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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.
The whale happens to be a 2007 1284-teu container ship previously called Beluga Constitution and CMA CGM Corfu, but has carried the “whale” name for almost a decade now. I’ve seen other Warnow–named for a river in NE Germany– vessels in the sixth boro, but never posted any of them until now.
Some time ago I saw Warnow Dolphin and was intrigued, but I never followed up.
So I felt fortunate the other day
when I passed Kirby Moran assisting the Whale into Red Hook container port.
Light and color and composition all came together as
her crew eased her in.
She’s left port now and is currently heading for the Panama Canal.
All photos and any errors, WVD.
As I meander through my internal miasma, the blog stays noir–more accurately noir/blanc–with another set of screen shots from the NYC Municipal Archives, this time all 1940s . . .Department of Sanitation tugs Spring Creek, Fresh Kills, and Ferry Point, docked in the East River. Fresh Kills aka Miss Laura . .. is she still operating out of Duluth?
Here’s another shot of Fresh Kills aka DS 43 off the Bellevue Hospital. Anyone know what became of Spring Creek and Ferry Point?
Can anyone identify this 1941 tug moving coal scows eastbound into the East River off the Battery?
Undated but in Erie Basin, it’s SS Waziristan next to a floating grain elevator. It turns out that in early January 1942, SS Waziristan–bound from New York to Murmansk– was sunk by Nazi air and submarine attack off Bear Island, Norway, lost with all 47 crew.
Help me out here . . . an unidentified tug docking an unidentified ship in Erie Basin in 1940.
Meanwhile off Tottenville, here’s a fleet of US Army transports . . . mothballed from WW!?
I believe this is a different ghost fleet in roughly the same area. Notice the Outerbridge in the background. Is this where all
this debris lies today? Actually, I took this photo and the next two just “north” of the Outerbridge in August 2010.
All the vintage photos here are from the NYC Municipal Archives, where too many photos have lamentable scarcity of captioning.
Any guesses? A clue . . if the vessel stays on schedule, it’ll be back in the sixth boro in about a month.
Safety Comes First. Commodities come promptly. Which ones?
Here’s another clue then . . . the vessel hull-down here is Antwerp-bound and then recrosses the pond to approach the Panama Canal two and a half weeks from now. Another clue . . . it reminds me of what in my boyhood was the sixth foto here: my neighbor used a farm truck just like this to get the tomatoes, pickles, cabbage . . . to market . .. in that case the local canneries.
Answer: the vessel disappearing over the horizon yesterday afternoon is Albermarle Island (1993). Click here and scroll down to see her ports history. The foto below I took in June 2011, one I didn’t use in this post–Commodities 2– from around that date. Click here to see the schedule of all the Ecuadorian Line boats that bring us mostly–I presume–Ecuadorian bananas. Here are more Ecuadorian exports to the US.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. If you’re good at getting your head around numbers, here’s a set from the Office of Trade Representative.
Here was ASB 2. There might be eight million stories in the naked city, but in its primary boro aka the sixth boro at least half again that number of other stories could be told . . by the collective whoever knows them.
Captain Zeke moves with the diverse stone trade past folks waiting below our very own waving girl and
all those folks waving and taking fotos from the ferry and every other water conveyance.
The 1950 Nantucket‘s back in town . . for the winter.
Yup . . . no one could have predicted these . . .
back when Shearwater was launched in 1929.
A cruise ship shuffles passengers as Peter F. Gellatly bunkers.
Kristy Ann Reinauer stands by a construction barge.
Mary A. Whalen . . . is a survivor from another time.
A barge named Progress has returned to South Street Seaport Museum, here between Wavertree and Peking.
Emerald Coast is eastbound on the East River.
Two views of Adirondack, one with WTC1 –or is it 1 WTC or something else–and
another with the Arabian Sea unit.
And Sea Wolf heads north . . . .
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Uh . . . what’s this?
