Archive for the ‘DonJon’ Category
unlighted river
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Another DonJon tug is in the spotlight today, this time it’s the Paul Andrew. It’s pictured above at Port Elizabeth Newark, moving a barge past one of the gargantuan cargo docks which distinguish the place.
from wikipedia
The Port of New York was really eleven ports in one. It boasted a developed shoreline of over 650 miles (1,050 km) comprising the waterfronts of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island as well as the New Jersey shoreline from Perth Amboy to Elizabeth, Bayonne, Newark, Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken. The Port of New York included some 1,800 docks, piers, and wharves of every conceivable size, condition, and state of repair. Some 750 were classified as “active” and 200 were able to berth 425 ocean-going vessels simultaneously in addition to the 600 able to anchor in the harbor. These docks and piers gave access to 1,100 warehouses containing some 41,000,000 square feet (3,800,000 m2) of inclosed storage space.
The SS Normandie arriving in New York Harbor on maiden voyage escorted by several tugboats.
In addition, the Port of New York had thirty-nine active shipyards, not including the huge New York Naval Shipyard on the Brooklyn side of the East River. These facilities included nine big ship repair yards, thirty-six large dry-docks, twenty-five small shipyards, thirty-three locomotive and gantry cranes of fifty ton lift capacity or greater, five floating derricks, and more than one hundred tractor cranes. Over 575 tugboats worked the Port of New York.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were acquired while onboard one of the many Working Harbor Committee tours of industrial Newark Bay and environs in September of 2011, which explains the glorious lighting.
Autumn is one of the times of the year in New York City during which the angle of the sun creates a golden orange “theatrical lighting” effect.
from wikipedia
The port consists of a complex of approximately 240 miles (386 km) of shipping channels as well as anchorages and port facilities. Most vessels require pilotage and larger vessels require tugboat assistance for the sharper channel turns. The natural depth of the harbor is about 17 feet (5 m), but it had been deepened over the years, to about 24 feet (7 m) controlling depth in 1880.[12] By 1891 the Main Ship Channel was minimally 30 feet (9 m). In 1914 Ambrose Channel became the main entrance to the Harbor, at 40 feet (12 m) deep and 2,000 feet (600 m) wide. During World War II the main channel was dredged to 45 feet (14 m) depth to accommodate larger ships up to Panamax size. Currently the Corps of Engineers is contracting out deepening to 50 feet (15 m), to accommodate Post-Panamax container vessels, which can pass through the Suez Canal. This has been a source of environmental concern along channels connecting the container facilities in Port Newark to the Atlantic. PCBs and other pollutants lay in a blanket just underneath the soil. In June 2009 it was announced that 200,000 cubic yards of dredged PCBs would be “cleaned” and stored en masse at the site of the former Yankee Stadium, as well as at the Brooklyn Bridge Park. In many areas the sandy bottom has been excavated down to rock and now requires blasting. Dredging equipment then picks up the rock and disposes of it. At one point in 2005 there were 70 pieces of dredging equipment working to deepen channels, the largest fleet of dredging equipment anywhere in the world.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Writing this in the depth of frozen January, your humble narrator literally aches for the shirt sleeve warmth and long hours of sunlight offered during other seasons. The “photographer’s way” of course is to adapt, improvise, and “get it”, of course- but I truly pine for warmer (and brighter) times right now.
Built in 1968, by Breaux’s Bay Craft of Loreauville, Louisiana as the tug Miss Holly.
The tug was later acquired by DonJon Marine of Hillside, New Jersey where she was renamed as the Paul Andrew.
She is a twin screw tug powered by two Cummins KTA 19-M3 main engines with two Twin Disc MG 516 reduction gears at a ratio of 6:1 turning two 19(ft) 304 stainless steel 5 1/2 diameter 62(in) by 46(in) propellers for a rated 1,200 horsepower. Her electrical service is provided by two 30 kw generators driven by DD 3-71 engines 120-208 Triple Phase.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot of the Paul Andrew above is from a Working Harbor trip even earlier in the year, August as a matter of fact. As a note, it is hitched up to a different sort of barge, and is tied up in a “on the hip” configuration.
