Retro Sixth Boro 40 A

Happy August 2021.  And “Wow!”  That is almost always my reaction when I jump back a decade into the archives.  This riveted tug  was 83 years old when I took this photo, and I looked at that deep rounded icebreaker hull and imagined it would go on working forever.  Now it’s 93 years old, and mortality is nipping at the heels of this Canal tug and all the Canal tugs.  It and they may not be around 10 years from now.  Of course, neither might I.  She was built by Buffalo Marine Shipbuilding in 1927-28, and originally equipped with a John W. Sullivan steam engine.  Her stack was hinged so that it could be lowered for bridges. She’s 77′ by 19.5′.  If I read the archives right, Governor Cleveland is three feet shorter;  I’d always assumed they were twins.

The 1958 Blount-built green tug in the foreground has changed hands several times in the past decade;  it may be Bay Star of Port Washington now, but I’ve not seen it in more than half a decade.

The 1998 container ship was last recorded as in Aliaga Turkey in 2017, which leads me to suppose this 3802 teu has been scrapped. 

I’ve seen these East River based float planes several times recently, but I’ve not been back to their “field” in the East River in a while.   It is pricey but no doubt memorable . . . fun to travel somewhere in one of these. Anyone report having done it?  I don’t know which company then flew the red planes.

NYK Constellation, a 2007 4900 teu vessel, is currently at anchor off Vancouver, but has been renamed Tell T (Erase some of the letters of “constellation”).  That “erasure renaming” suggests it’s bound for the scrappers.

Here’s Chandra B‘s predecessor, doing then what Chandra B does now.  It even has the same crew.

I’ve heard that Ace was being converted into something . . . . what it a floating cocktail dispenser?  Seriously . . . I have some such recollection due to a query I got a few years back.  Well . . . there are orange juice tankers, so why not a floating frozen margarita or daiquiri truck boat? Can anyone provide an update on this project?  What paint scheme/name would immediately scream out “slushy float”.

 

I’ve not seen Iron Wolf out in the harbor, although I might have seen it tied up over at Claremont.

Pegasus then had no upper wheelhouse, and here it was pushing the elusive Michael Cosgrove, a 1960 Blount vessel that Charon drives for some on a one-way trip to a Potter’s Field.  

The 2000 4500 hp Vernon C has recently gotten new life as Mackenzie Rose. 

And finally . . . 2011 saw this combo do quite the tour . . . the 1907 Pegasus with the 1914 Lehigh Valley 79 alongside.  If you’ve never visited the 79, make an effort to get to it and be prepared for a treat.  Pegasus met the scrapper this past spring.

All photos, first half of August 2011, WVD.

I hope you enjoy these monthly journeys to the past as much as I do.   And to satisfy my own curiosity, I looked up the first post in the Retro Sixth Boro series. . . .

Meditations J

J . . . jaded. Jaded I am sometimes after being jostled and jerked around, about to be jettisoned into the likes of Newtown Creek.  Like the joke is on me because I’ve given and given more and have’t gotten any.  Done the same things so long I can’t tell if I’m doing them or just dreaming.  It’s rained so long I’ve forgotten what the sun looks like.  I swig some wine and it tastes like water.  I make a lunch, but can’t take more than two bites.  Jaded, humdrum.  Kind of like the Staten Island ferry that ever only shuttles back and forth, back and forth between St George Staten Island and Whitehall Manhattan.

Then a friend tells me he saw the Staten Island ferry up the East River.  Another friend swears she saw it gallivanting up the North River.  Can’t be, I think.  So this morning I see a strange distant vessel east bound on the KVK.

I think . . . that color I know, and

the shape is about right, but  . ..  It turns out this ferry Michael Cosgrove runs on the Long Island Sound.

Once the spell is broken, my eyes are opened.  Bow watch on Zim Shenzhen is a freckle-faced red-headed boy, and

on Turkon Furth is a young woman.  And up on the bridge

is another.  What if –my jaded spell broken –I found myself seeing the unexpected with every glance!

And so many mariners were women that a man on a ship would draw  attention.

Anyhow, the impact of seeing Michael Cosgrove was that I turned . . . from jaded to almost jolly.  Seaweed on rocks turned glossy jade green, and even the water rats, scurrying around their habitat looked a shiny, healthy, happy nuanced gray.  I still had to go to work, but at least for a spell, I felt better.  Stopping by the river on the way to work . . . always a good idea.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Remember . .  click on fotos to expand them now.

Most likely “H” comes tomorrow.