The captain who smashed a ferry into an underwater East River piling has been yanked from the helm and is known for an aggressive style of piloting watercraft, The Post has learned.
Sources identified Michael Sabatino, of Brooklyn, a former Staten Island Ferry deckhand and second-generation seaman, as the captain who was behind the wheel when the 400-passenger Zelinsky bottomed out Monday evening.
Hornblower, which runs the NYC Ferry service, wouldn’t confirm Sabatino’s identity, but said the captain responsible for the mishap “is not piloting any vessels at this time.”
The US Coast Guard, which is investigating, declined to comment.
No one was injured in the mishap as the boat left Pier 11 en route to the Rockaways, but the 113 people on board had to be rescued by NYPD and FDNY marine units.
The head of the city’s Economic Development Corp., which is subsidizing the NYC Ferry program, described the area where the Zelinksy crashed as a “pile field” that’s “well known” to mariners.
“It’s not generally been an issue, but it’s known by captains to be an issue, and it depends on the tides,” EDC President James Patchett said told reporters Tuesday morning.
Sources said the piling that ripped two holes in the side of the Zelinsky was part of a pier that was sunk in the river to create an artificial reef.
A buoy that once warned of the underwater hazard is no longer there, sources said.
City officials didn’t respond to questions about the missing marker.
In September 2008, Sabatino, then 28, was one of two S.I. Ferry deckhands who rescued a woman spotted floating in the Upper Bay following what cops described as an attempted suicide leap off a Staten Island pier.
Sabatino at some point got licensed as a captain by the Coast Guard, his LinkedIn profile says he’s worked as a captain and diver for several cruise and salvage companies since 2003.
Two former bosses described Sabatino as a cocky captain, with one saying, “He’s too heavy on the throttle.”
A former boss also described him as a “cowboy” at the helm.
“We had problems with him taking his shoes off, bare feet up on dash in front of customers,” the source added.
Sabatino’s dad, Frank, who died in February, owned a fishing trawler on which his son formerly worked, according to workers at the Futura Marina in Sheepshead Bay, where official-looking street signs identify the driveway as “Frank Sabatino Way.”
Sabatino didn’t return messages seeking comment, but his mom — who has a lighthouse statue decorating the bay window of her Marine Park home, described him as following “a long maritime tradition.”
Carol Sabatino declined to discuss Monday’s crash, but said: “We’re just thankful nothing happened, that nobody got hurt.”
Additional reporting by Kevin Fasick