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According to the calculations on my rusty cruncher . . .
this number has passed in the wee and dark and windy hours of Boxing Day.
A million . . . graphic ways of representing this would be . . . it would take 158 trips of Queen Sapphire, currently in the sixth boro, to deliver that many BMWs. Or the hold of a half-filled Bebedouro would contain enough Brazilian pulp for that much orange juice.
Wikipedia offers some other ways to represent a million.
Meanwhile, this is my next goal.
Here’s the proof.
I’m humbled and grateful. Thanks for reading, sharing, and commenting. And thanks for the emails and private messages. The green coming out of the rusty cruncher above is getting to know so many of you. Thanks and more thanks. I never dreamed this was possible when I started the blog just after Thanksgiving 2006.
Meanwhile, I’ll be in the wooded upland between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico til after New Years’ begin.
Peace!
It is a race, and that means there’s a winner, but the race committee decided to have both the first place (left, Lincoln Sea . . . 8000 hp) and second place (right, Meagan Ann . . . 2200 hp)) finishers raise the cup this year because of Meagan Ann‘s lightning speed that allowed her to beat at least four boats of equal or great horsepower. Is her hull coated with slippery paint?
Someone remarked that the Kirby livery makes this originally blue vessel seem larger than previous paint jobs.
This blue vessel built originally for Alaska is
speedy. She left us in the dust . . . er . . . froth!
Final shot of Lincoln Sea (for now) and
us as we appeared from her upper wheelhouse.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except the last one by Dave Boone. Thanks, Dave. You caught me waving . . . green deck forward of the wheelhouse.
Related: last week I got this email from D. J. Lake, who gave me permission to reprint it:
“I am contacting you with regard to the pictures of the first tug boat race in the New York harbor in the early ’50′s that you posted recently. My uncle, Vincent Lake, a long-time employee of the M & J Tracy Towing Line, was a captain on the William J. Tracy on the day of the race. As you probably know, the William J. Tracy was one of four new tugs acquired at that time by Tracy Towing, including her sisters, Kathleen Tracy, Thomas Tracy and Helen Tracy (all named for members of the Tracy family). These tugs were replacements for older units in the fleet. My Uncle Vincent always talked about this race and what an honor it was to be involved in it. I am glad the races have been given a new beginning. The races give the public an opportunity to see tugs in action in the harbor. Thank you. D.J. Lake”
D. J. . . . thanks for sharing that bit of history with us.
For a short video on this coming weekend’s Waterford Tug Roundup, see “now published author” Rick Old Salt’s blog here.
Many thanks to Paul Strubeck for this foto of a preserved “results report” he has . . . from a 60-year-old typewriter! A week from today Working Harbor Committee is sponsoring a great event they call the 20th annual North River Tugboat Race, but clearly there have been more than 19 prior races involving the machinery of the New York City towing industry. How many races have been held? Going in “order of completion,” I’ve managed to find fotos of #2 finisher Barbara Moran and #3 Socony 11 (later Dorothy Elizabeth, shown here racing again in 2007) from Birk and Harold’s site. Also, here’s a foto of a model of #1 Shamokin. And a foto from eBay of Wm. J. Tracy. Finally, here’s a quite forlorn foto of Dalzelleader late in her life. That leaves me without images of finishers 5, 6, and 7: Dauntless 14, Russell 17 and Turecamo Girls of that vintage.
Thanks to Charlie Gallo for sending this foto of Mister T (2001) from the east end of the East River, a section of the sixth boro that I’ve inadvertently ignored. I’ve no idea who the T is Mister T is. Behind the bridge is SUNY Maritime’s Empire State. Thanks, Charlie.
In fact, I’m always looking for new perspectives, like this one from a week ago over southwest Bayonne, showing McAllister Sisters and Ellen McAllister docking Golden Gate Bridge, with Bebedouro and Islander (I think) in the distance. Also, in the foreground, it’s drillboat Kraken.
One of the details of ships is their names, like this quite intriguing one.
