Ambrose Backgrounds

January 1909.  New Jersey-built Ambrose LV-87 in second year on the job.  Photo by N. L. Stebbins.  Click on the next two fotos and you’ll get to their context.  Click here for many more Stebbins fotos.

January 1912, a mere 1202 months ago.  Ambrose at work with White Star Olympic passing in background. Olympic at this time was less than a year on the job and already suffered one collision.  Four months later, of course, her younger sister ship would begin its ill-fated maiden voyage to New York.

I recall seeing this foto before I moved to New York and imagined that “channel 87” was the means to contact the vessel.  Oh well . . . live and learn, eh?

March 2012.  Ambrose in her 46th year post-decommissioning after having served the USCG (and precursors) 59 years.  Photo by Birk Thomas.  In lower right hand corner, that’s Atlantic Salt’s Richmond Terrace mountain.

St. Peter’s neo-Romanesque sanctuary has dominated the east end of the KVK for over a century.

Structure just forward of Ambrose here is Sono’s “postcards,” a 9/11 memorial.

This may be my last post for a while . . . am gallivanting south soon.

Many thanks to Birk for these fotos.

Related:  Click here for a Reginald Marsh mural of a black-hulled Ambrose.  Here are some crew shots from the late 1950s.

Unrelated:  Crossing the Darien isthmus right now is Ever Deluxe, which appeared just barely in this post from almost three years ago . .  and NYK Diana, a Howland Hook regular.

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Other People’s Fotos 9

I’d planned something different for today, but then my inbox started to fill.  And it makes me happy to feel a community building here.  So . . . thanks all for reading and sending fotos and links.  I wanted to go out taking fotos, but a pile of tasks told me to stay home.

First, Ann O’Nymous sent me a link to Tugboat Tales, a fabulous documentary made by the late Bart Lawson back in 1991.  This first-rate documentary is divided into parts one, two, and three.   A click gets you to youtube.

Next, harbor photographer extraordinaire John Watson went to check progress on Ambrose, and discovered the drydock had been floated out and reoriented 180 degrees, with the lightship on board.  That would have been a sight to behold.

  Now here’s the bow . .  as seen from shore.   Given the wind, the blue belly over the mushroom anchor is clearly a blue tarp.

Next, from Allen Baker, this foto of a lightship undergoing restoration two hundred miles . . . downeast . . . well, in Boston.   It’s LV-112, which last appeared in this blog almost two years ago.  That info back in 2010 was passed along by Matt of Soundbounder.  Check this link (Thanks to Rick) for many more fotos of LV-112.

As I said, I stayed inside this morning, chomping at the bit because Orange Star was headed out.  Had I realized that her sister vessel was coming in and that they’d cross not far from the Narrows, I would have “busted out.”  Nothing could have kept me inside.  Then, I got an email from bowsprite informing me that Orange Babe Wave had come into port, and I was beside myself.  At which point . . . .

I got an email from John Skelson, with attached fotos of Orange Wave!!!  If you’re new to this blog, I’m a self-professed orangejuiceaholic.  Here, thanks to A. Steven Toby is a link to the technology of these juice ships.

And since this post has become a gallery of other people’s fotos, here’s another from Allen Baker.  A little self-disclosure here:  I moved to the Boston area in the mid-1980s.  One day in 1986, I was walking near the Science Museum and saw two very tired tugboats there, Luna and Venus.  The sad sight drew me in.  To see these beauties in such an utter state of disintegration broke my heart.  I thought both were doomed.  Venus was clawed into matchsticks in 1995, and Luna very narrowly escaped the same fate.  Read the much nuanced story here.   Luna dates from 1930, the same year as W. O. Decker.  I hope to see Luna again soon;  too bad I didn’t carry a camera around back in 1986.

And Decker brings the post to South Street Seaport, which I’m thrilled isexperiencing early springtime, frigid temperatures notwithstanding.  Also, if you’ve been in NYC recently, you know it’s been a snowless winter so far;  this foto was taken last year.  I’ve always know the vessel below as Helen McAllister, but now I’m embarrassed to note that she’s also the ex-Admiral Dewey and Georgetown.  I’d never realized that.  Further, she came off the ways into the KVK in 1900, built at the same yard that produced Kristin Poling!    And this raises two questions:  is Helen McAllister that last power vessel of that yard  still extant?  And, does anyone know of fotos of Helen McAllister that show her working during OpSail 1992.  Which raises the question . . . am I the only one NOT hearing talk of planning for OpSail 2012 New York?

Both Ambrose and Admiral Dewey/Georgetown/Helen McAllister are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

It’s cold outside and tomorrow should be colder, so you could click on every link above  and drink some hot tea.  Did I complete many of my tasks today?  No, but I had a ball with these fotos.  Watching all three parts of Tug Tales will take about a half hour, but it is well worth the time.

Thanks to Ann, John, Allen, bowsprite, Steven, and John for fotos and info.

Finally, here are two other worthwhile places to check while emptying that pot of tea:  Oil-Electric on “marine railroads” and a treasure trove of fotos from the National Maritime Museum on Flickr.

More Ambrose High and Dry

Just in case you’ve forgotten how Ambrose looked last week, here’s then . . . and

here’s today.  These fotos come from John Watson, who has been photographing the sixth boro for almost 40 years!  Here are his fotos of Ambrose from late December.

According to John, this bottom is not only more attractive but also less porous.   By the way, for whom is the Ambrose Channel named?  Also follows.

To my untrained eyes, the prop seems predictably small, given that lightships generally stayed in a single location most of their lives.

If you’re unfamiliar with floating drydocks . . . they are sunk to allow the vessel to enter and position itself inside; then, the dock is deballasted and raised, lifting that vessel high and dry.  Check the wiki explanation.   Click here to see a submarine launched via a floating drydock.   Here’s a video I made about two years back of Pegasus being refloated at the very same facility, Caddell Dry Dock and Repair.

Ambrose may float again later this week.

And the answer to the Ambrose Channel question is  . . . John Wolfe Ambrose.

Many thanks to John Watson for these fotos.