Thanks to Fred . . . (happy canaling soon) here are more shots of the erstwhile mystery ship less than five miles by air from the GW Bridge, true but misleading.
Thanks also to Dar, who located the unlocatable Evershed book, it’s a Groninger tjalk. How it got to the Hackensack, I’ve no clue. Wrong turn at the North Sea? Anyone know the owner?
Livet: a river town in eastern France? An apple brandy? Short for “live-aboard tjalk”? Names mislead; this is New Jersey, but “Zwartsluis” is a town in the eastern Netherlands province of OverIjssel. And it’s a barge town. If you’re adventuresome, see great fotos at this link, then navigate on left to “foto’s” and then “zwartsluis” and then the various “sleerbootdagen.” “Sleepboot” is Dutch for “Tugboat.”
See the rudder cable.
Cool anchor. So mystery remains . . . whose is it? Was it biglifted to New Jersey? More later I hope.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
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September 27, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Eric Fischer
This vessel is currently in the shipyard in Tottenville Staten Island having hull work performed. Unfortunately, while welding plates onto the hull, a spark ignited the wood inside causing a devastating fire. Both the interior and the owner are gutted. And speaking to the owner, who is a blacksmith by trade, it was biglifted over from Holland.
October 3, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Livet – an 1901 Dutch Canaller
[…] repaint. Looking on the web to find out about the vessel, I came across a post on the Tugster blog here all about her. She had previously been moored in the Hackensack […]
August 4, 2013 at 11:03 am
Hans Rovers
These boats were built as sailing transport barges, the design is centuries old and these boats were built in wood up until the late 1800’ds when they started to make them from riveted iron (steel had yet to be invented). The design makes them fit to navigate the very shallow seas north of the Netherlands and the shallow inland lakes and canals. We owned one like this and had steel plates welded to it as well. In the Netherlands these boats are now used for charter and privite use, almost always as sailing vessels. Google “platbodem” for images.