From a similar aerial perspective, enjoy Turecamo Girls (1965).
How about an unexpected angle on a frequent subject of this blog, Gramma Lee T Moran, running here with an outbound Carnival Glory.
The T in Gramma Lee T is for Tregurtha. Gramma Lee has this other vessel named for her as well. She was the wife of Paul Tregurtha, a name that you might know from Ken or Isaac’s blog posts on Interlake Steamship Company vessels.
I spotted one such vessel from Badger earlier this week. Behold barge Pathfinder and tug Dorothy Ann.
Barge Pathfinder used to be a boat: J. L. Mauthe.
Boat-turned-barge Pathfinder now has a detachable engine called Dorothy Ann (1998).
As the person behind this blog, I want to step back a bit and thank you all for reading what I post, looking at the fotos, commenting, and sometimes correcting my errors. I’ve enjoyed doing the blog for almost six years and will continue.
More SS Badger soon.
Inspiration for this post found me when I was looking at the WordPress homepage about a month ago and noticed a blogpost by a woman called Celine. She called it the “30 before 30 project.” At some point before she made a list of 30 things she wished to have done before she turned 30.
Tomorrow is my 21,900th morning on this earth, i.e., I turn 60! It’s stunning, traumatizing, but I have to get over it. When I was under 30, the way I imagined 60 is quite different from how it feels to me, but that’s another story.
I decided that what distinguishes the 60 mark from the 30 is that rather than looking forward to things yet to do, I feel drawn to reflect on what I’ve gotten from the 21,900 days behind me. So here’s my list of six lessons:
1. Ask. Cultivate curiosity. How could anyone look at this scene and not wonder what it is? Curiosity supports youthfulness, no matter your mileage or years.
2. Accept. Anomalies brush past everywhere. I’ve asked, but even if I don’t understand the whys and whos . . . of horned creatures munching atop walls under the VZ Bridge or . . .
full-rigged ships suddenly blooming, heeled over and zooming past vessels called Chance, or
vessels named Ever Diadem passing scows named Mighty Quinn, so be it. I know I’ve NOT done anything to hallucinate, so maybe in time I will understand. In fact, as I took fotos of Ever Diadem, clear as could be I heard the bow watch crewman shout out “Foto!” so I took one, will put it on the web, and whoever he is, he may or may not some day stumble upon it.
3. Act. Pulverize procrastination. But realize that running in competition with procrastination is triage. Some things will not get done first . . . might never get done at all, and those priorities could be fine. But act on what you want and need. Fred Trooster took this foto in Hellevoetsluis, downstream from the port of Rotterdam, last spring. Bedankt, Fred.
4. Smile. Whoop and overwhelm weltschmerz. I have my sources for smiles, and I go there when I need them to survive. It sounds silly maybe, but I’m as committed to balance in humor as in diet, work . . . .
5. Give. Give yourself, your humor, your urgency. Overwhelm some random person with your cheer. And although it’s not the motivation, whatever you give comes back many fold and in unexpected ways. Account ledgers, though important, tell only half-truths.
6. Relax. When I was under 30, I confused sleep with wasted moments. Relaxation allows wisdom to seep in. Here near the headwaters of the Hudson aka Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, a few minutes of nestled into the sandy bank rearrange priorities and expel dark humors.
The feline below left, less than six months old, gallops around the house more pony than cat. But it sleeps up to 18 hours a day. So does the 30-year-old parrot. Relaxation, re-energizing, a rovering spirit remain as much the prerogative of the over-60 as the under-30. Gallivanting becomes the parrot as well as the cat, although each does it differently.
So, where do I go from here? Tomorrow, my actual 21,900th day I don’t post. I work a 12-hour day at the bread/butter job. But in the breaks, I think of post-60 gallivants. Here are six that occur to me immediately.
1. the Panama Canal. It’d be just like sitting along the KVK, and I’d even see some of the sixth boro regulars, I’d bet.
2. the Erie Canal. I’ve motored it, but I have a 10-foot Hunter Liberty that I’d love to sail from Lyons to the sixth boro.
