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The last photo of yesterday’s post here showed a dory in the beginning stages of construction. Its placement there conforms to Chekhov’s gun principle. So here’s what follows. Maybe I should call this post . . .” in the shadow of an old building and protected by the body of a Chinese laundry truck, Ibis hatches, fledges, and more . . .” but that would be rather long. So just enjoy.
Garboards in place,
planks fastened and plugs driven . . . About the clamps, Pam says “they are simple and brilliant. They have really long jaws to be able to reach across a plank to clamp the new plank to the one already in place. Wedges get tapped into the other end to tighten the grip.”
Sheer strake in place, and now
it’s time to roll her over.
“Dories are usually built on their frames which act as the mold stations – I would do it that way if I built another dory. We used the mold stations and steam bent frames to go into the boat. Steam bending is an experience, although hair-raising… handling a hot piece of wood, and maneuvering clamps quickly before wood cools… It is hugely satisfying though.”
Ibis has a beautiful bow, soon to be cutting through sixth boro waters
Again, many thanks to Pamela Hepburn for use of her photos and in some cases, her commentary.
Here is the index of posts from two years ago showing an older Jersey City and environs.
All of the following photos/collages come compliments of Pam Hepburn, master of the 1907 tug Pegasus aka “Peg” and the godmother of the Pegasus Preservation Project. Many posts devoted to Peg can be found here.
In the collage below taken from atop a crane, you are looking east from a midpoint in the Morris Canal. The Twin Towers serve as a reference, as does the Statue of Liberty to the right horizon. Pam has included text, which I will not duplicate. She mentions the white vessel Chauncey M. Depew, which you can see here. Also mentioned is the M/T Mary Gellatly; here is another–I believe–Gellatly tanker. Today marinas fill the canal, the north side is largely built up, and the south side is Liberty Landing State Park.
This photo was taken from the same crane but looking west.
Taken on the north side of the canal and near the border with Hoboken, here was new life springing forth. More photos of this new life soon.
Many thanks to Pamela Hepburn for use of these photos.
And thanks to all who commented on the captions yesterday. This morning when I opened wordpress to prepare this post, the captioning option was nowhere to be seen. Oh, the mystery of software!!
Foto #1. Seth Tane took this from the WTC in the early 1980s. From L to R, that’s the Statue, Ellis Island, and Communipaw Terminal of CRRNJ . . . with a lot of vacant space behind. NOT shown but just to the right would be the Morris Canal and the Colgate Clock.
Foto #2. I took this grainy foto from the WTC in late December 2000. NOT shown but just to the left is the CRRNJ terminal. Notice the Morris Canal and the first set of high rise condos of Jersey City. Anyone know the name? Also notice that Goldman Sachs is not there yet.
Foto #3. Beyond QE2 leaving the sixth boro for the last time in October 2007, you see the CRRNJ terminal, Morris Canal, Colgate clock, and the Goldman Sachs with additional buildings to the right. Foto taken by amica.
Foto #4. I took this foto in September 2009 from North Cove.
Fotos #5 and 6. Amica took these in 2010 and 2011.
Foto #7. I took tis one last week from just north of North Cove, 18 floors up.
Click here for some great views of Jersey City, mostly Morris Canal area, mostly in the early 80s. Here for aerial shots emphasizing rail.
Click here for lots more . . . dating way back.
To reiterate what I said in part 9 of this series, the margins of the sixth boro have experienced a sea change from 30 years ago to now. And stormy Sandy of seven months ago intimates that all this relatively rapid building on reclaimed land at sea level will again change. But the difference is that since humans have walked and waded and floated here, we’ve never had construction of this scale.
Foto #8. Shifting focus a bit, Seth took this shot of–I believe–South or North Cove from the same vantage at the same time as foto #1.
Click here for images of the same, but from the mid 70s. And still more here looking across what was then the plains of Battery Park City. And the last one for now crediting Nelson Rockefeller for the concept.
