Heave Away Santy Ano: Staten Island Ferry History

An old ferry history slide show that I just refitted with lyrics calling for the Yankees not to trade their rookie pitchers for Francisco Liriano

From Boston Town we're bound away,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
Around Cape Horn to Frisco Bay,
We're bound for Californi-o.
So Heave her up and away we'll go,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
Heave her up and away we'll go,
We're bound for Californi-o.

She's a fast clipper ship and a bully crew,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
A down-east Yankee for her captain, too.
We're bound for Californi-o.
So Heave her up and away we'll go,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
Heave her up and away we'll go,
We're bound for Californi-o.

Back in the days of Forty-nine,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
Those were the days of the good old times,
Way out in Californi-o.
So Heave her up and away we'll go,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
Heave her up and away we'll go,
We're bound for Californi-o.

When I leave ship I'll settle down
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano
I'll marry a girl named Sally Brown
Way out in Californi-o
So Heave her up and away we'll go,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
Heave her up and away we'll go,
We're bound for Californi-o.

There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
Plenty of gold so I've been told
Way out in Californi-o
So Heave her up and away we'll go,
Heave aweigh (Heave aweigh!) Santy Ano.
Heave her up and away we'll go,
We're bound for Californi-o.

Staten Island Ferry: 1900

from shorpy
comments from shorpy viewers

The Cincinnati has the round pilothouses (aka wheelhouses) typical of New York harbor ferries during the era, while ferries on the West Coast had square pilothouses like on the ferry Berkeley.
The great picture of the "Cincinnati" on the North River in 1900 reminds me of the Ramsdell ferries "Newburgh", "Beacon", "Orange" and "Dutchess" that plied the Hudson between Newburgh and Beacon NY up until 1963 when the I-84 bridge first breached the waters. Two of the above had two decks, and the other two, just a single deck. I can never remember which had what.
This is an interesting view of a ferry showing very little change in shape or function for well over 100 years. I've used many auto ferries over the years and never considered that they were earlier used to move horse-drawn wagons long before the advent of cars.
Citizen Kane, Illustrated
Mr. Bernstein:
One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on a ferry and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it, there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on -- and she was carrying a white parasol -- and I only saw her for one second and she didn't see me at all -- but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl.