sextant
True story (as all stories on this blog are):
Crew change: a captain and his crew had gotten off their boat after a two-week hitch and were taken by van to the nearest airport, in Wilmington, NC.
At check-in, the mate was stopped, taken off to the side and ordered to open his case. A big security mama stared and pointed into his case, “What is that?” she demanded.
Mate: “It’s a sextant.”
BigSecurityMama: “I don’t wanna know about your sex toys–WHAT IS THAT?”
THAT is the titilating sextant, a delight to perform with, and part of a ceremony utterly maddening to fathom.
It’s got two glass pieces: point one to the horizon, the mirror to some celestial body. Slide the arc to tilt the mirror to bring the star or planet down, or hold upside down to bring the horizon up so the two touch. Gently rock to and fro to be sure it’s true while chanting, “ready…ready…ready…MARK!” at which point an assistant makes note of the time while you read the angle off the sextant. Repeat, using different reference points unless your original celestial body was the Sun at noon sharp.
To do it the way it used to be done, take the angle of the celestial body to the horizon, go through a few mathematical calculations, and then with the numbers, you consult the Oracle, the Thick Book, or Nautical Almanac, with positions predicted thousands of years from now–with corrections–of the major celestial bodies’s paths charted mostly by the ancient Egyptians, who observed and recorded for eons, appended with over 20 years of work by Tycho Brahe, and mixed with laws of motion by Johannes Kepler.
It ain’t perfect: it is dependant upon your equipment, 22+ mathematical calculations, a moving boat, the time piece, visibility, weather, wind, currents, air temperature, time zones, atmospheric refraction, fatigue, etc etc. But if you know how to use the tools: a sextant, a timepiece and the Thick Book, you can find out where on this blue marble you are located.
Coastal merchant mariners are required by the Coast Guard to demonstrate the ability to take readings with noon sun, sunrises, sunsets, three star fixes, and running fixes (I think.) The US Naval Academy discontinued teaching it in 1998, feeling that celestial navigation did not give an accurate enough result to warrant the labor required in what was considered the most challenging course in its curriculum, preferring to rely upon computers.
Global Positioning System (owned and operated by the United States Government and stewarded by the Department of Defense), or equipment that reads and translates satellites’ signals, can go down; it’s happened.
I tried to learn it out of curiosity, for the GPS on the schooner was just that, the Grey Plastic Sextant.
Taking the readings from the Food Court terrace on Pier 17 was fun, but then I was deposited into the Abyss: the numbers took me into the Labyrinth, and I was left to wander through a mad world of numbers-sorcerery, azimuths hanging overhead, thedas lurking on the horizon, angles flopping, calculations thrashing and clashing, I was hopelessly lost…
Capt Don Chesley was my teacher, who, in college, was so enthusiastic about celestial nav that he would take readings from his dorm window using his frisbee, filled with water to reflect and reveal the horizon. He teaches it well, I have been lucky to hear him at the Seaport Museum and at Stevens Institute, and it is not a reflection on him that I do not get it.
“The scale of a sextant has a length of 1/6 turn (60°); hence the sextant’s name… An octant is a similar device with a shorter scale (⅛ turn, or 45°), whereas a quintant (1/5 turn, or 72°) and a quadrant (¼ turn, or 90°) have longer scales.” —wiki.
Lacking the ThickBookOracle, you can put your numbers taken off your sextant here.
–thank you, Capt Benjamin Dutton, J. and BigSecurityMama
sextant illustration is a simplified version from the amazing Lore of Ships by Tre Tryckare
lightship ambrose
Lightship Ambrose LV 87 / WAL 512
Built: 1907 by New York Shipbuilding Co., Camden, NJ
Length: 136ft. (41.5m)
Beam: 29ft. (8.8m)
Draft: 13ft. (3.9m)
Original Illumination Apparatus: three oil lens lanterns
Propulsion: Steam
This lightship was stationed in the Ambrose Channel since 1906, guiding vessel traffic through the main shipping channel just below the Verazzano Narrows bridge, into New York and New Jersey Harbor until 1967. She was given to South Street Seaport Museum by the U.S. Coast Guard in 1968. A light tower replaced it, was hit by ships a few times too many, and, now, the channel is marked by lighted buoys.
Now at the new! improved! South Street Seaport Museum under the fertile wing—nurturing wing?— of the City of the Museum of New York this lightship was painted in March, and is now being restored and is open for visiting at Pier 16.
