This next batch were all taken from the deck of tug Dalzellaird. Steve writes: “Captain Bob Munoz helped us aboard the tug Dalzellaird at 0800 hours. His tug was normally the Dalzellera, but it was out of service for many months because of damage to the variable pitch propeller and awaiting replacement parts from Holland. Looking out across the East River toward Brooklyn, Brooklyn was not to be seen because of the fog. It looked as if the parade wasn’t going to happen. However at about 0900 hours we pulled away from the pier with our portion of the press corps. The Dalzellaird headed down the East River, swung around Governors Island where we should have been able to see the Verrazano Bridge. It was not there.”
Vessels included Bluenose II, currently doing the Great Lakes Challenge 2019. She recently appeared on tugster here.
Gorch Fock II at anchor.
Sagres musters the crew forward to ready sail,
With crew high in the rigging, USCG Eagle passes USS Randolph-CV15 . . .
. . . with lots of small boats being reviewed as well.
Marie J Turecamo and Mobil 12 make an appearance,
Libertad unfurls sails
Bluenose II moves through the Upper Bay,
Esmeralda gets underway,
tug Esso Massachusetts sails with ceremonial flags,
St Lawrence II and Esmeralda and a brace of USCG 40-footers , and we’ll end this series with
Esmeralda passing the NY skyline, such as it was in 1964.
Let’s close the narrative getting back to Steve’s words: “Toward mid-afternoon it was time to return to pier 8 and let the press return to their offices to make the deadline for their stories in the newspapers. As we were about to come alongside the dock and all of the press were anxious to get off the boat, Capt. Munoz stopped and went full astern with the engine and stopped again. He leaned out the pilothouse window and looked down at the press as they looked up at him. He asked them if they got good pictures, got good stories, had a good lunch and had a good day. They all answered with a resounding yes. He said that he was busy all day making sure that they got their good pictures and he didn’t have time to take one picture. Because the Dalzellaird was a bell boat, he told them his arm was about to fall off from the constant bell ringing to allow them to maneuver in and around the ships-all for them. He asked if any one of them could possibly send him a few photos of the day’s activities.
The overwhelming response was, of course, ‘Cap, give us your address.’ He pulled the Dalzellaird up against the dock and they all rushed off. All these years later, he is still waiting for a few photos.” Maybe they got his email address wrong?
Thanks much, Steve, for sharing this.
Any errors here are entirely mine.
tugster: a waterblog 
5 comments
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July 15, 2019 at 3:34 pm
ws
Esso, a blast from the past..
although in Canada Esso gas is still @ the pumps
July 16, 2019 at 4:22 pm
Charles Danko
Any idea as to the identity of the 2nd Esso tug in that photo?
July 18, 2019 at 9:07 pm
Josh W
Is that actually CV-15? I was curious and looked it up, Wikipedia and Navsource both say it was scrapped in 1975? The Wiki article for the class says that CV-11 Intrepid is currently an active museum in NYC. 🙂
July 19, 2019 at 5:07 am
tugster
Josh– Yes it is, but look at the title of the post . . . all these photos were taken in 1964
August 14, 2019 at 11:33 pm
gene clark
It was a wonderful sight, that Operation Sail. I observed from a window on the 23rd floor of the General Motors building on 57th street (not all sailing ships made it that far up the North River, however).
But a moment to remember was a few days later when the flotilla of (about) seven U.S. destroyers were setting sail. They were berthed at Pier 96 (as I recall) and they backed out – but – – all turned north on the river
Next stop_– Albany? ?
They moved out and formed a line, bow to stern, seen perfectly from our vantage at 57th street, and moved slowly north. The first in line was at 72nd Street when the last pulled out and pointed north.
Then they executed a perfect “in line” reverse course in the very narrow confines of the Hudson!!
One of my co-workers, Bill Zebedee who had served on the carrier Midway and was a qualified OD, said “Holy Smoke”… well something like that. He was very impressed by the absolute perfection of the maneuver.
Except for the account of the German High Seas Fleet at Jutland, I had never heard of the maneuver and certainly never expected to see it executed in such a cavalier way.
Hats of to the commander who took significant risk to execute such a risky move and not one newspaper to report it.
Rest assured, if something had gone wrong, the Times would have covered it like stink on $#i++. Excuse the vernacular (I’m from Hells Kitchen)!