3. a freighter cruise. I’ve never been interested in big cruise ships. In my early 30s,I took a thrilling 60-hour ferry from Jedda to Port Suez.
4. the Amazon, and while in Brasil, I might stop in at Bebedouro. Maybe the freighter cruise could be up to Port Newark with holds full of orange juice.
5. the Mississippi, at least from St. Louis to the Gulf.
6. the Rhine/Rhone Canals from the North Sea to the Med.
So much for a list. Tomorrow some of these might differ. So what . . .
Here are some more lists . . mostly young people.
I’d planned something different for today, but then my inbox started to fill. And it makes me happy to feel a community building here. So . . . thanks all for reading and sending fotos and links. I wanted to go out taking fotos, but a pile of tasks told me to stay home.
First, Ann O’Nymous sent me a link to Tugboat Tales, a fabulous documentary made by the late Bart Lawson back in 1991. This first-rate documentary is divided into parts one, two, and three. A click gets you to youtube.
Next, harbor photographer extraordinaire John Watson went to check progress on Ambrose, and discovered the drydock had been floated out and reoriented 180 degrees, with the lightship on board. That would have been a sight to behold.
Now here’s the bow . . as seen from shore. Given the wind, the blue belly over the mushroom anchor is clearly a blue tarp.
Next, from Allen Baker, this foto of a lightship undergoing restoration two hundred miles . . . downeast . . . well, in Boston. It’s LV-112, which last appeared in this blog almost two years ago. That info back in 2010 was passed along by Matt of Soundbounder. Check this link (Thanks to Rick) for many more fotos of LV-112.
As I said, I stayed inside this morning, chomping at the bit because Orange Star was headed out. Had I realized that her sister vessel was coming in and that they’d cross not far from the Narrows, I would have “busted out.” Nothing could have kept me inside. Then, I got an email from bowsprite informing me that Orange Babe Wave had come into port, and I was beside myself. At which point . . . .
I got an email from John Skelson, with attached fotos of Orange Wave!!! If you’re new to this blog, I’m a self-professed orangejuiceaholic. Here, thanks to A. Steven Toby is a link to the technology of these juice ships.
And since this post has become a gallery of other people’s fotos, here’s another from Allen Baker. A little self-disclosure here: I moved to the Boston area in the mid-1980s. One day in 1986, I was walking near the Science Museum and saw two very tired tugboats there, Luna and Venus. The sad sight drew me in. To see these beauties in such an utter state of disintegration broke my heart. I thought both were doomed. Venus was clawed into matchsticks in 1995, and Luna very narrowly escaped the same fate. Read the much nuanced story here. Luna dates from 1930, the same year as W. O. Decker. I hope to see Luna again soon; too bad I didn’t carry a camera around back in 1986.
And Decker brings the post to South Street Seaport, which I’m thrilled isexperiencing early springtime, frigid temperatures notwithstanding. Also, if you’ve been in NYC recently, you know it’s been a snowless winter so far; this foto was taken last year. I’ve always know the vessel below as Helen McAllister, but now I’m embarrassed to note that she’s also the ex-Admiral Dewey and Georgetown. I’d never realized that. Further, she came off the ways into the KVK in 1900, built at the same yard that produced Kristin Poling! And this raises two questions: is Helen McAllister that last power vessel of that yard still extant? And, does anyone know of fotos of Helen McAllister that show her working during OpSail 1992. Which raises the question . . . am I the only one NOT hearing talk of planning for OpSail 2012 New York?
Both Ambrose and Admiral Dewey/Georgetown/Helen McAllister are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
It’s cold outside and tomorrow should be colder, so you could click on every link above and drink some hot tea. Did I complete many of my tasks today? No, but I had a ball with these fotos. Watching all three parts of Tug Tales will take about a half hour, but it is well worth the time.
Thanks to Ann, John, Allen, bowsprite, Steven, and John for fotos and info.
