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Franklin and a big sister
Franklin Reinauer, one of the Reinauer lines few conventional tugs and the smallest in their fleet, spent the weekend at North River anchorage with the 300-foot, 46,000 barrel barge RTC 42. They pulled up anchor Monday morning and headed for an Arthur Kill terminal, passing Reinauer’s the anchored Janice Ann/ RTC 103 ATB, a much bigger unit with more than twice Franklin’s horse power on the tug and more than twice the barge capacity of RTC 42. As of Tuesday morning, Franklin is at the Erie Basin barge port while Janice Ann is heading back towards the harbor after I believe loading a cargo at Bayway.
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Dutch on the North River
HNLMS Den Helder, the Dutch navy’s brand new replenishment ship, arrived in NYC Friday and stayed through the weekend tied up at the south side of North River Pier 88. Den Helder was commissioned in October and is designed to sustain a task force of six vessels at sea with fuel, water, aviation fuel, ammunition and other goods. She also has a hospital on board and is lightly armed with a 76mm gun, SAMs, and machine guns. Prior to visiting NYC, Den Helder was in Norfolk, VA. Moran tractor tug William E. Moran was standing by Monday morning to assist with departure.
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Holland America on the North River
Vane Brothers tug Elk River had a bunkering barge alongside Holland America Line’s Volendam at North River Pier 88 a week before Thanksgiving. The Volendam had just departed its autumn cruising territory in New England and Canada and was about to embark on a 30-day trip down to the Amazon in Brazil before beginning winter cruising out of Fort Lauderdale. Volendam departed Bridgetown, Barbados Saturday evening, next stop Brazil. Elk River is back at Pier 88, alongside Norwegian Breakaway.
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Working holiday
Kristin Poling, Poling and Cutler’s 5,000 HP tug, spent some pre-Thanksgiving days at a familiar North River anchorage off Guttenberg, NJ with the 80,000 BBL capacity tank barge Eva Leigh Cutler. On the holiday itself, this unit was on the move, leaving New Haven before noon after unloading a New York Harbor cargo and heading back to the North River, reaching anchorage off Riverdale just before midnight where she has remained into the weekend.
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Thanksgiving throwback
FROM THE ARCHIVES: Thanksgiving 2022 saw Centerline tug Adeline Marie with the barge Marc N among the units anchored in the North River. This year, Adeline was tied up along the Arthur Kill for the holiday having just returned from a long trip to deliver a cargo in Savannah. This year, which I am not in town to observe, AIS shows Centerline’s CF Campbell spent the holiday on the river, along with Ruth Reinauer who we saw at anchor earlier in the week, plus Kirby’s Cape Canaveral and Cape Hatteras further north. Hope all crews had a pleasant holiday.
Thanksgiving 2025, Source: MarineTraffic
©2024 Daniel Katzive Uncategorized -
Just visiting
The Ruth M. Reinauer/RTC 102 ATB, a 4,000 HP tug paired with a 413-foot barge, came up the North River on Tuesday from the Upper Bay and dropped anchor off Guttenberg. While there, FDNY Marine 1’s small boat and a Coast Guard 45-foot response boat passed by heading to check something out upriver and then returned shortly after. The Reinauer unit did not stay long there either—within a few hours they had pulled up the hook again and headed back to anchorage in the Upper Bay where they remain Wednesday morning.
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Paper route
The small 322-foot Dutch-flagged cargo ship Lady Hester came up the North River on Monday, bound for the Port of Albany and making a brisk 11 knots with the flood current. She was arriving from Sweden and likely carrying wood pulp for paper mills up north. We used to see only Royal Wagenborg ships on this route but this ship is operated by an affiliate of that group.
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Import cement, export scrap
SSI Marvelous, a 580-foot bulk ship, was heading for sea after discharging her cargo of cement from Turkey at the import terminal in Cementon, NY. We see Marvelous and her fleet mate SSI Magnificent regularly on this route. On this trip she had called on Providence to partially unload before first coming up the Hudson. After leaving us, Marvelous headed for Boston where she is currently tied up at a scrap dock, probably loading metal for export back to Turkey. Meanwhile, Magnificent is at anchorage back in Turkey.
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At the dam
New York State Marine Highway tug Nathan G, 1977 vintage and 1,200 HP, was working at the Gateway Tunnel cofferdam site off Pier 66 on Thursday. Visible in the background are tank truck trailers on a barge holding cement that will be mixed with river water and mud to reinforce the river bottom at this point, allowing the tunnel to eventually be drilled through.
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In from the cold
The Canadian navy offshore patrol ship William Hall arrived on the North River Friday morning from her home base of Halifax, heading for the south side of Pier 88. Hall was met off Hoboken by Ellen McAllister who assisted with docking and may have transferred a pilot. The Hall is one of six vessels in this class, with two more under construction. She was commissioned in May 2024 and this may be her first visit to NYC, though we have seen her classmates Harry DeWolf and Frederick Rolette here in recent years. These ships are primarily charged with patrolling Canada’s arctic region while Canada’s more heavily armed frigates work in NATO territory and the Pacific, though Hall also did a drug interdiction mission in the Caribbean earlier this year.
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 