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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.

  • Commuting

    Carver Companies’ 3,900 HP towboat Erin Elizabeth came down the North River a few days before Christmas bringing a high sided hopper barge from Coeymans down to the harbor. Erin was back up north on Christmas morning but then back in New York Harbor moving barges around by the weekend.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Working Christmas

    The Susan Rose/RCM 252 ATB was on the North River a few days before Christmas, heading for anchorage off Yonkers with the barge looking light after calling at a terminal in Port Morris on the Bronx East River shoreline. Susan was underway on Christmas morning, heading for Providence, RI where she is set to arrive the next day.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Passing friends

    The Dean Reinauer/RTC 106 ATB (4,000 HP tug built in 2013 paired with an 108,000 barrel barge) came up the North River Tuesday, passing colleagues on the Josephine/RTC 83 ATB (4,400 HP tug built in 2018 paired with an 86,000 barrel barge) anchored off Guttenberg. Although Dean’s barge looked loaded, the unit was apparently not ready to head for a destination, instead lingering a few hours at anchor a half mile north of Josephine before heading back to the harbor where she remains Thursday morning while Josephine remains at anchor on the North River.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive

  • South for the winter

    After spending two days at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal, Hapag-Llyod’s Europa 2 backed out into the North River Monday morning, with Moran tractor tug Thomas C helping push the bow into the flood tide. As of Tuesday morning, Europa 2 has reached Charleston, calling there en route for the Windward Islands, the Panama Canal and then winter sailing in the Pacific. Thomas C is at the Moran yard on the Kill van Kull waiting for her next assignment assisting ships arriving and departing New York Harbor.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • At rest on Sunday

    The Vane Brothers 4,200 HP 2008 vintage tug Patuxent was northbound on the North River Sunday morning with the light tank barge Double Skin 601 (361 feet long, 56,000 barrel capacity). Patuxent was heading for anchorage off Riverdale where she spent the day, departing after sundown for the Buckeye Perth Amboy terminal on the Arthur Kill where she remained at sunrise Monday, presumably loading a new cargo.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Fireboats big and small

    The North River fire company, FDNY’s Marine 1, had both their big Three Forty Three boat and their small alpha boat on the water Saturday afternoon. We don’t normally see both of these boats on the water together, I believe because they are crewed by the same company, with the nature of the emergency determining which boat responds to a call. But there were a large of number of people in civilian clothes on the deck of the Three Forty Three and this was perhaps a special occasion or maybe holiday event for family. They were out for less than an hour, making a quick loop up to Pier i and then back to the Pier 53 base.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • This is BBC

    The cargo ship BBC Helsinki came up the North River just before sundown on Friday and just after a storm moved through, heading for the Port of Albany with no deck cargo visible. This is the at least the sixth BBC Chartering ship I’ve managed to capture on camera on the river this year and I’ve missed many as well. The ships sometimes carry project cargo for delivery in Albany but more often of late I believe they are loading large pieces of GE equipment manufactured in New York for export overseas.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • On the Marine Highway

    New York State Marine Highway Transportation’s 1978 vintage, 2,000 HP tug Maddie K came down the North River Thursday with several loaded stone hoppers. Maddie was heading for the Bay Ridge Flats, and later travelled up the East River and on to the materials dock just over the Bronx line in Mount Vernon on the Hutchison River. Maddie spent the night tied up in Bayonne, reaching there around midnight and that is where she remains as the sun tries to rise on a rainy Friday morning.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Small but not really small

    The cruise ship Europa 2 made the turn into Pier 88 this morning with two Moran tractor tugs, JRT and Thomas, on hand to assist. Hapag Lloyd’s Europa 2 is small by modern cruise ship standards but with 740 feet in length she is not a small ship. She is returning to NYC after a run down to Bermuda with stops in Baltimore on the way down. From here she will head to the Caribbean and then through the Panama Canal for winter cruising in the Pacific islands.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Tanker season

    Between the early cold snap boosting demand for heating oil up north and offshore gales keeping demand for North River anchorages high, there has been plenty of tanker barge and ATB traffic on the Hudson this month. Last Thursday, the Susan Rose/RCM 252 ATB came down the North River, returning from Albany. She passed the big Dylan Cooper/RCM 108 Reinauer ATB unit at anchor after a trip out Long Island Sound to New Haven and Bridgeport, and then the Gulf Coast northbound with a cargo for New Hamburg NY (I shared a photo of Gulf returning from that same trip yesterday).

    This was the first time we have seen Susan after her return to service without her Rose Cay Maritime markings, though we have seen the Jordan Rose.

    As of this Wednesday morning, Susan is at a products terminal in Quincy Mass and Dylan is at anchor in the Upper Bay, but Gulf Coast is back on the Hudson, passing Manhattan with a cargo hours before sunrise and maybe heading back to New Hamburg. Meanwhile, Jordan Rose is Albany-bound on the Hudson, having passed Manhattan just before sunset last night.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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