Sixth Boro Sundries

Springtime . . . and motion gives a renewed sense of life to the watery boro.  Emerald Sea‘s been around all winter, but she’s not moved loads like this.  Diner?  Prefab beach buildings for post-Sandy reconstruction?  Many thanks to Ashley Hutto for this shot taken along Roxbury, Queens.

Eclipse, the huge yacht in the distance has taller masts than Clipper City, the tallest sailing vessel operating in the the harbor.  Eclipse left the harbor Tuesday, headed for Gibraltar.

Schooner Virginia left Wednesday, headed for Virginia . . . by way of Portland, Maine.

Anyone know the manufacturer of the speedboat in the foreground?  In the background is Zephyr, launched 10 years ago from the Austal Shipyard in Mobile, AL . . . and Wavertree, launched 128 years ago in Southampton, UK.

I could almost imagine this boat has a bowsprit.

Smaller workboats seem more commonplace this time of year like Henry Hudson,

this Oyster Bay government boat,

an OCC vessel,

and of course the ubiquitous all-weather sludge tanker North River, frequently mentioned on this blog.

Thanks to Ashley for the first foto, and I’d love to know what that structure on the Weeks barge is.  All other fotos by Will Van Dorp, who feels the urge to go somewhere too.

Old Trade Routes Retraced

These vessels recently left a trading post that was starting up around the same decade the sixth boro replaced the initials N. A. for N. Y.

As of this writing, these three vessels are entering the Indian Ocean on a historic re-enactment.

Earlier this month, Colin Syndercombe visited the three vessel at the docks in Cape Town.  Oosterschelde, Europa, and Tecla have an amzing combined age of 295 years!!  Tecla was built in my father’s hometown of Vlaardingen, nine years before my father’s birth.

Preparing to get under way.

Departing on this leg of the trip are some cadets of the South African Navy.

Fair winds . . . bon voyage.

Click here for fares and schedules.  Of note, in August 2013, there’s a sail from Perth to Houtman Abrolhos archipelago and back to Perth.  This picturesque Indian Ocean island chain saw the mutiny and wreck of the VOC ship Batavia on her maiden voyage and the subsequent murders of over 200 survivors by a band of other survivors.  This Lord of the Flies tale serves as basis for the Mike Dash’s compelling account Batavia’s Graveyard, if you’re looking for summer reading.

For an upbeat parting shot, here.

Many thanks to Colin, who has previously sent lots of interesting fotos from 8000 miles away in Cape Town.

Thanks to Chris Williams

Almost two years ago, Chris did this guest post about an experience he had sailing in the Mediterranean in this ride.  The vessel below, now threatened, was on the hook off Palma, Mallorca, in one of her last years of service.

On that same deployment, he caught this foto of SS France, speeding past his vessel toward the Straits of Gibraltar.

Here’s another of Chris’ fotos, Sac Badalona (see #113)  . . . at that time  not long to be afloat and intact.

Here’s Chris’ ride low and dry and cold in Boston Naval Shipyard’s Drydock 4, winter 1969-70.  What shrinks ASR-16 Tringa once accommodated Leviathan.

During that drydocking, Chris had a chance to get fotos along the Boston waterfront.  You can read the restaurant sign as Anthony’s Pier 4.  Can you identify the steamer and the schooner?  Answer follows . . .

This foto taken some time between December 1969 and March 1970 shows two tugs afloat and one sunk at the dock near Rowes Wharf in Boston . . . now a very different place.   Can anyone identify?  Chris has no clues other than the time and places info.   I’m grateful to Chris for sending along these scans, although both he and I will rely on some group-sourcing to know more about these vessels.   Enjoy.

Disintegrating in Noank in the 69-70 time frame, it’s the remains of once-four-masted schooner Alice L. Pendleton.

Moving south to New London, it’s W. H. Welch.

Also in New London . .  does that say Spaigo Carroll?

Also in New London . . . it’s ferry Martha’s Vineyard.

And this is the Thames River boneyard a,

b,

and c.

And finally, identification on the vessels at Anthony’s Pier 4 . . . steamer Peter Stuyvesant (victim of the Blizzard of 1978) and –a real coup in terms on an identification by eastriver and his “new englander” shipmate”–it’s 1863 Alice S. Wentworth, who went victim to a storm in 1974.

Many thanks to Chris for sending along these fotos, which belong to him.

More Newest Hull 2

The next three fotos come compliments of Rod Smith, whose Narragansett Bay Shipping site does a thorough job of documenting many things including all newbuilds worked on at Senesco Marine, where the new Caddell’s drydock was constructed.   Here’s the launch day, performed by rolling airbags.  See the upper wheelhouse of newbuild Dean Reinauer to the left behind the shed.  Small tug afloat is Hawk, ex-YTL 153.

Although not quite wide enough to contain a football field, it is more than long enough.  It would certainly redefine the game.

Here’s a foto of the drydock taken from the upperwheelhouse of Dean.  Can anyone identify the tug-in-progress directly in the foreground?

Finally, another of my fotos showing the tow just about home entering the Buttermilk Channel.  The octagonal structure to the left is the vent tower for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

Again, many thanks to Rod for use of these fotos.  If you do Facebook, Rod has just posted fotos of arrival of United Yacht Transport’s Super Servant 4 in Newport, RI.  Now if I were free, I’d head up and watch the float-off process.

Here was my first post on this drydock.

Sixth Boro Random Delights 8

It was a rainy day and I was giving some friends a tour of the city,  intending to leave the camera in the waterproof bag . . . but how could I pass up a foto like this . . . “spring-showers” washed-out colors notwithstanding.

