Mary Whalen Moves

At the appointed hour, a tug sidles up and the deckhand handily lassos the midships bitt on Whalen‘s port side. Step one in “making the tow” is about to happen.

 

In minutes Mary Whalen and Nathan E. Stewart are ready to tango . . .

 

with these two connections and one on the stern.

When the order is given, dock lines are cast off and the band strikes up with some march music. Hungry March . . . maybe like the month we’re about to enter?

 

Whalen‘s Fairbanks-Morse diesel is still dormant but, after drumsticks exit the boots, adequate energy emanates from the percussion and winds as they jam with Nathan E. Stewart‘s twin Cummins, and soon musical spirit and 3200 horsepower move the watermelon red tanker onto the dance floor . . . or at least into the Buttermilk Channel

 

and then it’s Brooklyn Bridge-bound on the Buttermilk . . .

 

(to be continued)