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Reunited
Poling & Cutler’s Marilyn George was paired with the familiar green and white Edwin A Poling barge last week after several trips up the North River with the substitute blue and white barge Number Five earlier this fall. The unit had a products cargo heading for Albany as she passed under the bridge. This morning finds Marilyn back in New York Harbor, now in Raritan Bay.
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On the cement route
Chrysanthe, a 580-foot Marshall Islands flagged bulk ship, came down the North River in late October, heading for the Narrows with her hatches vented after discharging a cargo of Turkish cement at the import terminal in Cementon, NY, the site of a former cement manufacturing plant. Chrysanthe had previously called in Providence to discharge cement, and was heading for Wilmington. As of November 1, Chrysanthe is at sea and bound for Spain.
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Stopping back in
Dann Marine’s Calusa Coast is anchored on the North River off Edgewater with covered hopper barge DMT 9000 this week. She is usually based in Baltimore I believe, and may have ducked in on the way back from a run to Boston, similar to the last time we saw her anchored on the river in January coming back from Maine with a tank barge. It’s uncommon to see tugs with hoppers like this at anchorage in the river which is generally used by tugs with tank barges and ATBs but in high winds we sometimes get more variety in what we see here.
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Patrol boats on patrol
Coast Guard 87-foot cutter Bonito, the Sandy Hook patrol boat, came up the North River on Tuesday and travelled as far as the Tappan Zee before circling back and staying overnight on the Coast Guard mooring south of the GW Bridge. Bonito left the next day and headed for Manhasset Bay on Long Island Sound, but a day after the similar patrol boat Sturgeon also came upriver from Cape May to moor overnight south of the GW and I think these were perhaps training or familiarization patrols.
Bonito is the only white-hulled cutter based in New York Harbor and only comes up the North River occasionally, while Sturgeon (not to be confused with our local icebreaker Sturgeon Bay) is based in Boston but before arriving here had been at Cape May which is the location of the Coast Guard’s enlisted personnel training center. As of Thursday morning, Sturgeon is visiting the fuel dock at Liberty Marina in Jersey City, while Bonito is still at anchor near Port Washington.
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Sugar substitute
Balsa 89 came up the North River last week heading for the Port of Coeymans. Usually when we see these small Dowa Line bulkers on the river they are heading for Yonkers with sugar cargos, but this time Balsa 89 went straight through to Coeymans. Her port of origin was Jamaica and I don’t have any guesses on what cargo she might have brought or loaded up there. As of Wednesday morning, 89 is approaching her next port of call of Norfolk.
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Variety pack
The Carver Companies towboat Erin Elizabeth seemed to have a little bit of everything as she arrived on the North River heading for the harbor on Sunday morning, with scrap, stone, sand, and a spud barge all visible in addition to whatever was in the high-sided hopper barge. Erin was passing the historic Alpine radio tower, also known as Armstrong Tower, at the top of the cliff and the Alpine Boat Basin down below.
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A Room with a View
The big Barbara Carol Ann Moran ATB, a 5,100 HP tug paired with a 468-foot tank barge, has been anchored off Yonkers for the past week or so after returning from a trip to the Gulf with a products cargo for Albany earlier in the month. On Sunday morning the crew had a good view of the fall colors along the Palisades and the hazy NYC skyline as the flood tide began.
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Two hundred years of canal
The Seneca Chief, a replica of the first barge to travel on the Erie Canal from Buffalo to New York Harbor 200 years ago, arrived on the North River at the end here symbolic journey Saturday commerorating the canal’s bicentennial anniversary. She was in tow with the CL Churchill, a 33-foot 1964 vintage tugboat owned by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
Earlier on the same day, in timing which was perhaps coincidental but also seemed to emphasize the historical continuity between the canal’s origins and its present day relevance, the brand new canal tugboat Rome passed up the North River. Rome is the second of three new boats manufactured by Blount Boats in Rhode Island for the New York State Canal Corporation and was heading for delivery to its new owners up north. Rome passed Seneca Chief and the Churchill off Sleepy Hollow—perhaps there was a salute.
For more photos of the Seneca Chief’s arrival, see Will Van Dorp’s latest post from the Canal Society’s Samuel Center which features some shots I shared with him.
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Heavy machinery
The cargo ship BBC Sebastopol headed up the North River Thursday morning heading for the Port of Albany. These BBC ships are often heading north to load heavy equipment manufactured upstate for export, including products made by GE/GE Vernova in Schenectady but these also sometimes deliver heavy materials for projects being staged up north like the Champlain Hudson Power Express.
While Sebastopol was heading upriver, her fleet mate BBC Manila was at the dock in Albany loading a heavy export cargo. Sebastopol proceeded to Hyde Park anchorage where she is still waiting Saturday morning while Manila dropped lines at midday Friday and is currently en route to Charleston, her next port of call, after passing Manhattan well after dark on Friday night.
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Just a little more sugar please
Dann Marine’s Ruby Coast had the dry bulk barge Knot Refined, the newest and largest of ASR’s fleet of sugar carriers, en route to Yonkers and loaded with Florida crystals. This could be the last or one of the last times we see this barge on the North River as the Yonkers refinery is slated to close by the end of this year.
Knot Refined will remain busy but the sugar will be heading for Baltimore where capacity has been increased to help cover the output of the Yonkers plant. Knot Refined, which got its handle in an employee naming contest, made its first voyage here in May 2022, as covered in North River Notes at the time.
©2024 Daniel Katzive Uncategorized
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 