Retro Sixth Boro 15

It’s that time again . . .  a glance back at exactly a decade ago.  Back in June 2009, the 400th anniversary of the Half Moon going up the Hudson kicked off with a 20th century version of the Half Moon going up the Hudson.  Note the banner hung to the old TZ Bridge along the right side of the photo.   That replica is now in the Netherlands, looking for a new home, and that bridge–parts of it–have become fish structure somewhere off Long Island.

A newish boat in town was Peter F. Gellatly, now Vane’s Long Island.

Bounty–alas her fate–was still an irregular visitor to the sixth boro.  Here she’s made up to Harvey just outboard of Frying Pan.

Brian Nicholas moves a scrap barge out of the East River.

Paul T. Moran made one of her really rare visits to the sixth boro.

Container vessels calling in the ports of NY and NJ had not yet become UL . . .  ultra large versions

Harvey follows Half Moon northbound on the Hudson.

Michigan Service and Erie Service gather near IMTT.

Sisters assists with a tanker, and

here’s more of the River Day procession marking the year of Half Moon the first.

All photos taken in June 2009 by Will Van Dorp.

Charleston Shipbuilding 1930

Frying Pan came back to Pier 66 yesterday after several months at Caddell Dry dock, assisted by Dorothy J.  I use this photo with permission from Renee Lutz Stanley.

It turns out that I also recently received a photo and spec sheet from barrel, formerly of the US Army Corps of Engineers.  When I looked up where Liston, the vessel below, was built, I

 

learned that it was being built the same time as the lightship listed as Frying Pan Shoal.  First, it makes me wonder whether a photo exists that shows them both on the ways.  Second, I wondered if there was an error in shipyard site here about the initial name of the lightship, or if there was a time when the word “shoal” got dropped from the name of the vessel.  Third, the shipyard site says that LV115 became a museum in Southport, NC.  Click here and scroll through for a photo I took in Southport five years ago showing where some folks had wanted to build a museum with LV115 as the centerpiece, but it had never happened.

Some years ago, I used to spend a good amount of summer evening time at Frying Pan/Pier66.  If you’ve never been, you should try it once.  Here are some photos I took way back then. I must have many more somewhere.  Pier 66 opens in early May, and I think it’s time to have a large gathering there once again.  Let’s agree on a date and meet there, eh?

Many thanks to Renee and barrel for use of these photos.

But a closing shot, barrel writes:  “USACE TUG LISTON    became ARGUS of Salter Towing in 1970. #561597. At a later date became fishing vessel MR. J.C. now out of documentation.”

1929 Lightship

Many thanks to Joel Milton for this undated, “coloriferous” image of –well–  “Marilyn out of the frying pan and into the [North] River.”  Might she of the yellow locks feel attracted by the radiance of the lightship?

A year younger than four score, Frying Pan repelled mariners from shoals at the mouth of the Cape Fear River for a score-and-a-half years before making its way northward.  The past two decades ‘Pan has spent along the Hudson lighting up the night in new ways.  Her storied career–including almost three years underwater–is detailed in links here, including one by the ubiquitous Fred of tug44.

Parties and gatherings have drawn others to Frying Pan, and since tugster is looking for a winter  “water aficionado” groupement, I’d love to hear accounts of Frying Pan as such a venue.  Might “frying” happen to ‘Pan in the below decks?  Email me if you have off-the-record remarks.  Might the fireboat raft up in case these gatherings get too hot?  Foto below thanks to Bowsprite.

Unrelated:  Read how Henry’s been obsessing again here about his voyages twenty score years past.

Also unrelated:  Read this account of an Egyptian Captain Mahmoud Hammad detained for over three weeks this year  by Somali pirates til ransom was paid.

Finally, Brian has updated his site with bridges over the Harlem River.  Great links.

Dance Barge

Barges move oil, coal, sand, and more.  They serve as platforms for construction, demolition, mooring,

ceremony, and–

uh-and–a Felliniesque gathering?–

and creation.  As part of openhousenewyork last weekend, Pier 66, Caron Eule Dance, and

Meg Okura’s PanAsian Chamber Jazz Ensemble created

The Crane Wife, a traditional Japanese version with a North Atlantic counterpart involving selkies

all a delight to stumble upon.  Yes, that’s lightship Frying Pan looking in from the south.

This is the magic generated on the sixth boro, my adoptive home, a place for opera on a tanker, a book launch at a graving dock, a circus barge, a music barge, an art installation that floats and motors all the way here from Albany . . . and many more such are commonplace. Except not.  They’re all brilliant.  Kudos.

Second Lives 3

First check this link to establish context.
Here’s the ultimate second lives story. Here’s another account. For only a $14,000 a week, you could share this space as a B&B along with a dozen of your best friends. Wow!! This could work for Ambrose.

Or for Frying Pan, the ultimate party boat.

There’s another one over at Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City.

And Wavertree….

it could certainly be the most unique hotel and conference center on the East Coast.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.