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.
A visit to the Kill van Kull and Newark Bay Wednesday evening courtesy of Open House New York and the Port Authority can feel like getting back stage for a North River watcher. Much of the cargo we see moving up and down the river originates or terminates here, and many of the tugs who work the river reside here or come for servicing. There are also many vessels here which never come up the river, most notably the big container ships heading for Port Newark, Bayonne, and Elizabeth. The volume of activity down here makes the North River feel like a quiet stream— an effort to write a daily blog of activity on the KvK would quickly be overwhelmed by content. Below are some of the photos I was able to take before it got too dark.
The Robbin’s Reef lighthouse off Constable Hook in Bayonne is where weather in New York Harbor is usually measured. Katherine Walker, namesake of the local Coast Guard buoy tender, once tended this light.Most of the 60 privately owned petrochemical terminals which make New York Harbor the busiest refined products port in the country are located along the Arthur Kill, which we didn’t visit. But the Bayonne IMTT along the Kill van Kull is an exception, receiving cargos from foreign refiners and loading cargos on barges for delivery up the Hudson or elsewhere in the Northeast. The Noelle Cutler barge, a North River regular, was loading cargo at IMTT ahead of a trip up the North River the next morning. Evelyn Cutler waited across the Kill at a dock in Caddell’s shipyard for the Noelle barge to be loaded, near an out-of-service Staten Isalnd ferry.The Liberia flag tanker Laredo Emerald was leaving the IMTT with help from two Moran tractor tugs after discharging cargo and would next head for the Kinder Morgan terminal on the Arthur KillVane’s Elk River had the GCS 230 barge, one of the last vessels to be built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, also loading Number 4 oil. The barge was later brought over to Con Ed’s Pier 98 fuel dock on the North River where it is used to store back-up fuel for the nearby 59th Street Steam Plant, which usually burns natural gas.A Vane barge was also loading product at IMTT Stasinos tug David Wilson exited the KvK to attend to business at Port Liberty in Bayonne.The tanker Nord Vanquish was arriving at IMTT to discharge cargo which likely originated at a refinery in Portugal or Spain. Margaret Moran provided an escortMargaret was the first tug I ever photographed back in the mid-1980s (see Then and Now) and is still going strong. We only occasionally see her on the North River.Doris Moran was tied up on Nord Vanquish’s port sideUS flagged offshore supply ship Polaris was on the way to a wind job site off the Jersey Shore.The Brownsville/Petrochem Trader ATB is a massive unit with a 12,000 HP tug and a 521-foot barge. We never see ATB’s this big on the North River. I believe this unit mainly works in the Gulf, coming up to New York Harbor with cargo from there occasionally.Captain Brian McAllister had a stern line on the massive 14,000 TEU Evergreen container ship Taipei Triumph heading out for her next port call of Norfolk.Norfolk’s Paula Atwell brought a barge loaded with Waste Management containers containing municipal waste loaded in Brooklyn and heading for WM’s Elizabeth transfer station to be loaded on trucks.Iona McAllister was making the roundsVane’s Potomac had a bunkering barge alongside an MSC container ship with a ZIM ship further up the pier at Port NewarkMary Turecamo was assisting the smaller America container ship departing for her next port call in CharelstonA look into the Reinauer yard on the KVK found the barge RTC 81 which we often see on the North River with B. Franklin Reinauer. The big RTC 150 barge is 477 feet long and usually paired with Meredith Reinauer. We’ve only seen this unit on the North River once, and it only travelled up to the cruise terminal before turning back (see Big Unit).Carver Companies has a small base and dormitory barge on the KvK. Erin Elizabeth was visiting.And Daisy Mae was on her way there to tuck in for the night.The Mexican tall ship Cuauhtemoc, still without her top masts, is in a dry dock at the Caddell Yard two months after her allesion with the Brooklyn Bridge.Several other tugs were also in drydock, including the Kristin Poling seen recently on the North River.
North River Notes 
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