Between 0800 and 0900 this morning, sunshine poured down onto the KVK, and deepened all the colors. Sand Master (more of these fotos tomorrow) was positively radiant while waiting–it seemed– for something to happen before it can get into the fuel dock.
Then I saw the “something” as Mount Hope began to inch stern first into the stream. Laura K. Moran surged from port
to starboard to assist in the rotation, her power and precision captivating me. But then, way atop the superstructure, movement
caught my attention, a bit of ceremony I’ve never noticed before. A crewman made the flag fast to the halyard and
ran it up, as if to say . . . we
are now open for business. Here is some of the traffic: Mount Hope outbound passes APL Japan inbound.
OOCL Nagoya seemed to try to get up on plane, and
in doing so . . . tailed by Barbara McAllister, deftly carved an arc between the bank and an incoming Affinity on the hip of Marion Moran.
I then went to my appointment on the land side of Richmond Terrace, noticing from indoors two Ital container vessels (Moderna and another) passed. Before noon, as I headed back home, I noticed that Oyster Creek with the bunker barge was refueling Shorthorn Express north of the VZ Bridge as
(this foto thanks to John Watson) Queen Elizabeth headed into port. Draw what conclusion you will from the juxtaposition of these last two vessels.
Thanks to John for the foto. All others by Will Van Dorp, who imagines that without that flag-raising, none of this traffic would have happened.
By noon, bright sunshine had turned to overcast gray and then drizzle. No snow, though.
tugster: a waterblog 
3 comments
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January 17, 2012 at 5:54 pm
Chris Williams
Hi Will
Nice sequence as always. The flag raising is similar to Navy practice when, as the last line came off the pier, the Bos’n Mate of the Watch would hit the 1MC (General Announcing System) and announce “shift colors.” At that point a seaman at the jackstaff on the Foc’sle would haul down the jack, the American flag at the fantail would be taken in by another seaman and another American Flag would be hauled to the top of the mainmast by one of the quartermasters. We flew the flag from the mainmast underway in all kinds of weather, and more than once we came home with the flag in tatters – although we’d change it out prior to entering port. A similar, but reversed process took place when the first line, typically the forward spring, hit the pier as we made our landing wherever we tied up. This is fairly typical of most Navies, and I have to wonder if the Captain of Mount Hope is ex-Navy and values the ceremony.
January 17, 2012 at 7:37 pm
tugster
hey chris– i’ve watched vessels leave port before, but this WAS the first time i notice the attention to ceremony. oh, to be able to communicate with crews! the crewman raising the flag, what flag is his? honestly, the thought that first came to mind was about a book review i heard on npr last weekend about a fictitious guantanamo detainee who was just misunderstood, a US resident whose dream WAS to live in the US but whose correspondence led him to be arrested and detained in guantanamo. book is “from memoirs of a non-enemy combatant” http://www.amazon.com/Memoirs-Non-Enemy-Combatant-Novel/dp/0670023191 in all fairness, i haven’t read it yet. you might think the connection here tenuous, but that is what i was thinking when i saw this guy raise the flag this morning.
January 18, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Roger Prichard
The US ensign here being the “courtesy flag” of the waters the vessel sails in (after clearing customs/pratique), I guess I never thought of them striking that flag while docked and have never really noticed. Is this routine?
@Chris – is it Navy practice to haul down the colors from the gaff at sunset or do they fly ’round the clock when underway?