Solstice Post 2

The other side of the boro . . . the strand on Coney Island, sees a visitation of finnyfolk, who briefly leave the water for this sun festival.  Enjoy this field guide to western North Atlantic merpeople.  These came  in a replica of Nefertiti’s royal barge.

These seemed influenced by both 1960s popular music and bowsprite’s logo, and

these . . .  by abandoned rowboats . . .  .

Bubbles emanate . . . maybe from lungs not yet fully functioning.

The appearance of merpopulations triggers camerafolk, some of whom work alone with archaic gear, and

others that swarm, especially as mermaids apply their version of  . . .  cosmetics?

Lest anyone appear a threat, they bring in formidable security.

But otherwise, they just love to dance the

sun dance to their

own musicians who work with strings and wind and

percussion.

Some have ideas about politics and

activism;  others

gloom-and-doom-ify.

Some mermaids, residing underwater as do hulls of boats, like boats need a haircut and a shave.

Some experience low-oxygen shock in the Coney summer air, as

they dance and

dance and take a break only for

recording it all for posterity.

And posterity surely should remember the color

and line.

Happy sun dance day.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Polar Adventure

They say we never had a winter in 2011 into 2012, but on this first full day of summer, a hot season has begun.  What better day to look at Cook Inlet.  I’m using these fotos with expressed permission from Seth Tane, who took them four years and a month ago;  see his painting here.

Seth’s platform here is Polar Adventure.  Click here and scroll to see her shuttle route between Alaska and the West Coast during the past 30 days alone.

And the “tailgating” tug is Tan’erliq, a Crowley ship assist and tanker escort, training.

Click here for a commendation Tan’erliq shared with an even more powerful Crowley tug for rapid response to a tanker power loss.

Line is made and pullback begins.  This process makes me think of calf roping or kayak hunting.

Just as I can imagine the sound of the tug’s engine pulling back with 105 tons of force, I can

look at this water and cool off,

I hope.  Click here and here for Crowley vessels previously on this blog.

Many thanks to Seth Tane for these cool fotos.

Unrelated:  Bravo to community Board 1 for passing a resolution supporting wood carver Sal Polisi’s right to stay put.  Shame on EDC for their broad-broom sweeping all that impedes their planning.

DEWARUCI Closeup

If you live near NYC , a great way to mark Memorial Day aka Decoration Day, visit any of the open piers.  Check out the “early history” in this wikipedia link.  I seized the morning out here, on DDG 57 USS Mitscher.

Here’s the view forward from the starboard bridge wing,

to port were CG-56 USS San Jacinto and DDG-56 USS Donald Cook.

and starboard aft toward DDG-66 USS Gonzalez.   On the tour I saw a wide range of specialists.

I had been assigned to Dewaruci, and went incognito, wanting to check some rumors . . .  like  . . as the US Navy has SEALS, but the Indonesians have

walruses!!  And it turns out they do!  Although, seriously, masks of different sorts are worn in traditional dances–reorgs–and the walrus represents strength.

Although Dewaruci was built at Stulken Sohn in Hamburg, begun in 1932 (pre-WW2 and therefore commssioned by the Dutch??) , it was completed in 1953, year four of Indonesian independence from the Dutch.  The design, then, dates from a time that commercial sail still existed.  But the detail on this vessel, currently on its last voyage, is phenomenal.  I haven’t seen so much wood carving on a vessel since I visited the schooner Anne.

Here’s the namesake hero aft

and forward.  The rest of the weekend I will be figurehead comparing, but this is hard to top.

Three main islands of Indonesia west to east are Sumatra, Java, and Irian Jaya;  so the three masts–fore to mizzen–of the vessel are decorated in those styles.  Here’s Sumatran.

and Javanese

with Garuda and

Irian Jayan, actually the western end of the island of New Guinea.

Here’s the wheel and

and the engine order telegraph.

A poster onboard shows the itinerary for this last voyage.  A replacement vessel is on order;  I’m curious whether it will

carry the same figurehead and wood carving.

An intriguing poster on deck also shows all the commanding officers from 1953 to present, from Majoor A. F. H. Rosenow to Haris Bima B. Letkol Laut.

Meanwhile, I have confirmed that the Indonsian Navy has walruses, which I was unable to interview, and

flies the jolly roger.

Tomorrow I head over to Brooklyn.

All fotos and story by Will Van Dorp.

Sixth Boro Details

I zoomed in on details in some Panama posts here and here, so how about closer to home . . . .  All of the following fotos were taken in New York harbor, except one.  But that one could just have well been taken here.  Can you identify it?

Otherwise, just enjoy the fotos.  Doubleclick almost always enlarges.  For me, pleasure maintaining this blog comes from the locale and endeavor. I respect the livelihoods.  But things the camera helps me see I admire also for the sculptural beauty,

the play of light and shadow over diverse surfaces,

qualities of suntime and angle,

texture and weathering . . . aging,

universality and timelessness,

employ of color and volume,

imagined or real vignettes,

power and evocation of sound and temperature,

coexistence of natural and industrial,

labor’s wear and erosion,

tirelessness,

elegant design . . . .

