Apologies for forgetting to link the half-hour video on Charles Hankins building a Sea Bright skiff until someone asked yesterday, so here I attach it again, really. It’s REALLY there. I really enjoyed watching it, really.
So surprises on the creek in Belford . . . what yellow house protrudes above the second shack from the left? Dwelling for a moment on this foto, if I climbed a 50′ platform and fotoed in the same direction, I’d get the Narrows and the Verrazano Bridge . . . about a dozen miles away . . . in the center of the foto.
It’s Coastline Girls, bigger sibling to Coastline Kidd, shown doing bridge work in Narragansett Bay in the fifth foto down here. Forward of Girls (1943, ex-Ruby, Ruby M, Beverly) is the stern section of Mary Beth (1954, ex-Fort Edisto).
If you have time for only one link today, check this one showing Coastline Girls pushing an immortal Egyptian diety around the sixth boro!! How COULD I have missed this? Maybe I should gallivant a smidgeon less.
Right around the corner up the creek is contracting equipment like this dredge on the marine railway; painted in the same color, this
truckable tug (foto by Andy Willner a year or so back).
Continuing around the bend in the Creek, who knew?! Another pilot boat fleet, Interport Pilots, federal pilots since 1959. I’d love to see a foto of their first pilot boat named Carp.
Belford Seafood Coop dominates the Creek, though, and crabbing seems to be the seasonal catch. Notice the rake on the side of Alexa J.
Behind the fingers
of the rake is a net.
Last foto here . . . boys having fun like I used to . . . icebreaking on kayaks with cylindrical baitfish traps strapped onto the after deck. But despite wearing PFDs, they appeared NOT to be wearing drysuits or even wetsuits. It made me shiver . . .
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Many thanks to Andy Willner for the tour. I’m wondering whether the restaurant at the Seafood Coop is still open.
Three more surprises from the Raritan Bayshore of New Jersey:
Aeromarine. Great “flappers” on flying boats in sixth foto down here. . . with many fascinating period shots in between. Is it possible that not a single aeromarine aircraft remains extant?
Matawan Creek, the original “Jaws” events in July 1916.
Sayreville, October 4, 1918 . . . bigger than Black Tom, July 30, 1916. In Sayreville, “the explosion destroyed enough ammunition to supply the western front for six months”
5 comments
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January 18, 2011 at 10:26 am
Ken Nieuwenhuis
Thanks Will. The Bayshore was my Striper stomping grounds for years, and the Belford seafood co-op was always a great place to pick up seafood. Are those rakes picking up soft-shell crabs? are they molting now? Also, I wonder if those are eel traps on the kayaks – I can’t believe there are any bait fish around at the moment.
January 18, 2011 at 11:41 am
Mage Bailey
What a delightfully varied entry. I loved the rescue of the Skipjack just as much as I enjoyed viewing the arrival of the god.
January 18, 2011 at 6:46 pm
D Merritt
A master boat builder plying his trade with hand tools and wood… and the history. Neat to watch. I enjoyed it.
January 18, 2011 at 8:16 pm
Jim
Re the NJ shark, I have a book from 10 years ago that covers the entire summer of carnage and the tale is told partly from the perspective of the shark. Published in 2001, the book, “Close to Shore, The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916” by Michael Capuzzo was a New York Times best seller. Once you get started reading it, it was very difficult to put down
January 21, 2011 at 6:47 am
Dennis Willard
Re :Gillespie Company
I’m wondering if that was the only munitions plant explosion in the area,since I remember the old timers in the area would talk about the day Hercules blew up and never any mention of a Gillespie . . .
It’s too bad that I never thought to ask where it was located at the time,as I’m fairly positive that all those guys are long dead now.