Once these were wooden barges, which
were towed around the harbor with a wide range of cargoes. In the foreground … disintegrating … is one a tug that once could have done the towing, now unidentifiable and impotent.
The sixth boro has many such tugs and barges, although given the efficient advance of decrepitude, fewer each season.
Once there was even a sixth boro barge called Periwinkle, no doubt painted in that color, a popular nightspot.
Here’s another barge called Driftwood, whose paint scheme and additional storage transformed a coffee (or whatever else commodity) transporter into an off-off-Broadway-even-off-the-island entertainment palace. Only stories remain and can be told by David Sharps, who
created the Waterfront Museum out of a wooden barge he literally dug and pumped out of the Hudson River mud, saving it from the fate of those barges above. The two fotos above come courtesy of David Sharps. Now the barge, the 1914 Lehigh Valley 79 tours with 1907 tug Pegasus, and other
vessels like the 1901 Urger, featured in many posts on this blog, help us visualize what those ruins in the top fotos once looked like and serve as places of entertainment even today. Here’s one set of fotos of Urger high, dry, but cold.
Anyhow, with five minutes of your time, you can help LV-79 and Pegasus collect a $250,000 grant for ongoing repairs. Just click here–AND each day until May 21 on the icon upper left side of this blog to vote. Partners in Preservation has chosen to award $$ by grant applicants demonstrated ability to use social media. So please vote . . . and ask a handful of your friends to do so as well . . . .
Unless otherwise attributed, all fotos by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
6 comments
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May 9, 2012 at 2:38 pm
tugpower
The Driftwood Floating Theater Or Showboat Came To Kingston In The Mid To Late 70’s. She Was Tied Up At The Foot Of Broadway Near The Hudson River Maritime Museum For A While. After A Couple Of Sinkings, & Through The Efforts Of The Kingston Fire Dept. Pumping Her Out, & Getting Her Afloat Again, It Was Decided To Tow Her Further Up The Rondout Creek Near The Eddyville Bridge (Rt 213). The Decision Was Finalized, & She Was Towed & Beached At That Location With No Further Risk Of Sinking In Deeper Water. I Haven’t Been Up Near There In A While, But I Believe That She Still Sits Where She Was Beached. Go To Google & Type In Driftwood Floating Theater, Kingston, N.Y. For More Further Information. Another Barge That Made Itself Useful Is Gully’s Floating Bar & Restaurant At The Foot Of Washington St. In Newburgh. http://gullysnewburgh.com/. Read The About Us For Its Interesting History.
May 9, 2012 at 4:01 pm
tugster
harold–thanks much. i’ll have to get up to kingston to check this out and get pics.
May 10, 2012 at 10:29 am
eastriver
Exceptionally well done! Wonder if John Noble’s studio barge was wooden… probably, right?
May 10, 2012 at 10:35 am
tugster
absolutely it was, and i should have thought of that: it’s very well preserved in snug harbor. if you’ve never seen it, it’s certainly worth hanging out in. here’s a post i did about it back in january: https://tugster.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/nobility/
May 10, 2012 at 11:02 am
eastriver
Yes, ashamed to admit I have not yet visited the Noble collection. Someday soon…
May 10, 2012 at 11:38 am
tugster
i got a short tour from erin urban, the director. she wrote the books on noble. she had some great anecdotes on the man, the plan, and his boat. “hulls and hulks…” is a great read.