Retro Sixth Boro 51 B

Ten years and two days ago, I heard Urger had arrived in town and had rafted up to Pegasus,  so

I had to come down in the late afternoon and shoot this, setting sun just post-Mahattanhenge notwithstanding.   While there, I was asked to take close-up photos two days later of Urger at the Statue.  “Sure,” I said, “as long as you provide a boat I could do that from.” 

Upon a decade’s reflection, I regret we could not have arranged to get photos of Urger with more vessels in the sixth boro, especially with the larger tugboats of NYC 2012, to show difference of scale. You know what they say about hindsight . . . .

When I showed up at Pier 25 on July 14 at 0800, City of Water Day, the light was much more favorable.

Captain Wendy was cleaning up the wheelhouse, and

bosun “mean Mike” was atop the wheelhouse polishing the brass. Happy b’day, Mike!

Once the Atlas Imperial was warmed up and lines cast off, we headed over to the Statue, where

we figured out our position relative to the 111-year-old NYS Canal tugboat, and many photos were taken.

Then the intrepid crew and boat made their way over to Governors Island, where several thousand City of Water Day visitors

toured Urger, a sign I thought that the tug would go on forever, making history tangible, bidding downstaters to come upstate to that waterway that was Urger‘s home turf surf. It was a pleasant thought, and Urger did go on for the next five years.  Now . . . she ‘s in Onondaga County hamlet of Lysander, waiting.  My most recent (May 2022) Urger photos can be seen here.

All photos, WVD, who posted this montage together the next day.

Stay tuned . . . more July 2012 posts coming up soon.

The 2022 City of Water Day–July 16– website can be found here.