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After years of casting off its maritime past, the city is making an a-boat face.
A fleet of historic vessels will have a permanent home at Hudson River Park, under a plan to turn newly shipshape Pier 25 into a kind of South Street Seaport west.
The Hudson River Park Trust is seeking operators of historic ships, which can provide educational and recreational programs to visitors, according to a request for proposals released yesterday.
Three permanent berths and a fourth for visiting ships were built on the North Moore Street pier in TriBeCa, which also includes a skate park, volleyball court, children’s playground and miniature-golf course.
“The pier was designed specifically to accommodate historic vessels,” said Noreen Doyle, executive vice president of the trust.
“People will be able to play, relax and learn about how the waterfront was historically used,” she said.
All three berths could be filled as soon as this spring, Doyle said.
And under the trust’s long-term plans, additional historic ships would be moored at the still unrenovated piers 54 and 97.
While the RFP does not specify the type of programs the ships must offer, the documents suggest one “might make the classroom available for environmental or maritime educational programs,” while another “might function as a museum.”
The ships could also offer excursions onto the water to teach about the history of New York Harbor.
Many of these vessels have visited the park in recent years to offer tours, excursions and classes for school children, but under the trust’s plan they would not have a permanent home there.
Ideally, the ships would have direct connections to the city’s past, but the trust is open to proposals from operators of any historic vessel, Doyle said.
Unlike the South Street Seaport, which also features historic vessels, “at Pier 25, the maritime will not get lost in the mall,” said Betsy Frawley Haggerty, who as executive director of the North River Historic Society, has long advocated to bring the old ships back to the Hudson.
Although the trust would not say which historic vessels have already expressed interest, Haggerty said her organization is pushing several, including the 1907 Tugboat Pegasus, the steamer Lilac and the 1887 Tugboat New York Central No. 13.
“This would really bring maritime history back to the West Side, where it belongs,” she said.
Whatever programs the ships offer, the goal is not to turn the pier into a commercial operation, the trust said.