Fleetest Responders

The little-used adjective fleet is appropriate here.   And when something goes amiss in the diverse workplaces of the sixth boro, it’s great to have the fleetest responders there are. The amusement park on the beach in the background identifies the location as Coney Island.  In fact, the responders towed the vessel out to deeper water while dewatering.  No passengers were on board at the time of the emergency, water ingress portside engine room.  All’s well that end’s well.

MV Belinsky worked in San Francisco waters from at least 2007 until last summer. I’m guessing it arrived in the harbor aboard a ship . . .

Many thanks to New York Media Boat for photo and information. And hat’s off to the responders from USCG, FDNY, and NYPD.

Here are previous fleetest posts.

 

Astrand

All photos today come thanks to John Huntington.  Check out his new site here, one which I mentioned a week and a half ago here.

Here are the basics on what you are looking at, mostly from John’s caption:  “FAR ROCKAWAY, QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY, NY/USA – FEBRUARY 25, 2016: The 24 meter (78 foot) scallop fishing vessel the Carolina Queen III, rests in surf in the Atlantic Ocean off Far Rockaway on the Rockaway peninsula of the borough of Queens in New York City. The boat ran aground at about 2am and all the crew were safely evacuated by the US Coast Guard.”   Of course, there are also the related stories about the USCG 25′ RIB attempting a rescue and capsizing in the 10-12′ seas, and its crew, trained and geared up for such a possibility, safely swimming to shore;  and the rescue of Carolina Queen III crew by helicopter.  Photos here.  A number of the RIBs can be seen here.

Salvage plans are underway.  The fishing vessel–to my untrained eye–seems to have held up well, a tribute to its builders as well as to the fact of coming ashore on the sand.  Those builders are responsible for two of the newest tugboats in the sixth boro as well.

I’m sure the owners and crew of the vessel feel sick right now.

 

But looking at John’s remarkable photos, I’m struck by their allure.  The calm water, patches of blue sky, reflection of a beautiful machine misplaced on soft sand  . . .  contrast sharply with how the scene must have appeared to the crews Wednesday night when the wind and spray made the decks feel like hell, a time of uncertainty and fear.

I’ve previously done a set of posts on a vessel ashore here.  And from South Africa four years ago, these photos from Colin Syndercombe and another fishing boat astrand.

Thanks again to John Huntington for use of these photos.

For a photo of Rodriguez Boatbuilders’ 2015 James E. Brown, click here and scroll.

For a sense of how shipwreck has attracted photographers of four generations of a British family, click here.

 

RIP Sea Bear

 

Condolences to the family, comfort to the survivors, and

gratitude to the rescuers.

Here’s a Newsday account.  And here the NYTimes article.  The photos above I took in 2011 and 2010.

Other photos I’ve taken of Sea Bear can be seen here and here.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Government Boats 32

In the Lower Bay, NYS Environmental Conservation police confer with NYPD.

Motor Lifeboat 47264 . . . was delivered from this Louisiana shipyard in late July 2000, and

looks brand new.

This Buffalo district survey vessel is barely half year old, and named for

a surveyor with a long career of service all over the watery parts of the globe.

This 45′ response boat medium was delivered to Oswego this year.

Sylvan Beach air boat.

Tappan Zee V . . . I know no more about this vessel–a retired US boat ??–than I did last time I had a photo of her.

Here Oswego Marine One trains in the Oswego River.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

How to Swim TO a Helicopter

Actually the key is making it possible for the helicopter to find you.  In some cases, assisting the task of arriving at your location makes the difference between life and death;  things don’t always go so well.  On a windy unsettled afternoon last week I happened to be there when

an obsessively circling C-130 over Oswego’s lighthouse demanded attention.  I wish I’d stumbled onto this scene the day they trained search & rescue with a Reaper drone.   Here’s another link about that drill.

As it was, the helicopter here working with the USCG puzzled me, and

having no VHF or binoculars, I couldn’t tell whether the debris on the jetty was just drifted remains of a Lake Ontario shoreline tree, but

someone had certainly swum to proximity of  rescuer.

In the half hour that followed at least a half dozen “winchings up” and “down” before

it returned to USCG Station Oswego.   Click here for their flickr page.   Click here for info on the blue-yellow structure to the lower left, NYS Derrick Boat 8, the last steam-powered barge (with dredge capabilities at one time) on the Erie Canal . . . maybe even in New York .  DB8 is also known as Lance Knapp, named for a salvage diver.

A half year ago I watched a helicopter rescue drill  here.

All fotos taken within an hour by Will Van Dorp.  Here was my previous swimming post.

PS:  Enjoy the additional fotos below from the Port of Oswego, showing schooner OMF Ontario,  LT-5, and fishtug Eleanor D, and Oswego West Pierhead Light.

People on the Boro 15

. . . well it’s actually  on the Bay, San Juan Bay.  Coming upon this . . . I first thought an accident had occurred.

Note the two objects–helmeted heads–bobbing on the water in lower left.

