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To see last year’s post from August 30, click here. For info on the race next Sunday, click here. If you scroll through that previous link, way down in the fine print you’ll read that this year’s race is dedicated to the memory of Don Sutherland. Below is a short video I made at a memorial to Don held in June 2010 aboard PortSide NewYork’s Mary Whalen.
This post is dedicated to those folks who . . . on Labor Day . . . can’t make the tug race or even the family BBQ because they will labor in the house,
on the bridge,
on deck,
following the border,
in the service,
pushing oil around, or
trying to clean it up.
Happy Labor Day.
Because of last night’s rain, you have one last chance to see “Seven Deadly Seas” TONIGHT at 8 pm. Go early and catch this hard-to-replicate combination: left to right Cape Race, Gazela, and Mary A. Whalen … as seen from the entrance to the Brooklyn Passenger Terminal in Red Hook.
Big doings also are happening for Pegasus, here with a happy tour group. Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79 will be docked in Brooklyn Bridge Park starting later this week.
Uh . . . shoes of future mariners?
Contemporary mariners work aboard such vessels as
JoAnne Reinauer III
and (right to left) Twin Tube– a supply boat–and CSL Atlas, cousin of my longlost Alice O. By the way, Atlas brought in the beginnings of the upcoming winter’s supply of road salt . . or was that table salt??
Colleen McAllister and other vessels labor away at the sisyphusian task of dredging.
R/V vessels like Blue Sea do their own research/education work. Here RV Blue Sea is on the high and dry as a preparation for a new season.
Jay Michael frequents the sixth boro, and
in parting, this sloop (Margaret A ?) passes a fuel barge.
Unfortunately, I missed yesterday’s lobsterboat races up in Portland, Maine, and I have to wait til 2011 to see them. But you can still get to the 18th Annual Great North River (aka sixth boro) Tugboat Race on September 5. See you there.
Tomorrow … yes … another few days’ gallivant. Details later.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated: Check out this Newtown Creek shipping post by Restless.
Ooooolala! What’s this? Make your way to Atlantic Basin ASAP; click here for tickets … only two shows Saturday (tonight!) and two Sunday left, before the floating burlesque sails over the horizon.
Staging this burlesque is barquentine Gazela, whose first life fishing for cod continued until the year Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Yessir, this fine vessel served as a dory boat until 1969!
Up to 35 dories (many built in the Merrimack Valley north of Cape Ann) like the one in the foreground here served “mothership” Gazela.
Daytime tours of Gazela as well as nighttime entertainment can be had only through this weekend! This is also the last chance (for a while) to see Mary Whalen at Pier 11. For directions to Pier 11, click here.
So I went to the show “The Seven Deadly Seas” the other night. Before the show, the devil’s advocate (of the Flaming Cherries) emerges from the nether portions of the ship, and
the city darkens as the band begins to play. See the twinkling Manhattan lights off in the distance.
Feisty bawds dueling over everything
can be charmed only by
dancing
and more dancing and
still more dancing that sometimes lead to … lost clothing.
Come learn the story of Calico Jack, who imagined he had all the skills needed to thrive on Wall Street.
Bring a dozen friends and make it the most memorable night of the summer, the summer of Atlantic Basin as prime offshore Broadway.
Will Calico Jack swing here, or is it Camp Butner FCC for him?
Don’t miss the boat.
Fotos by Eric Lorgus (some taken in Philadephia) and Will Van Dorp.
home of the two Marys. The farther Mary comes and goes, but the nearer one–Mary A. Whalen, hub of the Basin–will
serve as locus for (literally) tons of visiting historical vessels (See Atlantic Basin 1) this summer as well as intangible amounts
of fun. See the full calendar of music, movies, lectures, and visiting vessels on the calendar here. Or just come by to hang . . . during TankerTime. When I tried to interview Mary A. Whalen about the summer, her only response was the smile created by red-white-blue bunting hanging between the portholes on the house.
As to the other Mary, the distant one with a tiara suggested by her name, she’s itinerant. She left yesterday (7/19) and will return
in early August . . . if the schedule is to be believed.
Hail! Marys of the Atlantic Basin. See bowsprite’s adorable rendering here.
This coming Saturday–July 24–is City of Water Day in NYC. Some of the events at Atlantic Basin include a marine security display with a VACIS container scanner, a sniffer dog from US Customs and Border Protection, Urban Divers mobile marine museum, a container mover from American Stevedoring, tours of visiting steam lighthouse tender Lilac, live music, food from local Brooklyn vendors including Kevin’s Restaurant and Kustard King. And more!
