new year’s log
“Tradition states that the first entry of the new year in the official log in CG and Navy must be in verse and rhyme.”
So, here’s to tradition…
Zero one January two thousand one two.
Eight glasses for the old year and eight for the new.
Clear, windless day; low tide at o8h14,
The river has that beautiful blue-brown, cold sheen.
Hair making good knots, rolled out of my berth,
Dismayed by the thickening of the girth
After bubbly and beer and something chateau,
Feeling like sierra hotel india tango
It’s already into the forenoon watch
When I go to the galley to assess the debauch
Staring at all of the bottles in front of me
Feeling a bit post-frontal lobotomy
Semper ready for the challenge!
It’s not too bad, rank it code orange.
Monitoring 13 while the kettle does boil…
So, where are my friends moving cargo, people and oil?
Clearing the nav station of sketches and cat,
I scan AIS to see where everyone’s at.
There’s xx at the anchorage and xx on the KV
And look at the ships coming in from sea!
Can’t wait to tell Tuggie who’s going by now!
Containerships, tankers, tugs and their scows,
Ferries and fishingboats and tour boats galore,
A honeyboat, and the boats of the Army Corps
Icebreakers and buoy tenders, and medium response
A sailboat, some kayaks, and hopefully, clearance.
A cruiseship. No ro-ro’s. The dredgers are at bay.
Do harbor charlie and fireboat get overtime pay?
Are the survey boats working? are the line boats out?
They’re not on AIS so I can’t see their routes.
I could do this all day, but muster midmess
To wish all of you for 2012: the best!
Thank you, CaptJJ for telling me about this tradition!
And thank you Ed, whose ship’s log is featured here in the official CG blog, Compass,
Look here for more new year’s logs of the CG ashore! Both afloat & ashore: fascinating reads.
what is your log entry for today?
¡wow! thank you, west38! it looks so beautifully zen! click on her lovely blog to see the art of needle and thread in perfection: that corner is art.
nautical tattoos
Written and researched by Owen Burke, Brian Lam of The Scuttlefish:
Hold written on one set of knuckles and Fast written on the other was meant to give a sailor good grip in the rigging.
A Rope tattooed around the wrist meant that a seaman is a deckhand.
A tattoo of an Anchor told that a sailor had crossed the Atlantic, or was part of the Merchant Marines.
Crossed Anchors on the webbing between the thumb and index fingers marked a bos’n's (or boatswain’s) mate.
A Nautical Star or Compass Rose was given so that a sailor could always find her way home.
A Harpoon marked a member of the fishing fleet.
A Full-Rigged Ship displayed that a sailor has been around Cape Horn.
A Dragon signified that a sailor has served in China. A Golden Dragon was given when a sailor crossed the International Date Line.
A Shellback Turtle or King Neptune was earned when a sailor made it across the Equator.
Guns or Crossed Cannons signified military naval service.
veterans day & tea towel for the engine room
Print your own fabrics! re-upholster your bunk, make cool pillows, and frame your porthole with your own designs! Spoonflower, is a site based in Durham, North Carolina that prints your designs at their ‘mill’. Read more about them here.
In honor of Veterans Day (today: 11.11.11) they just held their military fabrics contest which I missed, but inspired me to make a tribute fabric anyway. (I never knew the symbolism of poppies until this contest.)
The Ships Ahoy Tea Towel calendar is now available! The fabric measures 21″ long by 18″ wide, but the edges are raw and will need to be finished:
All ships are denizens or frequent visitors of NYHarbor, and run on their own power. I love our historic vessels, but will save those for the Dead Ships Dinner Napkins series.
Here are past Bowsprite fabrics. I am going to do one with egrets and booms, a la Tugster! Have an idea for a fabric? drop a line!
so you work on a lightship? wait for the punchline…
Lightships were floating lighthouses placed in dangerous areas by the United States Lighthouse Service (later incorporated into the United States Coast Guard.)
In addition to maintaining the light, they had bells or horns which sounded to warn passing vessels of shoals. One CG chief petty officer told of his days of making deliveries to several lightships, before they were replaced by the large “monster buoys:”
“We would bring food and new crew about every 10 days. They often lived on the fish they caught. Most of those horns were 4 second every 2 minutes—24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
“You know what was funny? when we picked up the guys at crew change, they’d stop while they were talking every few minutes. They were so used to stopping for the horn that the pause ended up in their speech. It would take them awhile to adjust.”
thank you, again, Capt J.J.!
The yachty Nantucket‘s in town, in the Morris Canal, across from the full-time, officey WinterQuarter. Also, see Brian LaFloca’s children’s book, “Lightship,” which has beautiful illustrations of life aboard a lightship.
fair warning
“You remember radiotelephones? very expensive.”
One captain tells of being on a boat with his crew in Cape May when the following dialogue was overheard on a channel that a radiotelephone was using. The call was from a commercial fishing boat that often stays out for weeks at a time, from a man on the boat to a woman onshore.
Husband: ”Hon, there’s fish. I think we’re going to be a few more days out here.”
Wife: “Well…I’m having sex on friday. If you want to be there for it. Your call.”
thank you, Capt. JJ!
radar tuning
Pick a new recruit.
“Ok, kid. We have to tune the radar. We’re going to wrap you in this, 360° so we can monitor your movements. Try not to wrinkle it.”
“Don’t wrinkle it! God!”
“No. No good. I think the whole range has to be covered. Come back here on the boat, let’s get the arms too.”
“Yeah, and cover the neckline. We need a higher range here.”
“So, how is it?–Keep walking, but go slower.”
“No, no. This is not good. I’m missing the top. Maybe we have to go higher.”
“Ok. Come back on the boat.”
