scenes from the sixth boro and gallivants beyond
Fishing vessel Sharon Ann is not coming ashore, nor is
she–as I’d hoped while approaching Le Papillon–here as offshore muscle to drag her off.
Hatches are sealed, but
here, on Day 10,
she remains, sanded in.
I wish I had better news. Fotos by Will Van Dorp on April 10 midmorning.
Click to order your copy of Graves of Arthur Kill, by Gary Kane and Will Van Dorp. 3Fish Productions. 
Reflections of an American hostage in Iraq, 20 years later.
My imaginings and bowsprite's renderings of Henry Hudson's trip through the harbor 400 years ago.
6 comments
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April 11, 2011 at 6:34 am
Capt. Mike
I’ve been following saga here and in other forums. Always sad to see such a beautiful boat with such as history slowly dying on the beach. At other times I look at it and it seems as if the earth is reclaiming it as it’s own as the sand covers it more and more.
April 11, 2011 at 8:39 am
Fjorder
Will—at what point does a vessel on a state-owned beach become public domain? If the owners essentially abandoned her I would think a hired gun can come in and drag her off the beach for their own personal gain.
April 11, 2011 at 8:54 am
tugster
hi fjorder– i invite someone with a sense of admiralty law to weigh in on this . . . anyone?
April 11, 2011 at 11:08 am
Michael
If that was Cape Hatteras the boat would have been public the moment it crashed…least that’s how they did it back in the day.
In modern terms it’s certainly abandoned. Responsible scavanging seems appropriate.
April 12, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Bill Miller
Like Quicksand the Beach Sucks
Gravity, the rocking motion, the heavy hull works its way deeper into the fine grains of beach sand. Hull weight and hull surface area combine to create a death grip suction into the slippery wet beach sand, sucking the heavy hull deeper.
Le Papillon sucks at your heartstrings and she sucks at your wallet. You know the corrosive salt waters flow inside her hull and you hope the interior voids haven’t filled with the slippery sand that finds its way through every open port and crack.
You might order up a bulldozer to dig the sand out from around the wreck. You hope it might break the suction. The cost of mobilizing a tug from NY Harbor to attempt to drag the hull off the beach will be shockingly prohibitive. And then you’ve got to pump her and hope she floats. And then the refit, Oh Mon!
No, unless you are a lover with deep pockets, this old girl will feel the heat of the cutting torch and is bound for the steel scrap piles of Caven Point, NJ and a rusty tramp bulk freighter to beyond.
And that is why good sailing, watch standing and navigation is called seamanship.
en définitive Le Papillon
April 13, 2011 at 9:15 am
Fjorder
I cannot help from thinking that if she had just a 60-hp Lugger diesel its power could have made up for what was allegedly poor seamanship.