Headwaters 5

Seth Tane took this photo on the Columbia in 2000.  This was my sense of tugboats back then.  I had little sense of their age, power, crews, skills needed for operation, etc.  Take a guess on those features of this boat, and I’ll provide you some answers at the end of this post.  Note that this tug and barge are at a log dock, a trade unknown in the sixth boro or the NE US.

Here’s a shot I took in 2002 while hanging out on what I called back then the “waterfront” and saw this vessel.  Again, I had no idea of those same features as they pertained to this vessel, nor of the logic of this design.  Test yourself, and then some info can be found at the end.  

I took this photo in 2004.  My 15 years in coastal NE had given me an interest in schooners but I’d never sought an opportunity to crew on one, until my move to NYS, first on and then off the live-aboard.

Note the warehouses still standing where Brooklyn Bridge Park is now located.  Volunteer crewing on Pioneer and the other boats at South Street Seaport Museum kept me on the Upper Bay for long hours, and I  saw lots of new things, 

some things whose uniqueness I didn’t even fully appreciate.  Anyone know what’s become of that tugboat Rachel Marie?  I don’t.

Some things intrigued me, 

and other things like this derelict sugar mill and sunken lightship were soon to disappear.

I started to see interesting tugboats in unexpected places.

Little did I expect then the  changes that would happen.  Know the boat above and below?

All photos, WVD.  Answers below. 

Craig Foss, 1944, 116′ x 30′.  Here are more particulars, but as good as the boat appeared the top photo, she was purchased by unqualified parties, detained, and eventually scrapped.  You need to read the story here;  some crew were lucky to have survived. 

The second photo shows Coral Queen, a motor tanker that carried petroleum from 1920 (!!!) until 2011.  That is a long working life.  Here are the particulars from Birk’s data base.  From Auke Visser’s site, here are more particulars.  And finally, from my Barge Canal series last year, here are images of her generations of fleet mates;  her design relates to her work as a tanker in the “inter-connected waterways,” the Great Lakes and salt water connected by the Barge Canal.

The 1885 Pioneer still seasonally sails with professional and volunteer crews, and the 1893 Lettie G. Howard does the same on Lake Erie mostly.

I’ve no idea what became of Rachel Marie.

Meow Man traces are still around.  

The sugar mill area now has an Amazon facility, and the old shipyard is the Red Hook Ikea parking lot, and the sunken ship reefed,  the piers scrapped. 

Grouper, frozen in ice, is still waiting to be scrapped, but as of March 2, 2023 is still entirely intact.  The orange livery has disappeared from the sixth boro; that boat June K is now Donjon blue.

Ultimately, the more I found answers to questions I had, the more I was drawn in to learn more, a fact that keeps me looking and asking. I really never expected to be in the boros and fascinated by the sixth boro as long as I have been.  Recently, I had a conversation with a friend from another NYC life and she reported never to have heard of the sixth boro.  I guess that’s as shocking as hearing that someone’s not heard of the legendary Meow Man, the saltwater equivalent of Kilroy, or the US version of Maqroll, whose exploits need to be written down.  As of the date of these photos, tugster the blog had not yet been launched.

I’m not sure when I’ll post anything next, but it could be tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

Inaugurations

January, once every four years, involves a formality that we mark today.  Inaugurate has a strange derivation, you figure it out.  With this post, I’m in no way intending to divine futures.  Really it’s just sets of photos taken four years apart. 

Ice and lightship yacht Nantucket floated in the harbor in mid January 2009. Do you remember what else was literally in the harbor?

Weeks tugs stood by ready to move a barge underneath the airplane when Weeks 533 lifted the Airbus 320 from harbor waters that had cushioned its fall . . . twelve years ago. 

Next inauguration day, 2013, I watched fishermen drag clams from the bottom of Gravesend Bay.

Rebel, destined not to run much longer, pushed a barge across the Upper Bay with an incomplete WTC beyond.  Many more details had not yet sprouted on the Manhattan skyline.

Mid January 2017 . . . CMA CGM Nerval headed for the port with Thomas J. Brown off its starboard.  Here‘s what I wrote about this photo and others exactly four years ago.

Nerval still needed to make its way under the yet-to-be completed raising of the Bayonne Bridge, assisted by JRT Moran.  This view was quite different in mid January 2017.   As of today, this container ship in on the Mediterranean on a voyage between Turkey and Morocco.

All photos, WVD, taken in mid January at four-year intervals.  Nothing should be read into the choice of photos.  Sorry I have no photos from January 20, 2005, because back then I didn’t take as many photos, and four years before that, I was still using a film camera, took fewer photos in a year than now I do on certain days, and that skyline above was very different.

My inaugural event . . .  cleaning my desk, my office, and my kitchen.   If you’re looking for an activity, something might need cleaning. Laundry?   Yup, work after work.  All inaugurations call for clean ups.

And if you want to buy that lightship yacht above, here‘s the info.

