An Introduction to Tugboats of New York
Sunday, January 17, 2021
Today, I cracked open Tugboats of New York and started to read the introduction. Apparently, in the 1970’s it wasn’t easy to get a job working on a tugboat and it was, in many ways, a “family” business. And it goes without saying that males dominated the tugboats of New York harbor.
I notice that the first black and white photograph on page 3 depicts a man who is, unfortunately, “anonymous.” I hope to avoid having “anonymous” folks in Lenny’s book and know that I will have to do my homework.
“Pull hawser”, “dredge”, “starboard quarter”, “coil the line” — a foreign language that I hope to get the hang of as I continue to read. I really should look up the words but for now, I am not putting too much pressure on myself to become an expert on tugboats. Still, I should learn the basics…
Okay so hawser refers to a specific type of rope used for towing. I believe Lenny took close ups of several tied down as well as stretched out.
Dredge I kinda know. My grandparents (Oma & Opa) lived in the North German harbor town of Emden and I often saw machines dredging (pulling out) stuff from the murky brown grey water “deim Deich.” (by the dike)
Starboard Quarter is not a form of currency in the shape of a star that is made out of cardboard. According to Boats for Beginners - Navy Ships, it always refers to the right rear part of a boat.
Coiling the line…okay so I was not able to get a straight written definition so I turned to Kyle via YouTube: How To Coil & Stow Braided Lines & Ropes | Expert Advice. Kyle, I feel like I did you dirty by not grabbing a rope so that I could try to follow your lead. My favorite phrase: “healthy figure eight coil".”
I am proud to state that I read all of the Introduction (Never mind that it was only 7 pages) and dipped into Chapter 1 before needing to switch gears.
Scanned my 60 slides and daydreamed a bit about what it would be like to live and work on a tugboat…