It’s Buddy, living breathing braying hoof-beglittered mascot of Debora Miller. If you’ve never been to the New York’s race, there’s a best mascot category. In the past there’ve been . . . dogs, hermit crabs, even a chicken . . . but Buddy redefines the contest.
With the threat of rain, someone made a wise decision and advanced the start of the race. Here Resolute, Catherine Miller, Tasman Sea, and Red Hook move toward the starting line . . . feted by now-retired 1931 fireboat John J. Harvey.
Foto thanks to William Hyman . . . the line up.
And at 10:29:30 . . . they’re off . . . with 1930 wooden tug W. O. Decker taking an early and easy lead!!
45 seconds later . . . W. O. Decker has dropped back.
Here’s they are 15 seconds later.
John J. Harvey is not a tug, but to see the speed out of this octogenarian . . . was humbling. An engineer toiling away in the engine room later told me all four engines were driving propulsion.
The red tug–Resolute–went on to win, although I don’t yet have the official times. I could have written them down, but I was far too busy applauding and taking fotos.
And here’s the crowd at the finish line.
Part B tomorrow. Thanks to William Hyman for foto 4. All others by Will Van Dorp.
Many thanks to Glen Miller of Miller’s Launch for my ride this year.
Unrelated and almost forgot: Here’s a query from Jeff S, a frequent commenter on this blog: he saw a “very weather beaten wooden sailing vessel (hull) at the Jersey end of the Goethels Bridge, about 65-70 foot long , two deck cabins and a bowsprit.” It was parked in the oversize lot waiting to cross the Bridge when traffic gets light. Anyone have an idea what this may be?
No, this isn’t the January River. I leave for there today, but this . . . !! These next four fotos come from the perspicacious bowsprite, taken yesterday afternoon. The tug in the foreground is Sea Wolf is 1982. In the background is –of course–Ellis Island, 1900. In between with the yellow stack is
Yankee, 1907. Her long history includes a stint as Machigonne moving passengers across the sixth boro from Ellis Island to other boros and to NJ. The tow began at the far right of this foto.
More tugster on Yankee when I return, but before then, I’m sure there’ll be other info.
Six plus years ago, a friend Mike caught these fotos of Sea Wolf‘s sister–Sea Lion–moving an unusual vessel named Abora III out of the Morris Canal to sea. The reed craft made it more than halfway across the Atlantic.
All fotos by bowsprite. Advance notice came thanks to Rod Smith, who once worked as deckhand on Yankee and who will have his own account of this move . . . to Brooklyn. Here (2007) and here (2011) are my previous posts with Yankee fotos from New Jersey. Click here to get some backstory–and video of Sea Wolf departing with ferry– from a supporter who wanted to keep them on the watery edge of Hoboken.
Now, I pack and head south myself. Vou escrever mais em breve.
Here’s a mouthful: behold the quite newly commissioned “French FREMM multi-mission frigate, Aquitaine.”
The blue shed along her starboard side gives away the location . . . that’s Red Hook . . . south end of Brooklyn Bridge park.
Here’s the sum of the parts, at sunrise this morning. For a CGI walk through, click here.
Here’s a frontal view of the stealth frigate. For more info, click here. DCNS was the builder.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Here’s a stealthy French warship that visited three years ago . . . and here are some fotos that include mine of the previously most recent French naval contingent in the sixth boro.
Before dawn the day of the race, daily port activities carried on: Atlantic Niyala awaited load shift in Red Hook.
Celebrity Summit arrived from sea for some port time here assisted by Kimberly Turecamo (?).
Scott Turecamo awaited some rehab
at Caddell’s.
As passengers debarked to starboard, equipment received attention to port. I’m not sure what all is happening over on the port side here.
Up at the Manhattan passenger terminal Veendam received Tuckahoe attention to port as well as passengers transferred from ship to island.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who heads for the Roundup tomorrow.
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 .
tugster: a waterblog 
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