George Searle, a retired merchant mariner who bought the Staten Island ferryboat the Mary Murray at auction when she was decommissioned nearly three decades ago, died Tuesday at his home in East Brunswick, N.J.
Searle planned to turn it into a floating restaurant or possibly a museum, but his visions never panned out. Instead, the boat languished, her hull anchored in waters aptly referred to as No Name Creek, visible to motorists just north of the Exit 9 toll plazas of the New Jersey Turnpike.
The Mary Murray was once the leading lady of the Staten Island Ferry fleet. She made the 5.2 mile journey between St. George and Manhattan for 45 years. There were grand visions for her future even after she was retired in 1982.
It became something of magnet for thrill-seekers who would climb the marina's fences or paddle right up to the Mary Murray's decks at all hours, contributing to her destruction.
Over the years, the family installed new fences and often found themselves chasing voyeurs off their property.
His daughter, Georgann, once told the Advance in an article about the old boat, that her father had never intended it to suffer such a fate.
"It was his glory," she said. "It's hard for him to see it taken apart. It really wasn't hurting anyone. He always thought if he found the right person or found the right funds, he could have done something with it, made something of it."
Mary Murray was a Revolutionary War heroine who "distracted" British Gen. William Howe by wining and dining him at her Manhattan estate while troops marched to Harlem, bringing reinforcements and supplies to Gen. George Washington and his Continental Army.