This post is devoted entirely to requests for info. Like . . . what is the metal cage on this disintegrating wooden barge on the portion of Shooter’s Island shore right opposite Mariner’s Harbor?
Calaboose? hoosegow? tool crib? bird cage? rat pen?
Industrial to be sure, but what is
this structure right across the southeasternmost point of Port Elizabeth and near a green corner of Bayonne?
Lygra has an unusual design for these parts. I caught her in Red Hook about two months back. Anyone seen her before? Know what she transported?
Someone asked me about this boat last winter, no doubt attracted by the design and the port of registry: Portsmouth NH. Until I watched it a bit this summer and noticed divers aboard, I was convinced that Dolphin III was a sport fishing vessel: billfish or tuna.
But it seemed to be operating as a dive support boat, complete with
a fairly large tender.
So it didn’t surprise me to hear that the vessel might be working with a marine contractor. Anyone know what project might be?
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
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October 23, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Les Sonnenmark
The structure at the SE corner of Port Elizabeth is the rotating mechanism that allows the container cranes to turn the corner. This was installed to accommodate the Sea-Land SL-7 containerships for whom the port was developed.
Two of that ship class–since stretched and converted to SS ANTARES and SS DENEBOLA for the Navy, and now in the MARAD RRF fleet–are pictured to starboard of SHANTY in your “Autumn 4″ posting of 21 October. But they can’t be claimed as ex-Sixth Boro: they were two others in that class that called on Port Elizabeth in the 1970s.
However, obscured by SHANTY, is the ex-USS SANCTUARY, a cargo ship converted to Navy hospital ship in 1945 and commissioned at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; rescued after decommissioning for training recovering drug addicts, and now awaiting scrapping. Definitely an ex-Sixth Boro ship.
October 23, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Les Sonnenmark
SANCTUARY was converted at Todd Shipyards’ Bayonne facility.
October 23, 2010 at 2:33 pm
tugster
les– thanks for calling sanctuary to my attention. i have a closer up pic i took of her in baltimore. and that “turntable,” i’d love to see a crane rotated on that.
October 24, 2010 at 4:35 am
jeff s
maybe thats the famous gorilla cage that resided aboard Kosnac’s barge OX, back in the days when they were based up at the foot of Wall Street. in fact, maybe that is the OX….no idea what became of her.
DOLPHIN III is tending some sort of submarine cable that i think connects maybe Bayonne and Bay Ridge….or something like that.
October 26, 2010 at 8:12 pm
tugster
why would OX have a gorilla cage? for a gorilla?
October 24, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Mage Bailey
Fascinating stuff: LYGRA. IMO number : 7704629 Call Sign : LHOG3 Gross tonnage : 7012 Type of ship : Ro-Ro Cargo Ship Year of build : 1979 Flag. Shipsppotting.com where it is vastly harder to find things with the new format. Sorry I don’t know more.
October 25, 2010 at 6:58 pm
eastriver
LYGRA looks like a ro-ro, hence the double stack. Probably a stern ramp. Not many seen in the Northeast, but lots seen sailing from Florida and Gulf ports to less-improved harbors in the Caribbean, Central and South America.
October 27, 2010 at 5:36 am
Anonymous
re. OX. Yes….legend has it that Capt.Kosnac had a pet Gorilla or similar species of primate as a pet.
October 27, 2010 at 9:15 am
tugster
i’m still wondering why the barge got called OX if the cage housed a GORILLA. this story has me hearing strange howls emanating from every wreck and recess along the shore . . .
October 30, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Gerard
That steel cage is the high value lock-up for the covered barge. Used to prtect expensive cargo from being pilfered (wine, perfume, precious metals, etc.) prior to discharge from the barge. There is a similar pen used today in airport cargo terminals. I believe that is the wreck of a former NY Central covered barge.
October 30, 2010 at 4:10 pm
tugster
gerard–that makes sense.