“You can’t do that. He can’t see! How’s he supposed to stay on the dock?”
“Ok. Here. Eyeholes. And I’ll throw in nostril holes too. Boy, kid, this is your lucky day.”
“Ok, go back out there, please. This is taking too long.”
“Good! good! stay there! got it?” (camera taking photos)
“Ok! now move a bit more to the west. Just a few steps—stop! good!… ok! go back, move away from the boat… good!”
Thank you, Capt JJ.
and, this is great (“we need a wheelwash sample…”)
ink squeeze
Will, what’s a guy to do? I guess if we want fresh ink we ought to squeeze a squid.
The Puffin made me do it! the Puffin–and many of you, thank you!–made me open boxes to look for my ink.
I have moved. But, where to put the stuff? You don’t own things, I’ve learned; possessions possess YOU.
George Carlin’s got the lowdown on stuff.
Thank you for your patience while we continue to work to bring back our regularly scheduled program…
coming up next: shipspotting with Tugster! stay tuned!
creatures of the deep
Creatures of the Deep: this one sank in the Cape Cod Canal, was raised in 4 days and went back to work, busy in NYHarbor.
This one sank in the Wicomico River, was raised after 3 years, came to NYC under her own power (at 4kts), and works hard as a restaurant/bar on pier 66.
And this one sinks and rises for a living, and did so in Lower Bay and left, carrying some of our tugs off, away to the East. Type in Blue Marlin or “Ground Hog Day” to see Tugster’s reportage of her ups and downs.
And this one laid in harbor mud, was salvaged, and now is the Waterfront Museum, the host of the Creatures of the Deep art show. Curated by Karen Gersch, the show is currently on view until August 22. The Artists’ Reception will be on July 22 at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Thank you, Tugster for sinking in the sinking/raising idea which gave rise to this post!
Happy July to all! see you in August!
time lapse of new york harbor
The great Control Geek, John Huntington, has made yet another incredible time lapse – of Upper Bay!
I love how the sailboats are so unpredictable, making loops, turns and spins. When the wind picks up, they get frenetic.
In contrast, the tugs and barges, plow through, steady and true to their course. It is like that in real time, but speeded up, it is very dramatic.
The tugmen sometimes call the sailboats “mosquitos” or “fleas,” but everything looks like waterbugs to me.
This video was shot on saturday when the high number of commuter ferries do not run. The gay pride sailboats go by at the end.
thanks, John!
bedazzled
We are bedazzled by Razzle Dazzle! I am very fond of warship grey. And I like Canadian warship grey, too, the “grey to match Halifax fog.” However, nothing is quite like Dazzle on a warship…
Invented by the artist Norman Wilkinson while he was serving on patrol in the English Channel in May 1917, dazzle camouflage’s purpose was confuse rather than conceal; the paint job made it difficult for the enemy to estimate the type, size, speed and heading of the painted vessel, rendering visual rangefinders ineffective for naval artillery.
Initially meant for merchant ships during WWI, the Navy quickly made use of the dazzle camouflage for “warships employed in convoy escort duty, blockade patrol, and those such as seaplane tenders, which often had to proceed at very slow speeds, and in the case of blockade ships, to remain stopped for long periods. These last were sitting targets for U-boats.
“By early 1918 dazzle pattern was being worn by over four thousand British merchant ships and approximately four hundred Royal Navy vessels of various types. It was worn by ships of other countries also, and was officially adopted by the American Navy in 1918.” – A. Raven
“Dazzle’s effectiveness is not certain. The British Admiralty concluded it had no effect on submarine attacks, but boosted crew morale. It also increased the morale of people not involved in fighting; hundreds of wonderfully colored ships in dock was nothing ever seen before or since.” - wiki
The Development of Naval Camouflage, by Alan Raven, is a very thorough piece in six chapters, complete with the result of years of research in documenting colors used by merchant ships, and the navies of Britain and the United States. He even includes excerpts from the logs of befuddled enemy ships. However, it is hard to read, being white type on blue, and is chopped up into many pages. I have collated it into one file and formatted it into something easier to read, if anyone is interested. (Courtesy of Plastic Ship Modeler Magazine issue #96/3.)
Then, look here for beautiful images & references, and here for models at an exhibition here in NYC several years ago.
I am currently working on a little ferry in NYHarbor, and my shifts are afternoons and evenings, saturdays and sundays: just when the cruise ships and party yachts come out. Some of them have been featured on UglyShips, and they are eyesores. Tugster recommended that they be Dazzled! Here, then, not to confuse, nor conceal, but to liven up their dreary silhouettes—and to boost our morales, those of us on bowwatch—are the new! improved! versions of five of the ugliest vessels in NYHarbor:
“Where’s the cleat? where’s the line? WHERE’S the deckhand?”
My favorite artist: Sister Mary Corita! She’s done tanks, she should do tankers.
“All together now, all together now!”
What a difference a paint job makes! This is for all of youse
who thought you saw a building moving towards you on the water.
Preceded always by its clown smile, this one asks for it.
So many passengers vessels are lemons. Uglyships, that bastion of good taste, highlighted a few of our harbor’s tugs. I say there is no such thing as an ugly NYHarbor tug. We have eccentric ones, but fugly? Nah, fuggedaboutit.
CoastLink Hamburg
Many, many heartfelt thanks to CoastLink and David Cheslin, Gavin Roser, Antje Wiechern, and Margaret Williamson! Coastlink (headquarters in the UK) is an organization dedicated to the promotion of short sea and feeder container shipping in Europe. An incredibly informative conference was held in Hamburg last month, with presentations from major ports and a few new start-up ports. Representatives from ports in the Mediterranean/North Africa, Russia as well as several ones in Germany spoke. To hear what was happening in short sea shipping today in Europe was eye-opening and borderline deflating, for we are so very behind in this country.
