injured, two critically, when a commuter ferry smashed into a dock in lower Manhattan's financial district on Wednesday, officials said.    Investigators from the Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board were expected to arrive at Pier 11 to begin investigating the ferry accident involving the Seastreak Wall Street, part of the fleet operated by Seastreak. The New Jersey-based company operates daily ferry service between Manhattan and New Jersey.