USACE Derricks

I first saw this type of derrick boat and heard it referred to as a derrick boat on the Erie Canal, and did a post about it here.

I haven’t been able to find much out about these boats, but enjoy.  Here’s USACE Derrick boat No. 13,

two views of USACE Derrick boat Erie,

USACE derrick boat McCauley,

a newer looking USACE Derrick boat 8,

And finally, the 500+ ton capacity floating crane Henry M. Shreve.

 

Many thanks to Barrel for these photos.

Thanks to Jan van der Doe

“I have worked on two salvage tugs,” writes Jan.  “The first one, Hercules in 1957-1958, was a seagoing salvage-tug/icebreaker built in 1943 for the German Air Force/Navy to salvage plane wrecks in the Baltic Sea.  After the war the tug sailed for Bugsier and came under the Dutch flag in 1950.  In 1984 [ as Temi IV] it capsized and sank. Salvaged and scrapped.”

“The second one was Zeepaard [ trans. Seahorse] in 1960-1961.   Zeepaard was built in 1947 and used as tug/salvage tug by Tak’s Berging (W.A van den Tak Bergings Bedrijf N.V.),  a sister company of L. Smit & Co. Internationale Sleepdienst Mij. N.V.  Still in service.  Now as a pusher-tug with the name Liberty.”

 

Thanks, Jan.

Between Bayonne’s Tanks

Click on the image below for an interactive map of this portion of the sixth boro.  Right now at about the 9 o’clock position you see two small white specks.  They

are the huge spherical tanks seen off Barbara McAllister‘s stern.

Consider the size of the wraparound stairs and you’ll understand why locally they’re called “gorilla’s balls.”.

So here’s what the tugboat fueling station looks like from the north bank of the KVK, and

here looking west.

Here’s looking NE across the tank farm, and

from the landslide looking eastward across Robbins Reef Light to Brooklyn.

Off the bow of Oleander–the incoming small container ship, would be the Staten Island ferry racks,

and here’s looking south across tanker Navig8 Spirit toward the salt pile. But here’s the surprise, inside the fence and between the tanks,

there’s a very old cemetery, which pre-dates the use of this land for oil.

It’s Constable Hook Cemetery, founded by Pieter van Buskirk.

Who knew?

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  Many thanks to Jack Kennedy for arranging for this tour.

 

USACE Tenders

I’m putting these photos up although I know little about these boats, starting with Pennsgrove.  Her lines would make a great cruiser.

 

A similar vessel in the sixth boro is Hudson.  Again, all I’ve learned is that she was built in 1963 and

loa is 50.’

This last photo I took on January 14, 2016.   She too would make a good cruiser, I think.

Thanks to Barrel for the first two photos;  the others are by Will Van Dorp, who is still out off most grids.

Thanks to the robots for posting.

More Cutterheads

Here’s GLDD’s cutter suction dredge Florida as seen from above the cutter head and

photo taken October 2010 in the KVK

from alongside.  I took the first three photos in this post.

photo taken October 2010

Here’s Weeks cutter suction dredge C. R. McCaskill,  with Sea Wolf serving as a tender.

photo taken near Rockaway Inlet September 2013

USACE E. A. Woodruff was built in 1873 and worked the Ohio. Technically, I think Woodruff was a snag boat.

USACE Florida was the most technologically advanced dredge built when it was launched in 1904.  Unfortunately, she sank with loss of life 14 years later and is currently a dive site.

USACE Barnard was built in 1904 as well in Camden and sold to Mexico in 1942.

Here’s another view of Barnard with

a tender alongside.  It looks a lot like the buoy boats on the Erie Canal.

Dredge Welatka was built in 1925.

Dredge Congaree was built in 1914 in Charleston SC.

Here’s USACE Potter originally built in 1932 and still in use.

For many more vintage USACE photos, click here.

Many thanks to Barrel for this trip through USACE technological history.

Deep-draft USACE Dredges

I remember the day I first saw McFarland, coming up the Delaware, the largest dredge I’d ever seen.  Barrel has recently sent along earlier generations–as I see it–of the big Mac.

Let’s start with Goethals, built in 1937.

Then there was Markham, seen here just prior to launch, and

here she traverses in icy waters.  Can dredge operations proceed with ice?

Here she pumps out.  Markham was reefed off North Carolina in 1994.

McFarland went into service in 1967.  Her operations are described here by the skipper.

Here she’s at work on the Delaware River.  This method of discharging is called side casting.

 

Here she’s preparing to discharge into the transfer barge.

All these photos come via Barrel.

For more background on these federal dredges, click here.

 

 

MOTBY, or Terminal MOBY

aka GHP&W 8, subset of port of Bayonne.  Actually, MOTBY expands to Military Ocean Terminal Bayonne and you saw an aerial of it here.

T-AKR 313 USNS Red Cloud is named not for the place but for this person, Mitchell Red Cloud.

I took these photos in November 2015, but as of mid-January, Red Cloud was still in Bayonne Dry Dock. 

 

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Guards

Rat guards, they’re called and they’ve fascinated me since I first saw them.  They’re functional and pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

Did you notice that the red ones, though pretty, are not functional?

I hadn’t either until now.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is still in a region without internet or telephone signal, and only the robots are working.

Charles W. Cushman

Earlier this month gothamist.com ran an intriguing set of photos taken by Mr. Cushman.  Here’s his entire archive.  Here’s a good selection.

The warehouses on the opposite side of the river from red vessel below are the current location of Brooklyn Bridge Park.  That makes the pier location a little south of piers 16 and 15. South Street Seaport Museum’s boats today.  Could that be Ollie, the stick lighter currently disintegrating in Verplanck?

I’m not sure what we’re looking at here, but the Cushman identifies it as 1941.  According to Paul Strubeck, it’s likely an express lighter–a category of self-propelled vessel I was not aware of–possibly operated by Lee and Simmons Lighterage.

And finally . .  I wish this photo–dated September 1940-– had been framed differently.  Phillip’s Foods is still around, although I’ve never eaten at any of their restaurants or if this is even the same company.  Royal Clover . .  . I can’t find anything about that brand.  And seeing all those cartons in Jeff and the barges, today there’d be a few containers and you’d have no idea of the contents.

You can search Cushman’s archives here. I call these “fifth dimension” i.e., time added, photos.

For another treasure trove of photos of old New York harbor, click here.

 

 

Tug ‘n Tender Real Estate

I was reading the NYTimes Magazine on January 10, 2016 and on pages 4 and 5 saw this advertising spread . . . . It’s clear that 70 Vestry is selling a view, and what is that view?

It’s Pegasus and

Lilac.  Great.  Maybe I could call it Pegasus/Lilac Real Estate.

But look at where the prices start for this real estate?  No problem either, but it seems there

could be a contribution to those projects that make up the view that was advertised?

To see the spread, check the NYTimes Magazine of January 10, 2016.