 

Sixth Boro Fifth Dimension IS4

For context in this series, IS2 is most explicit, but for fun, check them all here.  The photos in this series, all scans of slides,  were all taken after the late 1950s.

#1.  This is called Hudson raft-up.  My questions:  Can anyone identify the tug or at least its company?  Is that a steam crane on the nearest barge?

#2.  Lightship Scotland.  Click here for a great story about bypassing the fishing regulations in the vicinity of the Scotland light, named for a 19th century wreck at that location.   Some questions:  Is that the current Ambrose at South Street Seaport?   Which lighthouse/lightship tender would that have been in the New York Bight?  What might the smaller USCG vessel be?

#3.  USS Saratoga CV-60, launched NY Naval Shipyard in spring 1956, i.e., she was fairly new when this photo was taken. Only two more carriers would be built at New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn.  After service until 1994, she was decommissioned and plans were made to transform her into a museum, but those plans collapsed and she has been sent to scrap.   For photos by Birk Thomas of CV-60 departing for the scrapping, click here.

Many thanks to Ingrid Staats for allowing me to publish these photos here, where I hope group sourcing brings more info to light.

 

Fort Lafayette and Robert C. Kennedy

See the Fort?

No, I don’t mean Fort Hamilton on the other side . . . or the top of the bunker at Fort Wadsworth.

This is the closest you can get to Fort Lafayette from land . . .

at least, what’s left of it, where it once stood before it was dismantled to serve as the base for the Brooklynside tower for the Verrazano Narrows Bridge.

And Robert Cobb Kennedy, he was a would-be arsonist  or maybe reckless jokester Confederate officer who was was tried, convicted, and hanged in Fort Lafayette  less than two months before the end of that war.

Do any readers have photos of the Fort before demolition?  It would have to be from the late 1950s or earlier.

Here’s more about the VZ Bridge.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp.

Random Sixth Boro 8

You’d have thought I use this title more often, but it’s been almost three years since it last appeared. I’m starting with this photo of the lightship WLV-612, because this is where I’ll be this evening for a FREE and open-to-the-public 6 pm showing of our documentary Graves of Arthur Kill.  Seats for those who arrive first.

Over the years I’ve done many posts about the WLV-612, but my favorite is this one.

Here’s a very recent arrival in the sixth boro’s pool of workboats . . . Fort McHenry, just off the ways, although just yesterday an even-more recent arrival.  more on that one soon, I hope.  I don’t know how new Double Skin 315 is.

Ships in the anchorage and waterways must think they are in a tropical clime, given the temperatures of August 2016.

NS Parade, Iron Point, MTM St Jean …  have all been here recently.

Robert E. McAllister returned from a job, possibly having assisted Robert E. Peary.

MSC Lucy headed out past

Larry J. Hebert, standing by at a maintenance dredging job.

MOL Bellwether, all 1105′ loa of her, leave into the humid haze, existing here along with

some wind to propel this sloop.

Finally, just the name, sir;  No need for the entire genealogy. This photo comes compliments of Bob Dahringer.

Thanks to Bob for the photo above;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Sixth Boro Summer 2

Even with sunglasses on, you can see the provenance of this barge Matilde in summer light.  Jeddah was my point of departure for a voyage I took just over 30 years ago . . .  and greatly enjoyed.

Summertime brings folks out to all the geology along the north Brooklyn side of the East river.

And Sunday I finally made it to the Brooklyn Barge, and I’m sorry I waited so long. I went there via the East River Ferry, getting off at India Street and walking around via West and Milton.  I highly recommend the fish tacos and the shrimp tacos.

Here’s where you pick up the food after the magic has been done.

Of course, the Media Boat fleet was out and busy, and

the juxtaposition possibilities are great on a summer weekend.

Imagine the possibilities for a Spencer Tunick installation, partly on the hillock and partly on the scrap metal . . . .   Of course, I’m don’t know if all the stakeholder would agree, so I’ll just imagine those oxidized shapes on the scow and those fleshy forms on the hillock have been painted that way by Mr. Tunick.

What will bring me back to this part of the East River soon–other than the tacos–is this air traffic, dodging

PWCs and ferries.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, whose next post will be “whale watching summertime.”

If you’re looking for summer reading, check out this list.

 

Charleston Shipbuilding 1930

Frying Pan came back to Pier 66 yesterday after several months at Caddell Dry dock, assisted by Dorothy J.  I use this photo with permission from Renee Lutz Stanley.

It turns out that I also recently received a photo and spec sheet from barrel, formerly of the US Army Corps of Engineers.  When I looked up where Liston, the vessel below, was built, I

 

learned that it was being built the same time as the lightship listed as Frying Pan Shoal.  First, it makes me wonder whether a photo exists that shows them both on the ways.  Second, I wondered if there was an error in shipyard site here about the initial name of the lightship, or if there was a time when the word “shoal” got dropped from the name of the vessel.  Third, the shipyard site says that LV115 became a museum in Southport, NC.  Click here and scroll through for a photo I took in Southport five years ago showing where some folks had wanted to build a museum with LV115 as the centerpiece, but it had never happened.