The wings of the seaport museum are alive: a new exhibit is up, nautical pieces from another museum I love, the American Folk Art Museum.
And true to the harbor’s spirit, the active gem of the museum, Pioneer, is sailing. Go onboard to sail in the harbor or go and volunteer and learn how to handle lines and many other things that may always serve you well…!
dad’s ships
My father was estatic when I found photos online of his first ship, the Overseas Tankship Corporation vessel, Carlsbad.
“How we loved the captain! We would have done anything for him. He and the officers were Norwegian. We were a crew of 40, many of us boarded in Shanghai. We carried oil and went all around the world. I loved the ship, too. I made a model of the ship out of paper and the captain wanted it. He bought it for $20, purchased a glass case for it when we were in New York, and he displayed it in the officer’s mess.
“When my 2-yr contract ended, I boarded the Liberty Ship Benjamin H. Hill. We carried cargo. I was on board for only 8 months.
“Why are you asking all these questions? Why do you want to know this?”
SS Carlsbad
T2-SE-A1
Built: 1945 at The Kaiser Company, Swan Island Yard, Portland, OR
Length: 159 ft 6 in (48.6 m)
Beam: 20 ft 7 in (6.3m)
Liberty Ship Benjamin H. Hill
General Cargo Vessel Type EC2-S-C1 (E = emergency, C = cargo, 2 = waterline length between 400 – 500ft, S = steam power, C1 = this design)
Built: 1943 at J.A. Jones Construction Company, Brunwsick, GA
Length: 441 ft 6 in (134.6 m)
Beam: 57 ft (17.4 m)
Depth: 37 ft 4 in (11.4 m)
Speed: 11 kts
For more information on Liberty Ships: see
Ships for Victory,
Project Liberty Ship - cruise on the restored John W. Brown!
They also maintain the incredible resource, Armed-Guard.com with all their photos
ww2Ships.com
www.usmm.org
Click on this link to see a wonderfully illustrated 1943 brochure on the capacity of a Liberty Ship.
Amazing site if you are into tankers: Auke Visser’s Historical Tankers Site
Happy Fathers Day!
growler
“Growler is the sole survivor of the Navy’s fleet of pioneering strategic missile diesel powered submarines.”
- Historic Naval Ships Association
U.S.S. GROWLER SSG-577
Class: Grayback/Regulus II Submarine
Launched: April 5, 1958
At: Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Commissioned: August 30, 1958
Length: 317′ 7″ / 96.8 m
Beam: 27′ 2″ / 8.3 m
Draft: 19′ (surface trim) / 5.8 m
Displacement: 2,768 tons (surfaced)
Armament: Regulus I and II missiles
Speed: maximum surfaced – 20 knots
maximum submerged – 12 knots
Complement: 9 officers, 11 chief petty officers, 68 crewmen
Decommissioned: May 25, 1964
Growler was destined to be sunk as a target, but was saved at the last minute by the Intrepid Museum. More details here. Cool old photos on NavSource.
Pier 86 is the location of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum (West 46th Street & 12th Avenue).
We were surveying some piers located north of the museum, and would have to take tide readings regularly off a tide board posted up just east of this submarine, so these workers would watch us go back and forth, and wave:
And they know what many of us know: any day on the water is better than a good day at the office.
However, if you are in the office, check out Maritime Monday’s submarine edition and order a sub for lunch.
the olympic class liners
There were three of the Olympic class liners of the British White Star Lines:
In a recent lecture, Norman Brouwer said it is easy to tell the difference between the Olympic and the Titanic: the 1st class passenger promenade is open in Olympic, in the Titanic, it was closed off.
Also, fewer lifeboats (namely, twenty for 1,178 people) were on the Titanic as “the seagoing public unquestionably thoroughly appreciates the advantage presented by clear deck space as well as unrestricted view.” This quote was found by Conrad Milster in an 1910 engineering journal.
RMS Olympic 1911-1935 (Royal Mail Steamer)
| Length: | 882 ft 6 in (269.0 m) |
| Beam: | 92 ft 6 in (28.2 m) |
| Draught: | 34 ft 7 in (10.5 m) |
| Capacity: | 2,435 passengers |
Longest running ship of the line, nicknamed Old Reliable. In 1917, she was beDazzled! and carried Canadian and American troops. During thick fog in May 1934, she rammed and sank LV-117 Lightship Nantucket in the Ambrose Channel with loss of seven lives from a crew of eleven.
painting by Arthur Lismer, 1919
RMS Titanic 1910-1912
| Length: | 882 ft 6 in (269.0 m) |
| Beam: | 92 ft 0 in (28.0 m) |
| Height: | 175 ft (53.3 m) (keel to top of funnels) |
| Draught: | 34 ft 7 in (10.5 m) |
| Depth: | 64 ft 6 in (19.7 m) |
| Capacity: | Passengers: 2,435, crew: 892 |
For a visual orgy and offbeat links of that sinking feeling, pls click there. Forwarded from Old Salt Blog, a Gothamist article on people who were shocked, shocked to learn Titanic was not just a movie, but a real ship.
