Germania

Whatzit?

Well, six names later (George E. Wood, Russell 9, Martin Kehoe, Peter Spano, Edith Mathiesen, and Philip T. Feeney),

125 years after transforming from hull #7 at Bethlehem Steel Sparrows Point MD, to a Baker-Whiteley Coal co. boat

after many crews lost to time and countless jobs and

lost numbers of miles in salt water and fresh,

and all the ravages of neglect,

sabotage,

and time

scrapped from the bottom yesterday without

upsetting the crane,

Philip T. Feeney is gone.

Closure I hope.

Many thanks to Skip Mildrum for the first photo and the last three.  Click on the other photos to see the tugster post where I first used them.

Maersk Idaho

See the US flag flying off the stern here and

here?

That makes this 1999 built container vessel somewhat unique among traffic in the Kills.

Enjoy it.

I’m not sure what purpose that primer-red upfolded arm serves or what it’s called.  

Here Ellen McAllister 

retrieves the docking pilot.

while Robert continues the assist.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s still out cat fishing.   And while the fish were not biting, I read this Rick Bass collection, which I highly recommend if you’re looking to read.

 

KVK Square Riggers

Click here to scan the many posts with KVK in the title.  Here’s a new one inspired by arrivals that had many folks, aship and ashore, paying attention.

Wavertree is suddenly and lavishly being regaled with sights of 21st century merchant vessels

Products tanker Polaris, delivered 129 years after Wavertree

and crew from all over the world are paying attention.

And a mile farther east, at the old gypsum dock, tugboats like Laura K Moran and

Stephen B pass.

If you want to read a good book about when and how the US took possession of Eagle, read Captain Gordon McGowan’s The Skipper and the Eagle. The book has an introduction by Peter Stanford, a foreword by Alan Villiers, and the journey starts out from NYC’s own LaGuardia.

I have many more closeups of the barque;  maybe

I’ll put them up if I get encouragement.  A previous posts featuring Eagle can be seen here.   For a comparison of steering apparatus on Eagle with other vessels, click here.

Here Swallow Ace crew check out an Eagle.

The long street on the landside of this portion of the Kills is called Richmond Terrace.  For photos and explanation of what is and used to be there, click here and here,  from the ever fascinating forgotten-by.com.  Click here to see an image of a square rigger bulk carrier docked in front of Windsor Plaster Mills, now an Eastern Salt facility, in its heyday.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Turning Fidias

Sitting on the bank, I really enjoy watching large vessels turned at the dock.  Here is an index of previous “turning” posts.

Warm Sunday mornings are the best times to watch, though, because you might spend a long time waiting.  The first photo here was taken at 0929 hrs.  Can you identify the tug beyond the bow bulb?

0845 . . . Gramma Lee T Moran arrives at Fidias’ gangway

to deliver the docking pilot . . . 0848.  And then, as events unfold onboard, from the land, it appears that nothing is happening.

At 0930 there is noticeable although quiet motion.

0931 . . .  well, it’s less quiet when Gramma Lee spins her wheels to keep Fidias from slipping seaward with the tide.

0932–10 sec

0932–29 sec

0932–53

Once the 600′ vessel starts to spin, things happen very quickly.

All photos above by Will Van Dorp.  Photo below was taken by “Jed.”

Today–and every day– is Earth Day, prompted post-Santa Barbara 1969.  Hat’s off to all the person-centuries of painstaking efforts at safety and coexistence.  Who said this?   “”It is sad that it was necessary that Santa Barbara should be the example that had to bring it to the attention of the American people. What is involved is the use of our resources of the sea and of the land in a more effective way and with more concern for preserving the beauty and the natural resources that are so important to any kind of society that we want for the future. The Santa Barbara incident has frankly touched the conscience of the American people.”  Answer here.  HR Constellation is the ex-Beluga Constellation.

Here was last year’s Earth Day post . . . sea junk.

 

Salt 7b

Here was part a of this series.  Twelve hours after arrival, Balder could already be 25,000 tons lighter, although I’m not sure at this writing at what hour of darkness the discharge began.

But in daylight as by night, the Cats labor to keep the salt piled for maximum space efficiency.  Since I’ve not done it, I can only imagine what a time lapse of the unloading process–in say 60 seconds–would look like as the great orange hull rises in the water as a mountain–with Cats scrambling laboriously– grows on shore.

Periodically the flow of salt stops along this nearly 300′ long arm, and

the traveling deckhouse,  covering the unloading machinery and keeping the process virtually dustless, trundles over a still loaded portion of the hold.   The fotos below come from the MacGregor site.

Notice the Empire State Building–almost 10 miles distant– in the foto below, just down and to the left from the starboard side lifeboat.

Here’s another shot showing Balder‘s traveling deckhouse.

x

Salt goes off the portside while fuel enters to starboard from

Doubleskin 33 squired by –here–Quantico Creek.

All fotos–and narrative–by Will Van Dorp, who is solely responsible for any factual errors and who is grateful to Brian DeForest for permission to observe and take fotos of this process.  I’d also LOVE to accompany Balder for the six-week 6000-mile voyage to the Chilean desert for more seasonings to tame your wintry commute.

Returning to the foto above, notice the creamy colored hull intruding from the right . . . well, more on that tomorrow.

Postscript:  Balder might have loaded this salt in Patache, in northern Chile.  Click here for a CSL article on Balder’s South American bulk trades.