Something Different 51

I copied this photo from what has been a very influential book  for me, Portrait of a Port: Boston 1852–1914, compiled and annotated by W. H. Bunting.  More on that later.    I hope Mr. Bunting sees this post as a hat tip to his works, especially this book and Steamers, Schooners, Cutters, Sloops:  The Marine Photographs of N. L. Stebbins; A Day’s Work.

Bunting writes: “late 19th century Boston was a city of immigrants and contained some of the most crowded and unhealthy neighborhoods in the country.  Hot summer weather was the special curse of the slums, and during July and August the mortality rate for Boston’s children under age 5 was commonly three times the rate for the rest of the year. The Boston Floating Hospital,supported by private charity, was opened in 1894 for the purpose of providing sick children under age 6 with medical care, good food, cool breezes, and a change of scenery.  Mothers accompanied by their other (healthy) children were welcome to join the daily cruises.”

Further he writes:  “The first hospital vessel was the ex-steamer Clifford, which had to be towed about the harbor.  The hospital steamer pictured here was new in 1906 and was fully air-conditioned.  It accommodated 100 permanent patients and 150 daily patients in six wards, and contained an operating room and a laboratory specializing in milk research.”

At least 12 more things about this floating hospital can be found here.

I believe this hospital ship burned in 1927 and was not replaced.

I discovered this book and the works of Bunting first in a public library in Newburyport MA when I was living in the far northeastern part of Massachusetts.  Since then, I’ve bought and given away two copies of the book.  The first line of the preface is  “This is a book of photographs.”  He goes on to elaborate why the book is not a “photographic history of the port of Boston” in those years, or “a photographic maritime history of the port”.    Rather, he says, it “does draw together a visual maritime portrait of the port, as composed by photographers and their clients.”   Bunting draws mostly on the work of photographers Albert S. Southworth, Josiah T. Hawes, and especially, Nathaniel L. Stebbins.   In a very modest way, that too has been the goal of the tugster blog.

Click here for over 6000 photos by Stebbins.

The sixth boro had an earlier floating hospital, called  Emma Abbott, opened in 1875, and named for an opera singer who donated money for the ship.

More vessels, charted by or built for The Floating Hospital organization, can be seen here.

Tagster 6

Today I pass a personal milestone . . . er, year stone, so the editors in Tugster Tower allow me to veer off topic . . .  first, to muse about the effect of picking up a camera and navigating life with it.  While I mostly photograph “sixth boro … and beyond” things that float, getting to and returning from the waters, sometimes I see other surfaces that beckon.  I love murals, especially.  That’s what these are.

First, I’d like to commend Monir’s Deli for a really smart mural.  I’ve never a sandwich from Monir, but the references in this strange assemblage of images compel me one of these days to stop by.  The mural also shows up in this profile of my neighborhood.   Yes, this is NYC . . .

Ditto.  Monir is in Queens, and Sofia’s on Staten Island.  I wonder who painted this first woman in a cocktail glass.  And where, when?  As with Monir’s place, I should stop by Sofia’s one of these days.

This mural was in Harrisburg PA.  I’m not sure what the reference is, but it was s a warm image on a cold day.

The rest here come from Bushwick Brooklyn.  The area at the head of Newtown Creek is certainly worth a visit.  Tagster 5 was based on a walk around there.

I find the one below disturbing.

Here below, I love the incongruity of ballet and boxing.  This outfit suggests some choreography needs doing . . . or improvising.

This is two murals:  one on the side of a truck and another behind it, painted onto the side of a building, with a sidewalk in between.

Here’s the same location shot 20′ to the left.

The chainlink fence adds a layer here.

And finally, the figure in the pigtails appears to be admiring–like me– the colorful foliage painted onto the building at the corner of Jefferson and St. Nicholas.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, taken while on the journey.

Here’s another focus for murals in the county where I grew up.

 

Random Ships 52

Photography means “light writing,” or writing with light.  George Eastman said, “Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.”

