For 25 years, Victoria MacKenzie-Childs coped with her partner, Richard, on a decommissioned ferry
. Photo: Thanks To V&R Emprise When Victoria MacKenzie-Childs passed away earlier this month, collectors celebrated the rainbow-haired ceramicist and the homewares brand she produced with her hubby, Richard. She was likewise mourned by the city’s boating neighborhood, who praised the years she spent as the caretaker of a decommissioned steamship that acted as their live-work studio. (“Certainly had love and pride for owning the YANKEE and all of the upkeep needed for a vessel that size,” reads one remembrance on the Block Island Ferry Memories Facebook group.) That ship, in fact, is still for sale today.
Victoria and Richard purchased the Yankee in 2001, not long after losing their namesake brand in personal bankruptcy proceedings. The couple required studio area (they ultimately started another business in 2004), but, apparently, Manhattan was mostly out of reach on their spending plan. And so they aimed to the “fringes” of the island, as MacKenzie-Childs put it in an interview last year. She roller-skated from pier to pier to see if anybody would consider offering before eventually landing on the Yankee, a 10,000-square-foot vessel built in 1907 that, in a previous life, had actually shuttled immigrants to Ellis Island and soldiers on the planet wars. Its owner had appeared like he remained in a rush to offer. The boat was “actually falling apart” at the time, states the couple’s daughter Heather Chaplet. “The second deck was gone.”
MacKenzie-Childs has actually said she found the ferryboat by skating from pier to pier, asking if anybody would sell her and Richard a ship to reside on. Photo: V&R Emprise
The MacKenzie-Childses’home might’ve doubled as a display room for their work. Picture: Thanks To V&R Emprise
The couple wound up changing the four-level, seven-bedroom vessel into an informal showroom. They wrapped beams in flower wallpaper and support columns in their familiar black-and-white theme. There was even a pair of hanging rope chairs to swing from and dining tables that could be raised or lowered by means of wheels. It’s all characteristically steampunk Easter Bunny. “Everything is meant to stun us into being ourselves and have a good time,” MacKenzie-Childs informed The Wall Street Journal in 2025. Chaplet and her spouse, Nils, say they spent a few months every year on the boat. Her mom would host dinners– typically ending each meal with a ritual she had used up, she keeps in mind. “People would come, and after that they would be handed a hymn book and told, ‘Now we’re going to all sing,'” Chaplet states.
Today, the boat has actually been docked along Mariners Harbor in Staten Island. What had begun as an attempt at frugality (relatively speaking) developed into a monetary stress. MacKenzie-Childs told Gothamist in 2025 that they were “paying through the nose” to survive on the boat, pointing to a surge in docking costs. (Last April, they were supposedly paying a marina around $3,900 a month, and for many years, they dabbled leasing rooms on the ship and even starting a Patreon account to assist cover the maintenance and operational expenses.)
Which describes why the ship has been on the marketplace for a while now. As early as 2012, the couple had been asking $1.25 million for the vessel, before bumping the rate to $2.37 million in 2018. (An agent included with an earlier listing told the Journal there were interested buyers, however the couple weren’t prepared to part with the ship.) Last year, they seem to have actually lastly made peace with coming ashore, and the Yankee was relisted for the original cost of $1.25 million. (Almost all of the home furnishings are for sale, too.) Up until now, Chaplet says they have actually spoken with some interested purchasers, including an antiques dealer and a humanitarian foundation dedicated to maritime architecture, together with a family interested by boating life, which MacKenzie-Childs appeared to enjoy. “The sunrises, the sundowns, the island, the swans sleeping under our windowsill,” MacKenzie-Childs told Gothamist. “I indicate, who has this?”
In its previous lives, the 10,000-square-foot ship ferried immigrants to Ellis Island and troops during the world wars. Picture: Courtesy of V&R Emprise
The ship’s dining tables were attached to a sheave system for raising or lowering them. Image: Thanks To V&R Emprise
The ship’s interiors were characteristically steampunk Easter Bunny. Photo: Thanks To V&R Emprise
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