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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.

  • A visitor from Sandy Hook

    The Sandy Hook patrol boat, US Coast Guard Cutter Bonito, was visiting the North River this week. After traveling as far as Tappan Zee Thursday, the cutter spent a very cold moonlit night at the Coast Guard mooring off Edgewater and then did some maneuvering on the river off of Weehawken Friday morning before returning to her base at Fort Hancock on Sandy Hook where she remains Saturday morning. The 87-foot Bonito is the only white-hulled cutter based in New York Harbor.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive

  • Heading for home

    Sound Marine’s 680 HP tug Matthew G came up the North River with a pair of stone hoppers, heading for the Sound Marine base in Nyack this past Sunday. Matthew was coming back from Rhode Island but stopped at Con Agg’s new aggregate facility in Hunts Point on the East River where she may have picked up the barges.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Back in service

    The Jordan Rose/RCM 250 ATB was northbound on the North River with a New York Harbor cargo early Thursday. This is the first time I have seen the unit since a dispute between the owners and management companies knocked the Rose Cay fleet out of action this summer, though Jordan has made at least one earlier trip up river since then. As I understand it, Jordan has returned to service with a new manager now. The old Rose Cay branding has been removed from the tug.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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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.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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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.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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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.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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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.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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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

  • 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.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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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.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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