The BroadsheetDAILY – 5/24/22 – Jet Ski Accident in Waters Off Battery Park City

The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

Waves of Woe

Jet Ski Accident Claims One Life, Injures Second Passenger, in Waters Off Battery Park City

A rescue diver emerges from the Hudson, after searching beneath the Brookfield Place ferry terminal for a missing water scooter passenger on Saturday evening.

A waterborne outing on the first summer-like weekend of the season ended in tragedy on Saturday evening in Battery Park City. A man and a woman (whose names have not been released by authorities) rented a two-seat water scooter (also known generically as a Jet Ski) in Hoboken and then crossed the Hudson River to the vicinity of North Cove Marina.

A few minutes after 7pm, at a location a few yards beyond the sea wall that divides the inlet from the Hudson, both passengers were ejected from the water scooter they were sharing, for reasons that remain unclear. One unconfirmed report indicated that they may have collided at high speed with a partially submerged object in the water. That noted, the website of the company that rented the water scooter to the couple confirms that their equipment is capable of speeds up to 60 miles per hour. At this velocity, even riding over an unexpected swell or the wake of another vessel could capsize such a water scooter.

The 22-year-old female remained conscious after entering the water, and was able to swim to the nearby Brookfield Place ferry terminal, where she used a ladder mounted on the side of the structure to climb out of the Hudson.

The 23-year-old male passenger appears to have lost conscious immediately after being ejected, although it is uncertain whether this was from the force of hitting the surface of the river, or from inhaling water. In either event, multiple eyewitness reports said his partially submerged form was seen being pulled under the ferry terminal by the swift current.

Within minutes, dozens of responders from the Harbor Units of the Police and Fire Departments were at the scene, along with a helicopter from the NYPD’s Aviation Unit. The FDNY also sent up a camera-equipped drone to sweep along the surface of the water. Multiple divers repeatedly swam beneath the ferry terminal, seeking to find the missing male passenger.

The lifeless form of the unidentified male is prepared for transport, after he was found floating near Albany Street, and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

An ambulance evacuated the woman to New York-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital, where she was deemed to be in stable condition. In the meantime, the search continued for her companion. As darkness descended, more than an hour after the initial incident, divers ascertained that the male passenger was not trapped beneath the ferry terminal, but they despaired of finding him alive.

As the Fire Department crews packed up and prepared to depart, a member of one rescue unit remarked that, “in 90 percent of these calls, we don’t find the missing person at the scene. They are usually discovered a few days later, floating somewhere nearby.”

This prediction proved more accurate in its second forecast than its first. Around 90 minutes after the search was called off, two NYPD Harbor Unit vessels returned to North Cove Marina, and multiple ambulances once again coverged on the Esplanade surrounding the yacht basin. Police boats patrolling nearby had found the man floating in the Hudson, near Albany Street. He was unresponsive. Emergency medical technicians from the ambulances tried for almost an hour to resuscitate him, but their efforts were unsuccessful. The official cause of death has yet been announced.

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, more than 40 people die from injuries and accidents related to water scooters in an average year, with several hundred more suffering serious injuries.

Matthew Fenton

‘A Bold, Progressive, And Unapologetic Voice For Our Communities’

Yuh-Line Niou Announces Candidacy for Newly Created Lower Manhattan Congressional District

In the wake of a decision about Congressional district lines announced last week by the court-appointed Special Master charged with drawing new, less partisan boundaries, State Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou has announced her candidacy to represent Lower Manhattan in the United States House of Representatives. Ms. Niou is seeking to represent in Washington the newly created Tenth Congressional District, which includes Lower Manhattan (roughly below 14th Street) and parts of Kings County, stretching from Downtown Brooklyn, south to Sunset Park.

Letter

To the editor,

[Re: ‘A Bold, Progressive, and Unapologetic Voice for Our Communities,’ May 23, 2022]

Her twitter was hateful to the NYPD, and she backed the rioters and looters who ripped downtown apart. And we are still living in the aftermath.

Hard no.

peakrate212

Back to the Store of the Future

Renowned Discounter Announces Return to Storied Temple of Commerce

The family behind the iconic shopping brand, Century 21, has announced that the Platonic ideal of off-priced luxury retail will return to its longtime sanctuary at 25 Church Street (between Cortland and Dey Streets) in the spring of next year.

The Aliment of Surprise

Trinity Church Responds to Rising Local Hunger with Compassion Meals Program

Trinity Church has resurrected its Compassion Meals program, which provides breakfast, lunch, and dinner to those in need, on a rotating schedule, six days per week.

CALENDAR

Tuesday, May 24

10:30am-11:30am

6 River Terrace

Join in on the fun featuring easy-to-follow Latin dance choreography while working on your balance, coordination and range of motion. Free.

3:30pm-5pm

Rockefeller Park

Play the popular strategy game while getting pointers and advice from an expert. For ages 5 and up (adults welcome).

