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From the archives: passing Lackawanna
FROM THE ARCHIVES: On this day last year, Dann Marine tug Sapphire Coast ran light down the North River, passing Hoboken’s Lackawanna Terminal. Sapphire had been up in Yonkers, assisting with sailing a dry bulk barge at the sugar refinery there and was returning to the harbor. The sugar plant had operated in Yonkers for over 100 years but closed permanently at the end of 2025. We continue to see Sapphire on the river though occasionally moving cement barges to and from the cement plant further north in Ravenna, NY, but a year later finds her docked at a cement terminal in Boston with a cargo brought up from Baltimore. The Lackawanna terminal is one of two rail/ferry terminals still standing on the Hudson River and the only one still operating as a transportation facility. It was built as the terminus of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad and later served the same role for Erie Lackawanna after the merger and then for the nationalized Conrail and now NJ Transit. Ferry service ended in the 1960s but resumed under NY Waterway in the 1980s. The historic looking tower is actually a replacement built about 20 years ago as the original was removed in the 1940s.
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Coming south with cargo
Janice Ann Reinauer/RTC 103 ATB was southbound on the North River Monday, passing Weehawken’s Port Imperial with a cargo loaded up north, perhaps ethanol. The unit made a stop on the Arthur Kill before heading for New England. As of Friday morning, she is docked in New Haven.
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Great fluency
The bulk ship Great Fluency, Hong Kong flag and 650-feet in length, was on the North River heading for sea on Sunday after calling at the Port of Coeymans, delivering an unknown cargo. By Thursday, she is approaching her next port of call, the coal docks of Norfolk, VA.
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Power supply
DonJon Marine tug Brian Nicholas, 60-years old though rebuilt and repowered, had the company’s Farrell 256 crane alongside Con Ed’s Pier 98 facility this week. The crane appeared to be assisting with work on some of the equipment on the structure.
The pier, in addition to serving as a docking point for barges carrying backup fuel oil for the 59th Street steam plant across 12th Avenue, also houses a heat exchange mechanism for cooling cables at a nearby electrical substation with river water. There were no tank barges in residence this week, making room for the crane, but over this past cold winter we saw more barge activity than usual here as natural gas supplies got tight, leading power plants around the region to switch to burning fuel oil.
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Making calls
Oslo Bulk 4, a small Portugal-flagged bulker, was heading for sea Monday just before sundown after coming up from the Caribbean to load an unknown cargo at the Port of Coeymans. By Tuesday morning, she is off the Delaware coast signaling Savannah as her next destination.
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Pothole season
The Chief, a small 15,000 dead-weight ton Marshall Islands flagged tanker, came down the North River heading for sea on Monday. The Chief had discharged a cargo in Rensselaer after arriving from the Caribbean with intermediate stops in Wilmington and Port Morris (the Bronx) and my guess is that this was an asphalt delivery. Coming soon to a pothole near you.
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Piling on
A pair of Miller’s Launch tugs, Catherine and Shawn, were at Pier 94 Saturday morning maneuvering construction barges. Work to convert the pier to movie studios and soundstages with a public walkway along the north and west exposures is complete, but filings show piling restoration efforts will continue into 2027.
The previous version of the pier was built as a freight terminal for Cunard Lines in the 1960s, supplementing the passenger terminal at Piers 92 and 90 and connected to Pier 92 via a land side structure. With containerization, the freight facility fell into disuse and was repurposed as an event space in the 1980s and then completely rebuilt over the past two years.
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Mineral resources
A Dann Marine tug had a light cement transporter barge in tow on the hip heading back to the cement plant in Ravenna last Sunday. She passed the Buchanan12 on one whistle with her usual loads of crushed dolomite heading from the Clinton Point quarry to the Jersey City flats.
The Hudson Valley’s rich mineral resources have long supplied the construction industry in New York City and the broader region, with limestone deposits a key raw material for cement manufacturers and ground stone aggregate a key ingredient in concrete and other uses of construction materials.
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Project supply
Miller’s Launch tug Michael Miller stemmed off Hoboken on Tuesday with a barge loaded with silos of concrete for the Gateway Tunnel riverbed stabilization project a bit further north. Two days later, attorneys for the states of New York and New Jersey were back in federal court facing off against the federal government and arguing against efforts to end funding for the project. Another large chunk of funding was released last week under a temporary restraining order issued by the court, but Thursday’s hearing sought a permanent restoration of promised funding and the judge is expected to issue her ruling on the matter in the coming days.
The concrete in the silos will be mixed with river water and the mud on the river bottom to reinforce the riverbed so that tunnel boring machines can move through it. Initial sections of the project near the center of the river have been completed and work has shifted closer to the Manhattan shoreline. In the background of the photo the buildings of Stevens Institute of Technology are visible atop Castle Point in Hoboken.
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Farewell North River
The bulk ship Icarian Spire, Bahamas-flagged, was exiting the North River on Tuesday afternoon, passing Hoboken and Jersey City and heading for sea. The 590-foot vessel was in ballast after discharging a cargo at the Port of Coeymans, possibly salt. She is signaling Savannah as her next port of call.
Observations on the Hudson River as it passes through New York City. The section of the Hudson which passes through New York is historically known as the North River, called this by the Dutch to distinguish it from the Delaware River, which they knew as the South River. This stretch of the Hudson is still often referred to as the North River by local mariners today. All photos copyright Daniel Katzive unless otherwise attributed. For more frequent updates, please follow northriverblog on Facebook or Instagram.
North River Notes 