Posts Tagged ‘ny harbor’
groveling obeisance
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in yesterday’s post, a short interval of puffy individual shots is being presented over the holiday weekend. Partially, this is owed to a debilitating back injury suffered last week which has reduced your humble narrator to the uniform of the house bound invalid- sweat pants and bathrobe- the other is that every now and then an individual image presented earlier in the year got swallowed by the post it was published in. To wit, the storied John J. Harvey fireboat upon the Hudson during the Op Sail event in late spring of 2012. A bizarre atmospheric light is captured therein, wherein storm clouds literally opened around the procession of ships and provided a somewhat eerie atmosphere. Those of us in the Working Harbor Committee ascribe such events to the otherworldly abilities of our own Captain Doswell, referring to the phenomena as “The Doswell Effect”.
held colloquy
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
Liberty persists in darkness, and threatening storms, and even on “Black Friday”. This one off shot, captured while onboard a Working Harbor Committee expedition during the summer of 2012, is one of my annular favorites simply for the presence of “crepuscular rays”. That’s the fancy thirteen dollar word way of describing the rays of light filtering down through the clouds.
kaleidoscopic rotation
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
The thanks I give today is to the Audubon Society, for bringing me out to South Brother Island with them when they were doing a count of nesting shorebirds back in the spring, whereupon I was able to capture the image above. Probably my favorite shot of 2012, at least so far, and given the relatively late calendrical date- odds on favorite for this years “best of show”. Not a turkey, rather a night heron, by the way.
acclaimed songs
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– photo by Mitch Waxman
Early preparations for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday necessitated a trip to a certain big box grocer located in Long Island City on Friday. Unfortunately, a slightly strained muscle in my back was pushed all the way from “uncomfortable” to “spasming” by the trip, wherein mass quantities of food stuffs were laboriously carried up the stairs to the walk up apartment quarters shared by “Our Lady of the Pentacle” and myself with our little dog. Accordingly, this post is being offered by a massively distracted narrator. The dog was particularly enthused when she realized that part of the horde of consumer products transported into the apartment included a 15 pound supply of Milkbone brand dog biscuits.
Built in 1973, by McDermott Shipyard of Morgan City, Louisiana (hull #179) as the Amy Moran for the Moran Towing Corporation of Greenwich, Connecticut. The tug is fitted with an elevating wheelhouse. She is a twin screw tug rated at 3,000 horsepower.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a poor showing at maintaining regular updates in the latter half of 2011, resolutions to hold this- your Newtown Pentacle- to a daily schedule were made, and so far in 2012 only one day has come and gone without an update. Luckily, it’s a leap year. That single missing day is actually due to an outage of Internet access rather than my own sloth, so at least I have a good excuse.
from morantug.com
Moran Towing began operations in 1860 when founder Michael Moran opened a towing brokerage, Moran Towing and Transportation Company, in New York Harbor. In 1863, the company was transformed from a brokerage into an owner-operator of tugboats when it purchased a one-half interest in the tugboat Ida Miller for $2,700.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For today’s Maritime Sunday post, the focus is cast upon the Amy Moran, which is part of the enormous fleet of towing vessels employed by the Moran corporation. All of the shots in this post were captured along the Kill Van Kull, with the final one depicting her undergoing maintenance at a floating drydock located along the tidal strait which divides and defines the coastlines of New Jersey and Staten Island.
Ow. Despite my aching back, a humble narrator nevertheless sends a hearty Maritime Sunday shout out to the Amy Moran and her crews.
from wikipedia
A floating drydock is a type of pontoon for dry docking ships, possessing floodable buoyancy chambers and a “U”-shaped cross-section. The walls are used to give the drydock stability when the floor or deck is below the surface of the water. When valves are opened, the chambers fill with water, causing the drydock to float lower in the water. The deck becomes submerged and this allows a ship to be moved into position inside. When the water is pumped out of the chambers, the drydock rises and the ship is lifted out of the water on the rising deck, allowing work to proceed on the ship’s hull.
engulfing mist
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another victim of Sandy seems to have been the Old Orchard Shoal Lighthouse, which according to Coast Guard reports, has been scoured away from its century long occupation in Great Kills.
Wo.
Lighthouses are amongst the most resilient structures mankind can produce, and this thing reliably weathered the entire 20th century.
I will say it again- Wo.
from workingharbor.wordpress.com
The US Coast Guard has confirmed the total loss of the Old Orchard Shoal Light off Great Kills Beach, Staten Island. The historic structure was swept away by Hurricane Sandy on October 29, 2012.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pal Mai Armstrong, known to you Lords and Ladies of the Pentacle as “far eastern correspondent Armstrong”, beat me to the punch on this news.
She has been writing the fantastic Working Harbor Committee blog for a while now, linked to above. She also has shots of the aftermath at the post linked to above.
from wikipedia
Old Orchard Shoal Light was completed and lit on April 25, 1893.
The Fresnel lens was removed in 1950.
Before moving on to Governor’s Island and then finally Coney Island Light, Frank Schubert, said to be the last civilian lighthouse keeper in the United States, was stationed at Old Orchard Shoal Light.
Old Orchard Shoal Light is listed on the National Park Service’s Maritime Heritage Program as Lighthouse to visit [6] and as one of New York’s Historic Light Stations.
On May 29, 2007, the Secretary of the Interior identified Old Orchard Shoal Light Station as surplus under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of 2000. The property was described as Gedney Channel/Lower New York Bay, 3.5 miles south of New Dorp Beach. Remote 35 ft. conical, 3-story “spark plug” style light (1893) with keeper’s quarters (approx. 1000 SF). Interior lined in brick up to 3rd floor. On 0.72 acre submerged land. Constructed of cast iron on concrete/cast iron caisson. Markings: white upper/black. Protective riprap and breakwater sheltering light’s boat basin. Accessible by boat only.”
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