HMHS Britannic 1914-1916 (His Majesty’s Hospital Ship)
| Length: | 882 ft 9 in (269.06 m) |
| Beam: | 94 ft (29 m) |
| Draught: | 34 ft 7 in (10.54 m) |
| Capacity: | 675 as hospital ship (300 wounded, 489 medical staff) |
| Crew: | 860 |
| Notes: | Carried no civilian passengers |
The third ship was to be named Gigantic, but after the loss of the Titanic, White Star Lines changed it to the Britannic. She became a hospital ship and was transporting 1,066 people through the Aegean Sea when she was struck by what is believed to be a naval mine. The ship went down, but 1,036 people were saved.
One crew member, a nurse named Violet Jessop, survived disasters with every single ship of the Olympic Class: the 1911 collision on the Olympic with the British warship, HMS Hawke, the sinking of Titanic, and the 1916 sinking of the Britannic! She continued working with White Star Line, survived them, and seems to have worked on ships until she retired.
The White Star Lines ships were all built by Harland & Wolff:
In New York, the ships docked here at pier 54:
Today, pier 54 is a long concrete field atop crumbling pilings at the end of 13th street west side. The skyline of Hoboken NJ (not shown) lies across North River.
The big business for the transatlantic shipping was immigration: over 30 million came here to the New World by ship; 12 million of them passed through Ellis Island.
The 1918 Immigrant Act to weed out foreign anarchists, the 1921 Emergency Immigration Act and the work of the Dillingham Commission set quotas and ended that trade.
Luckily for ships, business started going the other direction, and emigrant bunks were converted into tourist berths. The Depression killed off a few lines, two World Wars sunk more than a few ships, but nothing could finish off the ocean liners like the Jet Age, starting with the Comet in 1949.
However, during its heyday, from 1925 to 1935, competition was international and fierce. Most lines competed for speed, the unofficial prize being the Blue Riband of which the last winner is sitting rusting away at Pier 82 on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. The Olympic class was less interested in speed, and went lavish in luxury instead.
Thank you, Norman Brouwer, Conrad Milster for much information.
Weigh in at Tugster’s. Promenade through Old Salt Blog who found this Gothamist article on people who are shocked, shocked it was not just a movie!
A thorough site here: The Titanic and Other White Star Line Ships.
I love books. I love my copy of Frederick Emmons’s The Atlantic Liners.
digester eggs of newtown creek
The digester eggs and the walkway/observation deck are a sci-fi aluminum grey, but I was in an aubergine mood today.
The Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant has been in operation since 1967. Eight eggs sit on top of 54 acres of sewage plant area through which flow 200 to 310 million gallons of wastewater per day.
What artists these eggs are in the company of!
Etched in granite are the Native American names for these places. Carved into the steps of the kayak launch are the archaeological periods we have somehow survived (with little barnacles and mussels wedged into the steps. Probably zebra mussels, so don’t feel bad for ‘em.) And there is a fragrance garden that is wheelchair accessible, but sorry, nothing for the olfactory-challenged.
A relief of the Newtown Creek, pre-European days, is etched deeply into tilted granite so rainwater can fill it and flow. Two metal engraved maps of the areas set into another granite table. One depicts the industrial history from 1887 – 1951 (their source is Sanborn Maps.) Lime, tin, barrelmaking, oil, gas, petroleum, shipyard, rope and line storage, grinding, dyeing, asphalt, paving, bricks, lumber, stones, iron and bronze works, welding, chemical, box factory, hat and tie company, steam laundry: these are labels on the first map. The dark line delineates the bulkhead. In the second map, courtesy of the DEP 2008, the dark lines are shrubs. (Who are the artists, please?)
These artists, New York Shitty, are right on the mark: the free-association of eggs, droppings and Nature Walk of purgative plants made me laugh.
Digester eggs Jello art. I am in awe: Gold medal. We know the Jell-o Plant was here (animal carcasses=bone gelatin), thank you Newtown Pentacle.
