You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Waterfront Museum’ category.
Here’s the index for previous Twin Tube posts. This freight vessel is 64′ x 19′ x 8.5, and I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that it is one of the first Blount built vessels ever, launched in 1951. Here’s the index to all my previous Blount posts.
Twin Tube January 2013
This is how I imagine her, but recently . . .
the boom has been missing. I don’t know the story, but I’d like to.
Twin Tube April 2015
and the brants are discussing it . . .
Dec 2013 approaching the gauntlet of Balder‘s docklines
Most larger cargo vessels provisioned by Twin Tube have their own on-board cranes, so maybe the boom was removed to avoid having to negotiate the dock lines as she had to here in a blinding snowstorm back a year and a half ago.
dipping under the the boom under the lines
and then raising it again
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated but important: If you are local, free and have the slightest inclination to make merry, there’s a soiree on Lehigh Valley 79 THIS Friday night, as a means to consolidate doubloons to keep the barge afloat. Details here. See you there, if my best approximation of pirate hood. Here’s a post I did nearly five years ago. And one more.
.
Once these were wooden barges, which
were towed around the harbor with a wide range of cargoes. In the foreground … disintegrating … is one a tug that once could have done the towing, now unidentifiable and impotent.
The sixth boro has many such tugs and barges, although given the efficient advance of decrepitude, fewer each season.
Once there was even a sixth boro barge called Periwinkle, no doubt painted in that color, a popular nightspot.
Here’s another barge called Driftwood, whose paint scheme and additional storage transformed a coffee (or whatever else commodity) transporter into an off-off-Broadway-even-off-the-island entertainment palace. Only stories remain and can be told by David Sharps, who
created the Waterfront Museum out of a wooden barge he literally dug and pumped out of the Hudson River mud, saving it from the fate of those barges above. The two fotos above come courtesy of David Sharps. Now the barge, the 1914 Lehigh Valley 79 tours with 1907 tug Pegasus, and other
vessels like the 1901 Urger, featured in many posts on this blog, help us visualize what those ruins in the top fotos once looked like and serve as places of entertainment even today. Here’s one set of fotos of Urger high, dry, but cold.
Anyhow, with five minutes of your time, you can help LV-79 and Pegasus collect a $250,000 grant for ongoing repairs. Just click here–AND each day until May 21 on the icon upper left side of this blog to vote. Partners in Preservation has chosen to award $$ by grant applicants demonstrated ability to use social media. So please vote . . . and ask a handful of your friends to do so as well . . . .
Unless otherwise attributed, all fotos by Will Van Dorp.
But first . . . Blue Marlin has sailed!! I went upriver Sunday midmorning, and soon thereafter, she headed for sea. Actually for Bonny Town, ETA July 4, 2011. Click here to see what this Niger River delta town looks like, and then you’ll know why they’re buying tugs–like ex-Curtis Reinauer below–and barges. The link explains the unusual house configuration. If anyone got fotos of Blue Marlin exiting the Narrows or wishes to shares fotos of the journey, please get in touch.
Click here for history, economics, and controversies related to the Niger delta. The Niger River, 14th in the world in length, flows through unlikely places such as Timbuktu–high on my “gallivant list”–and drains 10 nations. Name them?
Yesterday I volunteered on Pegasus for the Riverdale Riverfest. In fact, Robert Apuzzo just sent this foto; I’m the tall guy in faded blue on the “upper deck” in the gap between the stack and the house. I volunteer because it’s fun and important. As “safety officer,” I help ensure no one gets hurt, and since I like to talk, I answer questions. I’ve noticed people like to see the boats but also their own communities FROM the river. Ensuring “guest safety” is vital and sometimes difficult; a tugboat has industrial-strength hazards . . . it moves and steel is hard and forgiving, yet it is a fascinating opportunity: throbbing noise and vibration, power of invisible prop and rudder and versatile line, huge engine, …
Believe it or not, Riverdale IS in the Bronx! Therefore, this water too is the sixth boro of NYC. By the way, in the background are the Palisades on the Jersey side.
