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Once these were wooden barges, which
were towed around the harbor with a wide range of cargoes. In the foreground … disintegrating … is one a tug that once could have done the towing, now unidentifiable and impotent.
The sixth boro has many such tugs and barges, although given the efficient advance of decrepitude, fewer each season.
Once there was even a sixth boro barge called Periwinkle, no doubt painted in that color, a popular nightspot.
Here’s another barge called Driftwood, whose paint scheme and additional storage transformed a coffee (or whatever else commodity) transporter into an off-off-Broadway-even-off-the-island entertainment palace. Only stories remain and can be told by David Sharps, who
created the Waterfront Museum out of a wooden barge he literally dug and pumped out of the Hudson River mud, saving it from the fate of those barges above. The two fotos above come courtesy of David Sharps. Now the barge, the 1914 Lehigh Valley 79 tours with 1907 tug Pegasus, and other
vessels like the 1901 Urger, featured in many posts on this blog, help us visualize what those ruins in the top fotos once looked like and serve as places of entertainment even today. Here’s one set of fotos of Urger high, dry, but cold.
Anyhow, with five minutes of your time, you can help LV-79 and Pegasus collect a $250,000 grant for ongoing repairs. Just click here–AND each day until May 21 on the icon upper left side of this blog to vote. Partners in Preservation has chosen to award $$ by grant applicants demonstrated ability to use social media. So please vote . . . and ask a handful of your friends to do so as well . . . .
Unless otherwise attributed, all fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Since I woke up this May morning from a dream about attending a meditation session, the logical choice is to start my day writing a post that reflects upon–well–preservation. Two weeks ago I wrote about the Alwyn Vincent project. To quote the site, “she’s finally out,” and on the steel wheels ‘n rails of a synchrolift.
She was getting her “haircut and a shave” even before she stopped moving. When all logistical arrangements converge, the late 1950s tug will travel over-the-road 60 or so miles to its new life, as a functioning steam tug on a freshwater reservoir.
To support the self-described ’Bunch of Crazy Farmers’ (personified by Andy, in orange below) who now own the tug, the Alwyn website says they “selling space for banners of about 1 metre square, at R5 000 ($US 639.30). The advertisements are mostly in connection with agricultural products and services, partly because everybody knows who are responsible for saving this historic vessel! Partly also, it’s because those are the firms we know, support and can ask!”
I suppose they’d accept US sponsors as well; book your space on the hull! Contact Elma on dvijoeningwerke@telkomsa.net
Which brings me to South Street Seaport, and this sight that greeted me two days ago. After at least 20 years of deterioration, work is happening.
Spongy wood was being removed, and
I got my first ever look inside, after 10 years of wondering . . . .
Jim and Glen peeled away tired materials from the 1980s.
Installed inside the windows years ago was this captioning that
told some of the story. A sister vessel–New York Central #16–was saved only to end tragically at the Bourne Bridge rotary in Massachusetts, just six years ago.
The late Don Sutherland told of spending the last night aboard #16 . . . I wish I’d recorded his telling that story. I have recorded Norman Brouwer telling the story of buying this pierside house from #16 from the late John J. Witte, and I hope to share details of that project soon.
Not everything can be preserved . . . On Friday I caught Cheyenne –a current Witte (officially DonJon Marine) tug–heading from the East River into the Upper Bay pushing a load of (I believe) fine scrap, chopped up pieces bound for recycling. Just a week ago, Cheyenne was pushing some preserved vintage jets.
Some valuable artifacts might not be saved much longer unless dreams convert into reality and $$; others like Liemba and Yavari seem to live way beyond their expected lifespans in spite of their being out of the spotlight.
Which brings up this part of a dream: Partners in Preservation is dangling cash $US 3 million, and . . .<<<Tug Pegasus (1907) and Waterfront Museum Barge aka Lehigh Valley 79 (1914) have teamed up in a grant application for $$ for preservation work each vessel needs. As a component of the decision-making about who gets the $$, Partners in Preservation have a “socialmedia-meter” running from now until May 21. To help Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79 register high on this “meter,” you can do two things from wherever on the planet you may be: 1) befriend them on Facebook and get dozens of your friends to befriend them as well, and 2) vote DAILY here. DAILY! Seems like a crazy way to run an election, but . . . that’s social media and in this case, the cause is worthy.>>>
And later this afternoon–1300–1700h I’ll be down on Pier 25 minding the plank between 79 and Pegasus, as part of Partners in Preservation “open house” weekend.
