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Land mass area can be quantified in square miles, but I’d love to work with a mathematician to measure the area within NYC limits which is navigable, i.e., the sixth boro. Of course, “navigable” would need defining too. Immeasurable, of course, is the number of photos taken daily of vessels with the sixth boro.
Like this one of Crystal Cutler pushing
Patricia E. Poling westbound at the Brooklyn Bridge.
Taft Beach pushes BMLP 703 and 305 in the opposite direction. Also working recently have been
Paul Andrew with scrap,
Sarah Ann with more scrap,
Thomas D. Witte with crane barge Columbia,
James E. Brown with a spud barge,
and Fort Schuyler in various locations.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated, here’s an interesting video on the salvage of Modern Express . . . passed along by JM.
Also, as we near the mermaid parade, here are details on a performance to get you in the mood, an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s the “Fisherman and his Soul.”
Here was 55.
Glenn Raymo took this photo in Germantown yesterday, the all-new Sarah D; previously I used these photos by Glenn. Check out an example of one of many of his zazzle products here.
Sarah D until very recently was Helen D. Coppedge. Almost all these photos were taken by other people, but I add the next two I took in 2010 for comparison purposes.
Also, new–as in out-of-the-shipyard new . . . it’s Barry Silverton, with the Fight ALS barge. Click here for the story of the names. Many thanks to Allen Baker–click here for previous photos he’s shared– for this photo and to
Ted Bishop for the photo below.
This photo comes thanks to Renee Lutz Stanley. It’s Lyman–I think–looking insignificant in one of the huge graving docks at the Brooklyn Navy yard. Click here for previous photos by Renee. Anyone know which dock this is?
With news of a wooden boat found under a house during a construction project in Highlands NJ still –well news– what you see below are photos of another wooden vessel found during a construction project in Boston. Many thanks to Tom Mann for these photos. Here are previous photos from Tom.
As soon as imaging is complete, it will be removed.
Archeologists at the site believe it was a 19th century vessel delivering lime.
Many thanks to Tom, Renee, Ted, Allen, and Glenn for photos used here.
Related: Here’s a story about a shipwreck discovered during construction of WTC1.
This is a repost of the 4th photo in the post from two days ago, showing General Humphreys.
I repost because Dan Owen responded as follows: “General Humphreys was rebuilt into a conventional tug in 1950, 76 x 18.2 x 6.6, reportedly had two GM 6-71 diesels, 330 hp., which would have made it away under-powered. Data is very sketchy but I have a photo taken at Levingston Shipbuilding Co., Orange, Tex., which is undated but may be where it was rebuilt. I am sending this photo as it is the only one I have showing the SARAH R. II as an operating tug. This is a contact photo made from an original negative and is starting to turn yellow with age, hence the fading, but if the photo was made in 1950 at the time of rebuilding.
Louisiana Marine Repair and Service Co., Inc., Baton Rouge, owned it in 1950. They sold it in March 1966 to John C. Jackson, Jr., dba River & Canal Enterprises, Inc., Baton Rouge.
In Nov. 1976, still owned by Jackson, but removed from documentation as dismantled. For many years the SARAH R. II was lying along the bank of the Port Allen-Morgan City Route of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at Plaquemine, La. It may still be there. I am also attaching two photos of the SARAH R II in this derelict condition.” Anyone know what remains at that location?
Many thanks to Dan Owens for his quick follow up and permission to post these photos. Hats off to all of you out there working today, like Taft Beach.
Here was the previous installment. And here were the cargos and places of summer. And if you missed it previously, here’s an article about Seaway Supplier I published in Professional Mariner last year. The first six photos are used with permission from Seaway Marine Group.
Trucks like the ones with the white tanks transport stocks of fish from hatcheries to water bodies, in this case Lake Ontario. Here’s the first time I noticed one of these trucks on the highway.
Off Oswego, it’s ready, aim,
swim!
Elsewhere at sites determined by the DEC . . . fish are brought in.
and the truck returns to shore for the next load.
The photos below all come thanks to Cathy Contant, who
works in the inlet and bay where I learned to swim almost 60 years ago. Back then, when a coal ship came in here, everyone had to get out of the water. But I digress.
How could I not recognize the lighthouse AND Chimney Bluffs way in the distance.
Here’s what Seaway Marine writes on their FB page: “We have transported 40 trucks, via 6 port locations stocking over 500,000 fish into Lake Ontario aboard our USCG certified landing craft, Seaway Supplier.”
Many thanks to Jake and Cathy for use of these photos.
If I read the nameplate right, this is the number Uno! According to barrel, it was built by the Corps Design Center. Was that then in Neponset MA at the Lawley yard? See June 1943. Anyone know the details of its loss?
DPC 66 was built in Decatur AL, and later was briefly a Pauline L. Moran before sold to Portugal where she was Mafra or Mafro.
DPC 70 and 71 were also produced in Decatur in 1944.
General Humphreys was a product of the Charles Ward Engineering. She was sold in 1946 and became Sarah R, but no further info.
Here’s another photo of Mateur, which appeared here about a month ago. At that point, Dan Owen’s comment refreshed my memory of these vessels and the vital “Catfish Navy.”
In spite of all the specific dates and numbers here, I have no clue . . . except that Tulagi appears to be on the namebaord. The date suggests that the vessel now known as Bloxon would have been here at this time as well.
Tunis was DPC 617, and
Casablanca was DPC 616, both more catfish navy.
Midway Islands was a DPC towboat built for the catfish navy and later picked up by the private sector. I’m not sure how long she worked for American Commercial Barge Lines. I can’t find her DPC #.
And let’s end on something contemporary . . . George C. Grugett, near Memphis this very morning.
Many thanks to barrel for giving me something to work on over coffee this morning.