Cornell was there also, here coexisting with human-powered vessels (HPVs). I love to kayak myself, but I suspect people in some HPVs underestimate commercial vessel speed and over-estimate their own visibility.
Spud barge Black Diamond served as a makeshift dock, serviceable but labor-intensive but the popularity of festivals like this illustrates the value of serviceable commercial docks in many more Hudsonsonian towns and cities. Imagine not only entertainment but also food coming ashore from boats for several reasons including reducing highway congestion. Vessels in Riverdale included also Mystic Whaler (1967 reproduction of a coastal cargo schooner) and fireboat John J. Harvey. Of course, the distinctive red barge is the itinerant Waterfront Museum, aka 1914-built Lehigh Valley 79.
These festivals showcase the skill of maritime professionals and, though fun, are stressful and laborious.
Just north of Riverdale is Yonkers. This foto of Yonkers as a storm chased us upriver in 2010 shows two frequently inquired about buildings on the this part of the Hudson: the Yonkers Power Station and the “Blue Cube,” which has had lives as diverse as a test lab for PhelpsDodge and a movie studio.
Yesterday a young peregrine (?) feasted on a fish high atop the Power Station.
Traffic headed up and down the Hudson is diverse: trawler Manitou from Ludington, MI,
MV Universal Amsterdam with a load of sugar, escorted here north from the George Washington Bridge by Mary Turecamo and Margaret Moran,
trawler Muddy Waters from Miami Beach, FL,
Thomas Witte towing a tall load of scrap metal for export, and much
much more.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except the one thanks to Robert Apuzzo.
(Silent version)
The Roundup begins with a parade between the Port of Albany and the wall below Lock 2 at Waterford. Waterford is the easternmost point on the Erie Canal. From wherever they find themselves, crews and vessels begin to gather around mid-day Friday. Benjamin Elliott headed south from Waterford,
Cornell saved fuel, waited at the wall, and met the parade just below the Federal Lock,
Crow joined in at its place of work,
Governor Cleveland, Grand Erie, and W. O. Decker traveled down from the Waterford wall,
some traveled in pairs like Chancellor and Decker,
Grand Erie and Decker,
and Gowanus Bay arrived from the south.
Some folks and boats worked en route in one way or
another.
Lots of folks and some vessels worked during the Roundup. The fireworks barge would not have been in place without the efforts of Mame Faye.
(Sound version)
Wind roar, spray, hiss, deep pitched throb, horns tuning up, whistles, pipes, percussion, more horns, and whoopnhollering of the crowd on Saturday night.
Fotos and video by Will Van Dorp.
More from the Roundup tomorrow.
Related: World Canals Conference starts next Sunday in Rochester, NY.
(Note: Doubleclick enlarges all fotos)
What’s this . . . fiddling and dancing and taking shade near
Lower Manhattan, an intriguing hideaway in that bustling and ranted-about geography?
And this . . . same location, but doesn’t that suggest two folks standing near the forward railing
on a tug “made to” the 79 Barge, which
moves other folks as well, here photographing the Brooklyn Bridge at golden hour, as
crew stands lookout, watching two tugs–Volunteer and W. O. Decker–heading east on the river of the same name . . .
… uh . . . this meandering string started out as a question. Forget the question, please. And I hope you get a sense of places of peace in the bestirred land masses around the sixth boro.
Here’s the same tug and barge, clearly lashed, at Pier 6 in the new Brooklyn Bridge Park, with a late August sun setting behind the house. You can catch Pegasus and Lehigh Valley Barge #79 at that location until Tuesday, August 31 … and at points along the Hudson for the next 16 days after that.
After sunset . . . Pegasus heads over to homebase in Jersey City. Hey . . . tugs and crews need sleep.
Check out bowsprite’s magical drawings of the duo here.