Since I deliberately wrote these captions quickly, spontaneously recording what I associated with each foto,  I could have captured something different no doubt upon examining each,  . . . but then again . . . I’m interested in what they evoke in you.  And here I invite your response.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp . .  . in the past month.

The bottom foto was taken in Panama of a container ship I’d seen in the KVK earlier in March.

Nola Traffic 2

This foto in no way conveys the intensity of this moment:  that car crept down Iberville Street at dusk blasting out a shock wave of engine roar that rivaled the scream of  747 engines.

Here too the noise of beaded necklace flinging Shiners on Tchoupitoulas Street.

The shadow of Christ emerges on this end of St. Louis Cathedral as night falls.

Tugster dips his toe in the Mississippi near where Capt. John hugs the wharf just northeast of JacksonSquare.

This statue is called Old Man River, and I’m intrigued though

these words (by Robert Schoen?) leave me as mystified as the sculpture.

Traffic at the intersection of St. Ann’s and Chartres includes this mule (?)  and a texting swamp man.

Down by the river, bowsprite begins to weigh her appreciation for 1937 ferry Louis B. Porterie, one of the free ferries operated by

LA DOTD, the second “D” being development.  Here’s a better foto of the ferry, which whirls and spins between the French Quarter and the neighborhood intriguingly-named Algiers.

I looked in vain for formerly-sixth boro Glen Cove but did find a Kirby tug,  Miss Susan.

More of this type of traffic tomorrow.   All fotos by either bowsprite or tugster.

Nobility

Do you recognize this vessel?

A clue is that it was made of scrap materials gleaned from around the sixth boro.  Although the hull leaked, the compass was positioned in the floor.

Here are galley supplies.

It’s John Noble’s houseboat studio aka “little monticello.”  For a 360-degree view of the interior, click here.

I’m assuming this is a fair use of a few fotos by Robert F. Sisson,  p. 808, showing John Noble at work on his houseboat, granting eternal life to the rotting hulks over in Port Johnston, then a coal dock and now a petroleum dock.

Here’s the issue.  If you find yourself with free time browsing in a Salvation Army store that sells used issues of National Geographic, the December 1954 issue has a fabulous article called “Here’s New York Harbor.”   It lends itself to an excellent then/now revery.

Pages 804-5 show tugboat races already then.  Much more . . .  many vintage fotos to check out.

Visit Noble Maritime too.

Check out  Erin Urban’s fine book on John Noble, Hulls and Hulks in the Tide of Time, or click here for the smaller work, The Rowboat Drawings.

The “houseboat” can truly be called an Artship, but I recently learned of a (now defunct??) project in San Francisco called the Artship, an arts space on a February 1940-launched vessel previously known as Del Orleans, then USS Crescent City aka APA 21, Golden Bear  II.  Currently, though, she’s slated to be towed to Texas for scrapping.   I can imagine at least two constituencies are sad to see this vessel go. I wish I’d be able to visit Artship before these days and this one-way journey.

Just ahead of her and already on the way, at the end of  Elsbeth II’s towline off southern California and bound for the scrappers is USS Mispillion  aka AO 105.

Many thanks to David Hindin for this info (and see comments)  apologies for the errors that I hope I’ve corrected.

Something Different 6

I’m culling fotos these days, trashing lots.  I’m sharing these never-used ones that caught my attention. .

And more surprises . . . this is a major wake raking the bank of the Harlem River!

This foto hangs at the Ear Inn.  I liked the image until I noticed that this hair product advertisement uses a wrecked ship and locals looting supplies from said wreck.  Now imagine a business did this today . . . .

A vessel aims to maintain equilibrium and productivity despite wind, cold, and isolation;  arms spread here do what mine attempt while crossing a narrow gangplank.  Life is full of such risk-takings.

I’ve used some of these White, GA,  fotos before, but part of what attracts me to the car is the art of Jacek Yerka.

This foto accompanies a story in Yerka’s book with Harlan Ellison called Mind Fields, with over two dozen such images accompanied by short fiction.

Here’s another, marking the beginning of the calendar phase called Aquarius, what this post is really about.

Happy birthday, my fellow-Aquarians.

Retrospective 2

Unpacking a suitcase or knapsack I like to be fast;  unpacking my head after a trip I like to be slow.   The foto (doubleclick enlarges) below I took Christmas morning 7:57 am . . . Hiwassee River under I-75 . . . it was so moody, so unwelcoming of Christmas scenes that I stopped the car on the shoulder just beyond the bridge and ran back to get this foto.  I know you’re not supposed to do that, but  . . .