Man, I can’t wait for the thaw.
from donjon.com
DIMENSIONS
Length Overall: 68 ft./ 20.73 m
Length Design Load Waterline: 63.6 ft./ 19.39 m
Beam Molded Amidships: 23.0 ft./ 7.01 m
Depth Molded to Main Deck: 9.0 ft./ 2.74 m
Tonnage (Gross): 99 GRT
Tonnage (Net): 67 NRT
CONSTRUCTION
All Steel
PROPULSION & STEERING
Main Engines: (2) Cummins KTA 19-M3 1,200 bhp
Propellers: (2) 19 ft. 304 Stainless Steel, 5½ diameter, 62 inch x 46 inch
Gears: Twin Disc MG 516, 6:1 Ratio
Rudders: (2) Spade
Steering Stations: Pilothouse, Upper Wheelhouse, Aft
PERFORMANCE
Speed (Free Route): 10 knots
Speed (Cruising): 8 knots
Bollard Pull:12 tons
Fuel Use/Range (Towing): 41 gph / 17 days
Fuel Use/Range (Cruising): 25 gph / 28 days
many candles
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Another one of NY Harbor’s towing companies whose craft are a delight to behold is DonJon Marine.
They operate a fleet of sky blue tugs whose capabilities range from canal and river tugs all the way up to a gargantuan oceanic tug which is called Atlantic Salvor.
Today, the focus is on DonJon’s Cheyenne, which is one of their smaller tugs. That’s her, moving past Wards Island and passing beneath the Hells Gate Bridge.
from donjon.com
Founded in 1964 by Mr. J. Arnold Witte, Donjon’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Donjon Marine’s principal business activities were marine salvage, marine transportation, and related services. Today Donjon Marine is a true provider of multifaceted marine services. Donjon’s controlled expansion into related businesses such as dredging, ferrous and non-ferrous recycling and heavy lift services are a natural progression, paralleling our record of solid technical and cost-effective performance.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Cheyenne is older than I am, yet manages to get to work every day, unlike me.
DonJon serves as one of the integral components of New York Harbor’s system for moving recyclable commodities from curb to customer, and can often be spotted moving barges of metallic waste between DSNY collection points.
I first became aware of the company’s role in the process after spotting them at the SimsMetal Newtown Creek docks a few years ago.
Built in 1965, by Ira S. Bushey and Sons of Brooklyn, New York (hull #628) as the tug Glenwood for Red Star Towing.
In 1970, she was acquired by Spentonbush Towing where she was renamed as the Cheyenne
The tug was later acquired by Amerada Hess where she retained her name.
She was then acquired by Empire Harbor Marine where the tug retained her name. The company would later be renamed as Port Albany Ventures.
In 2009, Port Albany Ventures was acquired by the DonJon Marine Company of Hillside, New Jersey.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
A dirty and necessary industry, recycling is nothing like you would imagine it to be. University professors, environmentalists, and politicians present an image of something akin to Santa’s Elves in crisp white uniforms working in an antiseptic factory isolated from population centers. The reality is that it is performed by oil streaked and smoke belching heavy machinery, consumes far more fuel than you would imagine, and that it is quite a dangerous occupation (also, the concentration and processing of these metals carries dark implications for groundwater and air quality in the localities which it takes place in).
Green jobs of the future indeed.
from wikipedia
The scrap industry contributed $65 billion in 2006 and is one of the few contributing positively to the U.S. balance of trade, exporting $15.7 billion in scrap commodities in 2006. This imbalance of trade has resulted in rising scrap prices during 2007 and 2008 within the United States. Scrap recycling also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conserves energy and natural resources. For example, scrap recycling diverts 145,000,000 short tons (129,464,286 long tons; 131,541,787 t) of materials away from landfills. Recycled scrap is a raw material feedstock for 2 out of 3 pounds of steel made in the U.S., for 60% of the metals and alloys produced in the U.S., for more than 50% of the U.S. paper industry’s needs, and for 33% of U.S. aluminum. Recycled scrap helps keep air and water cleaner by removing potentially hazardous materials and keeping them out of landfills.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Not meaning to sound negative on this otherwise essential service, it’s just that as certain highly placed municipal employees have advised me in the past- “Be careful which laws you ask for, as some things may come only at too great a cost”.
If it costs ten gallons of fuel to recycle and reuse something which it would have cost five gallons of fuel to pull out of the ground… what are we actually saving?
from wikipedia
The tugboat is one symbol of New York. Along with its more famous icons of Lady Liberty, the Empire State Building, and the Brooklyn Bridge, the sturdy little tugs, once all steam powered, working quietly in the harbor became a sight in the city.
The first hull was the paddler tug Rufus W. King of 1828.