Obviously I’m interested in the subject matter, but playing with light makes the subject matter more fun.

“What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time.” John Berger

To comment on the ships, anyone know what product is being discharged from Tatjana?  I believe that’s Frances alongside.

What makes getting up early so easy is this:  the glow.  Of course, I need to get out there to get the shot.  As Henri Cartier-Bresson said, “It’s an illusion that photos are made with the camera….they are made with the eye, heart and head.”

Merci, Henri.

That’s NS Stella above and High Strength and Harbour First below.

The photo of Silver Sawsan below was taken about half an hour after the previous ones, and the light by then is less rich, no matter how bright the orange is.  Ernst Haas says, ““You don’t take pictures, the good ones happen to you.”  And they USUALLY happen during that first hour after dawn and the last one before dusk.  

I used to fish a lot, and I thought the same thing about fishing.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

People on the Boro 18

Here are the previous 17 iterations of this title.  I thought of this the other day when there were three others photographing with me along a short stretch of the KVK.

Recreation along the waterway there has been popular for a very long time.  I took this photo recently at Noble Maritime at –you guessed it–Sailors Snug Harbor.  I’m always surprised at how many people say that fine institution is on their list but they’ve not yet gone.  More on this soon.  Go.

Here’s another photo from Noble Maritime.  Can you identify anyone on this 1878 photo?

Did you guess it?  Taking the air along or on the waterways puts you in fine company.

Some folks works there, possibly because they enjoy that environment.

See the folks on this MSC vessel?  Look near the middle of the M on MSC.

There.  They’re probably waiting to assist the pilot off the ship.

Standing by with lines is critical.

As is having a refreshing cup of coffee . . .  Enjoy the rest of these photos.

 

 

 

All photos here, including the one below, were taken by Will Van Dorp.

Recently I had the good fortune of crossing paths with David Rider of Seamen’s Church Institute, and what was he doing . . . photography.  See his March 2016 shots here.

And for some reflection on taking better photos, check out this Youtube pilot video.  I hope more in the series get made, if they haven’t already.

Pairs in Springtime 3

New twin house arrangement with complex logo on forward/back stacks?

Nah!  Just Patapsco assisting Peter F. Gallatly with turn to port while backing off the dock.  Note the twin circlers in the sky with one witness.

Peter (94′ x 34′ x 14′ and 4200 hp)  was launched three years after Patapsco (96′ x 34′ x 15 and 4200 hp) ;  hull 141 to Patapsco’s 124.  And the barge is blue-house GCS 238.

Looking at shapes, just basic externals, I’d call Peter F the 16th Vane Brothers vessel of that class.

Two peas

in a pod; yellow

stripe among green.  At least for now.

Jed caught this foto even more recently, blue-house GCS 235 moved on the hip by green stripe by Sassafras (90′ x 32′ 13′ and 3000 hp) built at Chesapeake Shipbuilding.

Green with blue and yellow . . . almost like courtship this spring.  Foto was taken at the head of Gowanus Bay.  Ship in the background was subject of post a month back;  foto then also taken by Jed.

All fotos, except the last one by Jed, by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 50

Jack Newman has appeared in this blog before here, but guess the port.  This foto comes courtesy of Guy Pushee.  Port info comes at the end of this post.

The newest–I believe–tug in the harbor is Timothy L. Reinauer, less than a month on the job . . . in its current incarnation.  Timothy L was Bridget McAllister and Ocean Star before that.  The upper house “stalk” seems pitched at some unusual angles relative to the waterline.

Welcome!  er . . . welcome back, Timothy.

Now this tug had me a bit mystified as it approached.  Its windowless superstructure has something in common with stealth ship like John Dark aka Jeanne d’Arc’s stealthy sidekick, now back at sea.

Remember most fotos enlarge with a doubleclick.  Try it and you’ll clearly see the stacks of Jennifer Turecamo.

