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Danmark, a 90-year-old full-rigged ship, is in town again. She first came here in 1939 for the World’s Fair.
South Street waterfront of Manhattan then was a very different place, as of course was the whole city and world.
I’m not sure where she berthed back then. A year later, after her homeland was invaded, she stayed in the US (Jacksonville FL for starters) because she had no homeport to return to. In 1942, she was temporarily commissioned as a USCG vessel.
The brightwork is impeccable, as
is the gilt work.
Rigging like this is dense as a jungle, yet it’s all functional.
And many of the current crew of Danish cadets, four of whom are mostly hidden but busy in the image below,
were busy polishing the brass.
I’d love to see how the figurehead is polished. This figurehead has appeared on this blog once before back in 2007. To see Danmark underway sail-powered, click here. For a guided tour of the ship, click here.
Meanwhile, I recently spotted another sailing vessel, one I’d not seen before, S/V Red Sea. Thanks to Michele McMurrow and Jaap Van Dorp for the identification, although they called it by different names, they were both right. For some backstory on this well-traveled schooner, click here.
She’s arrived in the sixth boro from the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan.
Some Danmark photos, thanks to Tony A; all others, WVD. Enjoy the last day of summer 2022.
I’ve previously cited the line about eight million stories in the naked city, a reference to a 1948 movie and subsequent TV show. More on all that at the end of this post, but for now, with the sixth boro added in, I’d double that number . . . 16 million stories in the naked city, considering all six boros. And thanks to Tony, here are a bunch of stories from the past few days that I’d otherwise have missed entirely.
An Italian destroyer visited the sixth boro, D-554 Caio Duilio.
A Maine purse seiner Ocean Venture came through. I caught her coming through the boro here two years ago.
More on Ocean Venture can be found here on pp. 20-23 of March 2021 of National Fisherman.
And there’s more . . all from the past week, name that tall ship with the flag of República Dominicana?
That’s Weeks James K in the foreground.
So here it gets confusing; it appears this DR training ship barquentine is called Cambiaso. She was acquired from Bulgaria in August 2018. However, it’s possible that for a short and unrecorded period of time, the same barquentine carried the name Maria Trinidad Sanchez. What happened? Was that simply a delivery name, or am I still showing effects of my time in the heat with the alligators while the robots attempted a coup?
That being said, along with a DR training ship, there was also another DR naval vessel. Do her lines look familiar?
Vintage? Where launched?
Today she’s known as DR’s Almirante Didiez Burgos. But at launch in Duluth in 1943, she was USCGC Buttonwood, a WW2 veteran and now flagship of the DR Navy. She reminds me of USCGC Bramble, which I saw way back when on the St. Clair River. After an epic journey from Michigan to Mississippi for refitting by a private individual, she might now be scrapped.
All photos by Tony A and shared with WVD, who feels privileged by this collaboration.
I also think, given the reference to Naked City, that moving pictures producers should revisit the concept of a Route 66 series, incorporating Charles Kuralt’s influences. Want the season 1 episode 1 of Route 66? Click on the image below and prepare to go back in time for good or ill! It’s disturbing watching. Season 1 episode 1 provides some backstory about how a “broke” Manhattan kid came to be driving a 1960 Corvette. Hint: Hells Kitchen, the East River, barges, and bankruptcy are all involved. A luminary of the series was screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, a name I should have known earlier.
And to give equal time to Charles Kuralt, watch this 8-minute segment on wooden replica vessel building in Wisconsin. Watch highlights as the boat builder, Ferd Nimphius, works on his 113th build.
May 2012 was a month of verticality, as in these twin tugboats,
as in the towers of these bridges with a low, long riverboat transiting beneath, and
and in the 156′ air draft of this mega yacht once owned by one of the oligarch’s now sanctioned and hiding his other yachts wherever he can.
It was also time for Opsail 2012, the sixth of six such events to date.
I recall an evening sail around Gravesend Bay one May evening to see some of the tall ships that overnighted there prior to parading into the confines of the sixth boro.
Above and below were tall ships from Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brasil.
The tall ships have scattered to the seven seas, but these tugs each returns to the sixth boro as work dictates.
All photos, WVD.
Winter solstice is one date I pay attention to, and yesterday demanded an undivided portion of it. I was out on the sixth and primordial boro at sunrise, although when it rose, a gauzy film of stratus filtered the light. I tinkered with the image a bit to enhance the cosmic eeriness.
Along the Brooklyn shore a classic barque and one of the latest of a classic line awaited.
Notice two tugboats and a lighthouse below? One tug is shifting a fuel barge, and the other is shifting refuse boxes.
Start of winter or start of summer, the sixth boro is always a busy place. Notice the fishing boat in this image, along with all the rest?
