T&T: 20 Year-Old Ferry Captain Heroine

[Ron Rogers]

At the Weehawken terminal the day after, ferry service was back to normal,
but New Jersey
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/national/usstatesterritoriesandpossessio
ns/newjersey/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>  dignitaries like Gov. Jon S.
Corzine
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/jon_s_corzine/
index.html?inline=nyt-per>  and Senator Frank R. Lautenberg
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/frank_r_lauten
berg/index.html?inline=nyt-per>  were on hand to congratulate the workers
involved in the evacuation. Straight out of central casting was the
20-year-old ferry captain Brittany Catanzaro, less than two years out of
Cliffside Park High School, whose ferry was the second to arrive at the
plane.

 

"It looked like a little kid had picked up a plane and put it in a bathtub,"
she said. "You couldn't believe it was floating there. I kept thinking it's
going to sink, so I wanted to get there as quick as I could."

It didn't, and she did, playing her part in an episode in which, contrary to
the customary script these days, everything somehow went right.

 

"First of all, you had a movie script that no one would have believed," said
John Woloshyn, the general manager of Arthur's Landing, "and then you had
such a quick response from people who just naturally went into save mode -
you see someone in distress, you don't think; you just go.

"It's not often you see something where everything works out so well," he
added. "And it's a combination as well with what's been going on with the
economy, people feeling very apprehensive about a lot of things in their
lives. And to have something like this happen, to see human beings
performing at their best, it's really kind of rejuvenating."

 

Isn't it exceptional for a 20 year-old to get a USCG Captain's ticket to
carry passengers for hire? I saw her on TV and she appeared short next to
all the burly men on the pier. BUT, she's the one who jockeyed her twin
engines to keep her ferry perpendicular to the wing while drifting sideways!

 

Ron Rogers