Bluegrass Red Hook

Click on the image below and enjoy the music.  Come out and hear this traditional American music by the Paradise Mountain Boys–and stories about the port of New York history this coming Thursday night in Red Hook.  Details here.

I hope you listened to the song above.  Here’s the kicker:  the band is from Norway.  Here’s their take on “Man of constant sorrow,” one of my favorites.

For the Red Hook connection, here’s Lars Nilsen, co-chairman of the Norwegian Immigrant Association, “One hundred plus years ago, Red Hook ( including what is now Carroll Gardens ) was the center of a hard-working maritime-related Norwegian speaking community of about 10,000 people.”  And here’s a thought from John Weaver, son-in-law of Alf Dryland, deceased Captain of PortSide NewYork’s flagship  Mary A. Whalen “Norwegians in America playing Blue Grass music! If Alf Dyrland were still with us, he would be smiling. Every new adventure is the continuation of his dream come true. He would be proud of the heritage celebrated and future welcomed aboard his Mary Whalen. Thank you PortSide NewYork.”

Click here for Rick “old salt” blog’s take on this event.

Here are a few of the many posts I’ve done on PortSide NewYork.

Unrelated, here’s another unlikely interpretation of American bluegrass performed at South by Southwest.

 

Mary Whalen Moves Again

Here were some of the previous Mary Whalen moves.  And here was one return.  A few days ago, Mary Whalen moved into Atlantic Basin, where the 70th birthday party was held and public access will be much easier than it has been for future programming TBA.   This post shows pics taken onboard during the move;  I hope to present more soon.  The day started early at the pier which has been home for a long time.

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Prime mover this time was Quantico Creek, tailed by Christian . . . way in the distance.

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NYMediaBoat and Christian were part of the escort, as

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as was Shipshooter with his latest equipment to follow and film

“We have lift off.”

the pirouette in the Buttermilk Channel and a

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NYMedia Boat captures the action from starboard side of Quantico Creek

hook into Atlantic Basin, where in September 2009, Portside helped host a huge Dutch barge party.

Once she’s all fast, may the programming begin.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp.

Read the press release here from PortSide NewYork.

For some great Red Hook history and historical images, click here.

 

Stormy Aftermath 7 Months 7 Days

Sandy pushed this 1941 vessel ashore on Staten Island late last October.  The registered owner was from another continent and possibly no longer alive due to unrelated circumstances.  The city took charge and the sheriff’s auction happened today.

Viewing and inspection happened from this vantage point.  Sheriffs offered binoculars, though none with x-ray capability.

Before the auction began, a tanker at least four times greater in length passed northbound in the Arthur Kill.

Auctioneer Dennis Alestra welcomed the crowd to the auction, indicating where the bidding would take place.

Members of the sheriff’s department outnumbered all other attendees combined. Carolina Salguero, director of PortSide NewYork, has a similar tanker, Mary A. Whalen, now possibly the last of this class of coastal tanker in the United States and certainly the only tanker serving as a center for cultural and educational events.

One bidder and one bid . . . and the tanker is SOLD for $25,000  to Donjon Marine.  Total elapsed time of the bidding:  about one minute.  Here shipshooter Jonathan Atkin witnesses the signing of papers.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing her.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Sixth Boro Fifth Dimension 8

I hope you’re enjoying this time warp as much as I am.

Foto #1.  Princess Bay northbound through the Old Bay Draw.

Foto #2.  When I first met this vessel, she was known as Kristin Poling.  Click here and here for fotos including some of her last month before scrapping.

Fotos #3 and 4.  Reliable II northbound and  . . .

showing the sculptural beauty of her house.

Foto #5.  Here’s another YO turned tanker turned reef, A. H. Dumont.  I’d love to hear about the condition of these reefed vessels from anyone who’s dived the Jersey offshore.

Foto #6.  John J. Tabeling doing what tug/barge units do today . . . . bunkering.  Tabeling was scrapped in 2005;  Statendam was scrapped in 2004.

Foto #7. Another shot of Tabeling, here exiting the east end of the KVK.  Foto is taken looking toward Richmond Terrace, current location of the salt pile.

Foto #8.  Question . . . is this Mary A. Whalen?  Here and here are fotos of the ambassador vessel of PortSide NewYork.  Many more can be found by adding the vessel name in the search window upper left.

All fotos taken by Seth Tane around 30 years ago.

Eagle 2

Uh . . . I miscalculated and got no new fotos of cutter Eagle today, but John Watson made a smart choice

and got these . . . .  Bravo,  John!  Check out this Eagle/Horst Wessel crew reunion blog.  And thanks to PortSide NewYork, this info on visiting hours this weekend aboard Eagle  at Pier 7 Brooklyn Marine Terminal . . . Today . .. .  2 — 5 pm, Saturday . . . 1–7pm, and Sunday  . . . 10 am–7 pm.
1) . . . Name the four sister training barques.    Answer follows.Still,  serendipity gave me other fotos for another day.  Instead, enjoy a few more Eagle  I took yesterday . . . sans ceremonial escort boats and with some facts about the vessel.

2.  In launch order among the five “siblings”, where does Eagle find itself?  By the way, I can’t identify the cruise ship in the distance.

3.  When did Eagle (ex-Horst Wessel) enter US hands and who crewed it to the US?  Note the anchor ball just above a member of the crew.

4.  How many aircraft has this vessel downed in its career and of what air force(s)?

5.  What year was the orange “racing stripe” added?

6.  How many of the sister vessels have NEVER visited the sixth boro?

1.   Gorch Fock (1933 ex-Tovarishch), Sagres III (1937) , Mircea (1938), and Gorch Fock II (1958).  Eagle is second . . . built in seven months and commissioned in September 1936.

2.  Eagle was built in 1936, placing it as second oldest.

3.  It was transferred to US ownership in May 1946 and sailed to the US in June of the same year by a joint German/American crew.  Point of entry to the US and disembarkation of the German members of the crew happened at Camp Shanks, more or less across from Yonkers.  Does anyone know of fotos of Eagle headed up or down the Hudson in 1946?

4.  It downed three Soviet planes and one German “friendly.”

5.  Racing stripe was added in 1976.

6. I don’t know which–if any–of the Blohm + Voss training barques have NEVER visited New York harbor.

The two fotos below show a plaque in what used to be Camp Shanks.  Vessel in the distance below is Wanderbird, also

 a repurposed vessel from Western Europe.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who took these fotos of Eagle five years ago.  Thanks a bundle for the fotos from this morning, John.

Finally, the other Blohm + Voss vessel in New York harbor is Peking, languishing in South Street Seaport limbo.  Peking is 377′ loa x 46 beam’ x  16′ draft; compared with Eagle‘s 295′ x 31′ x 17.’

Click here to read the reminiscences of Emil Babich, who crewed aboard Eagle in June 1946 for Eagle’s FIRST arrival in the Hudson on its way to Camp Shanks.