From the Line Locker 16

Inquiring minds have demanded more context . . . to Whatzit 16.  It’s called Harvest Dome, SLO Architecture‘s fun art project, which is intended to float in the Gowanus near 3rd and 3rd til late Spring 2014 on the watery side of this place.  Here are some fotos of the trip from Governors Island to the Gowanus Canal.

Note the Times photographer lower left here at the foot of the bridge and

lower right seen through the frame and recycled umbrellas. Unrelated:  Check out this informative article on recycling in Taiwan.

R/V Blue Sea passes in front of Pier 5 BBP.

And since we’re on the topic of water and recreation and/or art . . .  it’s Beacon NY and this sloop.

Woody. . .

as well as these arts panels.  The next few fotos I took in August 2013.

The idea of these “line locker” posts is that they allow me to catch up and throw in even the kitchen sink if it relates in even the slightest way, check out this “river tug” byulit in St. Louis, MO by the same shipyard that built the Stephen L. Colby, which sank in the Upper Mississippi earlier this week.  Check out the 1966 as well as the 1967 work on hull#2326.    Now travel back on this shipyard list to the icebreaking tugs built in 1944 and ’45.  Click on the foto below for more pics of these unusual looking US-produced tugboats.   Does anyone have updates on this class of vessel?

Some random things I stumbled upon yesterday include these old fotos of NYC harbor aka sixth boro;  a Canadian self-unloading bulker that was weather-bound off the mid-Jersey coast about a week ago was actually Algoma Equinox, a newbuild on its way to Canada from a Chinese shipyard;  a Christmas train from Canada visits northern NY state and captured by Fred of tug44.    (No, the train wasn’t captured per se.  I just meant in fotos, although I’m sure Fred could always have surprises in store.)

Riverbanks 4

Here was 3 with links to 1 and 2.

I’ve been so far unable to find the original use of this barge, but I haven’t expended much shoe leather either.

Click on the foto below from the July 21, 1977 NYTimes for an article on Michael O’Keefe’s barge restaurant opening.  Anyone identify the tug?

Bulk commodities commerce needs some stretches of riverbank in the sixth boro.  Crushed stone in; garbage out, as well as

recycled materials,

aggregates,

scrap metal, petroleum,

salt, and

desert scrapings aka road conditioner. 

Products galore and more and

more.

Places to park aka dock are vital also.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Other Peoples Fotos 25

Here was 24.

It’s T’day, and one of many things I’m thankful for is readers who write back and send fotos like these.

First foto, it’s Tilly!  Stephen Freer sent this from Key West, where he seeks investors to get this 1943 vessel built in the sixth boro operating as a tug co-operative using waste vegetable oil for off-grid island fishing and farming co-ops.  He plans to equip a work-barge  with cast-off engines, bikes, and equipment for solar/wind/organic.  Tilly‘s crew are co-op shareholders.  Stephen says there’s some urgency to get her out of her current location.  You could use this blog to get in touch with Stephen.

The next three come from Frank Garvey, who wants folks to see “his” pretty docks in  Port Jefferson.

It’s Resolute and Evening Star.

Next, thanks to Jim Browne, this foto from two months ago,  9/20/2013 at Point Lookout, NY, headed east in Reynolds Channel just west of Sea Dog Creek.  Jim says the people he works with are still pulling  tons of Sandy-debris per week, and will be doing so for some time to come.  I’d love to know more about this “pastel-yellow”  tug.  Pastel yellow?  Might I need my color-correcting lenses replaced?

And finally, from a Captain Nemo working the holiday, this foto yesterday of Fiesta Mail from Port Everglades.  I’d never heard of this Bahamas-Florida vessel, Tianjin China-built 2002.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, how ever you spend the day.  I’m grateful for the naked bird in my kitchen somewhere in size between a plucked hummingbird and a yanked ostrich.

Many thanks to Stephen, Frank, Jim, and Nemo for these fotos.

And finally, Wendell sends along a business site.

Gallimaufry 3

. . . aka a jumble.

I took the foto below of Stephen  L. Colby (St. Louis, MO-built, 1967, 144′ x 40′) on 1/4/2013 in Cairo, IL.  Yesterday, the boat sank into 14 feet of water farther north on the Mississippi.

Below, s/v Concetta meets Charles D. McAllister (Jacksonville, FL, 1967, 94′ x 29′)  in late October.

Twin Tube (Blount, 1951, 64′ x 19′)  passes the polytube rack.  If you click on the link in the previous sentence, you’ll see the very next completed Blount project was of Ceres, a “grain elevator.”  A google search turned up no fotos.  Anyone know of any?

I took this foto a week and a half ago.  Currently, Grande Sierra Leone has left Dakar bound for Cotonou, passing the older Grande Buenos Aires en route.

Bow Hector in the Kills a few days ago . . . now in Morehead City.   Bow! Hector!

Taft Beach . . . shuttling dredge spoils, inbound.

Sludge tanker North River noses past 118,000-bbl  barge Charleston.

On Marathon Day, this was Explorer of the Seas ( I think) approaching the Narrows, as seen past the stern of Transib Bridge.

A few days ago . . . it’s Challenge Paradise.   I wonder if that’s ever a command. . . .

And at the same moment, crude oil tanker Felicity.   By the way, I passed between felicity and challenge paradise . ..  steering clear.   Both vessels are currently southbound off the coast of the Carolinas.