OK, I’ve said it before:  Adriatic Sea roars that makes her seem larger than she might measure, so large–in fact–that she does not fit in this foto.

Here’s another fairly new vessel:  Laurie Ann Reinauer.

And fleetmate, Nicole Leigh Reinauer.

Closing out this edition, it’s Justine McAllister.  Note the Empire State Building in lower right corner of foto.  And, given the summer-like burst of temperature, the haze  (and fog) have moved in.

All fotos but Guy’s by Will Van Dorp.

The port is Wilmington, North Carolina . . . the Cape Fear watershed.  Here’s a link to more of Guy’s fotos.  Guy, thanks for sending the foto along.

Also, check out Cruceros Glenans post on the Robbins Reef Light, which just happened to creep into so many of these posts.  I don’t recall having seen the derivation of the name info here before.

Unrelated but really important, check out this unofficial poll from the US Naval Institute on historic vessels/monuments to save if triage is called for.

Babel in the Harbor

What I would like to know is how widely known is “seaspeak,” or SMCP.  Or, how much have seaspeak principles been morphed–voluntarily or by regulation–into common VHF practice?

Most large ships look alike, allowing for differentiation into groups like container ship, tanker, RORO, pure car truck carrier, and then sub-groups with military vessels. Explanation:  physics,  global standards related safety, and the dictates of efficiency.

But within a tank, any of a range of fluids might live;  within a container, a limitless number of goods might be moved.  So it’s not  surprising–given the diverse points of origin of sixth-boro traffic–that a need exists for a simplified but unambiguous standard language.

As to signs of this diversity in shipping?  Check out Al-Mutanabbi.  That’s not “al” short for “Allen” or “Alberto” either.  More on the “al” at the end of this post.  I’d no idea until I looked it up that

Al-Mutanabbi was an Iraqi poet who died more than 1000 years ago.  In the foto above, vessel in the distance is MSC Dartford.

Elixir suggests magic for me, until

I learn that Yang Ming, a Taiwanese company with a history that dates back to the Qing dynasty (the last dynasty before the “republic”),  has a whole set of  container vessels with “e” names like Efficiency and Eminence.  Give me elixir any day.  By the way, that’s Vane’s Sassafras passing port to port.  By the way, sassafras was once a major ingredient of that great elixir called root beer.

Lian Yun Hu . . . I’ve not much clue about, other than that it’s owned or managed by Cosco, conjuring up thoughts of Cosco Busan and Shen Neng 1, of San Francisco and Great Barrier reef notoriety, respectively.

Most watchers of the boro would be clueless here without

a little help elsewhere on the exterior of the ship.

In Hindi, I’m told, “jag PLUS prerana” means “world”  AND “inspiration.”  Now, I wish they put an asterisk there with a translation painted just above the waterline somewhere.  I’d want to know that!

A large number of ships in the harbor are constructed in Korea.  And their names are straight-forward English although generally hangul writing coexists with English.  Tug is Amy C McAllister.

An interesting fact about hangul is that its invention gets credited to a Korean king named Sejong, a Renaissance man on that peninsula a  half-millennium ago.

All of which I use to illustrate my point:  if I didn’t read or understand English, I’d be helpless.  And I’m really just a shore-watcher.  Without an international language, communication on the sea–as in the air–would be worse than garbled.

Finally, here’s a gratuitous shot of Flintereems, from the land of my mother tongue.  Spelling notwithstanding, I believe the “eems” in this Flinter vessel refers to the river whose estuary forms the border between the Dutch and the Germans.  I set Goldman Sachs atop the Flinter  deck to mimic the last Flinter vessel “borg” appearing on this blog here.

All fotos, Will Van Dorp.

For a perspective on some verbal and non-verbal communication in the harbor, check out bowsprite here.

Oh . . . Al the prefix in Arabic means “the.”   You know it from such English words as “algebra, alchemy, algorithm” and –believe it or not–“elixir.”    Here’s more on that.