And this artist–No Pots, Just Paintings–got it. The combination of the eggs and the onion top of the Russian Orthodox churches in the neighborhood are perfect. Alas, s/he is so terse, there’s no information on the artist.
Evocative photos of Newtown Creek here. Just a stone’s throw across the Newtown Creek is the graffitti mecca, closed for a year during which it was ‘nearly destroyed by vandals’ (developers?)
The official site of the eggs is here, but the others are just more fun, and for thoroughness (fun, history, photos, philosophy, black humor) no one can beat the Newtown Pentacle!
Thank you, Tugster, who put together the combination of digester eggs and Easter, and made it so FUN! a hoppy one to all!
nola
New Orleans! I love the sultry breezes, the smells, the birds. I love tugspot hopping down 308, pulling over every few miles to look at the shrimpers, sponge harvesters, and to wave at the friendly tug men on Bayou Lafourche. It is amazing to see what places look like, places that were only names before this trip: Lockport, where Thoma-Sea’s shipyard is, Des Allemands where Candies is, Larose where Edison Chouest is. Got to peek at the tops of three CG cutters at Bollinger’s at Lockport and the grey trapezoids of three big vessels at Avondale. This is where the ships are built!
I love the swirly, mocha chocolata river — man! is it cold! love the names of the boxy, wedding-cake tugboats, love the nonstop parade of cargo ships, freighters, and LONG tows of coal, grain, and what looked like scows and scows of oyster shells.
Oh, and I love beignets! first time for all of this wonder! see here for some of the adventures on the Mississippi!
fun with AIS
Say It At Anchor
“You see? now if you had that damn thing on a lanyard, we wouldn’t have to do this.
What am I going to tell the office?”
“I’ll see you suckers on the one!”
Happy Hour
“Party in the Hamptons this weekend! Bring your grill!”
*NOTE*: all unretouched screenshots (well, maybe the first one is tweaked a bit.)
Some names have been changed to protect the guilty.
DO NOT USE FOR NAVIGATION.
creepy!
what? I cannot stalk on AIS without being stalked by googleAds?
just curious: does anyone else who uses marinetraffic (brought to you FREE by the University of the Aegean! Ευχαριστώ! Ευχαριστώ!) get ads making you wonder if your male chief mate or male bosun is cheating on you? do any of you get ‘is SHE cheating on you’ ads? two weeks crammed together on a noisy boat, and do we need THIS to add to the tension that dishes in the sink and the annoying TV shows already create? have these adRobots no heart???
mr. edwards & mr. jack
für Oncle Ralph!
Happy Leap Day! Captain Bill says you have to make a captain lie down and jump over him. Some kind of an old mariners’ tradition…
balls
Tips from Capt JJ: “One black ball means he’s anchored. After that, the more balls you see, the more f*k’d he is.”
one black ball:
“Anchored.”
two black balls:
“Not under command. Underway, but no way on. Adrift.”
Unable to follow any rules.
three black balls:
“Aground. Displayed aloft.”
two black balls, two diamonds:
“Vessel engaged in underwater work. Pass on diamond side; avoid ball side.”
Another beauty tip from Capt JJ: “You know how I remember it? girls love diamonds, so go for the diamonds. Or, you have to have balls to pass on the side with the balls. But the girls and diamonds one is easier, for me.”
ball diamond ball:
“Restricted in ability to maneuver. Working vessel.”
And, Capt JJ had to go there—“This is no good, either:”
— thanks, Capt JJ. I think.
If hungry for more, the COLREGS International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, published by the IMO, spells out in exhaustive detail the rules for lights, shapes (dayshapes like these), and sound signals.
Note: *No vessel ever has absolute ‘right of way’ over other vessels.* You can be the ’give way’ (burdened) or the ‘stand on’ (privileged) vessel.
launching day!
Hello, Friends!
Hanging the shingle! Off to starboard are two buttons that will take you to the Bowsprite stores: one is Etsy, for finished goods, and the other is for Spoonflower where you can order fabrics. (I’m an Etsyian. Eek.)
Thank you soooooo much for being there, here and all along the way!
Custom orders are accepted and appreciated. If you work on a ship I’ve drawn, you get a major discount.
That’s 917.830.7NYH. I know that number is not any easier to remember, but at least it’s got New York Harbor in it somewhere, for I’ve got NYH in me!
LOVE, christina
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 yacht Nantucket is in town, in the Morris Canal, across from the full-time, office 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:
towmasters
tugster
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