Other Watersheds 7: The Delaware

See Otherwatersheds 6 here.  Many thanks to Jeff Schurr and Capt. John Curdy, who gave me a first-rate tour of 20ish miles of greater Philadelphia waterfront from the Delaware line up to the Delair and Betsy Ross Bridges.  According to a studied source: “Of the 360 major American ports, the Delaware River ranks second in total tonnage shipped, and eighth in the dollar value of the cargo. Every year, 2600 ships call into our port, which claims to employ 75,000 people.”   And another from RITA, too pithy to summarize, lists the largest trading countries and the predominant products in and out through the port.

More posts and maps on Philly–in all its vibrancy as a port– in the next few days, but for now, a sampling, an overview of old and new, starting with the most threatened ones.  Of course, that would be SS United States–which I wrote about here.  For info on the raffle, click here.  Doubleclick on fotos enlarges.

Equally endangered is Olympia.  Click here and here for info on efforts to save this piece of history.

Setubal, Portugal-built Grand Banks dory boat Gazela graces the waterfront.  Find more about her history here.

Mischief (ex-Thornton Bros, Cissi, and Cissi Reinauer) in her current colors and habitat.  A previous appearance of this vessel is here.

Inactive carriers John F. Kennedy and  Forrestal await their fate,  as

does destroyer Arthur W. Radford.  Soon to be an Atlantic reef ?

Weeds grow from the fendering of  B. M. Thomas, launched in Groton, 1926.

Like I said earlier, port of Philly has a vibrancy, illustrated by OSG Vision and

“shortie”  (77′ x 34′)  tug Reid McAllister.

More Delaware pics up tomorrow, but for now, in the Pyne Point section of Camden, Anne is the skipjack rigged schooner (1965, masts farthest to the right)  hiding in the weeds.  Now look in the extreme left side of the foto . . . there in the weeds, what

might this be?  Anyone identify this mystery tug?

The interactive map below shows Pyne Point Park;  the weedy inlet is just to the right of the park label.

Again, many thanks to Jeff and John.  All fotos taken yesterday by Will Van Dorp.

Vision and More

This is my version of Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a ...”.  Call this “Checking out Docks on a Hazy Morning,” the joy of which is finding the unexpected.  Like OSG Vision, here among the  giants.  The tug just astern Vision’s blue stacks is K-Sea Volunteer, air draft 114′ if my info is correct, making

Vision, docked here in Bayonne, NJ, the highest tug seat I’ve seen in the sixth boro!

Vision looks like a starship, and is as huge as one:  12000 hp!! and 153′ x 51′ x 26.’  Anyone know the air draft?

Find closer-up and clearer fotos of Vision from the fabulous Narragansett Bay Shipping site here, taken about a month ago.

James Turecamo and Zachery Reinauer passed by to

meet and greet (well, that’s interpretation, I know) also.  Ships in the distance are:  Horizon Discovery (ex-American Liberty, Sea-Land Liberty, Sea-Land Discovery, CSX Discovery… built by Sun Shipbuilding in Chester, PA in 1968) and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Fedora.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Related:  OSG Vision‘s daily fuel consumption:  35 tons!