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Here was the first time I used this title, which clearly needs to be used again.
Let me start here at 13:38. Note from far to near, or black hull to black hull . . . Cartagena, Four Sky with Lee T Moran, Red Hook, and Genco Knight.
Twin Tube slides through the opening between Bow Kiso and Genco Knight.
Even the bow of Genco Knight is crowded as their vessel prepares to dock and resupply the salt depot.
Kimberly Turecamo works the bulk carrier’s stern as Evening Star passes with B. No. 250.
Add McAllister Girls in the foreground and Ellen McAllister in the distance against the blue hull, which will appear a bit later.
McCrews heads westbound and Four Sky now seems to be doing the same.
Are you out of breath yet? Only 10 minutes has elapsed.
Linehandler 1 cruises blithely through it, supremely self-assured.
Cheyenne adds color.
Another line handler boat scouts out the set up . . . as a new blue hull arrives from the west, as
. . . does Charles D. McAllister.
Crew on the blue hull–Nord Observer–stows lines as they head for tropical heat, escorted
by Catherine Turecamo although
at the turn on the Con Hook range they meet Mare Pacific heading in with Joan Turecamo and Margaret Moran. At this point . . .
14:12 . . . the mergansers decided to hightail it . . . or at least follow their crests. And I hadn’t even turned around yet to see the congestion on land behind me.
All these photos in a very short time by Will Van Dorp.
My thanks to Brian DeForest and Atlantic Salt, whom Genco Knight was arriving to restock.
Here was a post about a dense traffic day as well as a busy day.
. . . aka a jumble.
I took the foto below of Stephen L. Colby (St. Louis, MO-built, 1967, 144′ x 40′) on 1/4/2013 in Cairo, IL. Yesterday, the boat sank into 14 feet of water farther north on the Mississippi.
Below, s/v Concetta meets Charles D. McAllister (Jacksonville, FL, 1967, 94′ x 29′) in late October.
Twin Tube (Blount, 1951, 64′ x 19′) passes the polytube rack. If you click on the link in the previous sentence, you’ll see the very next completed Blount project was of Ceres, a “grain elevator.” A google search turned up no fotos. Anyone know of any?
I took this foto a week and a half ago. Currently, Grande Sierra Leone has left Dakar bound for Cotonou, passing the older Grande Buenos Aires en route.
Bow Hector in the Kills a few days ago . . . now in Morehead City. Bow! Hector!
Taft Beach . . . shuttling dredge spoils, inbound.
Sludge tanker North River noses past 118,000-bbl barge Charleston.
On Marathon Day, this was Explorer of the Seas ( I think) approaching the Narrows, as seen past the stern of Transib Bridge.
A few days ago . . . it’s Challenge Paradise. I wonder if that’s ever a command. . . .
And at the same moment, crude oil tanker Felicity. By the way, I passed between felicity and challenge paradise . .. steering clear. Both vessels are currently southbound off the coast of the Carolinas.
Finally, in the Buttermilk, it’s MAST’s r/v Blue Sea, passing Wilson Newcastle and McAllister Responder. Responder and Charles D. are two of the triplets built near the end of the run at Gibbs Gas Engine, currently a place to sleep and stroll. The last time I saw Roderick-the third triplet– in the sixth boro was here.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
In this final installment about this trip downbound I took last Sunday, I’ll jump back north to Newburgh, where Staten Island ferry Gov. Herbert H. Lehman is less substantial than in this foto from summer’s start. Lehman is an example of a vessel that goes upriver, literally, never to return . . . although I realize I should be careful with the word “never.”
Here, in this foto by Seth Tane in the late 1970s/early 1980s–remember the “fifth dimension” series of ten posts I posted late last spring–is another such “upriver to die” vessels. If you look at no links again ever in this blog, you have to look
at this one. Sachem –built 1902 as a luxury steam yacht named Celt–also served as USS Sachem, Thomas Edison’s plaything, and Circle Line V. Now she languishes in a tributary of the Ohio River. Hmm . . . maybe I need to gallivant there when next I’m can do so.
To more exotica, here’s lift boat Vision near Verplanck. The deployed ladder . . . I’m not sure this awaits the crew’s return to the vessel, or whether the crew’s on board and forgot to retract it.
Click here to see the same vessel operating near the Narrows about six months ago.
Nearby are Velut Luna on a barge obscuring parts of Tahiti Queen, which appears to be idled.
And in the same marina, also idled . . . the former DEP Cormorant, also gone upriver to die?