How many out there would like to band together to purchase a few cranes and open a little port near the train station? On a large and professional scale, the Port of Workington did it.
David invited me to speak a bit on New York Harbour as Hamburg is facing the same issues of accommodating the new PanaMax containerships; they lack the air draft problem but have the water depth and dredging issues. It was an educational experience the whole way: a thumbdrive is a “USB stick.” And to them, a torch is allowed onboard: it’s a flashlight, not the open flaming thing we hunt monsters with in the woods. And I will present soon other things I learned from CoastLink. Thank you, again, David and Everyone!
Here is the slide show I presented:
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I am an illustrator and have a blog on NYHarbor where I put up stories:
I am also a part-time deck hand on this hydrographic survey vessel.
This auspicious image…
…started off my surveying adventures: the single-beam sonar caught our boat’s wheel wash and the bottom below.
We have surveyed all around this island…
There is water access all around the island of Manhattan, into the boroughs of the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, connecting New Jersey, and out the Long Island Sound.
To the north runs the Hudson, up the incredible locks of the New York State and Champlain canals. Access to the Finger Lakes region is through the NYS Canal system that is 524 miles long.
Westward are the indomitable salt marshes, the silting arteries of the Passaic and Hackensack, the very busy Kill van Kull and Arthur Kill, the Raritan river which once connected us to Delaware via a canal now long gone.
Passaic (80 mi/129 km)
Hackensack (45 mi/72 km)
Kill van Kull (3 mi/(4.8 km)
Arthur Kill (10 mi/16 km,)
Raritan river (16 mi/25.7 km)
The East river mingles with the Bronx River, and flows out into the mighty Long Island Sound and beyond. Or, runs inland as the Newtown Creek and the Gowanus Canal. Out the Narrows, the waters flow through Jamaica Bay, Sandy Hook…and out to sea.
East river (16 mi/26 km)
Bronx River(24 miles/39 km)
Newtown Creek (3.5 mi /6 km)
Gowanus Canal (1.4 mi/2.3 km)
Hackensack, Hoboken, Navesink, Lackawanna, Passaic, Raritan, Secaucus, Weehawken… these names tell me where these places are. However, to the Native American tribes who lived here, these names also described the water, which would reveal the food that was to be found there: the fish, the flora, the animals. And as nothing was wasted, it would also mean tools, skins and furs. Water, food, clothing, shelter: all are human necessities. The ships that ply our waters do bring clothing and materials to make shelter. However, food is not transported by water here: it is all flown and trucked in, most of it is brought to one place.
We have a ‘warehouse on wheels’ model. Whatever we need, we call in and order. Our stores operate the same way: including food stores.
We depend upon the fact that the bridges will stay standing, the tunnels will remain clear, and that the roads that lead into the city will not be overwashed by storm surge. And that trucks can continue to roll in, rumbling over the abused bridges, tunnels and roads, burning fossil fuels in thick snarled traffic, beating up the infrastructure even more, and releasing pollutants into the air.
There are initiatives to bring regionally-grown produce into the New York Metropolitan area by water (please see “Alliances” for some of their links). The longest in the game have been the NY Soil and Water Conservancy, The Lower Hudson – Long Island RC&D Council with the USDA. Sustainable Ports, HARVEST, Floating Food, the ShipCoop and others have joined either forces and resources or are working independently, and the number of good people with the desire to contribute to the cause is growing.
Of the models being discussed, the one which is the closest to being assembled and set into action is clean tug and barge work.
Roughly 60% of the tugs in the harbor are involved solely with petroleum transportation by barge, 30% do ship/barge-assist, and perhaps 10% move other things: aggregates (sand, gravel & stone), cement, scrap metal, paper recyclables, dredge spoils.
The tugs and barges are ready. In some cases there are ships which would be better suited for the job. For example, Ro-Ro’s onto which trucks can be driven and transported. Passenger ferries with freight-carrying capabilities, would another model. However, we have many beautiful old single screw tugs, historic tugs all along the Hudson and up into the NYS Canal System that could take on the shipping work right away.
There are many obstacles, of which the large subsidies to trucking is the hardest to beat. Maintenance of truck-abused roads, bridges, and tunnels, and the costs of traffic congestion, air and water pollution, and accidents: these are all , or mostly, externalized costs not factored into the user-end price of trucking that is paid by a cargo consignee or the retail price of goods and services paid by consumers. A good report is here, published by the US Government Accountability Office “Surface Freight Transportation – A Comparison of the Costs of Road, Rail and Waterways Freight Shipments That Are Not Passed on to Consumers.”
An undeniable physical barrier is that which surrounds Manhattan: walled off waterfronts with no where to tie up:
We have the bollards, but they are lawn furniture.
Where there was once active piers, docks and slips, there is now crumbling remains.
And new construction does not have room for the working vessels. Unless it is a yacht.
Pier 57 was once an engineering marvel: a pier that was built upon three giant concrete blocks, used to receive ship passengers. And today? Abandoned.
The old warehouses of Erie Basin once stored sugar, grain, cotton, spices, flax, hemp, jute, wood, indigo, india rubber, leather, dried fruit, seeds, tobacco,
cocoa, coffee. They also let you drop your cobblestones ship ballast for a fee. Put in your application here today.
All along the waterfront you will find places that once welcomed passenger or cargo laden ships which now no longer do. If the infrastructure to dock a vessel is lacking, we will refit old landing crafts and pull ourselves upon the shore to unload goods. Except that there is hardly any ground upon which to land. U Thant Island is taken.
