Falconia

Previously I’ve alluded to growing up on a working dairy farm, and the aging farm boy in me immediately recognizes the bundles there as some quite weathered straw.  Cut the twine holding them together and there’s still some serviceable bedding in there for cows.  But what structure is this?

Can straw and hay be a product of transshipment through the sixth boro . . . transferred by those cranes?  Don’t those cranes look like the ones in the Brooklyn Navy Yard?

Surely this would be the largest hay barn I’ve ever seen.  What’s going on here?

Falconia works in the livestock trade.  Click on the link in the previous sentence to see her itinerary.  Here and here are previous posts I’ve done on this enterprise.  And this particular vessel, I first saw in the Port of Wilmington back in mid-October;  whatever was happening, she entered the sixth boro over a month ago under tow, as captured here by John Watson.

The white-red-blue flag here is the banner of the aptly-named Corral Line.   Search around that link a bit and you’ll find views of the interior of the vessels, scenes I’d love to see.

Falconia is the saltwater version of the Amazonian livestock carriers pictured here . . . fotos 11 and 12.

My uninformed guess is that the 1973 Norway-built  Falconia is here with propulsion issues.  Click here for what may be a fairly new foto of the vessel.

Click here for many fotos of livestock vessels.   Meanwhile, I’ve got to get to the movie Life of Pi, which–if the book is any indication–has scenes of a ship transporting a zoo, unsuccessfully.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp, who still has many fotos from the Mississippi Valley.

Meanwhile in the Sixth Boro 4

Before dawn the day of the race, daily port activities carried on:  Atlantic Niyala awaited load shift in Red Hook.

Celebrity Summit arrived from sea for some port time here assisted by  Kimberly Turecamo (?).

Scott Turecamo awaited some rehab

at Caddell’s.

As passengers debarked to starboard, equipment received attention to port.  I’m not sure what all is happening over on the port side here.

Up at the Manhattan passenger terminal Veendam received Tuckahoe  attention to port as well as passengers transferred from ship to island.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who heads for the Roundup tomorrow.

Cast Closeups 3

Here’s the engine order telegraph and a bit of uniform.  Guess the vessel?  Doubleclick enlarges fotos.

Here’s more signage.  Identification later in the post.

And a closeup of the topsail furling system of Etoile, one of the French schooners.

More brass and brightwork on Etoile.

And the guard of the passerelle.

Not far away, crew on this vessel looked less inviting.  Guess the nationality?

Canadian.  She’s guarding HMCS Iroquois, built in the same Quebec town as Mathilda!

Here was Iroquois last Wednesday converging with other vessels in the sixth boro, and

here she is nose to nose with USCGC (WLB 202) Willow, alternatively captured by bowsprite.

From the bridge deck of Argus, looking over the stern and toward the west . . . Governors Island and New Jersey beyond.   Along the horizon near the south tip of Governors Island . . . those are the cranes of Bayonne and even fainter beyond that Port Elizabeth.

Here’s the view from the forward positioned bridge.  Back in 2007 I caught these fotos of Oslo Express, the only bridge-forward container vessel I can recall seeing in the sixth boro.

Here’s a bit more info on Argus.  My tour guide and globalsecurity.org describe Argus as the only vessel in the world to have a CT scanner.    As it turns out, she also has a cat.  This is Simon, and yes . . . Simon went off duty decades ago, but his healing presence in the hospital lives on.  More sobering, Argus has patient monitors that allow patients to have a chance to survive IED-caused triple amputations.

Nearing dusk, yesterday afternoon . . . the Brooklyn vessels as seen from the water:  stern of Seneca, Shirane, the French Belle Poule and Etoile, and Cuauhtemoc.

Which brings me back to the Mexican ship.  Some of the cadets I spoke with finally explained this flag . . . it’s the captain’s personal flag . . . personal pirate flag, actually is what the cadet said.

Aboard were over 250 crew, who started their morning yesterday polishing brass before they let any visitors up the pasillo.

And the vessel was immaculate.

Below the stack here, I’m told, is a 1250 hp Cat.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who needs to get to another job now.

Cast

Doubleclick enlarges most fotos.  Few words here, but lots of fotos of the cast that has now converged.  Count them . . . five here and

one more here, along with OOCL Kuala Lumpur in the distance, a lube tanker servicing an oil tanker closeup, and a dredger  in the distance to the right.

From Colombia, it’s Gloria, with Buchanan 1 towing two stone scows in the distance.

From Ecuador, it’s Guayas, with a

condor as a figurehead.

