Imagine you worked at the shipyard for 10 or more years. You put in the strength of your best years with friends who did the same. You were young then and eager to get out of bed in the morning to hurry to the job you loved: building LNG tankers, huge vessels that sailed the world’s oceans and delivered fuel and withstood the challenges of the roughest seas. Then the shipyard gates closed and the 300-foot-high Goliath idled and rusted. Weeds grew up where 32,000 workers once built ships. Today, between the fence and the tow, several acres of unsold automobiles stood parked there, awaiting buyers.
Here’s Allie B about a half hour before departure today.
And this is how a voyage of more than 4000 miles begins: assist tugs Liberty and Vincent D. Tibbetts Jr. ease the barge Brooklyn Bridge into the Fore River, and Allie B moves the tow seaward.
Liberty and Tibbetts guide the tow through the 3A bridge between Quincy and Weymouth and
and then you hurry to Great Hill to watch your crane disappear towards Peddocks Island,
and Hull Gut, past the other islands of Boston harbor, and then
to sea, over the horizon, to build great ships elsewhere. And you may never see it again. How would it feel?
See sackrabbit’s fotos here, and check back there for updates over the coming month.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.
6 comments
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March 7, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Mage Bailey
That is so sad. I cheer every time our one remaining shipyard gets a job.
March 8, 2009 at 12:51 am
towmasters
Ah hah! It seems our 6th boro Tugster is two-timing us, falling right into the waiting arms of another not-unfamiliar harbor. Might there be some history here?
March 8, 2009 at 7:53 am
tugster
thanks, towmasters. your comment begs a response. elizabeth once lived in quincy, and we almost made a costly mistake in buying a boat in that same city. and for a decade and a half the waters between bostonlight to portlandhead were my playground and teacher. all of that prepared me to recognize the sixth boro for what it was. more seriously, goliath was the landmark i sought out any time i was in the quincy area, and now it’s gone, a quite profound change, eh. allie b’s trip conjures up some thrilling universal stories for me, so i figured seeing goliath move out and over the horizon was certainly a worthy way to spend a day. met some interesting folks up there.
March 8, 2009 at 10:11 am
Elizabeth
History indeed. And isn’t part of what we love about adventurer-scribes that they have ways of weaving those interesting histories into the present instead of letting them recede into some distant or forgotten past?
March 9, 2009 at 1:39 am
towmasters
Yes, of course. Having made many trips into Boston Harbor, including the Fore River for the Quincy (Quin-zee) and E. Braintree terminals, it was a seemingly permanent landmark for me too. Alas, poor Goliath! I knew him, Tugster…
Are you aware of the other famous Goliath, of Titanic fame? Read here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_and_Goliath_(Cranes)
In any case, as everyone surely knows, Boston Harbor is just a two-bit floozy compared to the refined and radiant charms of our statuesque Lady Liberty and the 6th boro!
March 9, 2009 at 8:36 am
richardspilman
I am at least glad that the crane has found meaningful employment, even if it is in Romania. Tragic that an iron worker was killed dismantling it, last August.
I have vivid memories of going on sea-trials on one of the last LNG ships built by GD-Quincy. Getting it out through the railroad bridge was a wonder to behold. Tugs on each end threaded the huge ship like a thread through a needle with what seemed like inches to spare on each side, then made a quick turn to avoid hitting the power company dock. Quite a maneuver.
The shipyard in those days was an example of everything that was right and wrong with US shipbuilding. It was a mix of high tech and the hopelessly antiquated, run by managers with a distinctly defense contractor mentality. At least Takis Veliotis, the GD executive vice president and yard manager, was entertaining. He skipped off to Greece with millions in vendor kickbacks while accusing senior GD executives of far worse. Interesting times, indeed.
Rick
http://www.oldsaltblog.com