All fotos here taken yesterday by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated but fascinating: Marie’s Tide & Current Taxi has been busy this month:
August 9: Coney Island Creek, with Debbie Tuch and me
August 10: Gowanus Canal
August 12: Staten Island “graveyard of ships”
August 15: Shooter’s Island
August 22: “mystery tour”
Because of last night’s rain, you have one last chance to see “Seven Deadly Seas” TONIGHT at 8 pm. Go early and catch this hard-to-replicate combination: left to right Cape Race, Gazela, and Mary A. Whalen … as seen from the entrance to the Brooklyn Passenger Terminal in Red Hook.
Big doings also are happening for Pegasus, here with a happy tour group. Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79 will be docked in Brooklyn Bridge Park starting later this week.
Uh . . . shoes of future mariners?
Contemporary mariners work aboard such vessels as
JoAnne Reinauer III
and (right to left) Twin Tube— a supply boat–and CSL Atlas, cousin of my longlost Alice O. By the way, Atlas brought in the beginnings of the upcoming winter’s supply of road salt . . or was that table salt??
Colleen McAllister and other vessels labor away at the sisyphusian task of dredging.
R/V vessels like Blue Sea do their own research/education work. Here RV Blue Sea is on the high and dry as a preparation for a new season.
Jay Michael frequents the sixth boro, and
in parting, this sloop (Margaret A ?) passes a fuel barge.
Unfortunately, I missed yesterday’s lobsterboat races up in Portland, Maine, and I have to wait til 2011 to see them. But you can still get to the 18th Annual Great North River (aka sixth boro) Tugboat Race on September 5. See you there.
Tomorrow … yes … another few days’ gallivant. Details later.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated: Check out this Newtown Creek shipping post by Restless.
Thanks to Capt. William Lynch for calling my attention to a worthwhile project AND a chance to win a Harley Davidson. The worthwhile project: preserve the SS United States in some form. Local 333 United Marine Division and Lombardi Harley Davidson have teamed up in a raffle. Details available soon.
I took the foto below last fall in Philly. The street sign there says, in my interpretation, let’s not walk away from this. 
Right now the liner languishes while its sorry state gets used to direct consumer eyes.
While thinking about buying a raffle ticket, enjoy some diverse fotos, some from this week and others from a few years back: Austin and Timothy L. Dace Reinauer.
McAllister Brothers
Craig Eric Reinauer with fishing boat nearly chummed.
Barker Boys
Dory Barker
Captain Lynch, thanks for the info on the raffle.
And while I’m telling some news, don’t forget the “Tugboats and Waterfront Scenes” exhibit at the Waterfront Museum in Red Hook. The artist, Rich Samuelson, will be there today, May 22, between 3 and 7 pm.
How I long to return to the graveyard: not the words of a misanthrope or exhausted vampire at all. See frogma’s gallery here. She has both graveyard and lifeyard pics of ships, as well as one of tugster afloat.
But for now, this is the final weekend to see Polybe + Seats production of A Thousand Thousand Slimy Things performed at the Waterfront Museum and Show Boat Barge, a sixth boro treasure featured numerous times before sometimes referred to as Lehigh Valley 79.
Final weekend for the play: see a full review of the play here from the Brooklyn Rail.
For my part: I bought a pair of tickets because I was intrigued by the following mixture: the real-life setting of Weeki Wachee Springs State Park (WWSSP) and
its struggle to remain financially viable as a roadside attraction featuring mermaids (Click here to see the real WWSSP mermaid roster.), and
spacey electronic music and wild costuming inside the exquisite barge built in 1914, and
the rich language of Samuel Taylor Coleridge “Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea! And never a saint took pity on My soul in agony.
The many men, so beautiful! And they all dead did lie; And a thousand thousand slimy things Lived on; and so did I.” along with a smattering of Herman Melville, Rachel Carson, and Henrik Ibsen‘s Lady from the Sea, and
creative staging using objet-trouves of the very material that makes up the North Pacific gyre as studied by Charles J. Moore‘s Algalita Marine Research Foundation, and a crazed solitaire traveling on an iceberg named Jake, and
superb dancing and line delivery, and
what more can I say about the performance other than that it mesmerized me with 90 minutes of magic! See a trailer and buy tickets here.