Unrelated but very interesting, a 49′ x 12′ boat is found under a house in Highlands NJ. But I was appalled that it appears to have been cut up.
This collage of orange and blue indicates that something unusual approaches . . .
0846 hr . . .
0904
Atlantic Salvor might have been headed out on a long range mission, but
at this point, I realized this mission would begin in the Lower Bay of the sixth boro along with
lots of other vessels, although
something new this year was the escort of four commercial tugs: Sassafras, Miriam Moran,
Atlantic Salvor, and Normandy. 1150. I was happy to find someone to talk to.
It’s fleet week NYC. Welcome all.
It’s USS DDG 96,
HMCS D 282,
WMEC 911,
HMCS MM 700,
HMCS MM 708,
LHD 5,
DDG 99,
and LSD 43.
At 1216, Eric McAllister joins the welcome party . . .
WLM 552.
An E-2 flew by too.
The message on the port wheel well ((?) amused me.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Here was last year’s arrival.
Click here for previous photos from Jed. Click here for a photo of John W. Brown when she housed a high school in the sixth boro, pre-1988. Jed took these photos while he was onboard in Norfolk this past weekend. Click here for info about her September 2016 visit back to her place when she was assigned to the NYC Board of Education.
For the rest, I’ll let Jed’s photos speak for themselves.
photo date 22 MAY 2016
Steven McAllister is a 1963 YTB. John W. Brown had already passed 20 eventful years under her keel by then.
photo date 22 MAY 2016
photo date 22 MAY 2016
photo date 22 MAY 2016
Many thanks to Jed for these photos. NYC should be seeing its own wave of gray arriving today.
Below is a photo taken on June 10, 1946 showing dozens of Liberty ships anchored between where the TZ Bridge would be built (BF is correction thanks to Tony A’s comment) and Haverstraw. That looks like Ossining in the distance. This photo and hundreds of others can be found in the Digital Collections of the NY State Archives here. Who knows, Brown could actually be anchored among the others.
Many thanks to barrel for this continuing series of old USACE vessels. Chester below was built in the mid-1930s at a yard where this set of vessels was also built.
The above shipyard link says that later she became Elizabeth, but that leads me nowhere. Anyone help?
Frankford is older . . . 1924, built in the same yard as Wilhelm Baum, 1923.
Here’s Escort . . . Wisconsin built. A 2001 photo of Escort appears at the end of this post: prepare yourself to gasp.
And finally, for the oldie photos today, it’s Woodbury, about which I have no info.
About the Baum . . . I know it sank two years ago, at the dock, and was raised. But since then, no updates. I took this photo and the next one back in 2008 while spending an enjoyable time at the Michigan Maritime Museum.
And here, thanks to John Curdy, is a photo of Escort taken in 2001. I believe that since 2005, it has been part of a reef near Sea Isle City, NJ. Has anyone dived on it?
Many thanks to barrel to his archives. And thanks to John Curdy–with whom I took these photos and more– for his poignant last look–that I know of– at Escort.
For some similar vessels, see tugster posts here and here.
And for a clue where I’ll be tomorrow morning, click here.
Aleksandr sent me these photos about a month ago. He took them on April 20 passing Vlissingen and headed generally northward. And I’m somewhat stumped. What does Flintercoral look like to you?
To me it looks like a new build, going elsewhere for completion.
Multratug 27 takes the bow and
Multrasalvor 3 at the stern.
So I guess here’s the story: it was completed as a container vessel, and although it has a Flinter- name, Flinter- never took ownership because the yard had gone bankrupt beforehand. It seems then that some time later, the ship was purchased by Necon, and converted into a semi-submersible. Necon, it seems, has only this vessel. But why it was under tow a month ago is a mystery.
My experience with Flinter is from 2009, when Flinterduin brought the Dutch sailing barges to the sixth boro, and then Flinterborg picked them up in Albany and returned them to Dutch waters.
The same day, Aleksandr caught Smit Sentosa on its arrival from a one-month passage in from Capetown.
Many thanks to Aleksandr for these photos. Previously his photos and drawings have appeared here. Vlissingen (origin of the name of the NYC area called Flushing, settled in 1645) is a quite old port in Zeeland.
So here was 1 and in it I said I would answer a question in a few days and now a few weeks have passed. The question pertained to the device mounted on the stern of vessel
Husky. Congrats to Seth Tane, who guessed correctly. Here’s what Xtian writes: “It’s a plough. In French we talk about “nivelage” [leveling], which means after dredging the bottom of the sea is like a field that has just passed a plow. This tool cuts the bump to fill the gap. It’s also used in the rivers where the “alluvium” or the mud stays in always same places because of the current and built like “bottom hill” there. And it happens also in some harbour (like ferries’ harbour) as because the ferries always doing the same maneuver and raise the mud that still lay at the same place.
With the plough used at the right time, ebb tide for example, the mud is raised and leaves the harbour with tidal current. In some places the plough is used to feed the hopper dredger – when the dredger is too large, the plough is used to remove a “bottom hill” when they are close to the bank to give the mud at the place where the hopper dredge is working. The plough is not only used with mud but also with sand or pebble. Google with words : Dredge – Plough.
About Husky, the day I took this picture she was working closely with the dredge Rijndelta at the entrance of Maasvlakte harbor. I add a picture of her below.”
More of Xtian’s photos follow, like this closeup of the captain of Smit Cheetah,
Fairplay 24 and 21,
Union 11 passing the Mammoet headquarters,
Smit Schelde,
SD Rebel,
Multratug 31,
Osprey Fearless,
Pieter (?) towing Matador 2,
and finally the recently completed Noordstroom.
Many thanks to Xtian for these photos of another watershed.
tugster: a waterblog 
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