Sixth Boro Fifth Dimension IS2

First, bravo to Lee Rust who puzzled out 2 of the 3 photos from IS1.  And I’ll just paste in his concise answers here:  “#1 is Colleen Kehoe passing under the Bear Mountain bridge southbound sometime around the late ’70’s or early ’80’s. Since 1996 this vessel is has been part of the Axel Carlson scuba diving reef off Mantoloking NJ.     And #2. Red, right, returning… Northbound towards Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge under construction… 1956-ish.”

Let me add a bit:  #1, click here to see Coleen–and Budweiser banner– about to be reefed in 1996.  And #2, the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge opened in February 1957.    #3 Paul Strubeck helped me, “That’s the Lester J. Gillen of Gillen Lighterage.” The Gillen company is mentioned in this NYTimes article about a South Street Seaport Museum exhibit from 1977.   Thanks much, Lee and Paul.

Below, that’s Ingrid’s father–the photographer for most of this series–in 1957 sitting on the bollard in front of MV Sunoco.

Mystic Sun and Maumee Sun here raft up to a dock in Port Newark in December 1959. Both date from 1948 and had cargo capacity of roughly 15,000 barrels.  Anyone know who the buyers were when they were sold in 1969 and 1966, respectively?  Mystic Sun appeared in this blog previously here.

Finally, here’s Sunoil, launched in August 1944 as Waxhaws.  The T2-SE-A1 tanker was scrapped in 1972.

Mr. Staats worked on ships for almost 50 years.

Many thanks to Ingrid for sharing these photos.  More to come.

 

Sixth Boro Fifth Dimension 7

Here are some more fotos by Seth Tane in the late 1970s /early 1980s.

Foto#1.  Princess Bay just south of the Old Bay Draw, placing her about a mile  of her place of construction.  Anyone know what happened to her, last known as Mabel L?  She was launched from Elizabethport the same year as Coral Queen.

Foto #2.  Jet Trader heads for the Arthur Kill.  Today Jet Trader has a new life as . . .

reef, among sunken NYC subway cars and army tanks off Atlantic City.  Here’s a foto of her last voyage on the hip of Taurus.   Click here to see fotos of motor tankers, subway cars, and army tanks being reefed.  Have you or someone you know had the experience of diving on these reefs and care to share the experience?

Fotos 3 and 4.  Mystic Sun waited in the Morris Canal for its last voyage to the scrappers in Kearney.  Click here for fotos of some of the Sun fleet including Mystic Sun in better days.   Can anyone identify the tugboats here?

Here’s the bow of Mystic Sun.  Here’s a detailed history of Sunmarine.  Mystic Sun started life in 1944, launched from East Coast Shipyards in Bayonne as AOG 38 and was scrapped in 1981, dating this foto.  Here are other AOGs in dazzle paint.

Last foto, #5.  Mary Gellatly, the tanker incarnation.  Click here and scroll for a recent foto of the current Mary Gellatly in the sixth boro.  Who was the long-revered namesake?  And anyone know the details of the launch and demise of this tanker?

Many thanks to Seth Tane for these fabulous fotos of sixth boro history.