As I did before, I’m inviting a sharing of more fotos showing the tremendous changes on the edge of the sixth boro.
Afterthought . . . if you want to witness further changes to the sixth boro margins, be in a viewing location that’ll show this building between 0700 and 0800 tomorrow morning. The structure below might just implode . . .
Here is just one of the many posts I’ve done on Janice Ann Reinauer, now working in Nigeria under new ownership. Here’s a post I did featuring her and siblings about to leave almost exactly two years ago, high and dry on Blue Marlin. Of course, the skyline in the background shows that here–about 30 years ago–she was getting some attention at the drydock over in Jersey City just north of the Morris Canal.
Here’s a closer-up of the yard tug on the shoreside of the drydock. Can anyone fill in more info on this fairweather vessel?
Here are two shots looking at what is now a very different Jersey City bank.
Only the lettering Bert Reinauer II offers clues here. Anyone know the vessel to the left? Bill Lynch speculates it’s pilot boat New York (1972), and I’m inclined to think he’s right.
And finally, a repeat foto from yesterday . . . in addition to the identification sent through comments by tugboathunter and jeff s, here’s what Harold’s eureka moment came up with . . . revealing a bit of his process: ” I finally cracked the case on that green unidentifiable tug. I looked at that photo, got away from it several times after tearing my hair out, and finally went back. Saying to myself, ‘That boat looks familiar. I’ve seen it in the last few years painted a different color. The Tug Races, that’s it, the Tug Races.’ ” Interjection: here’s a post I did in 2007 showing what Harold remembers.
Harold continues: “She was built in 1959 in Norfolk, Va. (yard unknown) as SHRIKE. She was later renamed SALLY, and then BILL MATHER (that’s where the MATHER comes in from my observation). I couldn’t make out the name BILL. She was MONAHAN before becoming LONG SPLICE. Her owner in 1993, as MONAHAN according to Carl’s records was Monahan Towing Co. I looked in a 1978 MERCHANT VESSELS OF THE UNITED STATES, under BILL MATHER, and found her owners as Tug Leasing Corp., Delaware. A final look in a MERCHANT VESSELS OF THE UNITED STATES 1965 under SHRIKE shows her owners as Southern Tug Corp.”
Again, all these vintage fotos, which allow this time travel, come compliments of Seth Tane. Click here for his current endeavors.
Here and here are two posts I’ve done on Harold.
Finally, I’ve written to folks in Nigeria to attempt to get fotos of boats there formerly here . . . still to no effect. Anyone help?
Le vie navigabili . . . is what you could call “sesto borgo” or “the sixth boro.” And it’s navigated by creatures small as these canadagoslings,
greater,
numerous . . . unwanted or
scruffy but perennially utilitarian.
Say hello to 3/4 of the painting crew on Pegasus last Saturday. Vote daily for Pegasus here–so that she might benefit from a huge grant of $250,000–and
starting from THIS weekend, come and visit Pegasus on board at Pier 25 in the boro called Manhattan. The schedule now calls for Pegasus to leave this “canale” within the sixth boro tomorrow . . . Thursday, pick up Lehigh Valley 79, and move back over to Pier 25. In reference to the canales di venezia, Pegasus would look good exploring there . . . By the way, here’s a log of Pegasus’ last visit to the drydock for work.
Here you’re looking east at Manhattan and its tallest building from the Morris Canal in New Jersey. Il canale di morris è una delle vie navigabili del sesto boro.
See you some hours this weekend on Pegasus at Pier 25. And please . . . vote daily, no mater which continent you are on.
Parting shot . . a foto of Pegasus leaving the tour dock in Yonkers 11 months ago.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
By the way, the tugboat shown most completely in the 4th foto is the 1943 46.5′ Linda G. I don’t know where she was built. Pegasus is 96′ and 1907-built in Baltimore. The goslings, hatch of 2012, were about 4″ long.
tugster: a waterblog 
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