Moving from the Great Lakes downbound with my sister on Maraki is Amicus, a 34′ Thomas Colvin design. Amicus is Florida-bound and looking for crew.
And I have to tell a story. At the point Maraki anchored here near Amicus, my sister rowed me to the shore there so that I could catch the MTA back home so that I could get to work. I hiked through 100′ of woods toward a grassy hill between the river and the train station. It was a warm October Sunday afternoon, and when I stepped out of the woods, I found myself not far from an amorous young couple on a blanket, there to enjoy . . . well, nature in a private place. Ah well . . . sorry.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp except the two by Seth Tane, for which I am grateful.
You may once have ridden this vessel. Thirty months ago you could have made a bid on it. Eighteen months ago it was topheavy and listing. Two weeks ago Paul Strubeck caught this foto. Might you call it a major haircut.
Around the same time, Paul caught this vessel in Verplanck. That looks like Cornell to the left also. I don’t know what Cormorant‘s future will be.
I caught Planetsolar on my way outatown, but bowsprite studied the first solar-powered circumnavigator up close and impersonal and shares these fotos.
Inside these caps are props. Click here and here to see the props.
Enjoy these views starting with this view looking forward along the portside and moving counterclockwise around the boat.
Click here for a compilation of clips taken over two years on Turanor PlanetSolar. And if you have 40 minutes to watch this video from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, you could like it. I especially liked the Singapore dry dock section beginning around 31 minutes in. And from yesterday’s NYTimes, here’s a story about the boat’s current research mission.
Many thanks to Paul and bowsprite for these fotos.
Speaking of bowsprite . . . if you’re local and free on Saturday, come down to Pier 25 where she has organized the craft market called Radio Lilac, named for the 1933 lighthouse tender there.
Springtime . . . and motion gives a renewed sense of life to the watery boro. Emerald Sea‘s been around all winter, but she’s not moved loads like this. Diner? Prefab beach buildings for post-Sandy reconstruction? Many thanks to Ashley Hutto for this shot taken along Roxbury, Queens.
Eclipse, the huge yacht in the distance has taller masts than Clipper City, the tallest sailing vessel operating in the the harbor. Eclipse left the harbor Tuesday, headed for Gibraltar.
Schooner Virginia left Wednesday, headed for Virginia . . . by way of Portland, Maine.
Anyone know the manufacturer of the speedboat in the foreground? In the background is Zephyr, launched 10 years ago from the Austal Shipyard in Mobile, AL . . . and Wavertree, launched 128 years ago in Southampton, UK.
I could almost imagine this boat has a bowsprit.
Smaller workboats seem more commonplace this time of year like Henry Hudson,
this Oyster Bay government boat,
an OCC vessel,
and of course the ubiquitous all-weather sludge tanker North River, frequently mentioned on this blog.
Thanks to Ashley for the first foto, and I’d love to know what that structure on the Weeks barge is. All other fotos by Will Van Dorp, who feels the urge to go somewhere too.
Of course, every day is water day in the sixth boro of the city of NY, and it’s great that MWA and other sponsors have chosen for five years now to recognize that fact . . . on a big “get out on the water” day . . . because who OWNS the port . . . ultimately WE do, you and I, as citizens of this country. Many organizations manage it, enforce regulations in it, and fund educational activities about it . . . but WE own it, the port, the water . . . and support it with our taxes and our votes.
Enjoy this set of twelve fotos taken over roughly a 12-hour period yesterday. At daybreak, Pegasus and Urger were still rafted up on Pier 25. This foto shows two boats whose combined longevity adds up to over 215 years!!
Resolute was northbound over by the Murchison-designed Hoboken terminal . . . which means a larger vessel needing assistance MAY shortly be headed for sea. Here’s another Murchison-designed mass transit building in what today seems an unlikely location.
North River itself works tirelessly as part of the effort to keep sixth boro waters clean.
Urger poses in front the the Statue. Lady Liberty was a mere 18-year-old when Urger (then C. J. Doornbos) first splashed into the waters of a Lake Michigan bay.
Launch 5 races downriver.
Indy 7 shuttles folk around as Soummam 937, the first Algerian warship ever to visit the sixth boro leaves for sea.
Little Lady II and a sailboat negotiate passage.
Laura K and Margaret Moran escort in container vessel Arsos (check its recent itinerary at the bottom of that linked page) and weave their way to the Red Hook container port through a gauntlet of smaller vessels, including Manhattan.
Catherine C. Miller moves a small equipment barge back to base.
Fire Fighter II hurries north on the Buttermilk Channel to respond to an alarm.
