Whole Lotta Dredgin’ 15

At least two other dredging projects are happening in the sixth boro simultaneously.  The one in the Buttermilk Channel  came to my attention because of the following two photos taken by Captain Malcolm of  schooner Pioneer.

Neither this tug–Miss Gloria— nor the dredge were ones I was familiar with. Miss Gloria is a 2003 Rodriguez Brothers tug operated by Marquette, and plenty of other Rodriguez boats work the sixth boro, and Marquette boats have been here before as well, mostly involved in dredging projects.

Malcolm’s photos intrigued me enough that I decided to come out for a night sail on Pioneer;  it had been far too long since I last had done that, especially given Pioneer‘s role in my starting this blog to begin with:  I’d been volunteer crew on the schooner before I started the blog, had taken lots of harbor activity photos, and then created this blog as a means to share those photos. 

Here’s a one-photo digression then for a photo I took more than 16 years ago from another vessel of Pioneer–black hull–and Adirondack sailing together in the Upper Bay at dusk. Although both are schooners, over a century of age and shipbuilding materials development and some very different history separate them.

To return from this digression, the following photos I took of the Great Lakes D & D dredging in the Buttermilk, photos i took after Malcolm suggested I put my feet back on Pioneer‘s deck. More photos of that lovely evening to follow.

I also have not shared photos I took of outstanding GLDD equipment I took in March. Click here for a January 2022 preview. 

Miss Gloria was elsewhere, but Smith Predator, who’s been doing dredge spoils runs the past few weeks, was standing by as a dump scow was being filled. I’d seen Smith Predator on AIS, and with a name like that, it had attracted my attention, but to date, I’d not gotten a good clear photo, only very distant ones.

 

Thanks to Captain Malcolm for the first two photos and the suggestion to come sailing;  all others, WVD.

More photos from the Pioneer sail to follow.

Around the Sixth Boro 3

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.

Erin Wadder

. . . er “air” and “water.”       But with the Earth & Fire post last week, this had to appear, right?

Thanks to the tentatively definitive compendium on “schooner identification in the sixth boro,” I can without a doubt call the leftmost vessel Imagine and the rightmost Adirondack.  And for outatowners, that’s Hoboken in the background.

Just a glimpse of the spoon-bowed, yellow-sailed schooner raises my spirits from dragging along May’s rocks to June’s breeziness.

Notice how the profile of Escape Plan gets echoed here in the upper reaches of North Sea.

With the June breezes and right attention, even if just for a few moments, all my cares take wing and fly away . . .  propelling my spirit like a little sloop dallying about the start of the North River.

Seeing a yellow hulled sailboat, like Mamzel, powering upriver, one of many migrating mostly northward at season’s start conjures up one thought . . .  sailing . . . you’re doing it wrong.

Clipper City . . . sailing, almost doing it right, but

these ones got it:  Pride of Baltimore, Imagine, and Adirondack . . . back in 2008, air moving them through the water.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Here’s an “erin wadder” post from last fall;  more soon.

And don’t forget the caption contest here . . . I’ve got some good entries but want some more.  Send’em in, please.

Something Different

I call this a “water blog,” but usually avail myself only of salt water shots.  Below is what I saw from my bedroom window yesterday morning:  rainwater pool on roof beside my building.  Foto is obviously flipped, but the vent with round hole to the right serves as “portal” for at least three raccoons who cavort and sing after dark.  New York is wild.

Foreshortening . . . makes for some arresting shots:  here McAllister Responder, Franklin Reinauer, Jennifer Turecamo, and RTC 150 pushed by Meredith C. Reinauer enjoy much greater separation than appears.

Left to right here are:  Chemical Pioneer, Johann Jacob, and OOCL Busan.  I post this foto because it suggests that the forward portion of Chemical Pioneer and its stern seem mismatched.  Think about it . . . and I tell you the story below.

Foreshortening again . . .  plenty of searoom exists between NYK Constellation and OOCL Busan, but for some seconds, from my vantage point, I was getting nervous.

No comment on the frothiness in the center of this foto.  Notice the building on the tip of Manhattan between the red and green buoy.  That is 17 Battery Place, once the “footprint” for Moran Towing.  Starting on p. 273 of Tugboat:  The Moran Story by Eugene F. Moran and Louis Reid, there’s an incredible story about a Captain Daniel F. Anglim that dates back to the 1927.  In short, Dan had a naturally loud voice “even louder from having to yell against the wind” (pre-walkietalkie days) did dispatch from the 25th floor of that building down to the tugs waiting between Pier 2 and 4 on the Hudson.  I cannot imagine.  Looking for a good read:  Get The Moran Story!

Today several hundred feet of landfill separate 17 Battery Place from the nearest water.  See a foto of 17 Battery Place from that time here .  . second foto down.  I’d love to see a larger version.

Cape Melville bound for sea.  I love the name . . . that northeast corner of Australia.  In the background you see parts of the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and One Court Square, Queens’ and Long Island’s tallest building.  One court Square also appears in the second foto above.

That’s Adirondack coming around the side of City Pier A, the once and future dock for NYPD and FDNY?

Yes, this is a wild turkey in Battery Park, it looked totally indignant when I asked that he pose in front of  either the Terminal or one of the Homeland Security cars in the background .  Imagine that !!  But the location is inland about 100 feet with the Staten Island Ferry Terminal to the left and the Coast Guard station to the right.    Wild New York.

The Chemical Pioneer story:  in late May 1973, a Bath Iron Works container ship called Sea Witch bound for sea lost steering and collided with an anchored tanker called Esso Brussels, resulting in a deadly fire (15 deaths, 13 of them on Esso Brussels, loaded with Nigerian crude) and New York harbor oil spill.   Read the complete story here.    Later, the stern section of Sea Witch was grafted onto a new forward section.  For Sea Witch‘s original lines, click here;  she’s the second one down.

All fotos taken on May 20 by Will Van Dorp.

By the way . . . that turkey . . . she goes by the name Zelda;  be good to Zelda when you see her.