From Indonesia, it’s Dewaruci, with

a regal figurehead and

exuberant crew.

From Mexico, it’s Cuauhtemoc, which is also

the name of the figurehead.

From Brazil, it’s Cisne Branco.

And finally, of the vessels already in Gravesend Bay, it’s the schooner Juan Sebastian De Elcano.

All at anchor, awaiting the parade tomorrow.

Mare Atlantic also awaits orders or appointments within

view of the cliffs of Manhatan.

Thanks to Working Harbor Committee for organizing and executing this sneak preview boat tour tonight.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  See who I missed at South Street Seaport!@#@!!

Maurania III

Yesterday I posted a foto of JoAnne Reinauer III:  there was a 1 and then the 3 . . . I wonder what happened to 2.  Not so with Maurania.  I just looked and there was a 1 and a 2.   Maurania 2 was launched in Brooklyn in 1952 and still operates in New London as Towmaster.

Maurania was built in Delaware in 1925.  Click here to see her beefy hull on a beach after Hurricane Carol.

Maurania sounds like it’s the name of a country in Africa . . . but sorry:  it exists only in science fiction.  A beach in Mauretania is home to

one of the world’s largest ship graveyards.  Here and here are some recent tugster fotos of Maurania III.  Now what I want to know is  . . . what became of the golden eagle that used to adorn her house . . . .

Unrelated:  Two HUGE objects are Thialf, here floating into Rotterdam . ..  and here .. . the way to move ship’s propellors quickly from a Bahamian warehouse to an Italian shipyard.

And for some small floating objects to offset the huge, consider these ocean-going vessels from a recent post from a Brooklynite on Ice.

Panama Day 2.2

I had planned something different, and this foto is certainly NOT great, but . . . what it shows is River Wisdom  Qingdao, China-bound and Duncan Island Red Hook, Brooklyn, USA-bound.  They’re passing each other at sea level Pacific side just “south” of the Miraflores locks.

Here was River Wisdom about a half hour earlier.  Any idea what she paid for the transit?  Warning . . . I don’t know the answer, but I can come close.   Number of vessel transits annually?  Answer follows.

Any idea when Duncan Island will arrive at the dock in Red Hook?  Again, I don’t have the answer, but bear with me.

Farfan is the assist tug for River Wisdom  . . . as I write this.

I’ve forgotten the name of this yacht, but with that tall a mast and that many spreaders, it could be the

same one I’ve seen in New York and Newport . . . like here.  (Note:  The yacht is Tiara.  It rents for a mere $200k/week.)

Some answers or attempted ones:  PTCC Tortugas paid over $200,000 to transit the Canal.  In cash.  At least 48 hours in advance.  The alternative is 8000 miles around Cape horn and about two additional weeks .  .  .  .    Richard Halliburton swam the Canal in August 1928.  Took him 10 days.  Cost him 36 cents!

14,000 vessels transit the Canal annually.  52,000,000 gallons of fresh water per vessel do the work.  Good thing the rainy season is generous to the watershed.

For River Wisdom, New York PLUS 7 days put her here.  Balboa PLUS 30 days will put her in Qingdao.

Might Duncan Island arrive with her bananas and other tropical fruit at the dock in Red Hook around March 22?  (Just looked it up . . . they could be there already the 18th!!!.)

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, in the past two hours.

Dense Traffic

But first, bowsprite’s talked about her online art store for some time, and yesterday . . . officially, she launched it.    Please traffic it.  I wouldn’t want her till to look like the one I found along the KVK yesterday.  See the jam-packed cash drawer below.  Come spring it might be full of green.

I love it when traffic in the KVK is dense:  here (l. to r.) Mediterranean Sea, Siberian Sea (?), Margaret Moran, and Cosco Tianjin.   In the distance is Robbins Reef Light and the old Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower in Brooklyn.

Dubai Express, Austin Reinauer, and Brendan Turecamo.   Invisible on the starboard side of Dubai is James Turecamo.

Here a small Triple S Marine (Aren’t they based in Louisiana?) boat bounces past Lucy Reinauer.

APL Japan, Elizabeth McAllister, Marion Moran, and McAllister Sisters . . . I believe, with the Brooklyn skyline in the distance.

Meagan Ann and OOCL Norfolk . . . with cables of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges in the distance.

Sea Lion pushes a barge of equipment ahead of MOL Endurance.

Among the pieces of equipment on this Mobro barge, what intrigued me was this Caterpillar designed to operate in wet places.

Finally for now . . . Beaufort Sea tails Maria J and Frederick E. Bouchard.