New York Harbor at the confluence of the East River, Hudson River, and Atlantic Ocean is among the world’s largest natural harbors and was chosen in the 17th century as the site of New Amsterdam for its potential as a port. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 to the upper Hudson River ensured that New York would be the center of trade for the Eastern Seaboard, and as a result, the city boomed. At the port’s peak in the period of 1900-1950, ships moved millions of tons of freight, immigrants, millionaires, and GI service men serving in wars.
Sheparding the traffic around the harbor were hundreds of tugs–over 700 steam tugs worked the harbor in 1929. Firms such as McAllister, and Moran Tugs came into the business. Cornelius Vanderbilt started his empire with a sailboat and went on to greatness with the New York Central Railroad, incidentally owning many tugs.
usual symptoms
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Existential reality and physical weakness govern this day, as your humble narrator is off to the shining city for consultations with the staff of medical specialists and practitioners whose art maintains an acceptable equilibrium between life and death for him. They plan on siphoning off some of my very lifeblood, and subjecting it to alchemical tests, as well as poking and piercing at my increasingly fragile leather with instrumentation whose appearance fills me with a nameless dread. Their prescribed potions will be assessed for effectiveness, and I will face inquisition regarding diet and lifestyle.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Such exposure to the vagaries of science are required by the increasing fragility and easily upset homogeneity of life as one grows older, part of the overdue bill owed to the universe for that lifestyle of youthful vulgarity and distasteful indulgence which I once enjoyed. I prefer to tuck my conscious mind away in a little corner of my head, behind my left ear, and let them do to my body what they will- for that is the whole of their law. The great equalizer in our society is always found in the hospital ward, where commoner and king alike find themselves sitting on a paper covered table while wearing a cheap gown as strangers perform laboratory tests upon them.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
The staff of medical professionals which are employed on my behalf are, despite my lowly status and financial devastation, actually quite competent and highly placed- ignoring their vast experience and advice would be (and is) foolish. Weak in mind as well as body, I often dismiss this advice, but that is is part of the strange trade off one often makes in modern life- sacrificing what you know is good for you in favor of the quick fix and a feel good option. Seldom do I leave their offices without dire predictions or warnings having been offered, and today will most likely not be an exception.
gleaming vividly
- photo by Mitch Waxman
An unusually personal posting today-
A continuing fascination with the complexities of maritime photography has taken up quite a bit of my summer in 2011. Tugboats, in particular, demand attention whenever I’m on or near the water. It probably has to do with having recently sold a couple of tug shots to the NY Times, illustrating an article in the weekender section profiling the Working Harbor Committee.
When you get paid for something you enjoy doing, life attains symmetry and seems to have a purpose, especially when the people writing the check are “the paper of record”.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
As has been my habit since childhood, late summer is when I assess “how it’s going”, figure out what isn’t working in my life and try to formulate a plan to get “back on track”. It’s been a great few months: working with Forgotten-NY and Greater Astoria Historical Society on their ambitious “2nd Saturday” series of tours, assisting the Working Harbor Committee with their multitudinous tours and events, helping design and produce an event for the New York City Centennial Bridge Commission, and conducting my own boat tours of Newtown Creek for Working Harbor and Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance’s City of Water Day. I’ve also presented the Magic Lantern show three times this summer- at Greater Astoria Historical Society, City of Water Day, and at a DEP event.
Additionally, Newtown Creek Alliance’s various events, presentations and public meetings have kept me quite busy. However, in the midst of working with all these wonderful people, my own operation and schedule has been damaged by inattention.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
One thing which is foremost in my mind, and which will be rectified in the coming weeks and months as we slouch toward fall and winter, has been the irregular schedule of postings here. Apologies are offered, contradicting my normal credo of “never complain, never explain”, but this blog is essentially a one man operation (although special kudos go out to Our Lady of the Pentacle and Far Eastern Correspondent Armstrong for unbelievable effort and support). Massive effort is underway to resume a normal and regular schedule of postings.
There will be one more HUGE announcement coming about a Newtown Creek event I’ll be offering in October, but I’m contractually obligated to not be more specific about it than that.
In short… Back in session.
burst open
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent business, if you must ask, is the reason I found myself visiting …Staten Island… Kevin Walsh of forgotten-ny.com wanted, sensibly enough given the sylvan landscaping and thoughtful architecture of the place, to offer a walking tour of St. George as part of his ambitious schedule of “2nd Saturday” walking tours. As an accomplice in his fiendish revelations, I was forced to return to this place by land.