A flotilla (or bobbering or paddling or badelynge) of kayaks crosses the Buttermilk.
Pioneer tacks toward the north tip of Governors Island, leaving Castle William to starboard.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp on Bastille-sur-l’eau Day.
Related: I was overjoyed to read the NYTimes this morning and find this article about a vessel calling at Port Newark!! Bravo. Back a little over a week ago I was miffed about this article . . . about the port in Trondheim, which could just as well have been written about skilled workers anywhere in the sixth boro.
Also, I’m passing along a request from the Urger crew: if anyone sees a foto of Urger crew in any local print publications, please tell me so that I can look for a clipping to pass along to them. Thanks much . . . .
Unrelated: From today’s NYTimes Book Review section, an essay by Douglas Brinkley and Johnny Depp on Woodie Guthrie, who would have turned 100 yesterday.
By the way, from Mitch’s Newtown Pentacle, can anyone identify the tug in this post? I can’t .
Bowsprite made my jolly Easter even jollier with her post here, rendering the silvery ovoids of Newtown Creek aubergine. These digester eggs are an essential part of keeping the harbor clean. See this DEP link as a starter. Boston has similar structures on Deer Island, which are part of the same process.
Here’s another shot of Newtown Creek’s facility, as viewed from Peter Cooper Village across the East River.
And yet another view . . . as seen from a boat on the Creek, the loins of 19th century industrial New York. Yes, that’s the now-scrapped Kristin Poling back in 2010.
As bowsprite points out in her post . . . yes, there is a proverbial “recreation area intertwined with a waste disposal equipment” around these eggs . . . a boat launch, a minipark with historical info on local names like this.
This DEP vessel Red Hook is the newest addition to the NYC DEP fleet, which I wrote about quite some time ago here. If you’ve ever seen a vessel of these colors in the sixth boro, you’ve witnessed NYC fertilizer production at work.
Enough seriousness . . . . this post has to be leading into a gassy direction. Imagine this as a multi-hued digester filled with so much lighter-than-air vapor that it came loose from its Newtown Creek moorings.
What if engineers could isolate the light gaseous by-products of digestion so that passenger
craft like this one that circled the harbor last weekend could be exotic-fuel powered?
More digesters in evolution?
And this bit of blue jetsam along the KVK . . . might it expand to digester size . . and if so . . what might hatch from this?
OK . . . back to my serious world. All silliness aside, New York City school kids DO come down to the park around the eggs to see and learn . . . using this “scavenger hunt guide.”
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Here are 4, 3, 2, and 1. Ooops . . here’s another 1, featuring a June K.
Winter’s not over, and there has already been SOME call for salt on roads and walkways, but mostly it’s been a low-salt season around the sixth boro.
The other morning I thought I’d see bulker Irene rotated by Ellen McAllister, but it turns out
Ellen was lying in wait for the container vessel appearing
around the bend.
The salt trade is ancient. Since I’m thinking about gallivants a lot these days, I recall hearing about salt caravans out of the Sahara to ports in North Africa for trans-shipment to Europe. Even if I didn’t travel on a camel, seeing salt slabs in traditional boats on the Niger River . . . would suffice. Back in 1977 I was finished with a job in Cameroon and had the option of adventuring across the Sahara (hitchhiking) through another desert city called Agadez, and opted out. I still regret that choice sometimes. Two friends did it. I thought of this again recently while reading Vuvuzela Diaries.
What traveled north for centuries was salt as well as gold; what traveled south to Timbuktu were European “luxury” goods, including books. Here’s another BBC video on the scholarly libraries of Timbuktu.
If mild and dry weather prevails for the rest of this winter, Mt. Salt will remain here along Richmond Terrace. The small vessel off Irene‘s stern here belongs to the NYC DEP.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
GB15 was here.
About the foto below, I love surprising discoveries like this: Rikers Island has a launch, Officer Guy Hudson. I wonder if the launch has ever figured in searches for escaping Rikers’ inmates. Click here for foto and video tour of Rikers.*
Below foto taken last weekend, Kojima has made the sixth boro an “annual” stop the past two summer solstices! I also spotted them here in early summer a few years back, too. Suppose they come for the mermaid parade?
Thanks to Captain Zizes for this foto of the Bravest, the most recent FDNY Marine unit, commissioned less than a month ago on May 26. Info thanks to Harold Tartell.
Another shot of EPA Bold arriving through the Narrows a few weeks back. I love the small boat on a trailer on starboard side. Bold was docked at Riverbank State Park–the park over the sewage treatment plant!!–less than two weeks ago.
