Names 11

Names 10 is OK, but Names 9 has more staying power, taps into classical thoughts.  

If I came up behind a vessel with this name, my non-existent Greek would not let me know that

the name is Zim (that part is easy) New York!  Remember, double click to enlarge an image.

Here’s an attractive bulk carrier with a great name that

again . . . from  the stern I’d not recognize.  Time to start studying Greek.  And I thought– besides Greeks–only budding North American theologians would benefit from.

The name here is straight forward, but some mind-changing or dissembling seems afoot with the port of registry.

Check out the comment Rick Old Salt did recently relative to PCTC design on Kennebec Captain’s post here.

I know this fleet borrows names from operas, but I’m not sure I’d be happy to sail the seven seas in vessel whose name stems from a libertine who seduces only to move on and on and on . . . .

and on.  Looks like the rolicking rakish RORO above took a blow to the portside cheek . . . or is that a poorly-pencilled-in moustachio?

Then there’s avid fisherfolk given to cliches. . . I’m mean . . . here’s a place to paint   πόρνη  (Greek or some other relatively arcane script) at least to keep folks wondering.

The bathroom signage here is at least novel . . .  at least I’d never seen it before.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Salt

Weather in the land areas surrounding the sixth boro has been glorious!  This gleaming white stuff from beneath the earth’s crust has not been needed to

melt equally gleaming white stuff that leads to ice and treachery for car drivers.  For now it’s just stockpiled, hugely heaped

on the location on a wet but delightful fest 10 weeks back.

Ever wonder who runs this company and what the history of the area is?  Check out this very informative article.  It even sports a foto of Mr Mahoney, Atlantic Salt founder.

In various places along the coast–like Chelsea MA and Portsmouth NH–there are similar operations.  In Portsmouth, the piles are called the “white mountains,” an allusion to a range a few hours north of that port.

Salt pirates??  Check out this story.

If you haven’t read Kurlansky’s book on salt; check out a summary/review here.  Some info on the salt carrier KT Venture here.  The second foto was taken on Nov. 11,  two weeks or so after all the others;  notice how high the salt mountain of the KVK has grown.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

Whitherward 5

Loretta B Moran is not yet ready for a christening, but the shell leaves little to the imagination.  Stuart Pate took these a few weeks back at the Washburn Doughty & Associates yard up in East Boothbay, Maine.

Looking at these newbuilds prompts some questions:  How many tugboats* are there in the world?  How many in the US?  What is the average age of the US fleet?  What is the only country counting MORE tugboats than the US?  Answers at end of post.  (* counting only “seagoing” and greater than 100 gross tons.)  I guess this is a miniTugsterteaser, since you get the answers by the end of the post.  The tug in the water might be Catherine C. Moran.

I’m guessing the other tug-in-progress here is Lizzie B. Moran.

Thanks, Stuart.  Stuart’s fotos were previously  featured here and here.  I love the primer colors!

The numbers are :  13,473, 1489, and 33 years average age.  Country is Indonesia, a nation of 230 million people scatttered over more than 17,000 islands.  The source is Marcon International.

And a followup question:  ever hear of Rufus W King?  According to this article in 1828 it was the first tugboat in the sixth boro . . . possibly anywhere.

No Name Fleet 3

Rust never sleeps; nor do fungi.  My first and second posts on this yard are here as one and two;  I’d love to imagine these boats could be restored like this ACF J’Ador III, but mosses and mushrooms are powerful and mahogany though beautiful is vulnerable, and

with neglect,  hardwood turn soft and planks split apart at the seams once so tight.  Wood that began life in Central America or Southern Asia might turn to dust in North America.