It is one thing to motor past …Staten Island… on a ship or highway, and another thing entirely to touch it with your feet. This is when you are helpless, a pedestrian lost in a land of motor vehicles and steep hills, and movement noticed behind dark curtains might said to be an implied rather than suggested hint of an occluded occupant.
from silive.com
For the past two days, visitors to a park in Staten Island’s Fort Wadsworth section have stumbled upon a gory mystery — a mutilated animal, possibly a dog or a goat, wrapped in a white sheet.
Parkgoers found two such animals in Von Briesen Park yesterday and this morning, city Parks Department officials confirmed.
The discovery has sparked speculation of ritual sacrifice and cult activity, and has led one Port Richmond woman to douse part of the ground where one animal was found with holy water, in an attempt to ward off what she believes is an evil presence.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Overly sensitive to sleights, always ready to interpret malicious intent in an innocent gesture, your humble narrator nevertheless prides himself on what Brooklyn kids might call “spidey sense”. When certain instincts and triggers begin to fire off, the imperative to “get out of dodge” becomes overwhelming and flight ensues, if I am clever enough to acknowledge this “tingle”.
Every time I’m on the island which Richmond County squats upon, I start to tingle.
from silive.com
Staten Island ranks second in the overall suicide rate out of all five boroughs, behind only Manhattan, according to the most recent state Department of Health statistics.
In 2005, the most recent year available, there were 6.9 suicides on the Island per 100,000 people. Manhattan was the only borough that had more, with 7.6 suicides per 100,000; rates for the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens were 4.8, 4.6 and 5.4, respectively.
Sudden changes in behavior or personality; feelings of desperation, helplessness, hopelessness, aloneness, loss and depression; previous suicide attempt; and most importantly, suicide statements expressing a desire or intention to die are all some of the warning signs that sometimes go overlooked, experts say.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Over the years paying attention to this “tingle”, sometimes felt by Our Lady of the Pentacle instead of me, has aided me in avoiding multiple encounters with the Constabulatory, allowed me to escape a burning building twice, and facilitated in sidestepping some of the dire consequences of a degenerate youth. Additionally, I seem to know which days it would be fortuitous to call in sick to work, intuitively avoid traffic jams and transit logjams, and when some baser denizen of the NY streets sets their sights on me- I know it.
It has long been my belief that physical cowardice is a genetic inheritance, a gift from timorousness ancestors who managed to run away before the Vikings or Mongols found them.
from wikipedia
Snug Harbor was founded by the 1801 bequest of New York tycoon Captain Robert Richard Randall for whom the nearby neighborhood of Randall Manor is named. Randall left his country estate, Manhattan property bounded by Fifth Avenue and Broadway and Eighth and 10th Streets, to build an institution to care for “aged, decrepit and worn-out” seamen. The opening of the sailor’s home was delayed by extended contests of the will by Randall’s disappointed heirs. When Sailors’ Snug Harbor opened in 1833, it was the first home for retired merchant seamen in the history of the United States. It began with a single building, now the centerpiece in the row of five Greek Revival temple-like buildings on the New Brighton waterfront.
Captain Thomas Melville, a retired sea captain and brother of Moby-Dick author Herman Melville, was governor of Snug Harbor from 1867 to 1884.
In 1890, Captain Gustavus Trask, the governor of Snug Harbor, built a Renaissance Revival church, the Randall Memorial Chapel and, next to it, a music hall, both designed by Robert W. Gibson.
Approximately 1,000 retired sailors lived at Snug Harbor at its peak in the late 19th century, when it was among the wealthiest charities in New York. Its Washington Square area properties yielded a surplus exceeding the retirement home’s costs by $100,000 a year.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
There are places which terrify, and intimidate. …Staten Island… with it’s hoary past and terrifying implications of Old World conspiracy- accomplishes both for me. I prefer to focus on what floats past the place, observing from the safety of running water, rather than delve too deeply into the rumors of those things which have been witnessed in the trees near Willowbrook.
from artsjournal.com
All “aged decrepit and warn-out sailors” were accepted. Even some blacks. Eventually the Harbor also allowed steamboat sailors and inland sailors from lakes and rivers too, but they were no doubt frowned upon as not being adventurous enough. Once, while trying to affix a sculpture to one of the walls, we found a sealed-off compartment containing a book of photographs of hundreds of inmates (as the retired seamen were called). Here and there were some dark faces. All races and nationalities were welcomed. Only “habitual alcoholics and those with contagious disease or immoral character were banned.”
