As I meander through my internal miasma, the blog stays noir–more accurately noir/blanc–with another set of screen shots from the NYC Municipal Archives, this time all 1940s . . .Department of Sanitation tugs Spring Creek, Fresh Kills, and Ferry Point, docked in the East River. Fresh Kills aka Miss Laura . .. is she still operating out of Duluth?
Here’s another shot of Fresh Kills aka DS 43 off the Bellevue Hospital. Anyone know what became of Spring Creek and Ferry Point?
Can anyone identify this 1941 tug moving coal scows eastbound into the East River off the Battery?
Undated but in Erie Basin, it’s SS Waziristan next to a floating grain elevator. It turns out that in early January 1942, SS Waziristan–bound from New York to Murmansk– was sunk by Nazi air and submarine attack off Bear Island, Norway, lost with all 47 crew.
Help me out here . . . an unidentified tug docking an unidentified ship in Erie Basin in 1940.
Meanwhile off Tottenville, here’s a fleet of US Army transports . . . mothballed from WW!?
I believe this is a different ghost fleet in roughly the same area. Notice the Outerbridge in the background. Is this where all
this debris lies today? Actually, I took this photo and the next two just “north” of the Outerbridge in August 2010.
All the vintage photos here are from the NYC Municipal Archives, where too many photos have lamentable scarcity of captioning.
tugster: a waterblog 
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May 4, 2014 at 11:07 pm
William Lafferty
“Meanwhile off Tottenville, here’s a fleet of US Army transports . . . mothballed from WW!?”
I believe these vessels are wooden freighters built by the Foundation Company at Kearney for the United States Shipping Board’s Emergency Fleet Corporation in 1918 to Theodore Ferris’s specifications (USSB design no. 1001). They never got farther than Tottenville, it appears. I know the Johnson Ship Yard Corporation on the other side of Staten Island got a contract to break up a group of them, the only names I recall offhand being scrapped by Johnson the Coweta, Bucaya, and Tolo, all, supposedly, in 1922. Johnson maintained its own World War I government shipbuilding program under the somewhat nefarious Robert Magruder, and, given his legal problems, it is conceivable that the vessels languished for awhile before being broken up, but I truly doubt this photograph was produced in the 1940s.
May 5, 2014 at 5:36 am
tugster
william, i appreciate the perspective. i’ve found other errors in the captions already.
May 5, 2014 at 6:42 am
tugster
i’m relaying these answers from tug power: “Some answers to you queries on today’s blog. The steam tug in the East River off of the Battery is either ADMIRAL DEWEY or EDWIN J. BERWIND. They were owned by the Berwind-White Coal Co.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwind_Corporation. ADMIRAL DEWEY is now HELEN McALLISTER http://tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=709, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_Dewey_(tugboat).
The tug FERRY POINT was built in 1943 in Buffalo, N.Y. as DPC-98. The New York City Dept. Of Sanitation ran her for many years before selling her to Chrisnick Marine Corp. in the 1980’s. She became CAPTAIN RK, and DIANNE M before going out of documentation in 1989. She is probably scrapped by now.
The tug SPRING CREEK was built in 1944 as DPC-4, then became DS-44. She was sold to the Dept. Of Sanitation after the war. In the 1980’s she was sold to Sause Bros. Ocean Towing to become COCHISE, and later to Marine Express, Inc. to become the SOUTHERN CROSS. She is still in documentation and service.
A third Dept. Of Sanitation DPC tug, the FRESH KILLS was built in 1943 as the YN 1291, she was later renamed DPC-3, DS-43. She was acquired in 1946 by the Dept. Of Sanitation, & renamed FRESH KILLS. In 1969, she was sold to the “Dragon Lady” (Berman Enterprises, Inc.), & renamed RICHARD K. Providence Steamboat acquired her in 1993 to become LEOPARD, and in 1999 she was sold to R.J. Casho, and retained her name. In 2003, Marine Tech of Duluth, Minn. acquired her, renamed her MISS LAURA, and she is presently in service. http://tugboatinformation.com/tug.cfm?id=328 ”
thanks much, tug power
May 5, 2014 at 11:56 pm
bowsprite
Whoa. Way to go, Tug Power!
December 11, 2014 at 6:36 am
JAY KNUDSEN
Tugster, Saw your post of 5 May regarding the tug Spring Creek. The Southern Cross is still in operation at the Port of Stockton in California doing ship assist. I have been operating the Southern Cross since 2005 for Seaway Towing. She still belongs to Seaway Towing, who are affiliated with Marine Express. Any info on this tug, pre-Sause Bros. I would be very interested in including photos or other history.
August 26, 2015 at 5:42 am
tugster
Jay– Sorry for the late response. Here’s the link for your company then: http://www.seawaycompany.com/index.html