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Installment 1 was a long time ago. But the hazy days of summer bring the inspiration back. Any idea what this is? Answers follow below.
Or this? I took all the photos in this post a few days ago–Sunday–afternoon from near the VZ Bridge.
Here’s an easier one maybe.
This one is a bit weird.
This one’s truly unusual.
Below . . . in the foreground that’s the same vessel as seen directly above in profile.
I liked this shot in the camera, but when I put it on the computer, I noticed that bow and stern are bookended by recreational boats. Have you identified the hazy profiles above?
Here’s the same Capt.Brian A. McAllister following a ship in and the deckhand on the bow prepares to capture the messenger line and tie it to the big line lead from the forward winch.
Answers: 1) Ram VII 2) USNS Supply (T-AOE-6) departing Naval Weapons Station Earle 3) Ellen McAllister bow first 4) two large container ships passing in Ambrose Channel, a Maersk ULCV and a Hyundai one 5 and 6) USNS Mendonca (T-AKR-303) with dredger RN Weeks bound for sea in 6)
All photos, WVD, who’s making the best of hazy summer light and air conditions. Snow-reduced visibility can be seen here, fog here and rain does the same here.
Photography means “light writing,” or writing with light. George Eastman said, “Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.”
Obviously I’m interested in the subject matter, but playing with light makes the subject matter more fun.
“What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.” John Berger
To comment on the ships, anyone know what product is being discharged from Tatjana? I believe that’s Frances alongside.
What makes getting up early so easy is this: the glow. Of course, I need to get out there to get the shot. As Henri Cartier-Bresson said, “It’s an illusion that photos are made with the camera….they are made with the eye, heart and head.”
Merci, Henri.
That’s NS Stella above and High Strength and Harbour First below.
The photo of Silver Sawsan below was taken about half an hour after the previous ones, and the light by then is less rich, no matter how bright the orange is. Ernst Haas says, ““You don’t take pictures, the good ones happen to you.” And they USUALLY happen during that first hour after dawn and the last one before dusk.
I used to fish a lot, and I thought the same thing about fishing.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Finally, with some wifi and limited time, let me put in photos and fleeting captions from leg 1. That lady below needs no introduction although she looks alarmed for some reason.
The TZ Bridge has no traffic jams down underneath.
Prospector pushes in some bridge components.
Iona Island has some long unused bollards south of the Bear Mountain Bridge.
A bulker heads south, as does
this sloop.
And this photographer plans his next series.
as Ocean Tower tows down river with more girders for the bridge.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Earlier this month gothamist.com ran an intriguing set of photos taken by Mr. Cushman. Here’s his entire archive. Here’s a good selection.
The warehouses on the opposite side of the river from red vessel below are the current location of Brooklyn Bridge Park. That makes the pier location a little south of piers 16 and 15. South Street Seaport Museum’s boats today. Could that be Ollie, the stick lighter currently disintegrating in Verplanck?
I’m not sure what we’re looking at here, but the Cushman identifies it as 1941. According to Paul Strubeck, it’s likely an express lighter–a category of self-propelled vessel I was not aware of–possibly operated by Lee and Simmons Lighterage.
And finally . . I wish this photo–dated September 1940-– had been framed differently. Phillip’s Foods is still around, although I’ve never eaten at any of their restaurants or if this is even the same company. Royal Clover . . . I can’t find anything about that brand. And seeing all those cartons in Jeff and the barges, today there’d be a few containers and you’d have no idea of the contents.
You can search Cushman’s archives here. I call these “fifth dimension” i.e., time added, photos.
For another treasure trove of photos of old New York harbor, click here.
Many thanks to Paul for this aerial photo, said to show tugboats idled by the strike that lasted the first half of the February 1946.
Here’s the verso of the photo, in the case you read Spanish.
For more context of 1946 NYC, click here for a set of Todd Webb photos. If you have time for the 13-minute video at the end of that link, it’s well-worth it also, especially for the quote attributed to O. Henry . . . calling NYC “Baghdad on the subway,” which has a whole different set of connotations in 2015 as in O. Henry’s day.
Click here for more 1946 sixth boro photos by Andreas Feininger.
And since we’re stuck in 1946 for now, check out this Life article with drawings about a 1946 proposal to build a “first-world” airport (my quotes) along Manhattan’s west side covering 9th Avenue to the water and between 24th and 71st!
See the decorated Dutch bar? That’s not something you see every day.
but July 4 is not an ordinary day. Just look at all those people at the land’s edge: “water-gazers” Melville called them, as you can read here with the last sentence of the second paragraph and go through the next two paragraphs. All wanting to see the decorated Dutch bar?
Brendan Turecamo, showing the Turecamo flag!
Marie J Turecamo brought a barge of pyrotechnics too.
Marion Moran–like Brendan Turecamo–brought a barge full to midtown, I believe.
. . . as did Doris Moran. Again, see the water-gazers fill the esplanade.
Other tugboats brought other gazers . . . sky-gazers soon.
like Kimberly Poling and .
Yemitzis, launched as a PRR tug in 1954. Click here and scroll to see her original look.
My goal at the fireworks on Pier 16 had been to get shots of Ambrose bathed in pyrotechnical light, but alas . . . without the right orientation of camera to boat to flashes . . . this is the best I got.
