Bertha’s Present

Sunsets can gild and indemnify the efforts of the day.  A lightship can help safely navigate the impending darkness.

but sunsets can also torment.  Although it’s the last day of September and progress has been very slow in trying to raise the $$ to save Bertha,

there is still time.  Someone must know someone who

can help so that this hull gets completed, surfaces get gets sandblasted and repainted, and all the rest so that

this handiwork will be complemented with

clear views out these lights, and

celebration.

So that these D13000 speak again.

And splash gurgle back out to sea

Anchors lowered

get raised.

Help.

Final foto by Allen Baker.  All others by Will Van Dorp, whose previous Bertha posts were here and here.

Here’s Bertha‘s blog.

Bertha’s Past

. . . well, only one day of it, and she’s been around for over 30,000 days.  These fotos, shared by Al Trojanowicz, were likely taken on July 4, 2000.  This date should be easy enough to verify, given the sailing vessel along the left side of the foto . . . Wavertree with sail bent on.  Anyone know the tug escorting her?

Bertha . . . tied alongside Harvey!   I’d first thought this was  near Chelsea Piers, but I’ve been corrected . . . it’s at the old fireboat house, Marine Co. 6, at the foot of Grand Street in Manhattan just south of the Williamsburg Bridge.  Thanks for the correction, Al.   Here’s a link to the fireboat locations in the 1960s.  And here are some great vintage fireboat fotos and info.

Bertha underway . . . with a hint of Wavertree on the far side of the NY Waterways vessel.

Might the tug in the distance be Pegasus?

And given the date, the Domino plant just beyond the Williamsburg Bridge might still have been in operation.

I hope to share more of Bertha‘s past, but the indiegogo fund raiser is critical for getting Bertha back into the water and sailing into the future.  Click on the “save Bertha” link upper left.

Many thanks to Al Trojanowicz for sharing these fotos.

Bertha’s Future

. . . literally hangs in the balance in the next weeks.  This 1925 Tyne River-built flat-bottomed timber tug needs $150,000 pledged, or  . . .        I’ll come back to the  ” . . . or”    To pledge, click on the image of the tug to the left, click on the contribute button, and follow the prompts.

Bertha was one of four of these tugs used to move booms of timber to the mill in the Bay of Islands area of western Newfoundland starting in the mid-1920s.  Click here for fotos of that timber operation; particularly appropriate are fotos # 189, 259, and 263.

Darren Vigilant (below) bought Bertha in 1999, drove her to New York, and if you were  paying  attention to the harbor from that time, you might recall seeing it.    Click here to see fotos from then as well as an illustrated history of the vessel and lists of what has been done and remains.  Currently, she’s in a yard in Staten Island.

I took these fotos last weekend and will

be adding followups in the weeks to come.

But the clock is ticking.  Here is the  ” . . . or else” part.

Time is running out, and Bertha could be scrapped and added to the half million dollar pile of metal chunks.

Shudder the thought.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who’d love to see any fotos you might have of Bertha sailing in New York harbor between 1999 and 2003.   Click on the image below to hear Darren make a plea for the boat.