See more City of Water Day info here.
Middle three fotos by Will Van Dorp; all other fotos and mosaic here by Carolina Salguero.
Unrelated: Earlier today I asked the following question: Can anyone help identify this large floating object on the Hudson here? Foto was taken by the Mighty Quinn five days after the Willis Avenue Bridge floated by, and a few weeks after the house barge sauntered through. And the answer . . . just in from Richard Canty, captain of Glen Cove: The object in question is a set of “cooling towers for the new power plant being built in Astoria at Steinway Street. They were built at P&M Marine’s dock in Coeymans, NY. That dock may be remembered by some as the old Brickyard. The towers are giant sails. Very exciting driving in a wind….. any wind.”
Thanks, Richard.
And this will be my last post for July. Lake Opeongo has called. It seems some mysteries there need my immediate attention–or I need theirs . . . stuff like deciphering the code of crickets, the flickering of fireflies, the meandering of muskellunge, the wiles of wintergreen, the secrets of snipe, the contours of congress (lower case), the rituals of relating, the protocol of pursuit, the finesse of friendship (oh.. this could be endless) . . . . Ah, the glories of gallivanting.
Til August . . . cheers from tugster.
Oops! Here’s some merry music from Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, and Tom Petty.
(Back in New York) You’ve seen this before here. No, it’s not named for a boat competition, as someone suggested to me yesterday. The paint is spiffied up, but
imagine my surprise and delight when
Cape Race glided into Atlantic Basin yesterday under
her own power, accompanied by music from her own Cat 3512.
Ah joy! Eggs hatch (or make delicious souffles), apples ripen, oysters open, bread rises, and projects evolve. Click here and here for festivities in Atlantic Basin last year, and come
check out this calendar of July events planned there this month and next, including Underwater New York (Check out their “An Oral history of Atlantis“) and a movie about Poppa Neutrino.
First five fotos by Will Van Dorp. Composite by Carolina Salguero. By the way, if you do Facebook, you could befriend Mary Whalen, the 613-ton ambassador (See post for 2/20/2008).
Tangentially related and from the other side of the continent, check out these blog posts (thanks to Tom Larkin) on
Log broncs (a variation on truckable tugs)
A collage of wooden boats and other delights.
BlueBQ? Why blue?
“Blue moon?” I wondered. “Blue eyes, blueberries, or blue chips . . . ?”
No, it’s blue space, the “watery parts” needing consideration in urban planning . . . like green space . . . only aquaeous. The sixth boro is blue space.
BlueBQ: It’s PortSide NewYork’s fundraiser held on July 3, 2010 on Pier 11 Atlantic Basin. See all details here.
All fotos (taken in 2007 and 2008) by Will Van Dorp. If you do Facebook, check out Mary Whalen‘s page here . . . with lots of fotos, including ones from their event last weekend: Concierto Tipico.
Unrelated: Check out the current state on this tugboat, launched as ST 246 from the Levington Shipyard in Orange, TX, in 1943 . . . after surviving WW2 and morphing through French, Italian, and Turkish hands. ST means “small tug.”Be sure to click on the “gallery,” and enjoy beautiful music even if the images are a bit repetitive.
Uh . . . outboard up? Just an illusion. And official uniform? uh . . . just a hot-day display. This one’s small enough to be trucked, yet it
can move a sizeable barge. No name was visible anywhere as it passed through the KVK Thursday. In the background is (I think) St. Andrews, leaning on the landing at Snug Harbor. That’s the salt dock to the left.
This incognito truckable tug herded up a smattering of scows over at Bergen Point, on the western Bayonne side of the Bayonne Bridge. Remember, most fotos enlarge when you doubleclick on them; I notice raised letters “reliant” on the back of the house just above the two hanging lengths of line. Reliant?
Any guesses on the size of the red tug headed to the southwest across the Upper Bay? I’ll give dimensions a little farther. For now, that’s the Red Hook Container Terminal in the background with Mary Whalen (red house) docked along the pier with the blue warehouse.
It’s Louise, first time for me to spot. Louise came off the Oyster Bay Jakobson ways in 1959: 34′ loa x 11.’
Compared with Rae (green) built 1952 and 46′ x 15′ x 5,’ the farther half of this tandem, Robert IV is newer and larger: built in 1975 and 54′ x 22′ x 9.’