For some reason, these E-2C aircraft flew the North River up and then down and out over the Lower Bay.
Dutch Girl, a winter regular along with Eastern Welder, was hard at work.
Ava M. crossed the Bay from one job to the next. Things are always happening on the water.
And all that’s glorious, but less than a quarter mile from the North River, not all seems to be happening well, and that needs to be acknowledged.
All photos, WVD.
Ambrose Channel late morning yesterday
saw the arrival of this vessel, 321′ x 41′ and with that pennant flying from the masthead at 157′.
Launched in 1914 in Bremerhaven, and having changed national registry many times,
Statsraad Lehmkuhl is on its One Ocean Expedition, having left Norway in August.
New York is one of 36 stops it will make on a 55,000 nm circumnavigation worldwide. Hop aboard via their FB page here.
By noon yesterday
she had anchored, basking in sunshine
just off the Statue.
All photos, WVD, with conveyance thanks to New York Media Boat.
The three-masted barque visited the sixth boro back in 1964, and maybe since then as well.
More photos and inside information can be found here.
More info about its multiple changes in ownership since 1914, here.
For other posts about visiting tall ships, click here.
I just happened to look at the August 2014 section of the archive, and this was the engine room at that time of the living, breathing tugboat Urger.
The top photo shows the Atlas-Imperial fore-to-aft along the portside, and below, it’s the opposite . . . starboard side aft-to-fore.
Below is that same view as above, except with a tighter frame on the top of the engine. On my YouTube channel here, are several videos of this engine running and Urger underway.
Below from early September 2015 are three NYS Canals boats, l to r, Tender #3, Gov. Cleveland, and Urger. . . . all old and in jeopardy.
At that same 2015 Tugboat Roundup that precipitated the photo above, notice the juxtaposition of old and new: passing in front of the 1914 Lehigh Valley 79 is
Solar Sal, which a month later would earn distinction as the first solar vessel to transit the canal from Buffalo to the Hudson with four tons of cargo, as a demonstration of its potential. Solar Sal‘s builder was David Borton, whose website has all the info on his designs for marine solar power.
A story I’d missed until looking something else up yesterday was David Borton’s 2021 adventure, sailing on solar in Alaskan waters.
And that brings this zig-zag post to another story linking the Canal and Alaska.
Last August Pilgrim made its way through New York State to the Great Lakes and eventually overwintered in Duluth. I took photos above and below on August 1, 2020.
Earlier this summer, Pilgrim was loaded on a gooseneck trailer
so that it could transit the continent
along the Interstates to the Salish Sea. As of last week they’d made Ketchikan, and their next stop will be Kodiak Island. Eventually they clear customs and their next stop will be Russia.
All photos except the last three, WVD. Pilgrim photos attributed to Sergey Sinelnik.
The Waterfront Museum in Lehigh Valley 79 is now home to a high-res livestream harbor cam aimed from Red Hook; check it out here.
The first three come thanks to Steve Munoz . . . HMS Bounty heading up the North River in May 1998.
Taken November 2001, it’s Adventure of the Seas heading upriver with an diverse escort. Given the date, this would have been her maiden voyage into the sixth boro of NYC. John D. McKean and what appears to be another fireboat beyond her, a USCG 140′ cutter, and lots of commercial tugboats see her in. Adventure of the Seas is currently in Sint Maarten, along with at least four fleetmates.
From October 1986, David McAllister is on the starboard bow of Borenquin heading into Port Elizabeth.
From John Jedrlinic, it’s Laney Chouest in Tampa. The blue/white vessel at Laney‘s bow is the Aiviq, the AHTS built for ice. You may recall its challenges back in 2012.
and C-Tractor 8 . . . taken in October 2016.
And from last week, Craig Lewis sent along these photos of McAllister Brothers awaiting its fate in Fall River.
Since launch in 1958, how many tons of grub and coffee have crews ingested in this galley of the Brothers . . !?
And finally, last but not least, Skip Mildrum noticed some interesting cargo in Port Elizabeth recently . . .
Might they be new Kawasaki subway cars, four of an order of 535 R211 cars coming to a subway stop near you one of these days? They might not be, given his estimate of car length; R211s are only 60′ loa.
Skip’s estimate of the trailers was at least 120′. Also, the R211s are built in Nebraska . . .
Many thanks to Steve, John, Craig, and Skip for these photos.
It’s March 1, and that invites a look back to March 2011.
Vinalines Queen is where I need to start. Less than two years after I took this photo, the 2005 bulk carrier was lost on a run between Morowali, Indonesia and China with a cargo of nickel ore, with the loss of all hands (22) except one.
Morowali has 19 nickel smelters. Nickel ore is considered the most dangerous bulk commodity. Two other nickel ships were lost in December 2010. Here‘s info about the single survivor of the sinking.
