Retro Sixth Boro 25 b

Followingup from yesterday and “…maybe it’s time for new permutations of truckster, teamster, bikester, autoster, planester, hutster, hikester, storyster, . . . ” let me say you’ve sent in some great ideas which I’ll follow up on in the next few days.

For now, let’s glance back 10 years to April 2010.  Any idea what this is all about?

Indeed, it was the arrival of 343!  Here‘s the post I did on that event.

A perennial harbor towing star is the Thomas J. Brown.  Here‘s the post with these now reposted photos.  What’s amazing to me here is the fact that two scows are being towed on a single hawser attached front starboard side of the lead barge.

Maybe there’s a term for this, other than brilliant?

Currently a tug operates through the harbor with the name Curtis Reinauer. Actually it’s the third boat with that name.  The one depicted below, 1979, the second iteration, is now in West African waters.  The original Curtis was reefed, although I haven’t located where.

APL Japan, with its port of registry as Oakland CA, was built in 1995;  since she appears not to have moved in some months from its anchorage in Gulf of Khambhat, I’m guessing she’s scrapped, although I can’t find evidence of that.

I count 15 containers across on the stern.

And finally, Steve Irwin, the Sea Shepherd boat, was in town in April 2010.  It has since been retired, was slated to be scrapped, but then saved as a museumship and is currently in Williamstown, Victoria in Australia.

The post I did on Irwin back then did not include the photo below, and

although I included the photo below, I did not comment on the ports of registry given, Rotterdam AND Kahnawake.  Now that I recognize what that is, I’m wondering about that relationship.  how many other vessels are Kahnawake registered?  Here‘s part of the story.

All photos here, WVD, taken in April 2010.

Stay healthy.

343 At Work

Here was the post I put up the day 343 arrived in the sixth boro, brand spanking new.  And below was a photo I took a few cold days ago when it seemed to be on routine patrol.

Tony Acabono snapped the next two photos just before 0011 Saturday, and

Ashley Hutto got this one just after lunch.  Note the NYMediaboat is on the scene.

Here were some photos I got a few years ago of a land’s edge fire in a place where today there is no land.  Pier 17 is gone, for now.

Paperwork fueled the fire, it seems.

Thanks much to Tony and Ashley for these photos.  I took the first photo, where you can see the now-renovated Pier A.  To see some of the previous usages of this area, click here.   Right near there is also the dramatic Merchant Mariners Memorial by Marisol Escobar.

…the 343

in other words, the newest, pumpingest FDNY boat, which–if it serves as many years as Firefighter has–will be in service beyond 2080.  343 is the vessel facing in the lower left, the one not spraying yet.  The year 2080, now that’s a world I cannot imagine, but as to today’s welcome . . . enjoy the fotos.

Just the facts: one of two, designed by Naval Architects Robert Allan LTD.  The pressurized cabin offers protection against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear contamination.  Dimensions:  140′ x 36′ x 9′ with four 2000 hp MTU diesels.  Screws are approximately two-meter diameter controllable pitch Hundestedts.  Crew of seven.  Top pump output:  50,000 gpm.  Price tag:  $27 million.

Many thanks to fireboat.org and the John J. Harvey for my ride.  Click here for google images (including bowsprite’s)  of the Harvey, and here for info on Jessica Dulong’s book, in which Harvey plays a pivotal role.  Harvey cranked up her own water display.

Our Lady (herself once damaged by a terror explosion in 1916) offered her welcome, and

rainbows arced hither and yon over the sixth boro, here created by John D. McKean.

The forward ballast tank allows 343 to lower the bow into the water to ease people transfer.

Once past the Statue, she passed Ellis Island and then

headed over toward Lower Manhattan, where

she paused,

placed a wreath for the three hundred forty-three firefighters who died in that event back in 2001, before

the three large FDNY boats diverged, here left to right, 343, Firefighter, and John D. McKean.

Welcome.  No one knows what events she faces.  I wish her an uneventful and boring life.

All fotos, Will Van Dorp.

For old salt’s perspective . . . click here.

For video of her launch at Eastern Ship Building in Panama City, Florida, click here.