The sixth boro includes a portion of Raritan Bay, and once there was a USACE dredge called Raritan, built in 1908 in Sparrows Point, as seen below. She was scrapped in 1956 after having been sold out of the USACE and renamed Sandmate.
The next series shows a life raft of the era being tested off Fort Mifflin back in 1925.
To me it looks more like a camel than a life raft.
Would this type of life raft ever be used in rough seas?
Thanks to barrel for this glimpse of the past.
tugster: a waterblog 
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June 8, 2016 at 7:44 pm
sleepboot
Re: your question Will,
Would this type of life raft ever be used in rough seas?.
Ask a seaman who survived the second world war at sea during the Battle of the Atlantic.
I’m sure that some of them or many were happy to have such a contraption.
The ones we had shortly after the war made of steel were not much better.
Love the serie of old stuff.
Regards
John.
June 9, 2016 at 10:04 am
William Lafferty
The Sandmate, with its fleetmates Sandcaptain and Sandchief (the former Corps dredges Delaware of 1905 and Benyuard of 1904, respectively) were instrumental in providing the sand fill, loaded in the Ambrose Channel, upon which the New Jersey Turnpike was built through the swamps west of Newark in the early 1950s. After this project, the Sandmate was broken up at Baltimore in 1956 by Boston Metals Company, not far from where it began life at the Sparrows Point yard of the Maryland Steel Company.