I read about this place almost 20 years ago in this NYTimes piece and clipped it, saved it, still have it somewhere.   The Witte family, Norman Brouwer, and Arthur Kill–all mentioned in the article–were just names then. Yesterday, thanks to fellow-waterblogger frogma (See her “graveyard posts here and here) and the generosity of  Sebago Canoe Club kayak Captain Minh to lend me a kayak, I got there.  Remember, double-click enlarges fotos.

To learn the specifics on 1944-launched Bloxom below, click here.  Anyone know of fotos of Bloxom and Hila in their heyday?

More of Bloxom‘s context.

The wooden hull steel deckhouse World War 2-era tug ATR-89 Hila.  An anonymous commenter last summer wrote:  “WW2 built ATR….this one ATR-89. Became HILA out of Jacksonville in 1949 and passed into Liberian registry by 1954.broke down in late 50′s on a voyage from Miami and eventually ended up at Wittes.”  Anyone know of fotos of Bloxom and Hila in their heyday?

1926-built ferry Seawell’s Point (right) and unidentified vessel (See Graveyard 2 for identification)  left seen frontal and from

from the opposite side.  The lifeboat still waits a declared emergency.

Wooden wheelhouse offering as template for craftsmanship of another time.  Notice Bonnie beyond the H-bitt on lower right side of foto.

A different view.  Is this what remains of the Meseck twins?  Great fotos of Carrie T. Meseck (later Susan A. Moran) at steamshipphotos.com

According to a December 2006 comment by “the dude” on the fabulous Opacity site, the tug below is “Ned Moran sailed for Moran Tugs 1954-1963, the tug with a brt of 206 tons had 1040 ipk, she was 20.48 x 8.28 x 4.27 mtr and build during 1930 at A.C.Brown & Sons in Tottenville, she sailed first under the name Federick (sic) E Meseck in New York and was purchased by Moran during 1954 where she served until 1963 when she was sold to Witte’s Staten Island yard.”  To be noted, Moran purchased Meseck Towing Company in 1954.  I’d love to see fotos of Ned at her zenith.

More trip fotos soon.  Here’s a foto of Courier aka Bayou Plaquemine from two years ago.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

Tip of the hat to Miru Kim, O’Boyle, and Opacity.

And a propos of nothing, see surfing the dunes of Peru here.