This photo from July 2012 was what I had imagined I could get. Well . . . it’s all about a lot of things, including location. See the different version of this shot of the left of this page and please let’s continue the discussion on the future of Pegasus.
Speaking of sky-gazers . . . from the back of the crowd on Pier 16, this is what I got.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
And if you didn’t see this article in the NYTimes about digital photography and ethics, check it out, even if you just look at the before and after photos.
. . . with some digressions . . . . The photo below of the procession leading to the Roundup comes from Jeff Anzevino.
Digress to the left . . . on the Troy (Lansingburgh) side through the trees is Melville Park and this sign and
this house. If you’re looking for a good read about Melville’s later life on the waters off Lower Manhattan, check out this Frederick Busch historical novel.
Here’s another shot by Jeff, taken from the 112th Street Bridge. You might recognize the crewman standing beside the wheelhouse port side. There are many other posts with photos from Jeff, such as this one.
From Bob Stopper, exiting lock 27, it’s Roosevelt-late 1920s built-and Syracuse-early 1930s built. Click here for some photos Bob –and others–sent along earlier this year.
From Jason LaDue . . a photo of tender (?) Oneida taken in 2001. Anyone know the disposition of Oneida? Click here for some previous photos from Jason.
And finally, from Fred tug44 . . . locking through E2 . . . right behind us. I feel grateful to have an occasional view of self to post here. Some of you have seen some of these on Facebook.
Thanks to Jeff, Jason, Bob, and Fred for photos here.
Notwithstanding all that . .. sometimes the thought that a day is the first day in the rest of one’s life is superlatively vivid. Enjoy my pics and maybe you’ll get this sense also.
Sunday afternoon, Zhen Hua 10 enters the Kills. Does anyone know if “Zhen Hua” means anything? Note Manhattan and the tip of Bayonne to the left, and tug Brooklyn, Robbins Reef Light, and the boro of Brooklyn to the right.
The new cranes arriving and the bridge their squeezing underneath are integrally related parts of the same story, as . . .
… are the cranes and the dredging equipment in the background. Note tug Specialist in the background
Margaret Moran tends the port bow.
Gramma Lee T Moran supplies the brakes and rudder.
The ship completes its journey of thousands of miles. Is it true that Zhen Hua 10 arrived here via Cape of Good Hope?
On the same theme . . here’s a handsome team of tugs, good paint all around. Working on a tandem assignment?
My thought when I read the name on the nearer tug was . . . this is historic . . . Crow‘s last ride; the Bushey tug might also be in the last mile of its thousands and thousands in a half century of work.
She’s being escorted in by Emily Ann . . .
Crow and her sister Cheyenne DO have classic lines!
Machines on shore were already staged . . . .
while not far away a last spring seal lollygags on some warm rusty metal, once also a brand new machine.
And on the other side of Staten Island rubble of a light indispensable a century ago adapts to a new life as a rookery.
Many thanks to NYMedia Boat.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who will be transiting himself soon. Thursday I leave on a grand gallivant, and in early June–if all goes well– I start a new chapter working on Urger, that handsome young centenarian tug you see upper left at the top of the page.
Bravo on the almost immediate and many correct identifications of the hulk in yesterday’s post.
Here’s an undated photo of SS Normandie in the sixth boro passing an unidentified Dalzell (?) tug.
Photo from John Skelson . . . PT boat eastbound on the KVK. Notice the onramp to the Bayonne Bridge in this and the next few photos. Here’s a “hidden NJ” blogpost about Bayonne’s ELCO shipyard. Here’s a list of vessels built there.
From the same location, another of John’s photos . . . destroyer, Great Lakes dredge, spectators,
and Moran tugs. Anyone add some info on the destroyer?
Recognize the bridge? This photo–from the New York City Archives, as are all the the rest here– is identified as taken in January 1937. Whaling City then was a fishing vessel. A vessel by that name operates today as a fast ferry.
Notice 120 Wall Street. This photo was taken January 1937 and shows F/V Charles B. Ashley.
Not much info on this next set . . . . a dredge from a century ago and
a survey vessel.
And finally . . . this may be the last of my black/white photos . . . the sign tells all about the attitude of the value of salt marshes a half century ago and before . . .
Thanks much to John Skelson for sharing his “family archives” photos, and if the fog over the sixth boro today has you staying indoors, go check out the New York City Municipal Archives online gallery.
First the specifics . . . 70 Henry Street Brooklyn Heights Cinema tonight at 7 for reception with showing starting at 8. After the show, stop by at Park Plaza Bar about .1 mile nearby.
So it’s appropriate to lead these NYC Municipal Archives photos off with tugboat Brooklyn.
Next in an icy North River (?) . . . . . . Richmond.
Launches Bronx and
Queens.
Passenger steamer Little Silver, which ran between the Battery and Long Branch, NJ in the first decade of the 20th century.
And finally . . . John Scully, a very classy Dialogue (Use the “find” feature to search) built built tug
And the connection . . . here’s what boats of this vintage look like today in “disintegration experiments” in waters everywhere. I took these in August 2011 while Gary and I filmed Graves of Arthur Kill.
Some boats of this time, of course, still operate like Pegasus (1907) and Urger (1901)
while others try to stave off time so that they might once again like New York Central No. 13 (1887).
tugster: a waterblog 
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