Finally, here are two other worthwhile places to check while emptying that pot of tea: Oil-Electric on “marine railroads” and a treasure trove of fotos from the National Maritime Museum on Flickr.
My parents called December 31 “oud jaardag,” if I spelled that right . . . meaning “old year’s day.” I like the idea of a “look back” day, a last chance to catch up, my opportunity to TRY to catch up on the social part of blogging. Thanks to all of you who send me fotos from hither and yon, a wealth of images that sometimes overwhelms. Please continue to do so in 2012, although I can’t always keep up.
Foto below from Rene Keuvelaar from the many steams of the Rhine delta. Translation is “happy holidays and a great new year.” Maybe someone can identify the steam tug.
Foto below came from Pam Hepburn of Pegasus Preservation Project. Foto from 1960 of Pegasus ex-John E. McAllister, assisting in the Newport News launch of Enterprise CVN-65.
Foto below from Jan van der Doe, open cockpit Handyman, Rotterdam harbor, 1941.
Foto from John Watson less than two weeks ago, Charles D. McAllister assisting Centurion out to Mighty Servant 1 for transport to Nigeria.
Foto from Richard Wonder of the supply vessel Twin Tube, a Blount-built harbor boat.
Foto compliments of John Kopke of 36500, the most-rescuing 36′ lifeboat ever, famous for its rescue in February 1952 (the month and year I was born) of crew from tankers Fort Mercer and Pendleton. Here are some more.
Another oldie from Jan van der doe . . . 1944 foto of Englishman in Rotterdam harbor.
Thanks to Kenneth Bailey . . . Algoma Discovery, 1987-launched laker, heading through the Detroit River less than two weeks ago.
Again, from Ken Bailey, Barbara Andrie, a 1940-launched tug at work on the Detroit River last week.
My foto from yesterday on the Tennessee River, the 1926 steamer-turned hotel-hoping to return to passenger trade . . . Delta Queen. I’d love to see fotos of her when she worked the West coast and when she traversed the Panama Canal to access the Mississippi waterways.
A mystery tug/pushboat I got a foto of yesterday in Chattanooga. It seemed to be overseeing several dozen covered barges.
And a foto by my sister . . . she insisted I pose in this foto of the SS William Clay Ford pilot house. Thanks, sister.
Twelve fotos for old year’s day. Thanks to all for sending me fotos. If you sent one and I didn’t use it, either remind me or blame my absence of imagination or my disorganizational skills. Resolution matters, too; at least 400k is needed. If you send a foto, please tell me immediately if I have permission to use it and how to attribute it.
I’m off from Atlanta area to Wilmington, NC and then Newport News in less than 24 hours. Happy 2012! Bonne annee.
Here’s my post from a year ago. Where HAS the time gone? A joy of doing this blog is to go back, and sometimes as with this one, my memory–or is it my gut–recalls the eagerness of that morning 365 days ago. What I pursued then I still pursue . . .
Can you spot anything in the foto below that suggests the time of year? Answer follows. All fotos look better if you enlarge by doubleclicking on them.
Oyster Creek reenacts a moment with the Bayonne Bridge that mimics a Fractor scene (see my “masthead” atop each post) from five years back.
L. W. Caddell struts out into the KVK all in a day’s work that
shows off its bollard pull.
Mary Alice (ex-Gulf Sword, 1974) sashays back to the work on the channel near Shooters. I wonder, given how long the deepening of the sixth boro channels has been ongoing and how from the surface, the water looks unchanged, has anyone heard of a moniker for this project akin to “big dig,” a Boston phenomenon?
Behemoths like NYK Romulus, relatively small given the world fleet, benefits from this dredging. Notice the red/green detail nearly in the center of this foto. Might that be on-deck controls for a bow thruster?
In her last moments of this leg of her never-ending journey, she’s assisted by Gramma Lee T Moran and
Margaret Moran. Without the dredging and without assistance, Romulus would never get here and
negotiate this
S-curve. Notice in the distance, where on Shooters shore the dredging currently focuses. If you missed this post showing Shooters a century ago, click here. If you want a comparison then and now, click here.
