Retro Sixth Boro 55

As remnants of  Hurricane Nicole pass through the sixth boro, we might have a look back to details of aftermath of Sandy exactly 10 years ago, like this undecked pier over on the NJ side of the Arthur Kill, across from Howland Hook. 

USCGC Spencer came up for the cleanup, as did

then-USCGC Gallatin, now NNS Okpabana. 

NASA’s Enterprise saw some damage as well, leading to installation of a more robust pavilion. 

McAllister Sisters assisted ACL Atlantic Concert past the damage to the park shoreline just west of St. George while  

National Guard units staged in the then parking lot area. 

And I have to digress here to rant about a shoreside issue:  hundreds of millions have been spent in preparing this area for the ill-fated “NY Wheel,”  and in the process transformed what had been a simple but pleasant park into a wasteland behind an unsightly green wall and guarded chain link.  Hey mister mayor and mister SI boro president, clean it up and reopen it for the public.  The “wheeler-dealers” and the NYC EDC did more damage here–and allowed it to fester–than Sandy.  Is the small wheel next?

APL Cyprine, then flagged US and carrying USMC vehicles, has gone to Alang flying the flag of Comoros. Ditto ACL Atlantic Concert, shown up the column. 

Patrick Sky was still working back then, and Happy Delta brought in one of the first loads of NYC sanitation cranes. 

That year, by November 9–the date of this photo–we’d already had a dusting of cold, white stuff here. 

Cashman’s TSHD Atchafalaya was in the boro.  She’s still afloat in Florida. 

On black Friday 2012, the high point of my day was seeing Atlantic Salvor return to the boro with Witte 1407 carrying segments of what is visible today as

the antenna atop WTC 1. 

All photos, any opinions and all errors, WVD. 

 

Atlantic Star Sixth Boro Arrival 3

Since it’s THE maiden voyage arrival, let’s follow her all the way to “all fast.”  Here were parts 1 and 2, which followed her from several miles out in the Ambrose Channel to the Narrows and then from there to mid-KVK.

Eric works the starboard and Ellen, the port.

 

The turn at Bergen Point is way more than 90 degrees . . . more like 135, and

takes well-timed thrusting at bow and stern.  Notice Atlantic Concert just above Eric‘s stern?

Atlantic Concert is completing its clockwise spin here to line up its stern ramp, a maneuver

 

that Atlantic Star will replicate.

 

 

Here Eric McAllister is beginning the push on the stern to assist with that clockwise spin;  Ellen and Atlantic Star‘s own three thrusters are also likely engaged.

Spin complete, Eric moves over to the port side to nudge Atlantic Star gently against the dock.  I wrote about the reverse maneuver here some years ago.

Getting a profile of these two CONROs lined up . . . is not easy, since they represent nearly a half mile of ship.

Foreshortening helps a little.

 

I’ll be watching for the remainder of the G4 vessels–Atlantic Sail, Atlantic Sea, Atlantic Sky, and Atlantic Sun.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, with thanks  to NY Media Boat.

Also many thanks to JS, a retired harbor worker who made this connection for me between Atlantic Container Line, their generation 2 vessels, and John A. Noble.  The image below comes from pages 210 –11 of Erin Urban’s Hulls and Hulks in the Tide of Time, a must-read for all students of the sixth boro work boats.   Noble called the 1977 print “The Cinderella Passes the Occidental,” and then writes his sense of this new container ship passing the hulk of 1874 full-rigged ship called the Occidental.  He also alludes to having drawn the Atlantic Cinderella when she was brand new, but I have yet to locate copies of those drawings.  Oh well.  Many thanks to JS, whose previous contribution you might have seen here.

John A. Noble’s “The Cinderella Passes the Occidental”

Random Tugs 153

No, I haven’t left the sixth boro.  Just yesterday I crossed paths with Allie B here at Atlantic Salt, purveyor of a safety product and patron of the arts.

It took a gray day for me to notice that the house colors along the KVK are reminiscent of those in coastal Canadian maritimes towns.  Allie B has been one of my favorite tugboats since I saw her depart on her epic tow here and here back in 2009.

Then I passed Evelyn Cutler, here with Noelle Cutler at Caddell Drydock.  Those are basic Wavertree masts in the background.  I first saw Evelyn

in red.

Here’s a first good photo of Dylan Cooper, the Reinauer tug that arrived in the sixth boro later last year.

 

I hope to get another of her here in a few years when that bridge is completed.

I believe Eric is the newest of McAllister tugs in the sixth boro.  And yes, here Eric is using her 5000+ hp to assist Atlantic Star, ACL‘s brand spanking new CONRO vessel into port yesterday on her maiden voyage.  I hope to have a post dedicated to Atlantic Star completed for tomorrow.

Eric is a product of the same Rhode Island shipyard that produced Dylan Cooper.  In the distance that’s one of ACL’s previous generation of CONRO vessels, Atlantic Concert.  Here’s an entire post dedicated to Atlantic Concert from 2009.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, with thanks to NY Media boat. 

And yes, I still have more of Barrel’s vintage USACE photos to share.

 

ACL 2

Here’s the first in a possible series.  These RORO have unusual lines, and

they’ve carried unusual cargoes like … a viking ship and an antique car from the Orient Express.  Juxtaposed with the cables of the Verrazano, the tail gate here has lines reminiscent of an electric guitar body,  well, a guitar body with rusty steel plate pressed down on the pickups; and more strings than a harp.  Imagine the sound of one many-fingered hand plucking.

For a ship, there seems an absence of curved lines on this 26-year-old vessel.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Ships 12

Here was RS 11.  This one might be called two hours on the Narrows, as that was the time I could linger there before feeling pressed to get elsewhere . . . like to earn a living.  First, let the record show that Sichem Defiance remains as of early January 28, nearly three weeks after the incident.   Alongside her is tanker Ben, which itself has ABC-1, McAllister Responder, and Defiance, all tied up to starboard.

The light is all wrong on this shot, but the starboard bow of Ben seems quite rusted or discolored.

Torm Gunhild offloads to barge Patriot, tended by Donald C.

Sun Road heads for Newark Bay.

Cosco Melbourne races a pilot boat in as

crew prepare for docking.

An OOCL container vessel suddenly looms around Norton Point, revealing

itself as OOCL Hong Kong, here cruising past SCF Pechora.

And as she passed, a member of the crew watched from a hatch.

Finally, Atlantic Concert headed in as tugboat Virginia (ex-Bayou Babe)  headed out, and I headed off to work.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  I just got a comment from one of the kayakers I fotoed a few days back;  in his comment, Vlad sent a link to the fotos HE took from the kayak.  See them here.  I wish I had seen the container ship OOCL Verrazano Bridge.

ACL

Atlantic Concert . . . bound for sea.

Same place different day, Atlantic Companion . . . bound for sea.

Is that a hole in the hull?

Companion has the same although it’s less corroded.

This ACL series of ships has an unusually boxy and large superstructure.

and identical safety orange slash across the visor.

For more ACL in tight quarters, check out this link.

Anyone have an idea of turn-around time for these ROROs in port?

And although I know the term “black ships” conjures up the wrong impressions, I can’t look at these ACL vessels and not think “black ships.”

Photos, WVD.