STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Victoria and Richard Mackenzie-Childs, who live on The Yankee, a 150-foot ferryboat, which is moored in a Mariners Harbor shipyard, have launched sunset tours of their historic home.

After a story about how the couple lives on the boat, built in 1907, appeared on SIlive.com/Staten Island Advance, the couple was overwhelmed with requests for tours of the vintage ship from local historians, residents and history enthusiasts.

For this reason, Victoria Mackenzie-Childs and her husband have launched sunset tours, which will be held on demand at 6:45 p.m.

Moored at May Ship Repair, 3075 Richmond Terr., The Yankee is the last remaining link to the sea that built our immigrant movement, which changed the world, said Mackenzie-Childs.

We will give sunset tours. And it will be tour plus Yankee pie, which is really special, and we will serve it so they [visitors] can enjoy sitting on the boat and looking out to the waters, which will be a wonderful thing for folks, she added.

While there isnt a set cost for the tour, Mackenzie-Childs said the couple is asking for donations that will be put toward the ships repairs.

The first formal tour was to be held on Sunday with 30 people from an organized tour group, she said.

BOAT HISTORY

Constructed by Neafie & Levy of Philadelphia, Pa., the boats original name was the Machigonne, which in Native American means on bended knee, she said.

She [the boat] was made on a peninsula shaped like that, in Pennsylvania, added Mackenzie-Childs.

In its early days, the boat was used to transport passengers between Portland, Maine and the Calendar Islands in Casco Bay. After World War I, the Machigonne was used to ferry immigrants from their incoming ships to Ellis Island, she said.

LIVING ON THE WATER

Mackenzie-Childs, who is originally from San Francisco, Ca., said 20 years ago she and her husband were fed up with high rent prices. Thats when they got the Idea to live on a boat. And the Yankee enabled them to do just that.

We found her [the boat] at Pier 25 in Tribecca. ...We bought her right after 9/11, she said. When Yankee was a ferryboat for Ellis Island, she used to bring people [from Ellis Island] to Manhattan.

The couple formerly moored the boat in Hoboken, N.J.,and later in Red Hook, Brooklyn, before settling recently on Staten Island.

The ships contents include antique furnishings, a piano, eclectic artwork and cherrywood furniture -- all in a rustic setting.

TOUR INFORMATION

For tour information, text (646) 265-8788, or email: victoria@yankeeferry.nyc.

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Couple who live on old Ellis Island ferryboat launches S.I. tours - SILive.com