And after it was over, I got a glimpse of Rich Samuelson’s show called “Tugboats and Waterfront Scenes.” Artist’s reception is on the barge Saturday, May 22 from 3 til 7.
And it’s all in Red Hook, historic port of yore. And if you can linger near the barge, go across the street to
Sunny’s Bar and relax. Believe it or not . . . a cobblestone street in NYC where grass grows between the stones!
And remember . . . the mermaids of Coney Island will come ashore and parade in just over six weeks. You know who you are . . . keep that Saturday free.
All fotos, Will Van Dorp . . . who needs to learn to take better indoor shots without a flash. :[
Here’s a previous post showing the interior of Lehigh 79.
Unrelated: Here’s the info for Working Harbor Committee‘s first tour.
or stunning shots, images that give pause, fotos that force a screeching stop. Like the toxic green in Bowsprite’s tango. Or like this reenactment that comes compliments of Pam . . . was it fotoshopped or not. Credits go to George Price as cartoonist, Pam and David as . . pranksters, Amy as girl and Gary as boy. River as river. Fotografer . . . unidentified. Norman . . as conceptualizer.
For the next arresting video, I have to thank Eric Fischer, who blogs about his long project of restoring New York Central No. 13, an iron-hulled 1887 tugboat. I think, in this age of low-budget, YouTube-distributed film, the time has come to reeanact this Barbra Streisand scene.
Compared to the relatively empty harbor [and unfamiliar undeveloped view of Jersey City briefly in the background] in Funny Girl, the Upper Bay near St. George was congested Friday, and then when Spirit of America
powered off the dock after idling some time, the amount of smoke suggested emergency.
Today the Coast Guard stood ready, and when someone saw something suspicious, the Defender class
boat roared and splashed into action. A final piece to arrest your attention, a carrier coming into Norfolk and all the folks involved.
All unattributed fotos by Will Van Dorp, this weekend.
Closed fist . . . not a monkey’s fist . . . evokes many, many things. It could signal a stop, a hold, a dramatic pause in the music, but this fist happens to be the forward portion of the tiller on Clearwater, a vessel synonymous with music. Just over exactly 40 years ago Clearwater came off the ways in Maine named as a wish, the thing desired itself: clear water, in the Hudson and elsewhere. Just clear enough water to swim in, at least. To drink . . . and the shellfish of which to eat . . .
Captain Nick welcomes passengers on board . . . To me his stance suggests a conductor gathering the focus of the band.
Raising Clearwater‘s 3,000lb main sail requires “Many hands make light work,” says Pete Seeger.
Like a nautical still life . . . all lines taut . . . let the music . . .
begin. I once had a dream about living in a house that transformed itself into the sounding box of an immense piano. All the lines involved in handling Clearwater sail–were they strings of an instrument–would charming music make. How her hull would resonate. Pick a key . . . sort of like . . jib and bowsprit point to Teller Point at the south end
of Croton Point Park.
Line flemish coiled like a treble clef? I’ve never understood clefs yet admired their curves.
The Captain’s face focused on
the space to fill with music. Tack toward Hook Mountain, looking south from Haverstraw Bay. Let the
music begin–Rich Hines and The Hillbilly Drifters. Check out their schedule here.
Photo credit to Rene Arnessen. Fotos #2 and 8 by Jeff Anzevino, who provides the ideas for the post. Jeff is second from left above.
Final shots below are mine.
I’ve never sailed Clearwater, though I’ve surely sailed near her enough. Here canal tug Governor Cleveland chugs between us.
I guess it’s high time I step aboard.
Mark your calendars for July 23 . . . at Barge 79 in Red Hook . . . Waterfront Museum hosts a talk by Clearwater captains on her 40 years.
By the way, Clearwater‘s maiden voyage from South Bristol, Maine, involved a stop at South Street Seaport. Does anyone have fotos of her at the Pier there? Any recollection of the cermony there?
tugster: a waterblog 
Recent Comments