6pm

Livestreamed

Monthly meeting at which members of the public speak, elected officials give updates, and the CB1 Chairperson and all committee chairs give reports.

Wednesday, May 25

8am

Meet at the intersection of Broadway, Battery Place, and State Street

Join experienced birding guide Gabriel Willow on a walk through The Battery to observe the diversity of migrating birds that visit the park.

10am

Launch of the South Street Seaport Museum Summer Sailing Season

Pier 16

The South Street Seaport Museum kicks off the sailing season for the historic schooner Pioneer and tug W.O. Decker with the ceremonial ringing of the lightship Ambrose bell by NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Laurie Cumbo, followed by remarks from VIPs and then the first public sail of the year.

10am-12pm

Rector Park East

Observe and sketch the human figure. Each week a model will strike short and long poses for participants to draw. An artist/educator will offer constructive suggestions and critique. Drawing materials provided. Free.

12:30pm

Livestreamed

12:30pm – Meeting of the Board’s Investment Committee

2pm – Meeting of the Members of the Authority

Anyone wishing to participate in the public comment period should submit their comments via email to boardcomment@bpca.ny.gov by no later than 5:30pm on the day prior to the meeting.

2pm-4pm

Wagner Park

Draw in BPC’s verdant gardens. An artist/ educator will provide ideas and instruction. Materials provided. Free.

6pm-7pm

Rockefeller Park House

Strengthen the body and cultivate awareness in a relaxed environment as your instructor guides you through alignments and poses. All levels are welcome. Bring your own mat. Free.

7pm

Museum of Jewish Heritage

First concert in a series of two evening concerts. The concerts will feature ten short musical pieces arranged by Polish political prisoners who were members of the men’s orchestra in the Auschwitz I camp. Using popular German hits of the 1930s and 40s, they arranged and orchestrated these tangos, waltzes, and foxtrots for a dance band that played Sunday concerts for the Auschwitz garrison near the camp commandant’s villa. The musical pieces were recently rediscovered in the archives of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland. Led by conductor Oriol Sans, a University of Michigan student orchestra will perform the original musical pieces interspersed with lines, spoken by the singers, from testimonies and interviews with members of the Auschwitz I men’s orchestra after the war. Silent for more than seventy years, the voices and stirring melodies of those imprisoned at Auschwitz will be brought to life in the Museum’s Edmond J. Safra Hall. Free; suggested $10 donation.

7pm

In person at Trinity Church or online

On the eve of Ascension Day, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra perform an all-Bach concert conducted by Avi Stein. Exploring the full emotional range of the human experience, from anguish to elation and from despair to hope, Ascendit presents Bach’s Ascension Oratorio, Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, and motet Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied. Free.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8am-3pm (compost program: Saturdays, 8am-1pm)

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Broadway & Whitehall St

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8am-5pm (compost program: 8am-11am)

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South Street, between Fulton & John Streets

Indoor market: Monday through Saturday,11:30am-5pm

CSA pick-up: Thursday, 4pm-6pm; Friday, 11:30-5pm

Outdoor market: Saturday 11:30am-5pm, May through Thanksgiving

Today in History

May 24

Currier & Ives lithograph of the Brooklyn Bridge, which opened on this day in 1883.

1626 – Peter Minuit buys Manhattan.

1686 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Dutch-German-Polish physicist who invented the thermometer and the Fahrenheit scale (d. 1736)

1689 – English Parliament guarantees freedom of religion for Protestants

1775 – John Hancock is elected President of the Continental Congress

1830 – “Mary Had a Little Lamb” by Sarah Josepha Hale is published.

1844 – Samuel Morse sends the message “What hath God wrought” (Biblical quotation) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail in Baltimore, Maryland, to inaugurate the first telegraph line.

1883 – The Brooklyn Bridge is opened after 14 years of construction.

1940 – Igor Sikorsky performs the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1940 – First night game at St Louis Sportsman Park (Indians 3, Browns 2)

1958 – United Press International is formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1961 – Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, for “disturbing the peace” after disembarking from their bus.

1976 – London to Washington, DC, Concorde service begins.

1994 – Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in 1993 are each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

1999 – The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands, indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

2001 – Temba Tsheri, a 16-year-old Sherpa, becomes the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

Births

1686 – Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, Dutch-German-Polish physicist who invented the thermometer and the Fahrenheit scale (d. 1736)

1819 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)

1928 – William Trevor, Irish writer (d. 2016)

1940 – Joseph Brodsky, Russian-American poet and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1996)

1941 – Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter

1955 – Rosanne Cash, American country singer

1963 – Michael Chabon, American novelist

Deaths

1543 – Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician and astronomer (b. 1473)

1959 – John Foster Dulles, 52nd United States Secretary of State (b. 1888)

1974 – Duke Ellington, jazz musician, composer and bandleader (b. 1899)

1981 – Herbert Müller, Swiss race car driver (b. 1940)

1995 – Harold Wilson, British Prime Minister (b. 1916)

1996 – Joseph Mitchell, American journalist and author (b. 1908)

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