Beams and structures lose their strength, their integrity . . .  and

this fleet (1940 Chris Craft 33′ and 1939 ACF)  might never again ride

or be ridden upon, unless love and dollars get lavished upon them.  Some like

this Owens get reprieved and

others (like this 1963 Century Raven) hang in the balance

although once the wood turns fertile for new life, the

old one is lost.  These vessels may be preserved only on old photographs, which themselves are at risk of

leading nowhere if no identifying info is written on the back.  I wonder sometimes as we steer madly into the digital future what will

become of digital images like mine once computers update so much the old files no longer compatible  are as undecipherable as hieroglphics.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp at Miller’s Marina in Lyons, New York.  Telephone number available on google.

Note: the 1940 ChrisCraft in the second foto above has twin K 6-cylinder Hercules.  There’s also a 1964 ChrisCraft Challenger for sale, last in the water three years ago.  $3000.  I’m just the messenger.

For more boats of this type, check boneyard boats.

Urger in November

Labor Day in the sixth boro . . . and now at Lock 28A, Urger’s winter port.    Near Lyons.  Near my “grow-up” years, where I enjoyed my 40th high school reunion last night.

Urger from the other side of the lock.  Notice the plastic hoods over vent and mast and

weather cap added atop and bronze plaque removed from the stack.

Nose to nose with Urger is HD-1, the cutter head dredge that sank last July in Palmyra and was raised by Titan.

Closer and

closer-up shot of that head.

Lyons . . . farm country.  I just had to.

Here are some fotos I took last spring in the Lyons Canal Corp. yard.

Last foto by Elzabeth Wood;  all previous by Will Van Dorp.

Really Full Frontal 3

Weeks’ Elizabeth has sharp chines.

A hint of Dr Jekyl/Mr Hyde in United Banner.

Susan Miller with spud barge, almost full frontal.  Completely full frontal of anonymous gull.

Oxygen . . .  Don’t those anchor flukes look a bit like . . .  eyelashes?  What was that odd eyelash conversation I had recently?  Kimberly Turecamo to starboard and Laura K Moran to port.

Adriatic Sea emphasizes the vertical; bow wave defines the horizontal.

John B. Caddell with very little freeboard.

Linda Moran: difficult to anthropomorphize once I see the stacks as horns, unless the stalk plus upper wheelhouse plus mast is perceived as unusual headgear.

Newtown Creek moves in with goal posts.

What would Rosemary McAllister look like with a Cornell-esque pudding?

KT Venture is the first bulker I’ve seen offload salt directly at the Atlantic Salt dock, site of the late August Salt Festival.  More KT Venture soon.

Katherine Walker approaches, with a buoy in each cheek.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Pink

like bubblegum.  And the transition from the previous three posts to this one is abrupt:  battleship gray to petunia pink.  Like cement to hybiscus . ..  or (later).  Now pink’s not a color you’d imagine to find on this blog.  But why not?  It’s a beautiful color.  Of course, when I commented on my Colorado sister’s wearing a pink helmet as she rappelled down a cliff, she stopped: “It’s faded red,” she announced, fighting gravity until I relented, abandoned using the P word.    

Anyhow, a lot of ships seem to use this bubblegum-color faded red bottom paint, not

that you’d know it from their names.  Golden Charlotte?  The only gold here might be around some parts of crew anatomy.  Call her Pinkblue Charlotte?  I love the oxidized anti-fouling painting on this tanker above carrying a deckload of limestone skyline and wearing Robbins Light as stern illumination.

Golden Venus . . . have to be careful here.  Would I even want my Venus to be gold?  Wasn’t  that a large part of Midas’ malaise?

No, I’ve no idea if Caribbean has any pink parts (like ex-Thornton Bros’ engine block?) , nor do I know if the surface under  the

sand does.  But, beyond the tow, it’s FR8 Pride, with that same hue of bottom paint:  pink!  Something’s going on here.

King David of Scorship . . . looks more pink than red to me . . . no matter what my sister wants to call her helmet. 

All fotos, Will Van Dorp.

And back to the transition similes:  gray to pink . ..  like flying through a fog only to be engulfed by a massive venus flytrap, overcast light on still water supporting a lotus bloom, graysilver wrap around some wild carnations, alpine blossoms eking out an existence among rock, or seeking shelter from a torrent on Lexington Avenue in Bloomingdale’s lingerie department . . . (Did I write that on THIS blog?  Can I do that?  Does my editor allow this?)

