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I would say a picture is worth a thousand words on this issue. This was taken from the deck of the ferry less than a month ago about 5 -10 minutes after leaving the Battery Park port. I would describe the view from the ferry deck (and I think an argument to the contrary is quite clearly silly) as pretty easy to spot and a fine view of this wonderful icon of America.
While I agree that the view of the Statue from the Staten Island Ferry is fine, I don't think this picture was taken with a normal focal length lens (e.g. 50 mm on a 35 mm or FX sensor camera).