Until recently, the waterfront was incredibly important and active:
A good write up is to be found here from Fordham University on how this was lost. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 created the Interstate Highway and Defense Highways, essentially a massive subsidy to trucking (the least efficient means of freight transportation that exists besides air freight), relegating rail and shipping to second-class status.
Railroad cars once floated across the river, bringing in raw materials from the hinterlands and sending off manufactured goods back. The Erie Lackawanna terminal, hemmed in by development, has been beautiful preserved and will one day serve as a ferry slip, but is currently used more for film and photoshoots.
The NYNJRail, is the only cross-harbor rail barge service left. Once, hundreds of these carfloats would traverse the harbor daily. Keep an eye out for the Cross Harbor Freight Program.
Perhaps the most beautiful building in the harbor is the Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal.
Kudos to NJ for preserving this site, which is now on the State and National Register of Historic Places. Passengers and goods once travelled inland: today, it is a quiet sanctuary, living proof of Nature’s indefatigable force. Nothing we make–with all our might!–is going to last.
Everywhere around the harbor, testaments to the once-productivity of this city are to be found. The Domino Sugar factory is being condominumized.
Old factories built to last, last. But the industries themselves have not.
Even upriver, one can pass by abandoned plants, like the Adirondack Power and Light Company,
or this unnamed carpet factory. Mills, lumberyard, factories have all closed and the towns have never fully recovered from the loss of work.
Small family owned stores that were once plentiful and placed about in neighborhoods have been forced out, replaced by the Walmarts and KMarts which require a car to reach. Public transportation to the megacomplexes do not exist. The youth, lacking ways to getting to the malls, have no easy ways of earning wages, nor any venues in which to social. Gang activity is high in some towns.
The Henry Street Grain Elevator stands behind tanks,
and the old Todd Ship Yard cranes are now decorations for the IKEA shoppers to pass as they park over the largest graving dock that was filled in for their cars.
The loss of industry affects the maritime industry. There was once great a demand for tugs and experienced crews to run them. In the last two years, we lost two women-owned local tug companies.
What, then, does this city produce?
Garbage. Recyclables. Babies.
And wastes. Here is the Dept of Environmental Protection‘s “honeyboat” bringing sludge from the Newtown Creek to the 134st dewatering plant. The human wastes are treated, dried, pelletized and sold for fertilizer for non-organic salad growers. Yet another reason to go organic.
So, that is what this city produces.
There is shipping activity, and even some short sea shipping activity: small containers on barge.
Oil is moved about, in barges or in small tankers.
Cruise ships, ferries, water taxis, tourist boats are on the water.
The fishing industry is active.
Recreational vessels abound, to the chagrin of the working mariner. Kayakers, swimmers all go in the drink.
Government vessels like this Army Corps of Engineer Driftmaster constantly ply the waters. Coast guard, harbor police (“Harbor Charlie”), buoy tenders, ice breakers drift or speed by.
Restoration of historic vessels is also active. This old lightship is now a popular bar and restaurant.
There is no shortage of dredges, scows and their tugs and supply boats.
The Kill van Kull (kill is ‘creek’ in dutch) was once at a natural depth of 15-18′, and home to rich beds of oysters, clams, and fishes, surrounded by salt marshlands. Today, this major shipping channel has been dredged to 50′ below mean low water.
The Army Corps of Engineers, with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has been working on the Harbor Deepening Project since the 1980′s. They have had to contend with a bottom made of soft and stiff clays, red shale, serpentine rock, glacial till, and granite. Different kinds of dredges are used for the different materials.
This cutter suction head was used to drill through hard bedrock as an alternative to blasting. For videos of how this works, view these dredge animations on the ACOE site.
Here is one of three spare cutter heads, with a total of 52 teeth in each of the helical jaws. The cost of a tooth (which weighs 16 kg / 35lbs) is between $150 and $180 each, depending on size and manufacturer.
In the wheelhouse is a large heavy black cabinet which sometimes shakes, vibrates and ‘walks’ around as the cutter head grinds through the incredibly hard bedrock, and at the end of the 12-hr shift, several of the men have to move it back.
Many thanks to Capt. Bill Miller and Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co., and Tugster for the dredge photos.
Where does the dredge spoil go? as it is contaminated with PCB’s, special environmental buckets and scows are required to transport the spoil. Some of it is mixed with ash and concrete, and turned into landfill. For more information, you can download reports from the USACOE Dredged Material Management Plan for The Port of New York and the State of New Jersey.
Two golf courses have been created with dredge spoil: the Bayonne Golf Club, above, is an exclusive “scottish link” design. Liberty National is the other one.
Thanks to the ACOE of our and our army of dredgers, draft is not an obstacle to short sea shipping within the Harbor.
The air draft is however, an issue for some containerships. The air draft beneath the beautiful Bayonne Bridge varies with the tide between 151 and 156 feet.
(It was the longest steel arch bridge in the world when it opened on Nov. 15, 1931. Look for her sister bridge in the film, The King’s Speech, hanging in the office of Lionel Logue!)
$1.3 billion has been approved to raise this bridge up to 215 feet; and engineers intend to raise it while simultaneously keeping the bridge open to traffic. Many believe the project is necessary in order to accommodate larger container ships being built in anticipation of the widening of the Panama Canal in 2014. Here is the ACOE’s very thorough 69page reconnaissance report, created in 2009, the Bayonne Bridge Air Draft Analysis.
However, there are many who believe the raising of the bridge is an unwise use of money when there are better options.
