I have not been back to a closeup of the scrapyard in the Arthur Kill since last spring, but recent correspondence both in the comments area of the blog and private and directly to me prompt this revisitation. Click here to see the original post from August 2011. Let me just add that this vessel–Bayou Plaqumine–was originally called Junior Mine Planter (JMP) MAJOR ALBERT G. JENKINS, built 1921 in Bay City. MI. She didn’t become Bayou Plaquemine until after 1951. The photo below shows her location since the early 1970s.
Here’s the view looking northward from Plaquemine‘s bow, and
from a slightly different vantage point.
and in the opposite direction.
Here’s the text of an email I received last week and for which I am very grateful. “The Jenkins (aka Bayou Plaquemine) was captained by my grandfather, David B Nettles; the Jenkins was used to tow gunnery targets for the Navy and the shore batteries to take target practice with back in the 30’s in addition to her other duties while stationed in Pensacola, FL. My uncles and father all spent time aboard the Jenkins during their childhood and young adulthood. There was a second vessel stationed there as well, a twin sister of the Jenkins. I have photos of both. In fact I have one of the bronze bow emblems that was mounted to the Jenkins bow. I know she was docked at Fort Barrancas and at times Old Fort Pickens. I grew up with many stories about the vessel being shared. The family is all gone now but me and cousin or two. So the stories are all but gone now.”
Cold and damp winter weeks are a time to celebrate the past by telling its stories and sharing photos of its many faces. I hope this prompts more sharing.
I’ve paid attention to the recent activity on the blog in relation to “189 Ghost Ships,” including a question I received today about anyone having photos of the ghost fleet maintenance crew, including 85!! civilian employees. I’d love to see and post some of these photos if you are willing to scan them and share using my email address on the upper left hand side of the main tugster blog page.
By the way, sometimes conversation happen on the FB side of this blog; I’d rather they happen here so that archiving of comments is more certain than on FB.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp and taken in May 2010 and August 2011. If you want to see more of the scrapyard and a few of the stories, please order Graves of Arthur Kill. Click on the image of the DVD to get ordering info.
tugster: a waterblog 
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January 12, 2015 at 3:03 pm
Harry T Scholer
During the Korean War my father worked as a pipefitter in the Bethlehem Shipyard, Hoboken, NJ. The ships from the “Ghost Fleet’ were being towed down the river, taken out of mothballs and I would assume sent back to the merchant marine fleet.
January 12, 2015 at 7:49 pm
Anonymous
I love these shots. Many years ago I did a canoe ride around Staten Island.. well at least the Kull and the Kill. Can’t say I remember much but will order the CD now that you’ve piqued my interest.. I look at the harbor differently since I started reading and seeing your blog. thanks.
January 14, 2015 at 1:26 pm
William Lafferty
In summer 1918 the Defoe Boat & Motor Works was offered a contract, based upon the yard’s performance in building smaller, wooden vessels for the war effort, by the United States Army to construct eight steel mine planters. The principals of Defoe as well as other business interests at Bay City, Michigan, formed the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in July to accept that contract and began construction of a steel shipbuilding plant on the site of the former E. B. Foss lumber yard along the Saginaw River, and work on the vessels commenced in late October. The Major Albert J. Jenkins was the fifth of those vessels, Defoe’s hull number 55. Unfortunately, most of the Defoe yard was destroyed in a fire on 23 July 1919, but the planters were not damaged but the conflagration led to a long delay in their completion while the yard was rebuilt. The Jenkins was launched in late fall 1920 and completed early the next year. As built, the Jenkins was 98.5 x 22 x 12, 170 gt, 92 nt, and powerted by a compound steam engine, 13-26 x 18, 320-ihp, supplied by a 8.6′ x 8.6′ water tube boiler. You seem well acquainted with the vessel’s subsequent military service. In 1951 Oil Transport Company of New Orleans purchased the Jenkins, remodeled it somewhat, and repowered it with a war-surplus 12-cylinder EMD 567A Diesel, 900-bhp. The registered dimensions were altered to 93 x 22.5 x 11.6; 198 gt, 83 nt. In 1966 the tug was sold to Nickerson Marine Towing Company, Tampa, and renamed Courier. In 1968 McAllister Bros., Inc., New York, acquired the tug, which McAllister removed from documentation in January 1972 as dismantled. You know well its current state.
January 14, 2015 at 4:00 pm
tugster
Thanks for the broadening details, Bill. I am surprised that you refer to it as a tug. I’d love to see it in its last years . . .