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For generations, crowds of tourists sailing the Maid of the Mist fleet under Niagara Falls have experienced the roar of cataracts, the splash of the river – and the fog of diesel fumes.
Scratch diesel fumes from future ships Maid of the Mist after the venerable travel agency announced Friday that it would launch the first fully electric passenger boats in North America in September. Although Maid of the Mist began shipping tourists on steamboats in 1846 and switched to diesels in 1955, this new generation will mark the first time that a zero-emission boat will sail in Lower Niagara.
[A Closer Look: The Maid of the Mist]
Maid of the Mist Corp. absorbs all costs, but Friday's announcement at the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center has nonetheless attracted a large number of government officials – including Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul and the Acting Commissioner of the Attorney General. parks, Erik Kulleseid – to establish a link between the Cuomo administration pushes for clean energy. The switch to electric power coincides with the state's desire to create a carbon-free environment by 2040.
"We are now ready for the future with this clean energy approach," said Hochul. "It makes sense, we are the guardians of our environment and the guardians of our future, even now."
The Glynn family of Niagara Falls has owned Maid of the Mist since 1971 and its president, Christopher M. Glynn, promised Friday to "drive smoothly and quietly" the 1.6 million tourists who board the boats every year. his company. He explained that the diesel boats Maid of the Mist VI and VII would be removed once the newcomers were completely assembled on the docks of the company, just downstream of the falls, and put in the water in September.
Catamaran style boats are nearing completion at Burger Boat Co. in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and it will run quietly with little or no vibration. Each will use a lithium-ion battery that takes seven minutes to recharge after each trip. Glynn explained that this was part of her family's commitment to the business that her father, James, had purchased as a ticket vendor in 1950.
The new vessels are the first all-electric, zero-emission ships built in the United States. They are powered by the technology developed by ABB, the European technology giant who developed the batteries distributed evenly between the two hulls of catamarans.
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