Transformations

Kirbyfication, which looks

like this on Norwegian Sea, is only one transformation, although if you asked me to personify and interpret, I’d say Norwegian looks positively

mortified in these fotos.  ”OMG!!  I can’t bear bare   . . .

myself, can’t bear to see this,” she seems to say.

Here’s the changes from Barbara C (October 2010) to

Arabian Sea sand stack decorations (March 2012) to

this past weekend.

Others, like Miss Yvette take things much more in stride from  here (third foto down) to June 2011

to yesterday.

Heron transforms from this March 2011 foto to

this one last week.  And a year from now, as she plys waters off Equatorial Guinea . . . what will that look like?

Sun Road was clearly not always known that way, although

one of my sources was of no value.

For a thrilling transformation story, check out The Skipper & the Eagle, which relates how Horst Wessel became Eagle back in 1946.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

If you like to hear Jefferson Airplane, click here:  their lyric based on a John Wyndham sci-fi novel goes “Life is change.  How it differs from the rocks . . .”

Eagle 2

Uh . . . I miscalculated and got no new fotos of cutter Eagle today, but John Watson made a smart choice

and got these . . . .  Bravo,  John!  Check out this Eagle/Horst Wessel crew reunion blog.  And thanks to PortSide NewYork, this info on visiting hours this weekend aboard Eagle  at Pier 7 Brooklyn Marine Terminal . . . Today . .. .  2 — 5 pm, Saturday . . . 1–7pm, and Sunday  . . . 10 am–7 pm.
1) . . . Name the four sister training barques.    Answer follows.Still,  serendipity gave me other fotos for another day.  Instead, enjoy a few more Eagle  I took yesterday . . . sans ceremonial escort boats and with some facts about the vessel.

2.  In launch order among the five “siblings”, where does Eagle find itself?  By the way, I can’t identify the cruise ship in the distance.

3.  When did Eagle (ex-Horst Wessel) enter US hands and who crewed it to the US?  Note the anchor ball just above a member of the crew.

4.  How many aircraft has this vessel downed in its career and of what air force(s)?

5.  What year was the orange “racing stripe” added?

6.  How many of the sister vessels have NEVER visited the sixth boro?

1.   Gorch Fock (1933 ex-Tovarishch), Sagres III (1937) , Mircea (1938), and Gorch Fock II (1958).  Eagle is second . . . built in seven months and commissioned in September 1936.

2.  Eagle was built in 1936, placing it as second oldest.

3.  It was transferred to US ownership in May 1946 and sailed to the US in June of the same year by a joint German/American crew.  Point of entry to the US and disembarkation of the German members of the crew happened at Camp Shanks, more or less across from Yonkers.  Does anyone know of fotos of Eagle headed up or down the Hudson in 1946?

4.  It downed three Soviet planes and one German “friendly.”

5.  Racing stripe was added in 1976.

6. I don’t know which–if any–of the Blohm + Voss training barques have NEVER visited New York harbor.

The two fotos below show a plaque in what used to be Camp Shanks.  Vessel in the distance below is Wanderbird, also

 a repurposed vessel from Western Europe.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who took these fotos of Eagle five years ago.  Thanks a bundle for the fotos from this morning, John.

Finally, the other Blohm + Voss vessel in New York harbor is Peking, languishing in South Street Seaport limbo.  Peking is 377′ loa x 46 beam’ x  16′ draft; compared with Eagle‘s 295′ x 31′ x 17.’

Click here to read the reminiscences of Emil Babich, who crewed aboard Eagle in June 1946 for Eagle’s FIRST arrival in the Hudson on its way to Camp Shanks.

Eagle 1

Either this foto is science fiction, fotos of Eagle –which arrives on August 5 appearing on this blog already on August 4– or

this is a rehearsal, including crew in the rigging and

vessel lining up for fotos shoots-future, a real 75-year-old barque 

doing dances with a 25-year-old replica, getting ready for

the official entry into the Upper Bay tomorrow.

Actually, I’d prefer you believe the sci-fi explanation, a narrative that allows me to believe these vessels (Peking, for example, was built at Blohm + Voss as was Eagle … ex-Horst Wessel …)  are heartsick to be bound, gagged, and held hostage at these piers . . .  rather than sailing and sallying forth to join the celebration.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  If you are anywhere near the Narrows tomorrow morning, watch reality catch up with sci-fi and witness Eagle sail her way (if there’s wind) up to the Statue.