feasible means
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Don’t tell Newtown Creek, as I wouldn’t want her to think that I’m cheating on her- but occasionally, I visit the Gowanus Canal.
It’s no tryst I’ll confess to- I’m a one superfund site kind of guy- but I’ve always enjoyed harmless flirting.
Witness the Loujaine, therefore, one of the Gowanus Canals permanent guests.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Once upon a time, Loujaine was the proud property of “Arabian Bulk Trade” or ABT, and served as a cement and dry cargo ship for the Saudi Arabia based company. That green and white funnel (smokestack) with the running critter in it is their logo.
The ship was built in the Nagoya, Japan of 1966, and lost its certification in 1985.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Reliable sources indicate that the ship was originally rigged as a bulk carrier, and that its original name was Bahma.
Arabian Bulk Trade was formed in 1977, acquired Bahma in the early 1980’s, and converted the ship for cement handling. They renamed it the “Abu Loujaine”.
ABT, incidentally, is part of a larger Saudi company which is called Xenel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Xenel is an enormous conglomerate which dominates several Saudi markets, and is one of the companies operated by the House of Alireza.
A mercantile clan, the Alireza are somewhat analogous to the Rockefellers, or so I am told. The fellow who runs Xenel is an accomplished businessman and international statesman.
He went to Berkeley.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It arrived in Brooklyn (I am told) in 1985. Ownership has changed hands a couple of times since the ABT days, but according to the maritime websites it is currently owned by a local cement company of sizable reputation.
My understanding is that the ship was “decommissioned” and serves as a so called “floating discharge terminal”, warehouse, and barge for concrete products.
Now promise me, if the Newtown Creek asks, tell her I was with you- ok?
[…] Quadrozzi discussed was his Grain Terminal building, and one of the “that’s” was the ship Loujaine – both pictured […]
quaint fusion | The Newtown Pentacle
June 19, 2015 at 11:00 am
[…] On our way out of Gowanus Bay, I couldn’t help but get a shot of the Abu Loujaine at the Quadrozzi Grain Terminal docks. I wrote about the Loujaine a while back, in this post from January of 2012. […]
what would | The Newtown Pentacle
June 22, 2016 at 11:02 am