Finally, in the Buttermilk, it’s MAST’s r/v Blue Sea, passing Wilson Newcastle and McAllister Responder.    Responder and Charles D. are two of the triplets built near the end of the run at Gibbs Gas Engine, currently a place to sleep and stroll.   The last time I saw Roderick-the third triplet– in the sixth boro was here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Something Different 13

Consider this tugster’s November version of the summer solstice parade.  Enjoy these eight fotos.  They call themselves the water nymphs with music provided by typewriter, although a google search comes up with no further info.  The music–see the bass player in one foto–was hypnotic also, but you’ll have to imagine the sounds, though this–sans voice–might be the reference.

Why eight fotos?

Well . . . November 26, 2006 I did my first post.  Tomorrow I start my eighth year and I hope to continue as long as it’s fun for all.  Thanks for reading, commenting, sending along suggestions, corrections and fotos  . . . and so much more.  This is my 2285th post and have been blessed with 1,204, 899 hits as of posting.  Again . . . thanks all.

All these fotos by Will Van Dorp, who loved the dances.

Coffee Barges Extraordinaire

See it there, the modest red covered barge between Wavertree and Peking?  The steel covered barge is called Progress today.   Once it transported coffee from ship to shore.   I’m making a note to myself:  learn more about these.

And right across the East River to the right of the firehouse at Fulton Landing, that modified but still modest white barge used to be Erie Lackawanna 375.  It too transported coffee.  More on this later.   I took this foto 6/16/2009.

Here’s another modified coffee barge, this one just south of Camden, NJ, now the floating office of McAllister in that waterway.

It’s a counterpart to this McAllister office on the KVK.   So given all these repurposed coffee barges I knew about, why

did it take me a day short of seven years doing this blog to go to Bargemusic, the EL 375 barge in the foto above?   Shame on me, posing in the “shadow selfie” below, for waiting so long to check out this extraordinary barge.

I trekked out there yesterday in spite of the gusty sub-freezing weather to hear some music and have a look.

It was warm inside and the smell of old wood  . . . I felt immediately welcomed.  Note the brick fireplace to the left.  Some wood from American Legion lives on here.

Jung Lin was warming up on the Steinway, as

was Andy Simionescu.

I didn’t–and one shouldn’t–take fotos during the performance, but during intermission, I went out onto the pier to see the view from the “back” of the stage.

Here’s  the obit of founder Olga Bloom–with more info on her barge project– from the NYTimes almost exactly two years ago.  From this article, I learn this was her third barge, that it was built around 1900, and that Peter Stamford was instrumental in getting it permission to dock at Fulton Landing.   Here’s a spring 1978 article on what may have been Bargemusic’s first season.  Here’s a link that gets you an interview with the current president and calendar of upcoming events.  By the way, at 2:48 in that interview, a Bouchard tug passes eastbound on the East River.

Credits to those who offered marine trade skills and others can be found here.

Request:  the bargemusic site credits a Captain Hearnley as the one to tow the barge to this location.  Can anyone say anything about him?  Does anyone know the name of the tug or . . . have a foto of that tow?  When was the former EL 375 last  hauled?

Final shot for today, a foto from 8/27/2010 of Volunteer passing bargemusic.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  If you have never been to bargemusic, you’ll thank youself if you go there SOON.

For two more repurposed barges serving as cultural centers, click here and here.  Pennsy 399 will deliver sinterklaas to Kingston this coming week.

Random Tugs 115

I took these fotos Friday before the winds started.

Viking . .  . . To see how she’s evolved over the past 41 years, click here.

Brooklyn was previously a fleetmate of Viking.  For her history, click here.

Above and below . . . it’s Huron Service, which recently got new paint as well.  Here’s an overview–possibly out of date–of routes served by Genesis Energy.

Clearly, from the foto, to say commerce USED to happen on the Gowanus Canal . . . uses the wrong verb tense.   Here, from L to R, it’s Shawn Miller, Samantha Miller, Miss Ayva, and Diane B.

Finally, and still in Gowanus Bay, it’s Discovery Coast and

Potomac and Hunting Creek.

Stay inside or at least firmly attached to something substantial.

Whatzit 16

Here was 15.

What is this?  Foto was taken on Colonels Row, Governors Island.

Energy saver of the future?

Prison cage?

Recycling?

Construction material?

Fish habitat?

Monitoring device?

You’ll have to wait til tomorrow at least for the answer.  It is pretty, though.

Exactly a year ago, I put up this matrix on a barge. 

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

50 Half Masts

I was 11 and waiting for the school bus to take me home from school.

Will Van Dorp took this foto this afternoon.

Canal Corp Boats 2

Here was the first in what could be a series.   And this foto I’m happy again to credit  to Bob Stopper, some of whose photos can be seen here.   I’m not sure what the naming system is for Canal Corporation, but some of their vessels are named for towns with locks–like Pittsford— along the Canal.

Ditto–in this foto from my sister—Waterford.   By the way, the pre-eminent website for all things Erie Canal is fred’s at tug44.

In push gear and looking great at 85 years old, it’s Governor Cleveland.

If I still lived up that way, I’d get one of these, a buoy boat.

I don’t know how many of these there once were, but they are disappearing!

Click here for a foto of this deep looking Governor Roosevelt with her belly exposed.

There’s Grand Erie, and then there’s just plain Erie.

Then there are the self-propelled scows, but notice the difference in

engine exposure between this one shot by my sister and

SPS-54 shot by me

in August in Lyons.

Thanks to Bob and Lucy for these fotos.  The last two are mine.