Lower Stapleton (?) serves as homeport for this fleet of speedy USCG vessels . . . just north of the Narrows.
Yesterday’s post featured a Robert Allan tug in Italy; here’s Fire Fighter II, the latest Robert Allan-designed fireboat in the sixth boro.
Special trash skimmer DEP Shearwater . . . I’d love to hear more about it, and is Jamaica Bay still around also?
I believe this is an NYS Environmental Conservation vessel over by SUNY Maritime; Wednesday it was having a hard time dragging some docks . .. horsepower YES but torque NO.
Foto #3 thanks to Captain Zizes. All others by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelateds: Has no one gotten a foto of Cangarda in the past 36 hours? Does the unique vessel only steam Captain Nemo-style under concealment of night?
And the NYTimes CityBlogs had this article recently . . . a story about the tug Petersburg; a foto of a certain deckhand handling Petersburg lines appeared here almost two years back on tugster . . . see the last foto.
Finally . .. if you’re free Sunday night, come to BAM’s short film series for Jessica Edwards’ Tugs. I think I’ll be there.
*Embedded in the Riker’s Island link is some interesting budget info: Riker’s recent budget info (?.. ok this takes more sourcing) reveals that it spends $860 million at the correctional facility to “control” [wikipedia's term] 14,000 inmates with 7000 corrections officers and an additional 1500 civilians; less than 20 miles to the southeast, Nassau Community College (NCC) spends $200 million to serve 22,000 students with 740 fulltime professors number currently in flux) and an undetermined (by me) number of parttime professors and administrative folks. I realize that Rikers has to feed, house, etc. their 14,000 “controlees,” but also added into the equation should be that NCC students depart with skills for upwardly mobile jobs.
Let me illustrate the point I made in Something Different 3. Suppose you were reading a river chart and saw a place labeled “Burden Point.” And suppose it looked like this. It suspect it’d make you wonder about the origin of the name, imagining that some weary wretch struggled unsuccessfully to make something happen on that point of land on the wrong side of the tracks …
Burden Point is a real place though, and those tracks support a loco Amtrak racing by many times daily. Info on the Burden follows.
Another place freighted with evocative name and debris is Port Ivory, just slightly to the west of this foto. Makes you wonder, and I think that’s good.
The charts mark Pot Cove as near near here. I had to make the fotos somewhat interesting. By the way, that’s tug Quenames sliding a barge under the rail bridge near Hell Gate, and beyond her starboard is the Bronx, DEP sludge central, possibly sludge tanker North River.
And one last rather uninteresting foto . . . Bushwick Inlet poking into Greenpoint, Brooklyn from the East River. Know how this place is connected with Burden Dock?
Bushwick Inlet was once the home to Continental Iron Works, where the ironclad Monitor was built. And the iron used in the plate, well, that’s the Burden connection. Burden Dock is named for Henry Burden, one of the Hudson valley’s most prolific inventors with iron, a name I didn’t know until I started digging prompted by the weary dock name I spotted last weekend. Burden made superb train wheels and horse shoes for the Union army as well as iron plate–shipped downriver from his iron works in Troy–for the construction of Monitor. The hills inland from Burden Dock supplied ore for all Burden’s projects. See p. 13 of this issue and p. 9 of this one for references to Burden’s Hudson River Ore and Iron . . . although that whole magazine has enthralling articles in it. Kudos to the Columbia County Historical society. Interesting also is that Hudson River ore was superseded by that from the Mesabi Range.
Now without that name and a little wild debris–a shack on a barge or dock transforming itself back into wilderness–I’d not have felt invited into this past. I’m grateful for the names, at least. Port Ivory has this story, better smelling though less fabulous than you might have imagined. Pot Cove was once a native village. Upriver are Anthony’s Nose (maybe named for the proboscis of Peter Stuyvesant’s aid Anthony Corlaer and Kidd’s Cave. Mr Stuyvesant himself enjoyed a well-endowed proboscis.
Tugster wish list: Can anyone share scans/fotos of the ghost fleet off Jones Point (at the base of Dunderberg Mountain) from the mid-60s to the early 70s. In 1965, 189 vessels were anchored there.
Tangentially related: The sixth boro is dotted with an archipelago of islands from the famous Manhattan to the obscure Hart, where Melinda Hunt has brought the dead to life.
Spot on related: Check out hudson river explorer, Dennis Willard’s blog.
Finally: A tip of the hat to Rick of Old Salt Blog for his compendium of haunted ships . . . for tomorrow. I’m off gallivanting up the Hudson Valley for Halloween.
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