Last of the Bouchards

I’m not going to get into the swamp here, and I’m not inviting you too either, but the dispersal of the Bouchard fleet had many tragic subplots and components. Obviously some people have been able to turn these events into gain, and more power to them.

See the two rusty barges facing the camera here?  Those are B. No. 242 and B. No. 210.  Also,

notice the color of the tug on the 242.  They might be Morton S. Bouchard IV, the last of the fleet tugboats to have stayed over near Stapleton until fairly recently.  On the 210, I believe that’s Anna Rose.

So yesterday i was sitting chatting with a friend over at St. George and this barge appeared.  “What old ship is that?” she asked.  She takes no notice of water traffic, either on the sixth boro or anywhere else. But I knew the answer immediately. 

B. No. 260 was likely being moved out of its long-term storage near Stapleton and likely to the shipyard for deferred maintenance and much-needed paint.

Nicholas and Liz Vinik were doing the move. 

 

The next time my friend or I see that barge, it might be looking much better.

All photos, yesterday, WVD.

 

Moving Fuel 7

When the temperatures drop and days are short, tug and barges units in the NE get busier than in summer.

RTC 42 here gets pushed by Franklin Reinauer, as Gracie–-above–waits at the dock with RTC 109.

 

A bit later, J. George Betz moves her barge B. No. 210 toward the east.

Navigator appears from the east with her barge.

 

Barney moves Georgia toward a Bayonne dock, with assistance from Mary.

 

And Curtis comes in with RTC 81 for more product.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, currently in the state of Georgia, but a few days back when I took these, needed some of that fuel to stay warm. Here from 2007 was my first post by this name.

Lights Near Bear Mountain Bridge

Crossing Bear Mountain Bridge the other afternoon–it’s December–I saw this light for the first time.

A bit later on the east side of the River, I pulled off at the “scenic overlook” because I knew this tug and barge were approaching, southbound.  See the same star near the ridge line, directly above the flat snow-covered roof to the right of the lights around the skating rink?

Here the unit–Morton S. Bouchard Jr. and (I think) B. No. 210–pass between Iona Island and the east side of the Hudson.  I’m guessing the buildings on the island date from its time as a US Navy ammunition facility.

 

This angle provides a good view of the barge notch into which the tug fits.

And if I had not yet seen enough lights, a northbound freight came around Jones Point, the edge of Dunderberg Mountain.  Fifty years ago, the Hudson River Reserve Fleet aka ghost ships stretched from there southward.  Here and here are posts I’ve done about the ghost fleet.  Washington Irving also wove the landscape into his tales inspired by that very landscape.

I took the photo below in August 2017 of Perkins Memorial Tower, a CCC project atop Bear Mountain but not visible the other afternoon from my vantage point.

Below is a photo I took of Morton S. Bouchard Jr. last week at the Bayonne Bridge.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.