Bicycle catamaran found adrift towed to Atlantic Basin reported the Journal,  June 23, 1896.

"Captain Otto Olfen, of the tugboat R. E. Pettie, picked up the boat floating in the lower bay.  The rudder chain was twisted around the screw and the right pedal was missing.  Perhaps some adventurous wheelman-mariner was lost from its seat.  It is now moored at Atlantic Basin, awaiting a claimant." 

The New York Herald also covered the story, although they reported that the tug boat was the R. F. Patty.  This article notes that: "There are no bicycle boats ordinarily in the Atlantic or Erie basin."
The full text of the article is below.

The catamaran was possibly one invented by Robert S. Russel, a submarine diver.  The Wheel and Cycling Trade Review reported in March 1895 that Russel made a successful trip that month through Hell Gate, East River.  His boat was described as: "sixteen feet long, and fitted with pedals and saddle similar to those on a bicycle. Power is supplied to six paddles, in the rear, by a chain arrangement. In smooth water the machine could be propelled at a speed of eight or ten miles an hour."

Text of the article "NO ONE ON THIS CRAFT" The New York Herald, June 22, 1896:

Tugboat Picks Up s Bicycle Catamaran Below the Narrows and There Is Fear of Loss of Life.

A bicycle catamaran with a large sail set was picked up below the Narrows shortly after the squall yesterday afternoon by Captain Otto G. Olsen. of the tugboat R. F. Patty.   The tug with a part y of thirty men was returning from a fishing excursion to Seabright. The sail of the strange looking craft was seen for several minutes before the tug got within hailing distance. As it was difficult even then to ascertain whether there was any one on board, one of the men jumped overboard from the tug and swam to the catamaran. There was no one there.

The steering gear was found to be fouled and one of the ropes had broken away from a low hand rail that bordered the boat. One of the pedals of the bicycle car had evidently recently been broken. Captain Olsen towed the boat to Clinton Stores, in the Atlantic Basin, Brooklyn. A careful examination of the hull and sails failed to reveal any mark by which the boat could be identified. 

James Thompson, of No. 172 Conover street, one of the fishing party, said last night, the appearance of the boat, when picked up, gave the impression that it had been roughly handled by the squall and its sails swept overboard. There was nothing to indicate that the boat had broken from her moorings. In that event as the wind was from the west and the tide at flood, the boat could not have come from the Long Island or New York water front. There are  no bicycle boats ordinarily in the Atlantic or Erie basin.