Ferry accidents are common enough throughout the world that the Times website has a Times Topics page devoted to them. And they're not unheard of here at home. This morning, more than 50 people were injured in Lower Manhattan when a Sea Streak ferry from New Jersey crashed as it was docking into a loading barge at Pier 11, the Times reports. Here's a history of other New York-area ferry accidents over the last 150 years. [photo]

In January 2011, a New York Waterway ferry from Edgewater began billowing smoke after leaving the dock; its engines had overheated though not caught fire. It dropped anchor 100 yards out, and another ferry came and picked up the passengers. The smoky ferry was one that helped transport passengers from Captain Sully's landing in the Hudson River.

In May 2010, 48 people suffered minor injuries when a Staten Island Ferry lost its brake power as it approached the St. George Terminal. It was the same boat that had been involved in the infamous incident of October 2003, in which the Staten Island crashed into a pier at the St. George Terminal, injuring dozens and killing 10, after the pilot blacked out at the controls. That was the worst mass transit disaster in modern New York history. In similar incidents: in July 1998, the Staten Island Ferry slammed into a pier at the Whitehall Street Terminal, injuring 10; in February 1996, 18 people were hospitalized after the Staten Island Ferry smashed into pilings as it docked into St. George Terminal. The cause was heavy fog. [photo]

In January 2001, a ferry traveling to Highlands from Manhattan ran aground in icy water outside Sandy Hook; 257 people were stranded for more than five hours, until a tugboat and rising tides dislodged it sometime after midnight, making it among the worst commutes in modern history. [photo]

In September 1997, a woman drove her car off the Staten Island Ferry while it was still 50 feet from dock, knocking a deckhand overboard as her car plunged into Upper New York Bay. Both survived. The Times headline: "Long Drive Off Short Ferry Puts Commuter in the Bay."

In June 1987, two ferryboats collided off Sandy Hook as they took commuters to New Jersey from Manhattan. It was foggy, but because of radar and radio contact it was unlikely they should have hit each other. More than two dozen people were injured. Similarly, in April 1986, the Staten Island Ferry almost collided with a Greek freighter ship in a dense fog, but both were able to reverse their engines in time. [photo]

In October 1985, "experimental" ferry service between Brooklyn and Manhattan was suspended before the trial was over because the Seaport Line ferry hit debris in the East River and damaged its propeller. [photo]

In February 1983, a passenger on a Circle Line ferry to Liberty Island fell overboard and drowned. In 2004, Spalding Gray is believed to have committed suicide by jumping off the Staten Island Ferry. But it's not only falling off the boat that presents a danger: in July 1977, "an elderly bootblack" drowned; losing his eyesight from diabetes, he "was rushing to meet his son... on a departing ferry when he went to the edge of the wrong slip and plunged into the cold waters... a deckhand tried to help... by looping a pole hook through his belt, but the belt snapped and [he] was washed into the wake of the... ferry on which his 55-year-old son had been riding."

In February 1924, a ferry coming form Perth Amboy to Tottenville crashed into a three-masted barge. "The passengers were thrown heavily against the rails and to the deck. With the screams of the women and the few who were injured at all seriously the ferry passengers were thrown into a panic and there was a rush for the nearest exits." The crew were finally able to calm the hysterical passengers. Three were seriously injured and taken to hospitals. [photo]

In October 1915, fog caused a ferry on its way to Manhattan from Hoboken to stray from its course and crash into a dock on Barrow Street, a block away from the Christopher Street slip it was looking for. Five people were "injured gravely, and at fewest fifty more suffered broken bones or contusions. Most of those badly injured were thrown under the feet of horses that reared and plunged in the driveway. Others were trampled by fellow passengers, who became hysterical and fought to save themselves."

In 1904, an "excursion steamboat," the General Slocum, caught fire in the East River and 1,021 people—"mostly women and children on a Sunday-school picnic"—were killed just 50 yards from shore. [photo]

Dense fog in the 19th century caused innumerable ferry accidents, especially as the waterways were more active then. The worst seems to have been in October 1854, when such a heavy fog fell over New York that "the ferry-boats had difficulty in making their trips, on both rivers, and we hear of several collisions which occurred between vessels in the streams." The Times article is pretty hilarious; the ferries were apparently playing bumper cars that day! It wasn't unusual though: in December 1873, heavy fog caused two ferry collisions, neither serious. In April 1870, a ferry traveling from Williamsburg to Manhattan collided with a schooner. No one was hurt, but "the roof and side of the ladies' cabin of the ferry-boat were smashed in for a considerable distance." In December 1865, a ferry boat coming from Brooklyn to Manhattan collided with a steamer headed up the East River in a dense fog. No one was hurt or killed. And in December 1853, a ferryboat on its way from Montague Street to Wall Street collided with an anchored schooner in dense fog. The ferry pilot had told the schooner "he should trip his anchor and pass up on the tide out of the way. The mate refused, insisting that he had as good a right to lie there as the ferry-boats had to run. On the next trip of the ferry-boat the collision took place." [photo]

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