Some years ago, I used to spend a good amount of summer evening time at Frying Pan/Pier66.  If you’ve never been, you should try it once.  Here are some photos I took way back then. I must have many more somewhere.  Pier 66 opens in early May, and I think it’s time to have a large gathering there once again.  Let’s agree on a date and meet there, eh?

Many thanks to Renee and barrel for use of these photos.

But a closing shot, barrel writes:  “USACE TUG LISTON    became ARGUS of Salter Towing in 1970. #561597. At a later date became fishing vessel MR. J.C. now out of documentation.”

1963 Lightship

What better vessel to post about on the winter solstice than a lightship.  Here, here, and here are some previous ones.

This particular lightship I saw east of Rotterdam in May 2014.

It’s not particularly old, so I hope it’ll be a reminder in dark times into the distant future.

Here’s part of the story.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

One more winter solstice post from the archives here, but this year I’m not thinking about the 182 or whatever days until the summer solstice.  Maybe it just feels like the world’s a darker place than it used to be and we need light and relief now.

1907 Lightship

Here and here are previous posts that feature this vessel, LV-87 Ambrose.  The first two photos below come from Birk Thomas in late winter 2012, as Ambrose was finishing up some yard work and then

in March headed back to South Street Seaport Museum. 

I took the remaining photos, the one below as the lightship was bathed in fireworks light on July 4 this year.

The next two photos I took last week, trying to highlight Christmas red.

By the way, next week I plan a post of any work vessel–or replica thereof–decorated for Christmas in some way.  I have a few already, but if you have such a photo to share, send it along soon.  Click here for some Christmas-related workboat photos from two years ago.

Two older sister ships of Ambrose are Barnegat, LV 79, ex-Cape Lookout Shoal,  and delivered on 1 December 1904, now languishing in Pyne Point NJ; and

Swiftsure, LV-83, ex-Relief, and delivered on 22 December 1904.  I’m wondering if there’s a photo showing both vessels in Camden at the shipyard in –say–October 1904, just prior to delivery.    I took both photos in summer 2010.

Going back to this record of New York Shipbuilding history, does anyone know what became of LV 88 Columbia River, supposedly sold to Japan in 1988?

This post shows a photo of LV 84 Brunswick and tells of its demise.  Click here for other posts on lightships.  One lightship I’d really like to see is this one from 1911 in Surinam.

The top two photos credit to Birk Thomas;  all the others to Will Van Dorp.

 

Really Random Tugs 31

Yesterday’s post led with Jared S aka Cheyenne II, and so I’m grateful to Jason LaDue for sending along a photo he took before she sank into the Genesee River, where she still lies.

This next photo was taken by Renee Lutz Stanley, recently, as Pelham assisted the dead but lively Frying Pan to Caddell for some work.  This is my first time seeing Frying Pan away from her berth at Pier 66.  Previous posts with Frying Pan include this, this, and notably this;  in the fifth photo of the “notable” third link there, you get a little background on Frying Pan and its name, as well as see the location the lightship MIGHT have ended up at as mainstay of a North Carolina maritime museum, which would have put it much closer to Frying Pan Shoal.  Here and here are some recent posts with Pelham.

The next five photos I took on a recent gallivant down east.  Little Toot, who works at Washburn & Doughty ( W & D) of East Boothbay, ME, appears to be a pristine-looking 1953 product of Roamer Boat company of Holland, MI.

On the opposite side of the big blue shed at W & D is one of East Boothbay’s newest almost completed tugs, likely the JRT Moran.

I saw Dorothy L (1965) twice while I was in the area inland from Monhegan, this time and once later but at about 0600 h and the light and motion of my ride didn’t lend itself to a good photo.

And here are some from the sixth boro, Haggerty Girls in the notch of RTC 107, and

And finally, a veteran . ..  it’s Freddie K Miller inside the water and

out.  For a wide range of photos of this boat’s life, click here.

 

Thanks to Jason and Renee for use of their photos.  For more of Renee’s photos of the Frying Pan move, click here.

And here, verbatim, is my call for collaboration for November posts.  Thanks to those of you who have already responded.

“And if you’re interested in collaboration, I invite your help for November posts.  All month long I hope to feature different ports–harbors–waterways and their workboats, which means not only towing vessels, but also ferries, fish boats, maintenance vessels, even yachts with professional crews.  I’ve been traveling a lot the past few months and have a fairly large backlog of boats from ports–harbors–waterways mostly in New England.  But as a social medium, this blog thrives on collaboration, so no matter which waters are near you,  I’m inviting you to send along photos of workboats from ports I might not get to.  I’d need at least three interesting photos to warrant a focus on a port.  Here are examples I’ve already done that illustrate what I’m thinking to do.”