“…Unlike the European Union, the United States does not have a comprehensive port plan therefore each port on the East Coast, from Florida to Nova Scotia is competing for the next generation of very large container ships. Instead of designating certain ports with deep unobstructed facilities as feeder or hub ports, and creating a fleet of very fast smaller ships to move container cargo to less accessible, but no less important ports in a coordinated way – US ports are competing with each other by building duplicate facilities for the few very large ships that are likely to call on East Coast Ports in the next twenty years.
When the Army transferred the Military Ocean Terminal Bayonne (MOTBY) to the City of Bayonne, those of us with an interest in the port, dredging, and the environment were heartened by the plans that included a state of the art container terminal for the largest of the ships that may call on the Port of NY and NJ (the so called post Panamax 10,000 teu container ships). The Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority (BLRA) asserted that they would bring a port developer on board who would raise $500 million for a new container port, bringing with it more than 3000 jobs.
Not only could the former MOTBY be the closest port to deep channels – it will save billions of public dollars, avoid the height limitations of the Bayonne Bridge, and reduce the significant environmental impacts that will be caused by continuing to attempt to deepen the dangerous, narrow Kill Van Kull, and dredging more of the contaminated sediments of Newark Bay – the new port on the Harbor side of Bayonne, could be built using the newest most efficient container management technology including alternative fuel and electric vehicles, and direct transfer of containers from ship to trains or ships to container barges, or ships to container rail cars on barges.
The additional benefit of a new container port at MOTBY is its juxtaposition to the Global Terminals, and the Greenville rail yards. The MOTBY Port also creates a cross harbor synergy if the “cross harbor float” system is re-invigorated as is envisioned by the Port Authority of NY and NJ the new owners of the Cross Harbor Railroad. Taking all that into account, MOTBY is the premiere maritime asset in the Harbor and one of the most valuable maritime properties in the world.
The (pre-real estate meltdown) plan proposed by the Bayonne Redevelopment Authority (dubbed the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor) is for high rise housing and offices, with a yacht harbor in the last huge graving (dry) dock in the harbor, and only a minimum amount of port commerce space, what appears to be one cruise ship berth…”
excerpt from Bridging the Gap by Andrew Willner
An obstacle to short sea shipping is the lack of many small ports distributed about, and the lack of infrastructure: piers, docks, cranes, ramps, storage facilities. Pictured above are the ports we have, and a very good listing of all the port facilities and their facts can be found here.
In NYHarbor, it is illegal to handle cargo without going through the International Longshoremen’s Association. I believe the going rate is $250 a lift: taking a container off a ship and setting it on wheels. Rolling and then transferring the container onto a smaller vessel would be another $250. Depending on where the vessel would be going, it might almost be worth it.
Jones Act. I’m not able to hold any sort of discourse on this complex subject but I surely can refer you to good people who can, and who would argue very intelligently for both sides of the case: those who want to upkeep the Jones Act to protect American workers and shipyards, and those who want to repeal or amend the Act to allow cheaper, foreign built ships to operate.
I can only say that if the Jones Act was completely repealed, many of my friends would be out of work, unable to compete with trained, cheap foreign labor, and we would lose what little manufacturing knowledge and ability we have.
Above: Union Dry Dock, before a captive audience.
More obstacles: policies that stack all odds against water transportation and lack of funds to change policy.
MARAD does not recognize the Hudson River, canal systems and the Sound as corridors, and will not approve new project designees until funding becomes available; MARAD will advise when they are accepting submitals. A meeting with the City Council revealed that they would like to see an full economitive study or white paper on watertransportation of regional produce, but do not have the funds to support one. The USDA has zero’d out all funds for the Hudson River Foodway Corridor initiative for this year. Coffers are bare.
dear Rigmor from Bornholm DK stands in front of a MARSEC sign at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.
Alternating between an (expensive) inconvenience to an absolute obstacle could be the tight security the government imposes upon all marine actions. At the time of this talk, the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) was in place, but has since been replaced. Which is good, because they never did use the blue or the green Level plates. They probably did not even have them made. The fear and suspicion that 9/11′s acts of terrorism has inculcated into law enforcement has affected all mariners, and affects even the workings of maritime photographers and sketchers with big drawing pads.
Dept Homeland Security’s TWIC program (Transportation Workers Identity Card) is a redundundant ID card, issued by Lockheed Martin, and not terribly popular with some mariners, as compiled here. You cannot move about waterfront areas without one, but you cannot move anywhere with one, either.
Though not an obstacle as much as a frustration, new piers are being constructed for strolling of park goers and not for working mariners. However, it is a wonderful, hopeful beginning. It would be very good if those with funding to build such projects would consult with marine experts. Understandably, as park piers were not initially constructed with marine industry in mind, we’re happy with what we get.
Eagerly awaited new piers have large yokohama fenders appropriate for big ships hanging over water of depths of 6 to 10m. Tiny gates too small for ship brows and ramps are placed in front of pile clusters and bollards, and pier furniture blocks the entrances. However, they absolutely do deserve praise for building piers.
Crumbling, yet working, piers is what you will find in the Newtown Creek and the Gownus Canal:
3.5 mi (6 km) long, the Newtown Creek has vessel traffic going to the fuel tanks, pumping stations, waste treatment facilities, and recycling facilities.
Excavated in 1881 for commercial shipping and barge traffic, the Gowanus Creek became the Gowanus Canal. Lined with small industries and neighboring residential areas with chic bars and restaurants, it is a navigable channel: 7,500′ long, 100′ wide, and of depths from 4′ to 16′.
For over a hundred years, oil refineries, machine shops, gas and chemical plants, soap makers and tanneries all indiscriminately dumped industrial pollutants; compounded with discharges, storm water runoff, and sewer outflows, this water body ranks as the nation’s most extensively contaminated, pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to designate the Gowanus Canal a Superfund site on 2 March 2010. Read more on the ACOE’s Gowanus Canal and Bay Restoration Study.