Then a basket exits and lowers,

half a minute later it’s returning to the aircraft,

fifteen seconds later,

three minutes later,

and a minute later.

These vessels slowly left the scene.  My conclusion . . . a drill.

But I’m not sure.

All fotos in San Juan harbor by Will Van Dorp.

Stormy 2 Afternoon

Fotos from Barbara at Rockaway Beach around 100th Street here.  Emergency message to folks on the boardwalk:  “Go inside, and no surfing.”

From Gary, East River looking toward the mouth of Newtown Creek and

toward the 59th Street Bridge.    No movement.

And finally, from L’amica dalla torre di orologio . . .  Hudson River . . . looking toward  the Statue of Liberty, who probably wishes she could hunker down behind her pedestal.   Geometrical structure to the left is the floating Battery Park City Ferry Terminal.   I’m not sure what contingencies exist for it during a surge, since it’s basically a hull.

Currently Captain of the Port has order vessels of a certain tonnage to leave the docks, as it’s safer for them to hang in the stream than stay affixed to a rigid structure.   So cruising in the North river now as sightseeing vessels,

Meagan Ann,

and the Sandy Hook pilot boats!

That’s the Erie Lackawanna Terminal Tower/Hoboken Terminal in the background.

USCG . . . off to respond to a recreational vessel that’s dragged its mooring?

And finally, back to Rockaway . .  as nightfalls.

Many thanks to Barbara, Gary, and L’amica for these fotos.  The worst is yet to come, I fear.  Stay inside and away from the tongues and talons of water that surge in.

And this just in . . . video from helicopter of USCG rescue of folks from HMS Bounty.

Small Craft 3

Small craft to come, but first . . . the missing foto from yesterday’s post . . . how DID the heaving line get through the eye aka “closed chock”?  Hope this foto helps;  I do believe I see the monkeyfist flying upward from the crewman at the rail;  crew on the upper level passed it to the crewman forward of the chock?

It’s been over two years since I’ve used this title. Small craft  come in many shapes,

are operated by professional mariners,

respond to emergencies with versatility,

and shuttle specialists between shore and much larger craft.

This one I first thought was transporting booms but now I think had some festive mission, given what appears to be a sizable bouquet over the engine compartment.

They operate for many agencies,

commercial entities,

government services, and

and law enforcement groups.

They work in diverse

weather, all

year round.

Enjoy a few more:

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who apologizes for not knowing who operates some of these small craft.

Government Boats 20

Whatzit???  Answer follows.

Note what’s on the deck of USCGC Mackinaw WLLB-30, built in Wisconsin and homeported in Cheboygan, MI.   Foto thanks to Kyran Clune.

Now here’s my favorite local government boat, although

I’ve been unable to find any info about its age and place of

origin.  If I got a yacht, it would look like this.  Anyone help here on Hudson?

Maintenance o aids to navigation is needed wherever and whatever those aids be.  Note the Roncado crew on

the buoy.

Anyhow . . . here’s the bigger context on that top foto;  USCG 49405 seems to have more

buoys on her “to do list” than

her stern can accommodate.

This is NOT at all a government boat, but I snapped this a few weeks ago.  Upon further examination, I’m wondering about the barge and  . . . is that a portside offset upper house?

Last shot . .  again, no government boat is this, but exactly a year ago today, Papillon came ashore . . . prompting many hours of visitation of government employees . . . if not boats.  Here and here are two of my posts;  go back to the April 201 archives for many more.  Ironically, I have never been able to find out what became of the vessel.

Happy April!  Again thanks to Kyran for his Lake Michigan foto.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Ambrose Backgrounds

January 1909.  New Jersey-built Ambrose LV-87 in second year on the job.  Photo by N. L. Stebbins.  Click on the next two fotos and you’ll get to their context.  Click here for many more Stebbins fotos.

January 1912, a mere 1202 months ago.  Ambrose at work with White Star Olympic passing in background. Olympic at this time was less than a year on the job and already suffered one collision.  Four months later, of course, her younger sister ship would begin its ill-fated maiden voyage to New York.

I recall seeing this foto before I moved to New York and imagined that “channel 87” was the means to contact the vessel.  Oh well . . . live and learn, eh?

March 2012.  Ambrose in her 46th year post-decommissioning after having served the USCG (and precursors) 59 years.  Photo by Birk Thomas.  In lower right hand corner, that’s Atlantic Salt’s Richmond Terrace mountain.

St. Peter’s neo-Romanesque sanctuary has dominated the east end of the KVK for over a century.

Structure just forward of Ambrose here is Sono’s “postcards,” a 9/11 memorial.

This may be my last post for a while . . . am gallivanting south soon.

Many thanks to Birk for these fotos.

Related:  Click here for a Reginald Marsh mural of a black-hulled Ambrose.  Here are some crew shots from the late 1950s.

Unrelated:  Crossing the Darien isthmus right now is Ever Deluxe, which appeared just barely in this post from almost three years ago . .  and NYK Diana, a Howland Hook regular.