Schooner Virginia was in town.  As of this writing, it’s anchored south of the George Washington Bridge.   Two very different places I’ve seen Virginia in the past year are here in tropical waters and here in her home waters.   I’d loved to have been on the tug HMS Liberty at this moment.

Here’s where I first caught sight of her . . . approaching tug Liberty Service lightering Amalthea.

Another delight in port was T/S State of Maine, by now headed south for the 2013 training cruise . . . with San Juan as its southernmost destination.

Also in port . .  Prisco Elizaveta and Atlantic Jupiter.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who in the course of the day, was so thoroughly and delightfully showered upon that the clothes are still wet

Max Breakaway

In May six years ago, I posted these fotos of a relatively new NCL vessel called Norwegian Spirit.  Yesterday morning at 0615 . . . l’amiga caught this view of sunrise looking over toward Jersey City.

It’s Breakaway‘s inaugural entry into the city . . .  Here’s an article about some of the related welcoming events.

Here’s the full monty, and about twelve hours later, here she

exits as captured by John Watson from his cliff over on Staten Island.

Thanks to l’amiga and John Watson for these fotos.  Here’s an article about building this vessel;  this series on building her goes all the way back to 2011.  Anyone explain why it’s called Breakaway?

I’ll try to catch her entering the Narrows one of these days.

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 2

A month ago I caught this small drydock floating in.    Today at noon Doris Moran with James Turecamo assisting dragged

this huge newbuild under the Brooklyn Bridge, the very same

day this tip was added to the WTC1 spire.  Also, it was about 175 days ago that some parts for the spire came barging in like this.

Those are South Street Seaport Museum’s vessels over beyond the drydock.

Someone can refresh my memory of the dimensions this drydock will accommodate, but I can see the Staten Island ferry eyeing it already.

The tow headed through the Buttermilk Channel before

John Watson picked up these shots as they headed across the Upper Bay, passed Robbins Reef Light, and the

KVK, where she will operate.

The last two fotos here come from John Watson;  all others by Will Van Dorp, who got these fotos inside another Caddell drydock three years ago.

Bridges 3

This gateway to the sixth boro dazzles at dawn, with out traffic or with.

Know this ship?  You saw this funnel before in a foggy October post as well as in a sunny September post in the past twelve months.

Here are the specs for the 12-year-old vessel going under the almost 50-year-old bridge.

In the distance, that’s the Newark Bay Bridge, located  north of Ports Elizabeth and Newark.

Inbound . . .

outbound, and

closely monitored.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who finally watched Saturday Night Fever for the first time, because of the bridges scenes.  It turned out to be a much better movie than this non-discoing blogger ever imagined.  See it if you haven’t, for a throwback to Bay Ridge (mostly)  back in 1977 . . . which started with a president named Ford , new computers were Commodore PETs and Apple IIs, and the Concorde started to fly to NYC.

Other People’s Fotos 22

Here was 18 in this series, which offers similar equipment.  Something supermax somewhere?

All these fotos come compliments of Xtian Herrou, who previously passed along fotos for this post and others.  He took this foto in Brest, although the tug is by now through Port Said for parts south and east… .

These waters require that Sea Foxtrot and her tow take on specialized gear.

Once they get in the zone, Sea Foxtrot and

Norma 1 will fully deploy gear and look like this,

UAE tug Simyar, currently working in the Indian Ocean.

Merci beaucoup, Xtian  . . .

Here’s a post I did six and a half years ago (scroll on through) alluding to pirates that once annoyed ships in the sixth boro . . ..

WLV-612 Redux Closeup

Click here for my serendipitous fotos of WLV-612 under way a few months back.  I traded those fotos for a tour.  But  the vessel immediately below is not 612 . . . it’s LV-87, 43 years older than the 612.  Check out the riveted hull.    Here and here are some previous posts on that Ambrose showing vintage in situ views and high and dry ones at Caddell’s last spring.

In comparison, here’s the bow of the 1950 Nantucket aka WLV-612.

The C covers a hatch which when swung outward is marked with a U so that from a distance, one would still read the name on side as Nantucket.  I’m not kidding.

This is what a welded lightship stern looks like.  But where is Nan, with whom I had the appointment to view the vessel?

A cellphone call brings movement to a forward portlight, and with the right password,

this hatch swung open.  ”No, I’m not selling anything or giving away religion . . . I just being tugster.  A tour maybe?”

Spirals still lead between decks, although I’m guessing that everything about this vessel has been redone to yacht standards.  For the official site fotos of what’s below decks, click here. There are many more fotos on this listing . .  for less than $7 m it can be yours.  It will probably leave the sixth boro before the end of this month.

Prominently framed below, the builder’s plate. But how did WAL become WLV?  Addendum #2  Here’s the answer.

This vessel was the USCG last working lightship until 1983, and it did “other tasks” until being decommissioned in March 1985.

For a PDF on many US lightships, click here.  Two of them are abandoned on a riverbank in Suriname.  For some haunting fotos of a similar 1910 Dutch lightship (Lichtschip Suriname-Rivier) along that same river, click here.   It seems there is a restoration project underway, as filmed here in the past month . . . but in Dutch.  Basically, the narrator says “don’t fall through the deck, vessel came here in 1911, here’s the washroom, the kitchen, the anchor machinery, the light tower . . . here’s the companionway heading below, yes . . . there’s water down there but we’re hoping to get her dry.”  Come back when the job is done;  meanwhile I am NOT going down below where some nasty critters might have settled in.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.