Page 21: of Marine News Magazine (August 2006)

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August, 2006 • MarineNews 21 short freeboard, the Shelby Rose and the

Rachel Marie have a lower center of grav- ity than first glance might imply. "Going to sea on a typical lugger, with houses two and three decks high, with shallow draft, " said Capt. Henry, "makes them go back and forth, back and forth."

Said Capt. Fred Kosnac, whose family- run business in New York included the stick lighter K.M. Koehler in the mid- twentieth century, "There were a lot more ships sitting around longer back then.

Now their turnaround is quicker. Shore- side facilities now get their stuff by truck." So the call for delivery by water -- indeed, the sheer possibility of it, as north- ern waterfronts yield increasingly to resi- dences — has been on the decline. And where waterborne delivery remains effi- cacious, tugs can move container barges from terminal to terminal, Capt. Kosnac said. Hence, a harbor once crowded with stick lighters today has just one that ful- fills the old role of chandlering ships.

Tankers at their terminals may be harder to reach by trucks, so they're among the clientele of Twin Tube, the stick lighter look-alike run by Reynolds out of Staten

Island. Twin tube has some significance — one of the very first builds of Luther

Blount more than half a century ago. She was a tanker originally (as was the

Koehler, according to Capt. Kosnac) out- fitted anew for deck cargoes. As things stand, Twin Tube gives the last glimpse of a once common sight on the waters of

New York.

The market for luggers up north lacks the incentives so prevalent in the oil patch, but also, the world's a dynamic place. As the coasts of the boroughs and of metropolitan New Jersey turn increas- ingly residential, the industrial complex keeps getting pushed further west, toward

Newark Bay. That's where the two major container ports are, and the large tanks.

And nobody seems to be saying there should be more 18-wheelers emanating from those facilities to drive through New

York City. For there are just three routes — one bridge, two tunnels — no more than that, by which all of those trucks can reach all of New York, everything east of it, and most locales coastal to the north.

Three routes, at their best overcongested on good days. What happens on bad days?

Even landside outfits like the Municipal

Art Society — a century-old, highly pres- tigious organization of architects and the like, dedicated to making the city livable for its citizens — has come out in favor of the industrial harbor and all its resources, as a way to cut-back the asthma or cancer or whatever is caused by too many vehic- ular fumes.

There seems to be plenty of evidence that the gentrification of the waterfront can be overdone.

Despite noble talk about "waterfront access" for "low-income people," the real issue facing this harbor — maybe all har- bors — is the issue of transportation of goods used by rich and poor alike.

Any claim of social responsibility by developers sounds disingenuous, if the distribution of goods is left out of their plans.

Will city planners, once awakened, take the steps needed to keep people supplied and in good health, too?

But, of course, predicting that is no job for the maritime industry. The maritime industry simply does the bidding of its immediate clients and customers.

Still, as all that construction silts the transportation routes in, the maritime industry might welcome, in the back of its mind, the awareness that south of New

Orleans, a craft has evolved because it was handy in shallow waters. All sorts of handy.

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