Requiem 1

August 2021.  Samatha Miller follows the channel just north of the Staten Island Yankees stadium.  Note today’s skyline.

1970.  The rest of these photos I share thanks to Steve Munoz. Note the early night skyline here shows the Towers under construction.

1970 Dalzelleagle in the Buttermilk Channel passing USCG cutters tied up alongside Governors Island.  Dalzelleagle, a 1958 Jakobson product, later became McAllister Bros, which was scrapped earlier this year.   In a comment in an earlier post, Tony A identifies one of the cutters as the storied USCG Dallas (WHEC-716), now BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16),  pride of the Philippines Navy.

1971.  McAllister Bros southbound in the Upper Bay.

1971.  The aircraft looks to be amphibious.  Anyone help?  I’d say that’s a Kennedy-class ferry,  And at the foot of the Tower, note the fireboats tied up at Pier A, occupied by FDNY from 1960 until 1992.

1973.  SS Olympia headed for sea.  Her career spanned 1953 until 2009, when she was beached in Alang.

1973.  McAllister Bros. northbound off Hoboken.

1973.  Dalzellera.  That makes her 58 years old at this point.

1973. Concordia Gulf bound for sea. 

1985.  Statue scaffolded for repairs.

1992.  As seen from a ship on Newark Bay at dawn.

1992.  Kerry Moran seven years before her wheelhouse and propulsion were reconfigured.

Many thanks to Steve for sharing these photos, pre-dating my time here.  I moved to the area and started working in Brooklyn in 2000.

It should go without saying what the focus here is.  More to come. Here‘s what I posted exactly 10 years ago, when it seems to me, we were still a united people sharing common losses and goals.

People on the Boro 27

Essential workers spend the holidays at the job site.  They always have.

 

Here‘s a list of types of essential workers, note that this crewman needs to catch up on sleep.

I’ll let you read the faces and body language, but I’d say they’re catching up on news since they have a signal on their devices.

 

Seafarers might be thrilled to see non-crew when they come into a port.

See the workers on the bunker barge?

Well, they saw me and then wanted their photo taken.  I suspect they may be Fugro Explorer crew.

These are local workers high over the East River.  Their platform or their task?

They appear to be at the level of Civic Fame, the lady inspired by Audrey Munson atop the NYC Municipal Building.  NYC artists made Audrey Munson famous, but her life did not end well.

 

All photos and sentiments, WVD, who thanks you for reading this, especially today, the 14th anniversary of this blog, which began here over 4700 posts ago.  Since then, you all have made over 13, 400 comments.  Comments are always welcome.  Thank you.

And since it is Thanksgiving, here’s a Thanksgiving story from Thanksgiving Day 1952 and a photo with at least three people on the boro from 21 years later of the boat that almost burned, Dalzellera. 

“During 1952 and 1953, the Dalzell Towing Co. was completing the diesel conversion of their “new” Dalzellera, which was formerly the Central RR of NJ (CRRNJ) tug Bethlehem, a steam tug built around 1915. It was Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1952, and there weren’t many people at the Dalzell yard just west of the Bayonne Bridge on the Kills as my uncle, Bob Munoz, pulled into the yard on a tug, possibly the Dalzellaird. He pulled alongside the Dalzellera and tied up the boat. As he crossed over to the Dalzellera to go ashore he noticed that there appeared to be extreme heat coming from the galley at the after end of the house. The boat was all locked up for the long holiday weekend, but with some help Bob found some tools and broke the padlock off the hatch door. Upon entering the extremely hot galley, he realized that the galley stove was inadvertently left on and set for maximum heat. He immediately shut it down and ventilated the galley. It appeared that the stove was being used to keep the workers warm that were finishing up the tug and preparing her for service, but forgot to turn off the stove before leaving for the long holiday weekend.

However, when the yard staff returned back to work on Monday morning, he caught hell for breaking the lock on the hatch; that is until he told his story about preventing their “new” boat from catching fire before she even docked her first ship.

Shortly after this incident, Bob worked on this boat as mate and captain for about 12 years.

Photo by Steve Munoz, who sent along the story.

 

Thanks to Steve Munoz 18

This batch of photos is from 1958 from Steve, who has shared photos for at least 17 posts, and maybe more. I’m grateful Steve provides the captioning, because I was in second grade at the time.  Steve explains:  “I was just over 10 years old, and although being brought up on the water on my grandfather’s old 40’ cabin cruiser, I had never been on a tugboat—yet. When I came home from school at lunchtime, my mother told me to come home from school quickly at the end of the day so that I could get my homework done . . . because my aunt was picking me and my father up  to meet my uncle, Capt. Bob Munoz, on his tugboat to do a special job.”  More of that narrative follows at the end of this post.