With their low bows and push knees, these are river and harbor tugs.
It’s Glen Cove with a “side tug” or “outrigger tug.” Don’t quote me on those terms; I just made them up. I took this foto the day the fleet arrived; all the folk outside the house had something of a water platform to see and salute the fleet.
On Glen Cove‘s starboard hip, it’s Harbor II, which first appeared here. For one of Glen Cove‘s previous appearances, click here; use the search window on upper left to find the others. Dimensions: Glen Cove is the largest (actually not small at all) in this post: 71′ x 28′ x 11′ launched in 1975 and having previously starred as Mary Gellatly, Philadelphia and Capt Danny.
Last one for now, it’s Maria J (ex-Jesus Saves built 1971 and 63′ x 22′ x 9′) . . . I know I’ve told you that before, but I just love that name as I do its former New England registry.
All these smaller tugs has traversed the sixth boro in the past month; all fotos . . . Will Van Dorp.
Motivation for small tugs? Some call them “rule-beaters.”
What Bonnie does here for Flatbush, I’ll attempt within the sixth boro, starting here with the venerable Mary Whalen and
King Dorian (glad that’s not “durian“) before shifting to shorter wavelength in
Jo Selje and
Panagia Lady, here lightering onto (I think) JoAnne Reinauer III.
Continuing across the spectrum with Stolt Vanguard and sibling
Perseverence. Then
and Ever Refine and
the snarkiest Don Juan and
the Bermudian cargo shuttle Oleander and
Bro Albert.
For something my eyes register as indigo, violet, purple . . . I can’t guarantee you’ll agree . . . I had to go outatown, like back upstate to Newark and a foto from last summer of Grouper. Has she now begun her journey west?
All fotos . . . so far … Will Van Dorp.
But from shipjohn via Shipspotting . . . here’s that purple fleet down in Philly . . . like Purple Hays,
Big Daddy, and
Grape Ape. Many thanks shipjohn.
Mary Whalen‘s moved several times that I missed, but today was my third, or so. Click here for one of her previous moves, and here for an orange tug moving her. In small, quick patches of sunlight between the raindrops, she has a new dance partner–K-Sea Houma– while off to the west, storm clouds churn chaos. By the way, Houma, despite the name, is Long Island built, 1970, ex-Texaco Houma II.
Once the plan is devised,
the tow gets made up and
Mary Whalen shows she still has what it takes to do a molinete to the tango music emanating from her bilge, stretch and spin before
making fast to the south side of Dock 9. Meanwhile, from her vantage, it appears a deluge soaks the southwest side of Staten Island. Houma crew debark from Mary Whalen,
say their partings, and then
Houma heads off to the next job, as the Lady from beyond Governor’s Island waves through the trees.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated: Red Alert for the SS United States. See info on the grandest dame of passenger liners here.
When tugs race on Sunday, government boats will officiate. Here are a few players.
When Liberty IV splashed into her element in 1989 at the Washburn & Doughty yard in East Boothbay, ME, she began a career that she still occupies: to ferry Park Service employees and supplies from the “mainland” to several stops in the sixth boro archipelago, i.e., Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Besides bearing a heritage relationship with such diverse vessels as Pati T. Moran, Shearwater, and Black Knight, she also carries a unique escutcheon on her stern.
Does anyone have fotos of Liberty I or II or III? Would Liberty I be sail or steam?
John D. McKean, foto taken one sunset a few weeks back, started service in 1954, first splashing into the waters in Camden at John H. Mathis, the same yard that built Mary Whalen!
A Perth Amboy Fire boat zipped eastward in the KVK last month. That’s K-Sea Baltic Sea in the background.
USACE Moritz, in hurry toward Newark Bay last week. Moritz comes from Kvichak Industries, soon
disappeared round the bend at Bergen Point.
Other recent fotos of government boats include this ones entrusted to Union County (New Jersey) Police,
and New Jersey State Police.
Finally, certainly NOT a government boat, but a German ship that has vessels that experiment with alternative propulsion. Foto was taken by bowsprite from her cliff last week. Did anyone catch the name?
Finally, as of Wednesday morning writing, Flinterduin will approach the Narrows near dusk tonight and start offloading tomorrow at dawn. And I have to be at work . . . from dusk today until dawn Friday . . . maybe I can sneak away to do tugster’s bidding.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.
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