Assist here is provided by Miriam Moran.
Kongo Star was just off the ways when I took this photo; and the small tanker (13011 dwt) is still working and currently near Rotterdam, in fact, in the town where my father was born.
Entering the KVK, it’s Ross Sea and Houma, each with a barge. Houma was scrapped a few years ago already. Ross Sea is currently in Philly.
Heron, here passing CMA CGM Puget, was sold to a Nigerian company in 2012. The 4404 teu ship dates from 2002 and is currently traveling between Korea and Mexico.
Greenland Sea shows her Candies origins. She may currently be laid up. Torm Kristina just passed Cape Town, on a run between Asia and South America. She’s a large handysize crude tanker launched in 1999.
Ron G, now Captain Mark, is docked in Jacksonville.
It was in March 2011 that I first visited Puerto Rico. In Fajardo, I saw Isla Grande and Cayo Norte. Both are Blount boats, launched in 1976 and 1995, respectively. Cayo Norte is still working in Puerto Rico, although I’m not so sure about Isla Grande.
The 1973 Harvey Gamage is currently near Charleston SC. Can you recognize the tall ship off her stern?
Of course, it’s Bounty, launched in 1960 and lost over 100 miles SE of Cape Hatteras during Hurricane Sandy.
March 2011 was a busy month. I’ll post more photos of the month later.
All photos, WVD.
The Canal has likely been called lots of things, but exotic might never have been used. But I would argue that it is just exactly that.
Thanks to Peggy Huckel for the top three photos here, six more or less anachronistic rowers of an 18th-century bateau (bah TOW) on a mission. If you look closely at the second rower from the bow, red shirt and white 21st-century hat, he’s the person who typically takes most photos on this blog. Our mission?
. . . To meet this lodya, Pilgrim, built on the shores of the Onega Sea. It sailed here from the White Sea Canal! You saw photos of it before in this post from last month, and I won’t duplicate all the info from there. Here you can follow Pilgrim‘s own website in English.
Our mission failed in that Pilgrim‘s arrival happened after our bateau returned to its 18th century port. But . . .
to me it was important to wait for them.
Lock E-8 seemed a good place.
If you’re reading this today and find yourself west of lock E-17 . . . you may see them. And if your Russian is better than mine, you might say “добро пожаловать на наш канал,” which sounds like “dobro pozhalovat’ na nash kanal.” In our current toxic political state of affairs, creative anachronists doing a global circumnavigation like this re-enacting another time, they have my respect. In fact, I’d love to know what reception US re-enactment sailors would get in the White Sea Canal.
First three photos, thanks to Peggy Huckel. The last ones by yours truly, the second rower from the bow, red shirt and white 21st-century hat, trying unsuccessfully to pass himself off in that outfit as a time traveling bosloper.
Other exotic vessels through the Canal have included the following: Bounty, a solar Ra, Draken Harald “Fairhair,” the current Oliver Hazard Perry, Hōkūle‘a, Sequoia, Royaliste, Wards Island, . . . please help me add to this list. Some more photos are here.
If you’re reading this while traveling through the canal, check out my virtual guide.
White, blue, and red comes in different contexts, and
this one along with the name on the trailboard does give pause.
Glenn Raymo took these photos in Poughkeepsie Sunday, and they were my introduction to an ambitious sailing project. The best I can tell this project began in Petrozavodsk, a city on the western shore of Lake Onega, in northwest Russia, a few hundred miles east of access to the Baltic at St. Petersburg. Lake Onega is connected to both the Baltic and the Arctic Ocean via the White Sea Canal. As a person who fancies himself somewhat well-versed in canals, I was ignorant of the White Sea Canal until now: mostly hand-dug by prisoners of the USSR in the 1930s
Pilgrim is a lodya, a traditional sailing vessel of this area. Along with the koch, the lodya is an ancient Rusian polar exploration vessel.
If you follow along on the “news” link, you see their step-by-step voyage from Russia. Exactly two years ago, eg, they had just crossed the Bay of Biscay! News articles go all the way back to 2006.
To my friends along the Erie Canal, once the waterway is open, keep your eyes peeled.
Many thanks to Glenn Raymo for this catch. Previous posts with attribution to him can be seen here.
It reminds me of all the memorable vessels that have transited the Erie Canal: Bounty*, Draken Harold Fairhair, Pinta, Sequoia**, Hokule’a, Ra, When and If, Amarah Zee, the future Oliver Hazard Perry, Lois McClure . . . I have no doubt left some out.
*I have photos but I’ve not posted them on tugster. **One of the planned but not realized posted is a review of Capt. Giles M. Kelly‘s book; any volunteer to write a review? You’ll get a free book.
And to the crew of Pilgrim, попутный ветер, друзья мои I hope I spelled that right.
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