So, did you find the seasonal reference in the top foto? Here’s another look . . . move your eye toward the bell in front of Amy Moran‘s raised wheelhouse. Piney branches. I like it. And I’m thrilled to see Ice Babe Base back in town.
Parting shot for this solstice: from left to right, Barney Turecamo, Amy Moran, and Turecamo Boys Girls (Thanks, Harold!).
Saturday I hit the road for the south, Chattahoochee watershed, then Cape Fear, then maybe Newport News. Tomorrow I may put up some road fotos not yet used from the last trip.
Thanks for reading. Peace, friendship, prosperity, and imagination to all of you. Health too.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, today. . . . first day of winter . . . 63 degrees in the sixth boro!
There’s a link a bit later to a post from last winter. I hope you check it. For now I’ll say Robert Frost was on the money here.
Yes, it’s Kristin Poling, embracing her future.
Here’s what Robert Frost wrote, as a paraphrase of Dante Alighieri: “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.”
Note the house, removed and on the bank. Here’s the fotos of the ice NOT sufficing to destroy Kristin 11 months ago. Here are some fotos from my visit on her two months ago.
Many many thanks to Bob Silva for these fotos, which he took yesterday. RIP, (recycling into productivity) Kristin Poling, December 15, 1934—Dec 15, 2011.
Notice the Village Voice icon has disappeared. Tugster didn’t get their nod. Thanks for voting. Although it would have been nice to win, winning is not why I blog.
You know the song; I decided to adapt it like this.
“On the first tides of Christmas, my true loves spoke to me . . . of propellers in a parts tree.
On the second tides of Christmas, my true loves gave to me, two honey boats, and . . .
… three schooner sails, . . .
… four ferry boats, . . .
… five safety rings, . . .
… six sailors sailing, . . .
… seven short sea shippers, . . .
… eight bunkers pumping, . . .
nine scows a dumping, . . .
… ten dredgers digging, . . .
… eleven lighters lightering, . . .
…twelve tugs a pushing, . . .
and pushing and pushing . . .
Happy holidays, and maybe the Village Voice will employ it in this song. Here’s the original, if you don’t know the Twelve Days . . . song.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Same idea only different . . . check out frogma.
Well, maybe not that different, since I’m not reinventing myself. But enjoy these fotos, and while looking at them, fugure out where you’ve seen this tug before on this blog. Look carefully. It took me about 30 seconds to recognize the red tug below as a more pristine version of a tug that appears here periodically. Fotos were taken in the 1980s by Seth Tane, who generously shares them here.
In its current state, this tug, using the same name, has considerably more equipment on board. What hasn’t changed is the profile of the Palisades in the background of some of these fotos, taken in or near Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.
This tug today still operates commercially, pulling loads like the one below.
A major change in the tug relates to visibility; the portholes would make me claustrophobic. However, since the mystery tug was built on the Great Lakes, maybe portholes conserve heat better in winter. Tug Daniel A. White, below left, has more conventional glass. Anyone know what has become of Daniel A. White?
If you guessed Patty Nolan, you were correct. Here’s her current work page, showing her original form. Click on the following links for a sampling of Patty Nolan fotos from the past few years, like modelling 2011 summer beach fashion, at work in the East River, moving snail-like with house, and finally . . . for now . . . Patty Nolan outlaw fashionista.
Thanks much to Seth for these fotos from the early 1980s.
Below is a foto (poor quality) that I took in December 2000. I clearly had forgotten how barren the Jersey City shore just north of the Morris Canal looked a mere 11 years ago, almost reminiscent of a desert town. This foto was among a batch my sister handed me at Thanksgiving, but those foto gave me
an idea. Maybe you have fotos in a drawer, a shoebox, and album, etc. that show some part of the sixth boro and/or vessels there. And if I may so brazen, tugster would LOVE to see any fotos you might come across and are willing to share.
Here was Something Different 4.
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