No, “southern juice” is not a nautical expression bowsprite left off her recent illustrated vocabulary instruction; rather, it’s the radiant machine below. For a tanker built a quarter century go, Southern Juice moves as a thing of beauty, (I’ll say it), like a woman whose presence intensifies as she ages, she who dazzles and delights in her 40s and beyond. (OK, I said it, and really what scintillates is the fusion of her contentment/good maintenance/my perception.) In this last hour before sunset, I set down my water–even though my throat was parched–just because studying this vessel of an impossible color demanded undivided attention. The juice tanker’s back in town, bringing Brazilian sunshine and irrepressible smiling in the dark time.
ok, OK. I’ve long ‘fessed up to my drinking habit. I need orange juice morning, noon, night . . . and then even in the middle of the night when I make my 3 a.m. surfacing.
Juice tankers going global represents a human activity occupying just the thinnest of slices in time. Did juice transport begin in the 70s? 60s? I’ve no clue. But it does remind me of other commodity transport that no longer exists, like
the ice trade: slabs of lake ice cut by gangs, packed in sawdust first in barns and then later in wooden ships, and ultimately sailed to tropical ports so that colonials stationed in the sweaty climes could have ice cubes in their punch. And then there was a time of milk trains, a term I knew of from the farm boy perspective and therefore only partially understood, imagined from the supply side. And hay schooners (scroll down to first foto) coming into metropolises to feed the transporters. Were there manure boats too . . . or was it assumed the sixth boro could process that, satiating the oysters and sturgeon?
Now we have congested highways and road rage! In 2109, probably no more juice tankers. Will milk trains return? And when might road rage dissipate? And maybe I need to move to a locale where I can tend my own orange grove . . . now that’s an idea.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Seriously: can anyone suggest a person to contact to arrange a visit to Port Newark and an offloading juice tanker? Really, it’s the SECOND highest priority experience I’d like the fat ageless elf to arrange for me.
And just an idea: if one dog year equals seven human years, then how many human years correspond to one ship year? If the answer is–arbitrarily chosen–two, then the beautiful Southern Juice is at the half century mark. Hmm.
14 comments
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December 2, 2009 at 11:56 am
mrs. claus
you blew it! no one is going to step up to arrange the visit at the risk of being called a fat ageless elf, now!
December 2, 2009 at 12:03 pm
tugster
. . . in this world of acronyms, writing is complicated! speaking of the elf, (not Earth Liberation Front, for example) FAT aka F. A. T. , expanding to a “friend of an aging tugster,” er… moi.
December 2, 2009 at 12:54 pm
bowsprite
Will, I believe Mrs. Claus’ contention is that her husband is not an elf. His crew are elves, but he is a White-Gloved non-elf.
December 2, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Mage B
Ah, but some of us are rounder than others. LOL
Yes, here we have an aging Dole ship. Small, fine lines, and an off yellow ocher that screams tired banana. 🙂
December 2, 2009 at 12:57 pm
bowsprite
One worker of the Red Hook terminal said those bananas come with HUGE hairy tarantulas!!! –that would be our screams.
(he also said coco beans stink like old gym socks.)
December 2, 2009 at 11:50 pm
Allen Baker
Nice shots on a chamber of commerce, picture postcard of day.
Nice seeing you and Bowsprite along the KVK.
December 3, 2009 at 11:34 am
Mage B
RYN: Tur koise car carriers. There are several variations, but some have turquoise bottoms with cream colored tops…..she says smiling. I swear…..she says looking in her ship files………..
December 3, 2009 at 9:39 pm
O Docker
If this thing ever collides with a vodka tanker, I volunteer to do the cleanup.
On the West Coast there were purpose builtlumber schooners made of the same lumber they carried.
There’s a famous bit of rolly water outside the Golden Gate called the Potato Patch because in days of yore potato barges would often dump their cargo there.
December 5, 2009 at 9:20 pm
bowsprite
ODocker has a VOSS: Vodka Orange Soda Siphoner
February 6, 2012 at 3:38 pm
poolshark
Well, best of all… The Southern Juice originally wasn’t meant to be a tanker at all – let alone an orange juice tanker. It was built as a bulk carrier which could also be geared to carry containers. By the time I was aboard this ship – trying to become a seaman – she was busy carrying containers from Europe to East Asia. Back then her name was “Conscience” and her hull was – ironically – orange (!).
It was only in 1997 that she changed profession – so to speak. Here’s the records:
http://www.lloydwerft.com/de/auftraege/projekt-detail/items/southern-juice.html
It was my first and my last ship: so I failed on this one. But she still is a beauty!!!
And isn’t it somewhat of story in itself: Formerly carrying around these boxes, the contents of which could at best be guessed by those who don’t believe in official manifestos declaring “general cargo” (would there be toys next to guns, pesticides next to spices…? Industrial screws next to plastic flowers produced in a Bombay Sweat Shop?), she now carries juice… I like it, my kids like it and we can only hope that her liquid contents are as innocent as her white coating.
cheers
February 7, 2012 at 2:03 pm
tugster
poolshark– thanks for the info. little did i know that today’d bring a new juice tanker in . . . built in 1986 this one . . .
February 8, 2012 at 6:25 pm
poolshark
Oh, just a minor contribution and a great pleasure, actually. By tracking the Southern Juice (the vessel for me largely resembles an active reminiscence to a somewhat more – err… – experimental stage in my life) I stumbled across your wonderful and most inspiring blog. Thus, in a way she still carries me around a bit.
Cheers
December 13, 2013 at 3:13 pm
Anonymous
It seems, as if she’s now reached her final destination CHITTAGONG…
http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/8208024/vessel:ICE/_:1e64b9d353108e8bb0dbdd3cdea1a66a
Bye bye! 😦
December 13, 2013 at 3:45 pm
tugster
southern juice . . . we will miss seeing you.