Here are previous posts in this “whatzit” series, the most recent being components of The Vessel.
So what’s this craft below?
Well, back in September 2010, she was excursion vessel Commander running into the Hudson Highlands out of Haverstaw. She nearly made it to 100 years in various excursion assignments after being launched in North Carolina in 1917 as SP-1247.
I next saw her next to the marine railway in Greenport in May 2015, and then
she had quite the makeover on Staten Island and Brooklyn, converted into a floating marina building in front of Brooklyn Heights. Quite the second . . . or tenth life for this former naval vessel. I do hope to see inside later this year.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
6 comments
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March 11, 2018 at 12:52 pm
Jim Murray
What does it have for a power plant?
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March 11, 2018 at 4:15 pm
George Schneider
I’m very surprised at the connection to SP 1247. That would be a number the Navy assigned to vessels they took over from commercial service in WWI. I haven’t seen any reference to that particular number before, nor to any military service for COMMANDER. She first shows in the 1918 as a freight vessel homeported in New York, then soon her classification is changed to passenger.
As for her propulsion, she originally shows as having a 30 IHP gas engine.
By 1930 she has a 90 BHP Diesel. By 1981, she has a 165 HP Diesel.
I don’t know of any SP’s built specifically for the Navy, although some may have been under construction and saw their first service with the Navy. There are many guesses at what the initials SP mean, but what seems to fit best is “Special Procurement” because the numbers were assigned to everything from district boats to ocean liners obtained from commercial owners.
March 11, 2018 at 9:28 pm
Charles Ritchie
I believe she was a West Point Ferry for a number of years which would have made her a government ship. Personally, I wished someone would have taken it over as a working boat rather than what it has become.
March 12, 2018 at 1:18 pm
Lee Rust
Seems like an ignominious end for such an attractive little vessel, but all things must pass.
March 13, 2018 at 10:08 am
William Lafferty
Commander was built in 1917 at Morehead City, North Carolina, for P. H. Reid of Sheepshead Bay by the Beele-Wallace Company as an excursion boat.. It was almost immediately requisitioned by the Navy 17 September 1917 and designated SP 1247 (SP meaning “Section Patrol”), assigned to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Boatswain P. H. Reid, Jr., was its “commander,” so it stayed in the family in a manner of speaking. It carried stores to subchasers and towed barrage balloons around the harbor. It was decommissioned 5 February 1919 and returned to its owner, and spent the next sixty-two years running between Sheepshead Bay and Far Rockaway. In 1981 a group of Highland Falls citizens purchased it and invested $40,000 in refurbishing the Commander, and ran it for years as Hudson Highlands Cruises and Tours.
April 6, 2022 at 7:01 pm
Anonymous
I worked on the Commander in the mid-90s as deckhand and mate for hudson highlands cruises. i do love that old girl, even though we lovingly called her ‘A River Runs Through It’.