Government Boats 56

I believe this is the first time I post a photo of 1961 FDNY Alfred E. Smith.  She was sold to private owners in 2016. 

Nearer the mainland on Pier 25, Lilac has held this berth since 2011.

USACE Gelberman has been a regular here, as has 

Dobrin.

USACE Driftmaster has worked collecting debris since 1949!  I wonder how plans to replace her are coming along. 

I could not identify this heavily-laden sludge  . . . I mean GUP . . . carrier. 

NYPD’s Cardillo and 

Hansen are two boats of the Harbor Unit, itself a part of NYPD since 1858.  Hansen has been in service since 1994. 

Soderman is the current occupant at Bayonne Drydock & Repair.

Oops!  It’s Alice and Ollis.  Alice Austen usually runs in the wee hours, and Ollis arrived in the boro back in August and will enter service as soon as training is complete. 

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All photos, WVD.

 

Welcome Comfort 1

At 0900 and a few minutes, USNS Comfort arrived at the Narrows.  Ava M was one of six McAllister units meeting her there to assist.

USACE, NYPD, and other agencies saw her in as well.

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She passed the USCG station and

 

and the old hospital complex.

Another USNS vessel in the port was Watkins.

From this point off Bayonne, we’ll pick up the story tomorrow.

All photos, WVD.

Gelberman

After watching the inauguration at Trinity Church,  I walked with a friend along the River.  Gelberman, an 85′ debris collection vessel operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, crunched her way along an ice flow near North Cove.  Now a question:  anyone know where “Mereczowszczyzna” is and how it relates to this post?  (I cannot pronounce the mystery location.)

Gelberman chronological vitals:   built at Dravo SteelShip in Arkansas in 1980.  Later, that shipyard, now closed, was purchased by J. B. Hunt.  ?!?!  The stuff on the internet boggles my mind.  Below is Gelberman southbound in the Arthur Kill last Friday, the day I took the other snowy fotos.

March 2008 I caught Gelberman in  dry dock, getting a new

wheel.  Who was Gelberman?  Answer below.

He was Chief of the Operations Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers, NY District, a civil engineer, a graduate of Vanderbilt University.  Deceased 1973.

Thanks to Lemming for identifying a foto from almost a year ago as USACE survey vessel  Dobrin; a search for more info on Dobrin led me to this USACE design center site.

Oh, Mereczowszczyzna is the birthplace of Tadeusz Kościuszko, honored by statues and place names in West Point and many other places, arguably founder of the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Speaking of debris, here’s what a 1000 tons of lumber washing overboard looks like.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.