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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.

  • No more port fees

    Fure Viten, a small 18,000 deadweight ton Swedish flag tanker, arrived on the North River Wednesday morning bound for the Buckeye terminal in Albany. The tanker is LNG powered, with tanks evident on the deck, and also able to run on liquified biogas. Fure Viten was constructed in 2021 in a shipyard in China and would have been subject to port fees assessed on Chinese-built vessels calling on US ports earlier this year, but those fees have now been suspended as a result of negotiations.

    The tanker arrives from the refineries of Saint John, New Brunswick after first calling in Searsport, Maine and New Haven and is probably carrying a cargo of Canadian refined oil products for delivery upriver.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • A well-trained militia…

    A 39-foot landing craft type boat belonging to New York State Naval Militia’s Emergency Boat Service came up the North River Wednesday morning on a trip up from Glenwood Landing Marina on Hempstead Bay on the North Shore of Long Island, looped around and returned to the marina where I think it is based. The Naval Militia is similar to a national guard force but is funded under different federal legislation and is 95% staffed by reservists from the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. In the past we have mainly seen these boats upriver near Indian Point, but seem to be seeing them more recently on the North River as well. Their duties include port security, support for law enforcement, and emergency response.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive

  • Back from New Haven

    Kristin Poling returned from a run up to New Haven with the Eva Leigh Cutler barge on Tuesday afternoon and took anchorage in the relatively sheltered North River off Guttenberg overnight. Gale warnings went into effect Tuesday evening, with gusts above 30 knots observed at Robbin’s Reef in the Upper Bay.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Substitute

    Norfolk Tug’s George Holland was bringing empty Buchanan Marine stone hoppers up the North River and passing Weehawken’s Port Imperial on Sunday morning. We more often see Buchanan’s own Buchanan12 on this route, but that tug was further north bringing a barge to a shipyard in Kingston on Sunday, as captured by Glenn Raymo’s feed. It looked like George only brought the tow as far as Haverstraw Bay where she may have left the hoppers near the Haverstraw quarry rather than traveling all the way up to Clinton Point.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • After the wind

    Vane Brothers tug Choptank had the DS-54 tank barge on the hip heading down the North River for the harbor midday Thursday. A gale had come through overnight toppling trees on land, including a willow in Riverside Park South, but winds had settled down by morning.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Pushing paper

    Don Jon tug Paul Andrew was taking the recycling out on Thursday, maneuvering a DSNY waste paper scow into the channel at North River Pier 99 amid still-heavy winds. Waste paper collected in Manhattan is brought from here to a paper mill on the Arthur Kill shore of Staten Island where it is made into cardboard boxes and other cardboard products.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • All in the family

    Both of Boston Marine Transport’s tugs and two of the company’s three barges were moving oil products on the North River this week. On Thursday afternoon, the 3,000 HP Quenames was heading for Newburgh with a cargo loaded on the New England 29 barge. The next morning, the bigger 4,200 HP Pinuccia was Albany-bound with the New York 30 barge.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Bronx bound

    Sound Marine of Nyack’s 680 HP tug Matthew G brought a hopper barge loaded with aggregate down from the quarry dock in Hudson NY. They were heading for Hunts Point in the Bronx and the location of the new Con Agg terminal being built at that site, making this one of the first or perhaps the first shipment to that new stop on NYC’s Blue Highway. For more on the new terminal, see gCaptain story from April.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Getting metal

    Kallisti GS, a 575-foot Portugal-flagged bulk ship, came up the North River Tuesday afternoon with her hatches vented. She was arriving from Turkey after first calling in Providence and was heading for the scrap dock in Rensselaer where she will likely load metal for export back to Turkey. The metal may return to us some day as rebar or other products.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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  • Back to Yonkers

    The Dann Marine tug East Coast headed up the North River running light, heading back to the Yonkers sugar refinery to rejoin a barge left there as the tug visited Bayonne, probably to refuel. The Yonkers plant is scheduled to close by the end of this year but seems to still be receiving regular deliveries by barge from Florida.

    ©2024 Daniel Katzive
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