Thanks to Colin Syndercombe for the Cape Town fotos; all others by Will Van Dorp.
Sort of related, here’s a “tale of two projects” post from about a year ago.
Tugboats in the sixth boro of New York City vary not quite infinitely, but almost. Consider Pegasus (1907), here with Lehigh Valley 79 (1914) alongside. And my social medium tells me they’re about to link up and travel again soon. Watch Pier 25.
And Coral Coast (1970) versus its fleetmate,
and newest tugboat in the boro . . . Discovery Coast (2012).
Amy C. McAllister (1975) and
Bohemia (2007).
Taurus (1979) and
James Turecamo (1969) along assisting Scott Turecamo (1998).
Thornton Brothers (1958),
Caitlin Ann (1961), and
Maria J (1958).
Rounding it all out . . . is JoAnne Reinauer III (1970), here passing the unmistakeable Torm-orange house of Torm Thames (2005), and see this spotlight by selfabsorbedboomer.
Having called this set almost infinitely varied, I must say there’s NOTHING operating in the sixth boro quite an unusual as Joseph Thompson Jr. (portions from 1944), the tug portion of an ATM unit currently working the North Coast between US and Canadian ports. Thank’s to Isaac Pennock aka tugboathunter for introducing me to this vessel; For the dizzying set of transformations, read the bio by boatnerd here . . . and follow the fotos, especially the ones by Mark Vander Meulen, Steve Hause, Lee Rowe, and Rod Burdick.
Foto of Discovery Coast by Joel Milton; all others by Will Van Dorp.
After a four-day festival of introducing New York folk to historic vessels and (more) . . . Pegasus escorts Lehigh Valley 79 back to Red Hook.
So if I had to list the “more” in question, I’d say . . . history and stories of the port and days gone by and “fire mops” and leaky pipes with names like “old Faithful” , glimpses of present but ever-changing skylines, demonstrations of docking and departures, churning up mud bottoms and making white frothy spray, lurching and rolling and pitching on the Hudson, and
now it’s homewater bound, heading for Red Hook;
but first, a quick stop in Erie Basin for
remaking the tow, shifting Pegasus to the side most conducive
to getting the 97-year-old barge that serves among MANY other things as a circus tent and an art gallery
away from a little more past
and fast to its dock, back to the closest front-row seat to the
sweet face of Bartholdi’s imagination.
Lines get adjusted and readjusted according
to commands from the wheelhouse.
Bartholdi’s lady is always first to raise her hand and ask all about another weekend stop on the tour.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who encourages your support of Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79.
(Note: Doubleclick enlarges all fotos)
What’s this . . . fiddling and dancing and taking shade near
Lower Manhattan, an intriguing hideaway in that bustling and ranted-about geography?
And this . . . same location, but doesn’t that suggest two folks standing near the forward railing
on a tug “made to” the 79 Barge, which
moves other folks as well, here photographing the Brooklyn Bridge at golden hour, as
crew stands lookout, watching two tugs–Volunteer and W. O. Decker–heading east on the river of the same name . . .
… uh . . . this meandering string started out as a question. Forget the question, please. And I hope you get a sense of places of peace in the bestirred land masses around the sixth boro.
Here’s the same tug and barge, clearly lashed, at Pier 6 in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, with a late August sun setting behind the house. You can catch Pegasus and Lehigh Valley Barge #79 at that location until Tuesday, August 31 … and at points along the Hudson for the next 16 days after that.
After sunset . . . Pegasus heads over to homebase in Jersey City. Hey . . . tugs and crews need sleep.
Check out bowsprite’s magical drawings of the duo here.
All fotos here taken yesterday by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated but fascinating: Marie’s Tide & Current Taxi has been busy this month:
August 9: Coney Island Creek, with Debbie Tuch and me
August 10: Gowanus Canal
August 12: Staten Island “graveyard of ships“
August 15: Shooter’s Island
August 22: “mystery tour”
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