However, the bridges work: here is a well-organized listing of the bridges. A call to the USDOT at (201) 400–5243 at least 4 hours in advance will insure that an operator is there to open the Hamilton Avenue Bridge, unless it is under maintenance.
According to the New York State Highway Bridge Data, “Based upon data submitted to the Federal Highway Administration in April 2010, about 12 percent of the highway bridges in New York State are classified, under the broad federal standards, as structurally deficient and about 25 percent are classified as functionally obsolete… ”
The incredible New York Canal System is an inland waterway that runs 524 miles into NY State, connecting the Hudson River, Lakes Champlain, Ontario and the Finger Lakes, the Niagara River and Lake Erie, passing through 25 counties and close to 200 villages, hamlets and towns. Depth and height restrictions are found here.
The locks are well-built and well-cared for, maintaining the equipment seems to be a source of pride with the operators. If the power went out, the locks would still work. “It would take 6 of us,” one man told me, “but we’d get you through.” Look here at Tug44‘s homage to the beautiful equipment and machinery!
There are many small regional farms located near water. We have the best land for producing dairy, and yet large subsidies to giant agribusinesses make milk from states across the continent ubiquitous and cheaper in the stores. The land upstate produces the best apples, yet in stores, apples from Washington state are trucked in and carried.
As one observer said at an Outdoors America conference on supporting upstate farms: “This IS a homeland defense issue!”
But the challenges goad us into being more resourceful:
(source unknown: pls notify us of owner of this photo, thank you)
if these good fellows had TWIC cards, we’d be set.
(source unknown: ditto)
And, we are willing to try anything. We might even have to go to the Big Guy: maybe Santa would let us charter his rig for off-season rates so we could ship by reindeer and sleigh:
photo: Bill Bensen
all other photos either by Capt Joel Milton or Christina Sun©2011
I have two other wonderful hosts to thank: Vielen danke e grazie to Hamburg urban planner and lighting designer, Mario Bloem e Donata for food, shelter, technology and true friendship–
Mario: “No, Christina. NO more than 30 slides, otherwise it will be like those friends who show you their vacation photos, and if you bore them, it will be bad karma.”
Oops.
george washington bridge
In the New York metro region, trucks carry 80% of freight by tonnage. See Urban Omnibus’ article here. Thank you, Varick, Cassim, and Carter!
Percentage of Domestic Surface Freight Shipping Methods by Mode (in 2007):
treasure map
The red dots mark the spots! I found thick, lovely oyster shells on the Kill Van Kull and in Newark Bay. They are heavy, rough, but more smooth than fluted. There is no way to tell how old they are, but it is good to hold them and to think they may be coming back.
think before you tattoo
Elizabeth, of Green My Bodega, loves the Hudson River: “I thought of getting a tattoo of the Hudson River that ran along the length of my leg. But then I realized it would look like a giant varicose vein.”
Join her and many others at the Festival of Ideas for the New City, May 4 – 8, at happenings around the city. Green My Bodega and Foodshed Market‘s Mapping Present and Imagined Food Systems will be at the StreetFest on Saturday, May 7th from 11:00am – 7:00pm. It is “A presentation of posters, maps, and illustrations visualizing aspects of our present and imagining the potential regional food system.” Here are two designs that were submitted:
marion m.
Marion M. (1932)
Material: Wood hull
Length: 60.6 ft.
Breadth: 22.5 ft.
Gross Tonnage: 41
Depth of Hold: 5.4 ft.
Lovely Greenport, L.I. wooden freighter which carried oysters, potatoes, lumber, cordwood, and stones for jetty construction. She plied the Sound, making trips from as far as Massachusetts to Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. Known also as “chandlery lighters,” these versatile little boats carried supplies and drums of fuel to ships lying at anchor in the harbor. She had simple hoisting gear, an A frame cargo mast. You can see her, floating at pier 16, on the east river.
jumbolaya
goodbye, Joe, me gotta go, me oh my oh!
me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou…
Under the cover of darkness, she sails under the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, heading south. What what was such a behemoth carrying? our upriver correspondent caught her boatload few hours earlier (thank you, Jeff)! Another hefty load here.
jambalaya, crawfish pie and fillet gumbo,
cause tonight I’m gonna see my machez amio
The ship is Dutch. Hm, jenever-infused crawfish, anyone? herring-gulf oyster po’boy? cajun edam ‘cheesecake’ soufflé? alligator nasi goreng (indonesian fried rice)? mmm!
Oops! they turned east. If they did a 180°, they could make it for mardi gras!
Don’t know the song? ah, but he’s the king!!!
pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-oh
son of a gun, we’ll have big fun down on the bayou!
perfect for short sea shipping
Behold, our beautiful waterways!
Mannahatta is the little blip in red. This heart of ________________ (fill in the blank: culture, art, commerce, diversity, Sodom and Gomorrah) has been nourished by the lifeblood that pulsates and surrounds it.
To the north runs the Hudson, up the incredible locks of the New York State and Champlain canals.
Westward are the indomitable salt marshes, the silting arteries of the Passaic and Hackensack, the very busy Kill van Kull and Arthur Kill, the Raritan river which once connected us to Delaware via a canal now long gone. (Here are those mules of TWIC card fame!)
The East river mingles with the Bronx River, and flows out into the mighty Long Island Sound and beyond. Or, runs inland as the Newtown Creek and the Gowanus. Out the Narrows, the waters flow through Jamaica Bay, Sandy Hook…and out to sea.
(the i ♥ waterbloggers post has been moved over here)
wind
Last night, thick fog closed in, the horn called out into the silent, empty night.
