{"nrhp_refnum":"84002951","name":"M/V COMMANDER","other_names":["Commander"],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"Haverstraw Marina","address_restricted":false,"city":"West Haverstraw","county":"Rockland County","state":"NY","lat":41.23114446300008,"lon":-73.97512445799998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1984-09-27","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Transportation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A wooden 275-passenger excursion motor vessel, about sixty feet long, built in 1917 by the Beele Wallace Co. of Morehead City, North Carolina, and now moored at Haverstraw Marina in West Haverstraw, New York.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the vessel as a rare, intact, operating example of the small wooden passenger boats once common on eastern inland waterways. It shows the shift from heavy steam-era hull construction to lighter motor-powered craft. It also had a long record of ferry and excursion service, which the form believes may be the longest uninterrupted service by an excursion boat.","narrative":"Commander is a wooden excursion boat built in 1917 at Morehead City, North Carolina, for the Sheepshead Bay Boatlines of Brooklyn and Rockaway. It carries 275 passengers, measures roughly sixty feet by twenty-five feet, and has a heavy oak frame, pine planking and two canvas-covered decks. Soon after arriving in New York it served the U.S. Navy in the harbor, helping outfit submarine chasers and towing barrage balloons. From 1919 it ferried passengers between Sheepshead Bay and Far Rockaway for sixty-two years, a record believed to be the longest uninterrupted service by an excursion boat. Citizens in Highland Falls bought it in late 1981, restored it, and put it into service on the Hudson River. The boat was listed because it combines older steam-era hull construction with early gasoline and diesel propulsion, and because it appears to be the last of its type still operating. Its diesel engine was replaced with a more powerful one by 1957.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Beele Wallace Co., Morehead City, N.C.","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Restored and in operation as an excursion boat on the Hudson River; condition listed as excellent and largely unaltered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.845355-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/84002951.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002951/08e4365d2a-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/84002951/08e4365d2a-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Godsfriendchuck","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MV_Commander_July_2018.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Godsfriendchuck</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MV_Commander_July_2018.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75321464","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Commander","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6719408"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/rockland-county/m-v-commander-84002951/"}