Small Work Boats

Up in the Headwaters I wrote about in June, a friend named Clark builds “woods cruisers.” These assemblages of a decaying fleet of Toyotas (recovered thefts) allow him to move tools around a large tract of land in forest conservancy. A cruiser must meet two criteria: functionality and reliability . Harbors have counterparts to his cruisers, often repurposed, one-offs, unique and lavished with care to keep them functional and reliable. In the Harlem river, it’s Joseph P, a clean basic platform that can haul and push. I’ve no idea who owns Joseph P.

 

This unnamed workboat on the Arthur Kill passed with such throaty sounds that I’m convinced its small size masks substantial power. Anyone interpret the dayshape just forward the twin stacks?

 

The crowd on this boat passing Ellis Island puzzles me.

 

One of the strangest places for a workboat is here, hanging from the Manhattan Bridge all summer, puzzling especially when no one ever seems working in the scaffolding.

 

Last one for now, Julia, small but seaworthy and elegant. Call it a crew boat. This one’s for Clark, who’d just love to tinker.

 

Finally, an unrelated link, YouTube clips from Mr. Boat aka Menheer Boot. Stuff goes wrong.

Also, check bowiechick’s waterlogged helping of sand here.

All images by Will Van Dorp.

Alice’s Mates

You know . . . like team mates, collaborators. Let’s start with the heaps and mounds of aggregate left where she docks.

 

Wait for a few days,

 

and what? another vessel sidles up to the Lehigh cement operation there,

 

Enter . . . Spar Three of Spar Shipping, and registered in Bergen, not some obscure tropical port. A young tugster visited this Norwegian port so many years ago… and wanted to live there!

 

Taken yesterday in the thunderstorm and almost worthless as port documentation, Alice and Spar Three commune before heading out to sea.

I know the city always has construction projects requiring cement, and I know Lehigh isn’t the only cement plant, but might we be in a boom construction period in Brooklyn and Manhattan?

Photos by Will Van Dorp.