Chrononauts 7b

Ken came up with additional photos of his overnight in the transient slip at South Street Seaport Museum many years ago . . .  so here they are.  Note the Twin Towers in the background.  To the right side of the photo, I’m guessing that’s a mastless Lettie G. Howard and Major General William H. Hart, now languishing along the Arthur Kill.

Here’s a close up of the stick lighter, identified by eastriver as Vernie S. 

Russell Grinell, among other things, was an owner of schooner Pioneer before she came to SSSM.

Here’s Black Pearl in the foreground, with a respectable looking eagle’s figurehead.

And finally, this might be the stern of Anna Christina, which sank in the “perfect storm” as mentioned in this NYTimes article.

Again, many thanks to Ken Deeley for bringing these photos he took from the transient dock several decades ago to the light.  One of my tugster goals is to publish photos like these, bringing them into the  “creative commons.”

 

 

People Movers 2

Here was the first in this series, from quite a while back.   The next two photos below were taken late last week by Brian DeForest.

Miss New York, Blount built in 1993 leaves the Statue quite dramatically.

Ferry Lt. Samuel S. Coursen, Mathis built 1956, was named for this West Point grad.

That’s Explorer of the Seas in the background.

Water Taxi and NYC Audubon operate this winter cruise to watch the water mammal between the boat and my lens.

Seals in the harbor are the real people movers.

And finally, let’s move from those mammals to one painted on the ferry Major General  William H. Hart, Staten-Island built 1926 . . . now rebranded as SS Meow Man.

On pages 450-1 of Peter& Norma Stanford’s A Dream of Tall Ships–which I reviewed here— there’s a description of this vessel’s hand-over from the USCG to South Street Seaport, where for a period of time it served as a marine trades training school, partly funded by Brooke Astor.  Here was a post where I used a slightly different version of this Hart photos.

Thanks to Brian for use of the first two photos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Circum Staten Island 2b

Take 2 . . or 2b, and there’ll be more attempts to figure out the ghosts of the sixth boro.   Like others of you, I’m fascinated by these hints of a disappeared world.  Below, if I’ve understood correctly, lie the remnants of the ferry Astoria.  I wonder who worked on it  and how many thousands of folks rode it regularly either to work or play or  . . . do mischief.   For info on Astoria, which ran between Astoria in Queens to 92nd Street in Manhattan from the 1920s until the 1970s, read here.

Here is the ferry Major General William H. Hart aka SS Meow Man, so dubbed by a graffiti flinger.  General Hart worked at Brooklyn Army Depot after World War 1.  Like Astoria, she was built in the mid-1920s and ran until almost 1970, when it did a short stint at South Street Seaport.  See more info here.

Here’s another view of the tug I posted on previously.  In September 1944, Berger Boat in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, launched this vessel was as Navy rescue tug ATR-89,  After the war, it worked as Hila.  Now the metal deck and wooden hull turn back into raw materials.  Again, I see it and try to imagine crew:  who they were, where they came from and went to, and what they or their descendants would think if they saw it today.

I’ve heard this is a ferry that previously ran between Newburgh and Beacon. Anyone confirm this?

I’ve no idea what vessel this once was.  Anyone help?

Nor this, although this vessel lies 50+ miles upriver in Cornwall.  It seems to have evolved into a breakwater protecting the town marina.

In this closer-up shot, you can see the portside hawse.

In Kill van Kull, this “retired” car ferry called Pvt Nicholas Minue is named for a World War II Medal of Honor winner.

Let me end this on a non-wreck.  Many of the vessels in this post once were ferries. Anyone know this ferry?  Those are the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges in the distance.

Here’s the same vessel seen in profile rather than stern on.  It’s Michael Cosgrove, a mini-ferry I’ve not seen before this year.  See the link here for more–not much–on Michael Cosgrove and the other Staten Island ferries.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.