This week’s ship photos have been submitted to us by gCaptain.com Forum Super Moderator, Doug Pine, and show the M/V UASC Shuwaikh outbound for sea on the Con Hook Range, New York Harbor. Photo’s by Joel Milton (Click images for higher resolution). [Continue Reading →]
Tags: · new york, ship photo
The new amphibius assault ship USS New York, built with 7.5 tons of steel from the fallen World Trade Center, arriving in New York Harbor on November 2, 2009, en route to Pier 88.
Read More about the USS New York HERE or HERE
(Image Source – AP)
Tags: · Navy, new york, U.S. Navy
Earlier this week the USS New York, the the fifth ship in the LPD 17 San Antonio class of amphibious transport dock ships, took off on it’s maiden voyage from Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in the greater New Orleans area, Louisiana en route to it’s namesake city, New York. What makes the USS New York especially interesting is that the vessel was constructed with 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center wreckage that were incorporated into the bow stem of the vessel.
New York’s keel was laid on 10 September 2004 and the ship will be commissioned USS New York in New York City in 2009. Mrs Dotty England, wife of Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, is the sponsor.
For more information, the USS New York has a great website with in depth information on the construction and history HERE. The USS New York also has it’s own Flickr page HERE
Tags: · interesting ship, Navy, new york, new york city
The Port of New York and New Jersey have recently announced that the raising or replacing of the Bayonne Bridge could be upwards of $2B. The bridge, which stands 151 ft over the Kill Van Kull at its highest point, is too low for the next generation of massive container ships. The bridge is the largest obstacle facing growth in the port. Traffic World Online tells us:
Richard Larrabee, the port authority’s port commerce director, spoke Monday at the bistate port’s 8th Annual Port Industry Day. Earlier estimates had been that the project would cost about $1 billion.
“The Bayonne Bridge is the Number One issue in the port,” Larrabee said. The authority expects to complete a study by next summer on how to replace or raise the bridge, which crosses the channel to container terminals in the Port Newark-Elizabeth complex in New Jersey and New York Container Terminal on Staten Island.
The Port Authority is currently in the midst of a study to decide what is the most efficient way to solve this problem, whether it is raising the height or replacing the bridge, or or building a tunnel under the Kill Van Kull.
The Bayonne Bridge, at 8640 ft, is currently the third longest steel arch bridge in the world and was the longest when it was completed in 1931. Built by the Port Authority of New York, it was constructed to allow vehicle traffic from Staten Island to reach Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel.
Tags: · bridge, bridge span, design, engineering, new york
(Image Courtesy of New York Times)
After 40 year’s in service, the famed Q.E. 2 arrived at Pier 90 early this morning for its 710th and final visit to New York. The New York Times tells us of her arrival:
With shrill blasts from its three Tyfon whistles and a 39-foot-long red paying-off pennant streaming from the mast — a foot for each year at sea — that traditionally marks the end of a ship’s commission, the Queen Elizabeth 2 (only the actual monarchs warrant Roman numerals, not the ships named for royalty) split the predawn darkness to begin a day of festivities and souvenir photos by the Statue of Liberty and berthed at Pier 90 at West 50th Street on the Hudson River, tying up around 6 a.m.
As she entered the harbor, she was trailed by the grander Queen Mary 2. The two queens paraded to the Statue of Liberty before the Queen Mary 2 split off to return to its dockage at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
The Q.E. 2, which was sold last year for eventual use as a floating hotel in Dubai, will be retired from active service later this year following her final voyage from her home in Southhampton, England to Dubai. The Queen Elizabeth 2, along with its two sister ships Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria, is operated by the British shipping company Cunard Lines, one of the oldest transatlantic shipping companies in the world.
Tags: · Cruise Ship, cunard, cunard line, dubai, new york, new york city, Queen Elizabeth II, queen mary 2, queen victoria
Image courtesy of NYCharities.org
On Sunday, August 31 is the 16th Annual Great North River Tugboat Race & Competition held at Pier 84 on the Hudson River. I know last year this event was a big hit and we look forward to it again this year. Below is a description of the event from nyc.gov.
Tugboats from all of the tug and towing companies in New York Harbor, as well as historic tugboats, will motor into Pier 84 for the Great North River Tugboat Race and Challenge. The event kicks off with a parade of tugboats from Pier 84 to the race start line near the 79th Street Basin.
The tugboats will then race one nautical mile back to Pier 84. Awards will be presented to each class of boats, broken down by total horsepower. Following the race there will be a bow to bow pushing contest and a line throwing contest, in which deck hands will attempt to lasso a bollard and tie off in the fastest time possible. There will also be a contest to determine the best decorated tug.
Spectators can purchase tickets to view all the festivities from fireboat John J. Harvey, which will depart from Pier 83 and will offer the closest viewing of the action. Free viewing is also available at Pier 84.
For more information on this and other fun events, visit the Working Harbor Committee website HERE.
Although originally from the NYC area, gCaptain works out of California so we are sorry to say we won’t be able to make it, but if any readers out there do attend, we would love to from you. Email us at tips@gCaptain.com
Also see our coverage from last year’s race HERE.
Tags: · competition, hudson river, new york, nyc, race, tug, tugboat
Photo by AurelioZen
NewYorkology tells us of the first / last ever meeting of its three grand ships;
Cunard’s one-time-only royal rendezvous of its three queens — the QE2, QM2 and recently christened Queen Victoria — will be celebrated at 7 p.m. on January 13 with a harbor fireworks show as the three grand cruise liners meet near the Statue of Liberty.
The QE2 and Queen Victoria will arrive in tandem (likely pre-sunrise) from Southampton, England. During the day, the QE2 will be docked at Manhattan’s Pier 92 and the Queen Victoria nearby at Pier 88. The Queen Mary 2 will arrive separately (also early morning,) and dock in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
All three have bridge cams (Queen Victoria, QM2 and QE2) and Cruise Critic Ben Lyons is blogging the voyage.
UPDATE:
Henny Ray Abrams/Associated Press
The New York Times has reported on the festivities. They write:
In the annals of maritime history, the Queens’ sailing was momentous. It was the first time in the 168-year history of the Cunard Line, the owner of the liners, that it had three ships named after British queens in the same port at the same time. The company arranged the ships’ schedules so that they departed from New York City ports simultaneously.
The Queens’ meeting, witnessed by thousands on shore and on board, will also be their last, company officials said.
“They are not programmed to meet in any other port,” Cunard’s president, Carol Marlow, said during an afternoon news conference at Pier 88 in Manhattan, with the docked Queen Victoria visible in background. “This is a spine-tingling time.”
The Queen Elizabeth 2, Cunard’s longest-serving ship, left Manhattan for its 26th and final around-the-world journey — a farewell tour that will usher in its retirement in November, when the liner will become a floating hotel in Dubai. The Queen Victoria, which came into service last month, embarked on its maiden world cruise. And the Queen Mary 2, the largest trans-Atlantic liner ever built, weighing about 151,400 gross tons, sailed to the Caribbean from the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
Click HERE to continue reading.
Tags: · Cruise Ship, cunard, fireworks, largest, Maritime, new york, nyc, ocean liner, qe2, qm2, Queen Elizabeth II, queen mary II, queen victoria, Queen Victoria Cunard, ship, world-record
This blog runs off the generous support of sponsors. Call (805) 720-6268 for details.
gCaptain On Twitter
gCaptain On Facebook
gCaptain On LinkedIn