Reading about the ferry plowing into Manhattan’s Pier 11 in January 2013 reminded me of another ferry disaster in New York in the late 19th century.  The recent crash which left many injured was horrible but far from the worst ferry disaster in New York.  Several years ago, I was researching a particular family in New York and noticed an oddity.   The family had many children, but when I looked at their family records, it appeared as if there were two daughters with the same names and two sons with the same names.  I found this very curious and wanted to understand what the information meant.  I was shocked when I got to the bottom of it.  On July 30, 1871, this family ws aboard an ill-fated ferry which left the South Ferry Terminal in Manhattan in the early afternoon bound for Staten Island.  A boiler explosion under the front deck killed 125 of its passengers.  Two children in this family were among those dead.  The next two children born were given the names of their deceased siblings.