USS New York 3

The last in the series includes the short video below and

focuses on some of the folks in the harbor this quite windy Monday morning, including McAllister Brothers and

Sea Knights (thanks Jed for pointing out they weren’t Chinooks) as well as

a Schweizer-300 carrying an intrepid photojournalist and fine pilot.

RB-S boats were hither and

and yon.

Waterfront Commission police have a boat named Rev. John M. Corridan,  the priest featured in On the Waterfront!!

Here’s a closer shot of the NYFD units set up at 130th Street in Manhattan.

Once LPD-21 was secured on the south side of Pier 88,

the local Navy League Council distributed bags of delicious grub to those employed either public or

private.  The Navy League seems to have an impressive mission.

Once Sturgeon Bay was secured back at home port, time for  . . .  shore power!!

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

USS New York 2

OK, as Jed points out in his quite elaborate comment (thanks, Jed)  . . . it’s PCU (pre-commissioning unit) New York for a few days yet.  By the way, by the count of A. G. Sulzberger, this new New York is USS New York number seven.  Might it be that the cost of the previous six combined is less than the cost of this one, comparing uneven dollars?

Behold Sturgeon Bay, the generosity of whose captain and crew made these fotos possible.

Looking through my fotos prompts a thought on this ship welcome and our group identity.  We all have competing identities, and obviously this dozen plus one fotos taken over five hours were deliberately selected, but see where they lead you.  I’ll share my ideas at the end.

Sturgeon Bay, one of nine WTGBs,  receives a small boat long the starboard side while outbound to meet . . .

LPD-21, which here heads north toward a water welcome and past

Our Lady of the Sixth Boro (and so much more)

and soon to pause across from North Cove (fantastic images here).

After heading north as far as the GW Bridge, LPD-21 turns and

makes its way close to the bank near 130th Street where another water welcome awaits.  Later,

an escort follows on the Jersey

side as  (Note:  PT728, DCV Gelberman, and tug Miriam Moran in foreground;  color spray from John McKean 1954)

LPD-21 crew enjoy the NYC and sixth boro greeting and sunny weather as

the vessel is made fast.   Ellen McAllister and Rosemary McAllister here prepare to depart for their next job.)

Refueling begins

almost immediately from barge delivered by Houma.

To say the fire departments were intensely involved in this welcome–as evidenced by both my fotos and those on the New York Times slideshow– is an understatement of huge proportions.  And of course reasons go directly back to that horror less than a decade ago that underlies everything about LPD-21’s existence.  And I certainly honor the Bravest.  I was happy to see you present on both sides of the River, all over the sixth boro.

And this is not to undervalue the efforts of all those folks working on the water yesterday in whatever capacity (public or private)  as part of ensuring that the welcome was appropriate.  This harbor enthusiast thanks you and all other of those working on the water.

Welcome to New York.

Here and here are a few articles about Lt. Scott Rae, commanding officer of Sturgeon Bay.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

USS New York

See Bowsprite’s POV here.  What’s my version of events?  What’s my  story?

Actually what are the stories?

There are many, as

is always the case.  Here and here are links too.   Leave a comment with yours?  Some people call this crowd-sourcing;  broadcast media have done this all along, calling it interviewing reduced to sound bites.

Remembrance and promise and

technology and

fears and

much more, wrapped in a 1.4 billion dollar package.  A complex tale . . . plowshares beaten into swords?  I wanted to put these fotos up quick before hurrying to work.  Tomorrow and maybe Wednesday . . . more fotos.

Many many thanks to Lt. Scott Rae of Sturgeon Bay.   Thanks Pamela for passing along the invite.

<<written 10 days hence ..  . see Bowsprite’s farewell USS  New York here. 

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  See Rick Old Salt for visitation hours on LPD 21.