What?!! Blue-helmeted, be-safetyglassed worker in a manhole . . . blue looks like our electric company, ConEdison. But why on Tugster? Granted, ConEdison maintains 105 miles of steam pipes under Manhattan alone. As the worker I spoke to put it . . . “for steam, we’re the only game in town.” But steam . . . on a 90-degree day?
This 600-pound device, featured on Tugster once before here, needs 170 pounds of pressure to function, so
here we are, near South Street Seaport on the 75th anniversary of the inaugural arrival of SS Normandie in New York . . . and I suppose you want to hear this three-chimed whistle saved by chance from the scrapyard. Well,
. . . you will, but before you listen, let me share a short story I heard this morning from Conrad H. Milster, the current custodian of the device: the whistle also blew on the 50th anniversary, scheduled to blow every hour. The neighborhood merchants –AROUND the area called South Street Seaport–complained about the noise, and the program was cancelled. Imagine, a ship’s whistle was classified as NOISE. Today, all seemed harmonious and ConEd workers I spoke with were excited to provide the steam. The whistle calls attention to South Street’s exhibit “Decodence” now through January 2011.
Ready?? Conrad is the man wearing a blue shirt and standing beside a tripod at 15–18 seconds into the video.
Fotos and video by Will Van Dorp.
More of Conrad’s whistles and a quirky rendition of SS Normandie are here and here. Only Bowsprite knows whether she made an artistic decision to leave off the whistle OR the whistle was too small on the drawing to be visible.
8 comments
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June 3, 2010 at 5:59 pm
John van der Doe
Great video Will.
Love that stuff.
Regards
John van der Doe.
June 3, 2010 at 6:03 pm
tugster
thanks, john. i’ll be “off-air” all next week again because of a quite intensive workshop. tot ziens.
June 3, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Dennis @ Marine Electronics
Tugster that is great. Mariners have a long history of which this whistle is a part of. Great that the city could come together with the organizers of the event to provide the steam necessary to sound the whistle.
June 3, 2010 at 10:03 pm
bowsprite
that whistle always fills me with absolute reverence and reverie. Thank you, Conrad, ConEd, and Tugster!
June 4, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Mage Bailey
Wowowowowowo….I come back from vacation just to be blown away. Simply marvelous! Thank you.
June 8, 2010 at 3:16 pm
chris
Every New Years eve all the ships in NY would blow their whistles.Sounded like the end of the world.Then in 1968 the C.G. put an end to it.Said it was a “hazard to navigation”.If someone was in trouble they wouldnt be heard above all the noise.Usually rules like that are made after there had been an “incident”
June 22, 2010 at 8:22 am
Homeschool Ninja
God needs unhurried time…
I found your entry interesting thus I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…
July 28, 2010 at 1:49 pm
symbolism and phantasm « The Newtown Pentacle
[…] Friend of the Pentacle, chronicler of the sixth borough. and oddly peaceful guy Will Van Dorp from tugster was standing right next to me when he recorded the following […]