With traffic this heavy, I can see bowsprite will be very busy drawing and sketching while the robots staff the store.   Or maybe she could have robotos out sketching while she keeps the rust off her cash register?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Road Fotos 17

Any guesses about the location on the far shore with the spiky masts?

The water is Hampton Roads, where ironclads first clashed.  Monitor was built in Brooklyn, and I’ve never known where the Merrimack, sailing as CSS  Virginia originated.

Here’s a closer-up view of the fleet in Norfolk, with Miss Katheryne (?) closer inshore.

Since I’m putting this post up quickly, I haven’t discovered much about the huge coal docks in Dunbar neighborhood (?) of Newport News.

From near to far:  USNS T-AKR 310 Watson, T-AKR-304 Pililaau,  T-AK 3006 Eugene Obregon, and T-AKR 311 Sisler.  Sisler, as recorded here on this blog,  arrived in the sixth boro a bit over a year ago for maintenance at GMD Bayonne.

Coming into the quite breezy Roads is MSC Florentino.

Here’s another shot of Florentina as she passes an unidentified dragger.

Another unidentified bulker in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.  Star Breeze?

Actually, I’m back in the sixth boro, as of an hour ago. . . but it’ll be a spell before my head is unpacked.

Quick question:  I like the term “Hampton Roads” to described that water bordered by cities that include Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, etc.  It reminds me of the term I take credit for, “the sixth boro.”  How did “Hampton Roads” originate?  Why isn’t it “Norfolk Roads” or “X roads” with another locality lending its name?  Why did “Staten Island Roads” or some such never take root here?  Just wondering.

Eagle 3

We’ll get to Eagle, but first . . . I encountered this sight as I lined up today’s shots.  What IS that and where?

Anyhow, I heard Eagle‘s initial “under way” around 11:30.

John Watson monitored from his POV . .  .

I envied her leaving Manhattan’s oven temperatures and hazy light*.  I believe this ends Eagle‘s summer 2011 patrol marking her 75th anniversary.  She started the summer

in Waterford  a month ahead of the tall ships festival there, covered so ably by Capt. Boucher on Nautical Log.

A murder of crows gathered at Fort Wadsworth Lighthouse to pay respects.

I’m still looking for fotos and testimonials about Eagle‘s first trip inbound here in 1946 almost two decades before the Verrazano stood here, when Fort Lafayette languished  where the Brooklynside Tower now stands.

Which brings us back to the goats:  they are civil servants, federal employees . . .  low-budget custodians of crumbling federal infrastructure, New York’s answer to the chickens of Key West or the horses of Vieques.

Who knew?   Certainly not me . .  although they’ve been here awhile, as evidenced by this video.  I’d interpreted signs to “do not feed or pet the goats” as humor.  I’m already thinking now of a sign “do not feed or pet the Congress folks.”  Fill in the blanks with your own verbs for possible prohibitions.

Happy birthday Eagle!  A personal note . . . while taking these fotos I spoke with a passerby who wondered why the USCG maintains an antiquated sailing vessel for officer training.  My answer drew from conversations with a dear friend’s father two decades back who sailed on her in the 1950s . . . he said “The academy seeks not to train technologists but leaders.   Leadership training is what happens on cutter barque Eagle.”  What think you?

Thanks to John for foto #3;  all others by Will Van Dorp, who had to check . . . yes USCG vessel docs show three commercial vessels with goat in the name:  Goat Roper (Alaska) and SeaGoat and SeaGoat III (Louisiana).  Imagine the possibilities for figureheads . .  .

*For a whole different climate, check out Issuma’s view for 8/8 here.

Two tidbits from today’s NYTimes:

What we are learning from the “high n dry” USS Monitor

(thanks to eastriver) . . .  folks on the sixth boro’s low seas

 

 

Random Tugs 74

Ace . . . never seen it before.  Can you guess its location?  Answer follows.  I’d love to know the story.  Mebbe she’s the 1949er formerly known as Oil King?  And what of the collapsed rail bridge lower left?

Is that Michael Cosgrove sashayed eastbound on the East River with the 2006 Pegasus?

Here’s Franklin Reinauer headed for Erie Basin.

 Note the crewman portside between the two scows as

Thomas J Brown heads for Gowanus.

Is it true that Shawn Miller pushed a barge to  transport Our Lady for some R & R?

Foto of Ace was taken by will Van Dorp in the Wallabout Channel today.

And important news from Reuters, the escaped peacock has voluntarily returned to its home;  my speculation is that a love match had frayed and said-cock needed some time away.