But over the radio, many voices spoke. As the winds came, the fog was cleared away, but the tension mounted as the wind grew in strength, gusting over 40kts.
When the winds howl, you hear the tightness in their voices.
Coming in this morning, from being in the Panama Canal four days ago, was this ship, calling from the 26 buoy at around 04h30, navigating its way around traffic, an anchoring tug and barge and into Red Hook. The winds began to die down, and everyone was talking:
“…You taking the main channel?”
“…You got a barge there or are you light?” “No, we’re light.”
“…We’re going to anchor here.”
“Molinari (ferry), two whistles?”
“…Yeah, we got your pilot here…starboard side. Roger.”
“…I’m going up the Buttermilk.”
With a sigh of relief (mine), it docked at around 6am.
Boxes are ships at anchor: Light blue are tugs. Red are tankers. Green is cargo. The dark blue arrow is the SI ferry.
I did not include boats tied up at docks nor underway unless they were in the anchorage. The 26 buoy is around the “h” of ‘mahima’.
vhf prose
These lines were heard on various channels of VHF (very high frequency) marine radio. Vessel names (where possible) and times were jotted in sketchbook margins or envelopes. All tugs have been changed to protect the innocent. or guilty.
“Coming to you as quick as my little propellers will take me.”
“We’re standing by, and we’ll keep knocking the fish outta the water until you get by.”
vessel 1: “Cap—you hanging out here?”
vessel 2: “No, this is my warp speed, believe it or not. You go ahead, I’ll take your stern.”
vessel X: “Oh, Yooooohoooo!”
vessel Y: “Yeeeeeep?”
vessel X: “I gotta go move the buddha, so I’ll be right back.”
vessel Y: “Ok.”
vessel X: “And he’s gonna move it boat style, not boom style.”
vessel Y: “As long as he don’t get used to it.”
Ah! translation in the comments section! thank you, Yooohoooo!
vessel A (very cheerfully): “That you, Stupid?”
vessel B (equally cheerfully): “Cheeeeck!”
vessel A (in cartoon voice): “I’ll gitchoo…!”
middle of the night, buddy 1: “Look at at that moon!”
buddy 2: “Ah! I forgot what it’s like to do oil.”
buddy 1: “You still smoking?”
buddy 2: “Ha ha…well…I quit today. But I think I’ll go back now that you mention it.”
My absolute favorite VHF moment is here, “Are you angry?”
pier 76
Pier 76 has a rich history associated with some beautiful ships:
the United States, the Leviathan, the America and many others.
Here are the current visiting hours.
I haven’t been inside yet. Guess I’ve been lucky so far with my vehicle.
Sorry to say: it seems towing vehicles is sometimes a city revenue generator. Friends’ cars parked in seemingly solid spots have been towed. Police and ticketing agents around a section where a car was towed away have been apologetic and absolutely unable to verify whether the space was a parking violation zone. NO signs are around to indicate the car will be towed; it does seem arbitrary: who you get that day. The BermudaTriangle area is at the Battery. Be warned. If it happens to you, I’m sorry. Don’t lose your cool. Bring a sketchpad to the Pound.
Here is the original sketch done at the site:
tools of the trade
Voila! this is it: a hand-cut reed pen, made from bamboo sticks available at any gardening store to stake up plants. It is with this pen that I make what Monkeyfist calls, with characteristic sensitivity, ‘blind retard lines’.
Dip pen into black ink. I prefer calligraphy and drawing inks for their fluidity, but they are not waterproof, and washes will bleed, which I do not mind. I like waterproof inks, but the lacquer coats and suffocates my pen.
I like to draw on site, directly with ink and pen (no pencil) in a 9″ x 12″ recycled paper sketchbook. FleetWeek merits the 14″ x 20″ big guns pad. For the washes, I like charcoal paper because of the texture; rarely use watercolor paper. I like papers that drink the washes unevenly. Bank statements and bill envelopes were great, but I’ve gone online.
To do lettering or fine line details (Plimsoll marks) I use metal pen nibs in a simple wooden nib holder.
With exotic names like Aviator, Bronze Falcon, Globe, Figaro, Herald, Imperial, Magazine, Mail, Panama, Pedigree, School, Silversteel, and others, the nibs are shaped differently. I cannot tell the differences.
Colors are usually added later, but sometimes I like to paint at the spot. I always carry a plastic bucket on a long line that I throw off the pier to collect water, and I wet my palette and rinse my brushes in the briny. Therefore, I technically make saltwatercolors.
hitting the head
A port director was up in a crane, in the seat, unloading a ship. He had an important business meeting to attend: new potential clients that he was eager to impress. He finished a lift, stepped out of the cab, relieved himself, and climbed down the ladder.
His clients, in business suits and ties, were early and were in his office. They were impressed by the port. “And it is such an different experience to be by the water! Blue skies, not a cloud, but we felt raindrops!”
What do you enjoy most about your crane operator job? some responses here.
Thx, once again, Capt BBo’MJ!
near the old fulton fish market
Once upon a time, the Fulton Fish Market was the most important wholesale fish market on the east coast of this country. Fishing vessels from across the Atlantic Ocean would come into our harbor to sell their catch. In the ’50′s, trucks replaced the boats.
Naima Rauam was there when the trucks pulled in, when the boxes would be stacked and cracked open, and when metal bins of fires would be stoked to keep the workers warm in the dark hours of cold winter predawn. She would be there working there on her canvases alongside with them. Her paintings are up at 210 Front Street / Beekman St, and today at 3pm, Jack Putnam, a seaport historian, will read from the works of Joseph Mitchell. Details here.
Barbara Mensch is my favorite photographer of this world now gone.
