If I Were A

traveler, first time in the sixth boro, and espying this ship asail

tacking from the East River and into

the Upper Bay, I

would want to board her, imagining

she was headed upriver to pick up pallet boxes of apples and skids of cheeses, maybe even barrels of Hudson River  beer,

casks of upstate wines, and anything else from the cornucopia called the Hudson watershed.  I’d be first one then to pay for passage as this grand vessel that transported produce to Phildelphia before my grandparents were born rejuvenates as flagship of getting these local fruits off the highways and downriver

mostly by sail.   It might mean only one trip up or down river per day, maybe with wind in the rigging, music on deck, and harvest treats from the hold for the sampling.  But wouldn’t it be nice . . . for Pioneer to occupy this niche of New Amsterdam Market river tourism, especially in this season when the upstate regions are pregnant with harvest, and the valleys turn their most beautiful colors.

Want to positively identify the schooner, check this guide.  Want some music . . . where this post came from?  Try then Cash and Carter.  No surreptitious messages are intended by the language along the bulkhead behind various shots of Pioneer.

Fotos by Will Van Dorp.