Other Watersheds 4 is here. And the most recent appearance of Joan Turecamo on this blog had her parked along the KVK. So where was this?
Many cities have a wide or not so much wide street by this name, but –say in New York–Broadway does not have work boats anchoring it, although maybe in a better parallel universe it would. More on this pier at the end of this post.
Some New Yorkers might also recall John W. Brown, named for a labor organizer and serving as a floating Manhattan high school –focusing on a nautical trades curriculum, of course–from 1946 until 1982. I’d love to hear from alumni of this school. So have you figured out which “other watershed” this is?
Here’s another clue. The watershed feeds into a harbor with large number of massive government ships, like USNS Comfort (T-AH-20 and launched in 1976), which returned from Haiti less than two weeks ago; as well as
some very wet ones like Gov. R. M. McLane, which once served as flagship of government efforts during the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Wars, when foreign vessels harvested domestic oysters.
Now if you want to know what foreign and domestic mean here, you need to check this link.
One last clue, maybe more of a distractor: Sea Star line’s El Faro was tied up there this weekend.
Bertha offers conviviality here.
OK, you guessed it long ago. But which watershed is it?
More Baltimore soon. Many thanks to Capt. Allen Baker for his hospitality. The link in that previous sentence related to the SS United States aka the Big U, currently one of many vessels in peril.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
So this pier . . . shown in foto 2 above . . . will very very soon no longer be a working pier. Moran is moving out toward the river’s mouth. Change. Improvement? Ha!
Again, I’d love to hear comments on this as well as recollections from alumni of John W. Brown, the high school.
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March 22, 2010 at 10:35 am
bowsprite
oh, how I wish I had been there!
March 22, 2010 at 11:11 am
bowsprite
City officials will relocate Moran Towing Corp. from Fells Point’s Recreation Pier, for a hotel development project on the historic waterfront site.
Come look at NYC and stand along the crowded bars with booming music, pass the stores with crap, stroll along the nice expensive high rise luxury buildings and gaze at the pretty water forever far removed from your reach.
The edge from where people supplied, shaped and built your city will harden into big high stone seawalls with black railings, nice landscaped plots and security cameras, and access to and from your waters by boats will be just a memory.
Having a towing yard there will not make you as much money as tourists, shops, hotels and bars, but you’ll miss the real working environment when it’s gone.
Or, maybe you’ll throw your cigar butt in the water, turn to your steak and red wine, and you won’t.
August 23, 2015 at 9:54 am
jdawgswords
thx…I love learning new stuff…and this is the 1st time I’ve heard of the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Wars