And! today, the New Amsterdam Market revives the market and commerce on the old streets, at South St and Peck Slip, selling local arts-of-the-food. The market is held every sunday until mid-December (except for Thxgiving weekend.) The mood is always lively; come support and enjoy!
staten island ferry: the John F. Kennedy
The John F. Kennedy is the oldest ferry in service in the harbor, making the 5.2-mile (8.4-km) run between Staten Island and Manhattan Island in approximately 25 minutes. She’s a beautiful old double-ender with propellers and rudders on both ends. The propellers are connected by a continuous shaft to the engines in the center of the vessel. When going forward, the rear prop pushes, the front pulls, and the forward-facing rudder, is locked into place by a pin which goes through the deck and into a hold in the center-forward section of the rudder quadrant.
forward, the pin is down:
aft, the pin is up (it weighs 90lbs)
The deckhand had just pushed the pin in, the ferry moved out of the slip. “Twenty years! This friday will be my twentieth anniversary of working here. Doesn’t seem that long. No, I’m not taking off, I’ll be here working.
“The funniest story? well, it was actually kind of sad. We were fueling and doing drills, right over there, so we were at the fueling dock. A woman jumps into the water. Well, it’s no problem, we got the lifeboat in the water, so we get over there.
“I tell you, she must have weighed about 350 lbs. And guess what she was wearing? It was summer, probably July. Guess! Spa-a-a-ndex. She was wearing Spandex. We were pulling and pulling— it was not a pretty sight—and we just could not get her into the boat. So we had to drag her along over the side, over to the pier. Yeah, she was fine, but she was fighting us, so we had to knock her out. But she survived. I told you: funny, but kinda sad.”
Happy 20th anniversary on the Staten Island ferries, dear Sir, and thank you!!
John F. Kennedy
Commission Date: 1965
Builder: Levingston Shipbuilding, TX
Length: 277′ (84.4m)
Width: 69′ (21m)
Draft: 19’1″ (5.8m)
Gross Tonnage: 2109
service speed: 16 knots (30 km/h)
crew: 13
Passengers: 3500 / (40 vehicles, pre 9/11)
Propulsion: Diesel Electric 600 volts DC
Engines: GM-EMD-567C16 (x4)
Horsepower: 6500 (4.8 MW)
cup of joe
Does G.I. stand for Ground Infantry? General Issue? Galvanized Iron? Government Issued!
buoys move & sh!t happens
A Patchogue captain returning from Boston squeezed through Shinnecock Inlet, and was making good speed when he suddenly ran hard aground in Moriches Bay.
“I don’t understand! I’m in the channel!” said he, as he pulled out his paper charts and peered at his GPS. And—as real life is stranger than fiction—while he was there, a Coast Guard boat came from behind him, picked up the channel buoy, and dropped it about fifty yards east of where he’d grounded, and disappeared.
“Ah, ” he said as he slowly listed 45° to one side, “NOW I’m out of the channel.”
A Port Jefferson greenhorn was a glutton for punishment: electrocution from lightning, several dismastings, near sinkings and allisions were not enough to dissuade the new sailor from the sport. On one early voyage, he managed to bring his wearied self and his disheveled vessel to a dock where he found himself tied next to a fancy boat: “There was a couple sitting on white cushions, they had white-carpeted boarding steps and a white french poodle.” Our sailor wrestled to pump out his holding tank. “It exploded. It went all over everything. It went everywhere.”
Many, many thanks, Capt. Tim of the Flaming Scorpion Bowls!
and thank you, N!
how to simulate the tugboat feeling
you have tugboat life envy? I have tugboat life envy. Envy no more! now you can enjoy the same benefits tugwomen/men have in the comfort of your own home:
1. Sleep on a shelf in your closet.
2. Replace your closet door with a curtain.
3. Five hours after you go to sleep, have your significant other whip open the curtain, shine a light in your eyes, and say “time to go on watch”.
4. Renovate your bathroom. Build a wall across the middle. Move the shower head down to chest level. Install the hot/cold, on/off valves backwards.
5. When you take a shower, turn off the water while soaping.
6. Every time there is a storm, sit in a wobbly rocking chair and rock as hard as you can until you’re nauseous.
7. Put diesel fuel in your humidifier instead of water, and set it on “high”.
8. Using a spray bottle filled with diesel fuel, lightly mist your clothes.
9. Don’t watch TV, except for videos in the middle of the night. Take a vote on which one to watch, and then watch a different one.
10. Leave a lawn mower running in your living room 24 hours a day, to provide the proper noise level and exhaust odor.
11. Have your paperboy give you a haircut.
12. Store all your trash beside the chimney in the sun for a month.
13. Wake up every night and eat a peanut butter sandwich.
14. Make up your family’s menu one month ahead.
15. Set your alarm clock for random times. When it goes off, run outside and break out a fire hose.
16. Once a month, take apart every major appliance in your home, and put it back together again.
17. Use 18 scoops of coffee per pot, and let it cook for 6 to 8 hours. Call it tugboat coffee.
18. Invite six to eight people you don’t really like to stay with you for two or three months.
19. Install a reading light under your coffee table, and do all of your reading there.
20. Raise all the doorway thresholds, and lower all the top sills in your home, so every time you pass through you hit your head or bang your shins.
21. Lockwire all the lug nuts on your car.
22. When baking cakes, prop up one side while baking. Then, when finished, level it up with frosting.
23. Every so often, throw your cat in the swimming pool, and yell “Man Overboard!”
thanks Capt. Rustchak! compiled by Marc Jobin, and written by those who live the life.
Need more? go here, then go beyond just this post, and poke around this blog…¡buxomly illustrated!
towmasters
tugster
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