OK . . . I’ll admit that I’m foolish enough to think every day is Christmas, every day in New Years, . . . and I could go on.
So happy 18th day of Christmas 2013. And my heart-felt thanks go out to Tim and Bill Hughes of Hughes Marine for these images. Thanks also to John Skelson who helped reformat them for this blog.
Let’s go back to November 1997. Tugboat Spuyten Duyvil delivered a barge carrying a Torsilieri truck carrying a Norway spruce bound for Rockefeller Center.
The tree was felled in Stony Point. Click here for the article by James Barron detailing the tree transaction.
If that tree is 74 feet, that’s a long trailer.
You gotta love those red balls. By the way, Hughes logo on the barge was painted out for this transit.
Here were some fotos taken in the Upper Bay. I highly recommend getting the children’s book version of the story in part to see the artistic liberties taken in rendering both tug and truck.
Fireboat John D. McKean does the honors.
Although I’m still working on locating more pics of this event, including Joyce Dopkeen’s shots of the offloading process, I am thrilled to share these with you here.
Again, many heartfelt thanks to Bill Hughes for sending these photos and to John Skelson for reformatting them.
I hope to have more belated “christmas” fotos soon.
tugster: a waterblog 
9 comments
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January 11, 2014 at 11:34 am
walt stevens
The John D. McKean is in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Obviously there’s no Early Retirement for This Fireboat.
January 11, 2014 at 2:13 pm
Dave Black
I was going to grad school in NYC in 1997. We were traveling in by car heading south on the Henry Hudson Parkway. The radio was on and they mentioned that the tree was coming in by barge that day and we looked over and there it was, just north of the George Washington Bridge, heading south. It put me in the Xmas spirit that year.
January 11, 2014 at 2:37 pm
tugster
too bad you didn’t have a camera and a place to park! was the boat escorted at the time you saw it?
January 12, 2014 at 7:56 am
bowsprite
Those are some serious ornaments. Bumpers, in case the Zamboni gets too close!
Why would Hughes paint over their logo for the transit, and if it was to operate incognito, is it ok that now it is spread throughout tugsterdom?
January 12, 2014 at 8:01 am
tugster
you pay you ask . . we do. want logo gone and you pay . . . we do. want zebra stripes or leopard spots and you pay . . . we do. want me to get up at 3 a.m. and you pay . . . i do.
December 3, 2014 at 8:36 am
Kaäri
Thanks for the memories! I worked on Spuyten Duyvil for 3 years
December 26, 2016 at 7:53 am
tugster
Kaari– I’m not sure why I didn’t respond to this two years ago, but I’d love to hear more about your experiences on SD.
December 11, 2017 at 7:21 pm
Pam
Very cool photos in the blog! I am reading the picture book to my class and wanted the background. These pictures are so great!
Was that the 1st year the red balls were used in Rockefeller Center? Or did they just tow them with the tree for effect?
December 11, 2017 at 9:39 pm
tugster
I don’t know the answer to that. Maybe if you contact the gardener’s office at Rockefeller Center, you could get an answer. https://qz.com/305633/the-strange-cool-job-of-picking-the-rockefeller-christmas-tree/ Glad to hear you like the Matteson book: https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tugboat-Rockefeller-Center-Tree/dp/0618992154