Whitherward 2010

Quick post:  the first ship I saw upon crossing the VZ from Staten Island into Brooklyn today was panamax tanker Stena Chronos.  I know it’s an uninteresting shot, but it marks that old cronos time has surged forward.  Remember, double clicking an image enlarges it.

An interesting sight along the way today is this defunct restaurant on the Nanticoke River near Seaford, Delaware.  Vessel is the ex-USS McKeever Brothers (SP-683) built in Noank, CT in 1911.  Click here to see the 136′ steam-powered minesweeper and patrol vessel in the Delaware circa WW1.  Click here to see the restaurant in more prosperous days.

Ospreys nest in the mast.  Van shows scale.

Lubber windows demonstrate that naval lines and terrestrial ones should never mix.   Click here to see other “ship” restaurants.

Can you identify what lies behind the wreath in this foto?  Clue . . . it displaces 45,000 tons and had a new bow grafted in place in 1956 to replace one damaged in a collision.  By the way, towards the stern starboard . . .  it’s the raked masts of Amistad!!

Answer is BB-64, USS Wisconsin.

Finally, I have to laugh at myself here, posting that this tug was Orida . . . even though the primer clearly suggests otherwise.  Many thanks again to DP for pointing this out.  This is a classic “looking but just not seeing” moment.

Hope you and I do NOT have many of those moments in 2010.  I do have a powerful tendency to see (and hear) what I want to see and hear;  I’m working on correcting it.

Back home, now what?  If I had a couple million dollars, here’s an idea and music and even better music it inspired.  Thanks, Rick . . . lend me some $$?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.