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Salute
The 9/11 memorial events were underway downtown as Coast Guard icebreaker Penobscot Bay came up the North River as far as Pier 99 with her fire monitors running, passing the Lincoln Tunnel vents and a Donjon Marine crew working on seasonal dredging at the cruise terminal. In addition to providing a visual salute, Cutter 107 had machine guns mounted on her bridge wings so also serving a security role. Penobscot Bay is one of two big icebreaking tugs based in Bayonne whose primary mission is keeping the Hudson clear for navigation up to Albany in the winter.
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Remembering
In this photo taken in January of this year, Centerline Logistics powerful 6,000 HP tug William F. Fallon, Jr. pushes the barge Flaco up the North River with an oil products cargo for Albany. William F. Fallon, Jr. was a Port Authority of NY/NJ general manager who was killed in the Port’s offices in the attack on the World Trade Center on this day 24 years ago and the tug was named for him in 2022. We saw the tug a few times this winter but she has not been on the North River more recently and I believe may be currently laid up at a yard in Norfolk for service.
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Hey, Big Fella
Stasinos Marine’s big tug Toula C was back on the shores of the Upper West Side again on Monday, helping the much smaller construction tug Big Fella maneuver barges at the 69th Street Transfer Bridge restoration work site. Big Fella, either named ironically or perhaps big compared with the other work boats it normally consorts with, came down from Verplanck for the job and later moved a crane barge about 200 yards south to assist a diver removing some of the old pilings from the remains of New York Central Pier F, part of the overall project. Evelyn Cutler is visible beyond the crane in the third photo, returning from Albany with the Noelle Cutler barge.
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Providence bound
Dann Marine’s Pearl Coast brought a cement cargo from the plant in Coeymans down the North River on Monday morning. The 1978-vintage 5,600 HP tug brought its barge around the Battery, out through the Gate and headed for Providence where they arrived at the cement terminal on Sassafras Point Tuesday morning.
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First cruise
Virgin’s newest cruise ship Brilliant Lady made its debut voyage with passengers from North River Pier 90 in the Manhattan Cruise Terminal on Friday evening. The Brilliant Lady, an adults-only ship without all the amusement park attractions we see on other new ships calling on NYC, was heading for Bermuda where she arrived Sunday afternoon. She will run one more trip to Bermuda from here, then two cruises to Canada before transiting to her winter home port in Miami.
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Spuyten Duyvil from above
A stop at Rockefeller Lookout on the Palisades Interstate Parkway affords drone-like views of Spuyten Duyvil down below At anchor Saturday morning were the construction vessel Argo and the Vane Brothers tug Philadelphia with a light tanker barge. Argo is working on the Champlain Hudson Power Express Champlain Hudson Power Express cable which will make an important turn here towards its final destination and is occupying roughly the same spot where we photographed the larger Ariadne cable-laying vessel a few weeks ago but Ariadne has now moved back up to the other end of this segment of the cable off Rockland County.
Spuyten Duyvil is the point where the old Spuyten Duyvil Creek and the Harlem River Ship Canal connect with the Hudson River and is crossed by a railroad swing bridge used by Amtrak’s Empire Service and by the Henry Hudson Parkway up above. Separating the Bronx from Manhattan ,this marks the northern extreme of the North River as I define it, though some will use this moniker for the estuary as far up as Tappan Zee or even Albany. The name Spuyten Duyvil comes from old Dutch and has something to do with the devil, but the precise meaning or origin is not known.
©2024 Daniel Katzive Uncategorized -
Replenishment
The German navy’s replenishment ship Berlin arrived on the North River Friday morning and has tied up on the south side of Pier 88. The 569-foot Berlin and its other two classmates are the largest ships in the German navy. Berlin arrived in New York after spending some time on exercises with the Canadian navy in Arctic waters and helping familiarize Canadian mariners with the operations of the ship which is the model for a class of two vessels under construction for Canadian forces. Germany’s Canada embassy’s Facebook page says Berlin’s arrival in New York is meant to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the US Navy, which is being celebrated in events next month presumably after Berlin will have departed.
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Keep on rocking
Norfolk Tug’s George Holland has been making regular trips up the North River with a hopper barge this summer, heading for the quarry in Clinton Point near Poughkeepsie where they collect crushed stone for delivery to distribution points around the metropolitan area and return back down the river. These pictures were taken on Sunday of Labor Day weekend and, less than a week later, George has just completed another round trip, delivering their cargo I believe based on what I can see on AIS to New York Sand and Stone by the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Clinton Point quarry has been in operation for over 100 years and dolomite rock from there is probably embedded in most structures we see in the region.
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Keep building
Carver Companies towboat Erin Elizabeth brought hopper barges down the North River in the final days of August, traveling from Coeymans to the harbor. They passed West New York where new construction continues seemingly without end.
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As old as Stonehenge?
Coral Coast, Dann Marine’s 55-year-old 3,000 HP tug, brought a light cement transporter barge up the North River in the final week of August, heading back to the cement plant in Coeymans after discharging at the terminal in Bayonne. The cylindrical 34-story building at the top of the Bergen Hill in the background is the Stonehenge Building of North Bergen. Just slightly older than the tug, Stonehenge was built in 1967 when the shoreline below was still industrial buildings and rail yards. A week later, as of Wednesday morning, Coral is on the way back to Coeymans once again having departed the Flushing Bay cement terminal at sunrise.
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 