Below, from that day, with Steve’s comments in quotes: “Diana L Moran alongside USS Franklin D. Roosevelt …”

I gather from records that the 1945-launched carrier had just completed a refit and overhaul at the time.   Diane L was Jakobson built and two years old at this time. If you’re not familiar with the sixth boro, that’s the Williamsburg Bridge and in the distance to the north, the Empire State Building.

“Dalzellera pulling USS FDR-CV42-with assistance from Catherine Moran and Dalzellaird.”

This Catherine Moran, built in 1939, was mentioned in relation to Erie Canal work here, and may still be working as Sherry D in Napa CA.

“Dalzellera pulling with assistance from Catherine Moran, Dalzellaird, and Fred B Dalzell.”

“Taken from the stern of Dalzellera alongside USS FDR.”

“USS Enterprise  (CV-6) at  Brooklyn Navy Yard.”

She participated in more major battles in WW2 than any other USN vessel.    Efforts by NYS to purchase and turn her into a memorial were unsuccessful.  Soon after Steve took these photos, she was sold for scrap, done subsequently at Kearny NJ.

“USS Independence (CV-62) at Brooklyn under construction.”

For this carrier as I saw her in 2010 in Bremerton WA, go to the end of this post.  In March 2017, she was towed out of Bremerton, 16000 miles around Cape Horn to be scrapped in Texas, which was completed in early 2019.  Anyone know who did this tow?

“Barbara Moran in East River, heading east.”

This was the 1949, not the 1948, boat by that name.

Steve gave me a long version of his account of the day, but I’ve taken liberty to abridge it.  “Uncle Bob greeted us as we boarded the Dalzell Towing Company’s Dalzellera, flagship of the Dalzell fleet and converted from steam to diesel only 5 years earlier, was previously the Jersey Central RR steam tug Bethlehem. Dalzellera had a 1750hp diesel engine, a surplus WW II submarine engine coupled to a new unique drive system for NY harbor–a controllable pitch propeller.   When Dalzell was purchased by McAllister in 1965, she was renamed D. E. McAllister.

But that day our special job happened to be at the New York Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn Navy Yard, helping move the aircraft carrier USS FDR from its slip into the East River,  downriver,  and then  into the graving dock. It was a dead ship,  968’ long, 45,000 tons, in port for overhaul and repairs. The time for this move was selected to take advantage of the slack water in the early evening.  Dalzell had the contract with the US Navy to move the ship, but did not have enough of its own tugs available to do the job alone. Hence,  tugs from McAllister, Bronx Towing, Red Star, and Moran were also involved, for a total of 13 tugs.

Uncle Bob was the mate on the Dalzellera, but for this job he was one of several pilots assigned to control and monitor the movement of the ship and the tugs assisting the carrier. He was stationed up on the port bow on the flight deck.

Having the ship on a hawser allowed a unique vantage point as seen in the pictures.  And, it was uneventful. I was on the port side of the main deck with everyone else away from the after deck, just in case the line snapped. Then it happened. BANG!  I watched the line part and jump up toward the carrier’s bow. No one was on the after deck, so no one was hurt, no damage done.  Another line was lowered and the towing continued like nothing ever happened. As we got closer to the dock, Carol Moran got too close to one of FDR‘s overhangs on the port side and destroyed her mast, which fell onto her deck. Shortly afterwards the tug was relieved to allow it to head back to the yard before dark, since her mast lights were out.

Dalzellera was relieved of hawser duty just before the ship’s bow entered the graving dock and helped continue the push into the dock while the yard personnel started getting lines up to the ship to guide it into position. It was dusk when the task was finished. We picked up Bob at the end of the pier and headed back to our base.  After this day I was hooked on tugs.”

Thanks much, Steve.  As with the Enterprise, efforts by NYS to purchase USS FDR and turn her into a memorial were unsuccessful, and she was scrapped in Kearny NJ in 1978. Some photos of that last trip to the scrapyard can be found here.

For more tugboats of this decade, click here.

Finally, here’s USS Independence as I saw her in 2010 in Bremerton WA.

 

Late 1950s Sixth Boro

1959  Dalzellera (launched in Staten Island in 1915 as CRRJJ Bethlehem) at the Bush terminal.

SS United States at its North River Pier.  Thanks to my “group-sourcing” friends on FB, I’ve learned that tank was part of “the gas regulator at West 45th Street, part of a manufactured gas plant at that site, likely operated by Consolidated Edison. Erected late 1800’s and demolished in 1965. Some “good” stuff in that ground, part of the reason it’s still a parking lot.”  Also, the sign says “gas heats best”,  and after WW2, a large banner hung there proclaiming “welcome home.”

1957 East River looking toward Manhattan, and

farther south and west, showing the McAllister yard.  Interestingly, the Singer Building, the world’s tallest building from 1908 to 1909,  still appears in the photo above, just to the right of the Brooklyn Bridge Towers.

Many thanks to Steve Munoz for these photos.  You can see more of Steve’s vintage NYC and sixth boro photos here.