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In from out of town
Genesis Valiant arrived in New York Harbor on Saturday with tanker barge GM 6507 on the wire and headed up the North River to anchor off Riverdale. The pair were arriving from Baltimore via the C&D Canal and the Delaware River. We last saw these two anchoring on the river in May of 2023. At that time we surmised they lightered European refined product off a tanker in the Upper Bay before heading back to Philly. In the photo, they are passing the Army Corps of Engineers driftwood collection tug Gelberman on patrol.
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Holiday blues
DonJon’s Thomas D. Witte was standing by on the south side of the DSNY Pier 99 transfer station, about a week before Christmas. The end of Con Ed’s Pier 98 fuel dock is visible on the right.
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Centerline Logistics tug William F Fallon Jr brought the tank barge Long Island up to North River anchorage a few days before Christmas.
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Just visiting
Vane tug Cape Fear tied up alongside the dilapidated North River Pier 92 on a quiet Thursday at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal this past week. Pier 92 was taken out of service for structural reasons several years ago, but the cruise terminal is set to release a 30-year master plan next year and indications are that the pier will be restored for cruise ship use and/or possibly some Blue Highway shipping role. Cape Fear later headed up to the Con Ed steam plant fuel dock on Pier 98 on unknown business.
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Heading back to the harbor
Metropolitan Marine’s Pegasus came down the North River Wednesday morning. She was returning from assisting with docking a barge at the Yonkers sugar plant.
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Barge in
Kimberly Turecamo brought the Moran tank barge Connecticut up the North River on the hip to spend some time at anchorage on Thursday. We see Kimberly sometimes heading up for assist jobs in Buchanan but have not seen her on the river with a barge before as far as I can remember.
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Arriving light
Easterly As Omaria, a small 20k deadweight ton foreign-flagged tanker came up the North River early Wednesday en route to a terminal in Albany from Canada. She was very high in the water and one possibility is that she will be loading an ethanol cargo for export back to Canada.
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Getting supplies
Cable-laying vessel Ariadne continues to work on the Champlain Hudson Power Express project further north on the Hudson, but comes down to Port Newark periodically, presumably for resupply. On Wednesday she came down the North River, overtaking Treasure Coast with a cement cargo heading for the terminal in Flushing Bay. Crew enjoyed the view and warm windless morning from the helicopter deck up top.
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A dean of the fleet
Liz Vinik came up the North River early Tuesday without a tow, heading for Newburgh. This is the first time I’ve seen this tug, which was built in Oyster Bay in 1962, making her one of the oldest tugs working in NY Harbor. According to tugboatinformation.com, her original name was Esso Maryland. On this trip, Liz made a quick stop at the Buckeye Terminal in Newburgh and then came straight back home, returning to NY Harbor by midnight. I don’t know the purpose of the voyage.
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Small but strong
American Petroleum’s towboat Diane B returned to the harbor Tuesday morning with the barge James Joseph. We only see this tug occasionally on the North River and with only about 270 feet of combined length this is probably the smallest tank barge/tug pairing working the lower Hudson. They were returning from the small fuel terminal in New Hamburg, NY, where the small size and shallow draft is presumably helpful.
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 