Notice that I’ve added many new fotos to the Flickr show on the left side of this page, all taken at Old Car City in White, Georgia, a place of ghosts like this one of Hernando de Soto.  His face here looks as disoriented as I felt walking through the

4000 cars haunting this woods.  The image below is interactive.

Obviously I saw cars here, in various states of degradation, but I also saw people from my past.  No . . . I’m  not really a lunatic, but seeing a De Soto I think of the great-uncle who sponsored my father to this country.  Seeing a Hudson I remember Ernie, the farmer from across the valley who drove one unless he was sitting on his Minneapolis Moline face flushed from a combination of sun and hard cider he made himself.

My parents drove me home from my birthplace/hospital in a Plymouth.

Cadillacs and almst all the cars of my youth were  massive, chromeplated, and evocative of greatness with their artdeco decorations.  I could go on, but check the Flickr shots.

I’ve said before . . . Wilmington is a place I’ll go back to next December if not sooner.   Meet Log Dog, launched 1953, (ex-D. E. 51) and

Isco . . . Here’s a foto of Isco from the bank of Eagle Island.

Pelicans . . . I still need to get a foto of a squadron of these guys wingtips skimming the water.  Help me out here:  I recall someone telling me of a pelican sighted on Jamaica Bay last summer.  Anyone see it or hear of it?

Last ones . . .  my March 2011 shots of Vinalines Queen has been getting lots of views the past few weeks.

I’m not sure why, but here are a few I hadn’t published.  I’d love to hear from you.

So  . . . the unpacking continues.  Hope you enjoy the new Flickr shots.

Stopping by the Kills

Most of you know the poem by Bobby Frost that starts out with the line . . . “Whose woods these are I think I know . . .”  Living in NYC, believe it or not, I have woods AND the Kills. On my way home from work today, I stopped by this spot on the Kill Van Kull.  Friends know I refer to this as my office.  I hope the city never makes this place a “park.”  I love it the way it is.  Today there were friends, including Kristy Ann Reinauer eastbound and Ever Radiant westbound, on her way in from (exactly one month ago) Shanghai.   Two years ago I caught Ever Radiant . . . in the KVK near my office as well.  Actually, in reference to these fotos, I’d ask “whose docks these were . . . I’d love to know . . .”  They’re just east of the Caddell yard and right across the KVK from IMTT.  By the way, click on that previous link and get a great aerial shot of the KVK looking west.

Moments before, I caught Ital Mattina, a month ago in Honk Kong, eastbound with Laura K. Moran nearby just before she

turns the big ship loose, spins on her own axis, and heads back to base.

Also during my stay at the KVK, this crane configuration went by, although if you doubleclick and look at this in larger format, you’ll see the Great Lakes New York eastbound, propelled by Miss Gill; and Weeks Marine 527 westbound, moved by Catherine Miller.

Speaking of cranes, you’ve seen WTC1 as background in many fotos here;  here’s a foto I took over the weekend looking straight up about 100′ from the west side of the base.

More cranes . . .  barge Farrell 256 is pushed into the KVK just shy of two weeks ago.  Can you identify the tug?

A slightly closer look help you?  Anyone know (I don’t ) what to call the series of four winches on the barge?

It’s the formerly orange  tug now know as Sarah Ann, and after two years, I’m still of two minds about the new paint scheme.

All fotos in September 2011 by Will Van Dorp, who’s just outa breath sometimes.

Unrelated . . .  click here to see the marine art of Tony Moffitt, hailing from Newcastle, Australian.

Reminders

Coming home from work, I overheard this conversation on New Jersey Transit last night between Newark and New York.

She from West Virginia:  Oh this is so exciting.  Soon I’ll walk through Penn Station, just like I saw in movies and TV.  Even the train ride is exciting.

She from NYC:  Thank you.  Thanks for the reminders.  I’m always tired coming from work on this train, and I forget how exciting this is.  Thank you!

The latter sounded sincere, and I’ll bet it was.  Taking fotos helps remind me of the exciting place the sixth boro is.  I took all these today while showing a friend around.  Like Captain Zeke urging a scow

through the Cut into Erie Basin as crew calls in from his vantage point.

Like encircled bollards lorded over by a frozen crane not far

from silenced shipyard tools.

Like a scow with dredge spoils . . . or is that a steel portal into Poseidon’s realm?

Like the melange of upriver silt mixing with flooding seawater?

Like a tanker bound for sea, leaving

the busyness of the Upper Bay.

Like the solitary exertion of kayaking or

the collaboration of USCGC Campbell heading outbound through the Narrows.

Or like an osprey showing his next-fish-meal the heavens.

Like the aesthetics of coating and oxidation and friction.

Like the osprey invigorated by the fish-meal.

Like the dance of tug and ship and the

tools of egress.

Thank you.  The sixth boro never ceases to tantalize and refresh and motivate another look.

All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.