Blue Marlin Blues

Blue Marlin carrying an oil rig

What links the US Cole, the Mary A. Whalen, the Exxon Valdez and the Blue Marlin?  

What related shipping spectacle was conducted in the Upper Bay last month?

Exxon Valdez (R) leaking oil in 1989

The Exxon Valdez spill spawned a powerful piece of regulation OPA 90 which, among other things, banned single-skinned vessels from moving fuel in US waters. 

This regulation would have phased out the Mary A. Whalen, if she hadn't gone out of business due to a scored crankshaft. 

A large collection of operable fuel moving equipment that WAS phased out by OPA 90 was recently sold by Reinauer Transportation to a Nigerian company. That company contracted Dutch-owned Dockwise to send their heavy lift ship the Blue Marlin to take away tugs and barges. It was the Blue Marlin brought the terrorist-damaged US Cole back from Africa.

Loading the vessels, a job planned and choreographed by the Dockwise team, became a 26-day saga of several failed attempts. The spectacle had harbor watchers glued to blogs, a tugcam, and their favorite telephoto lenses. Confused landlubbers ashore were overheard to say that the Blue Marlin appeared to be sinking. They received no help from the mainstream press which made no mention of the visit of this famous ship nor the engineering feats, and crises, running throughout the month of July.  

Reinauer cleverly sold the lot but washed their hands of the loading.  Miller's Launch, a new player in harbor towing, was assigned to load the tugs, McAllister Transportation the barges. (Thank you McAllister Transportation for allowing Carolina Salguero to ride and photograph from your tugs!) A Red Hook outfit was assigned to do the lashing of the barges

Reinauer had the Kristy Anne Reinauer outfitted with a tugcam to watch operations. 

The barges were staged in the Red Hook containerport all near the Mary Whalen, putting PortSide in the cat bird seat to follow the ops, in fact, at one point we were told we'd  have to move the Mary Whalen to make space for shifting fuel barges!


PortSide director Carolina Salguero got back into photojournalism gear and documented the saga. She recently joined colleagues Rick Spilman, Will Van Dorp (Tugster), Jonathan Atkin and Ed Fanuzzi at a Ship Lore & Model Club meeting in making a presentation on the story. Look for an upcoming PortSide TankerTalk that will present this story to the general public. For now, we offer you the following images by Salguero. Will Van Dorp compiled a chronology slideshow, but his narration at the TankerTalk is what will knit it all together (plus he adds some great overheard quotes that capture some colorfully misinformed speculation as to what is going on.) 


The goal was to get four of the tugs loaded near the house of the Blue Marlin, with one tug at the stern, and with all the barges laying athwartships in between.

McAllister Port Captain Pat Kinnier dispatches tugs that will move the Reinauer fuel barges on Load Attempt 1

Four of the loaded tugs on Load Attempt 2. This is the after end of the Blue Marlin house, at the stern is another tug, The Maverick, which lived up (or down) to its name on this job and was the SNAFU on Load Attempt 1 and participated in SNAFU on Load Attempt 2

Tug John Reinauer listing over as Load Attempt 2 goes south. At the stern of the Blue Marlin, the Maverick is also listing over.

The Blue Marlin is due back this week or next for another load of Reinauer equipment. The Coast Guard must be reading itself for more calls from the landside public that a boat is sinking in the harbor... 

Good luck to the crews working on this load attempt; and hats off to Reinauer for having only one vessel left for sale.  Their salesperson sure earned a bonus this year. 

11/16/11 update:  The Blue Marlin never returned. Harbor gossip says that this is because Dockwise had a hard time being paid by the Nigerian buyer of the vessels. This is unconfirmed at this time. 


The harbor grapevine also reports the following (also unconfirmed):

In 2011, the Reinauer Transportation Tugs Janice Ann Reinauer, Dean Reinauer, John Reinauer, and Curtis Reinauer, and Boston Towing and Transportation tug Maverick where acquired by Runner Marine Limited, a division of Capital Oil and Gas Industries limited of Lagos, Nigeria.

The tugs where renamed as follows:

Tug Maverick - Tug Alfa

Tug John Reinauer - Tug Bravo

Tug Janice Ann Reinauer - Tug Charly

Tug Dean Reinauer - Tug Delta

Tug Curtis Reinauer - Tug Echo

Chiclet issues 1st ever press release - response to TONY mascot list

PortSide NewYork

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7/22/11

contact:  Chiclet

Chiclet says Time Out!
PortSide cat hurls furball at exclusion from TONY list of “Animal mascots of NYC”

Chiclet, ship’s cat at PortSide NewYork, today expressed her resentment at being left off the list of NYC mascots published recently by Time Out New York:

http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/1718717/animal-mascots-of-nyc?page=0,5

She called some of the mascots “fly-by-nighters who laze around all day, and disappear when there is real work to be done, like catching mice and birds, and supervising humans.”

Chiclet referred to her active supervision of work on the Mary Whalen, the 172’ repurposed oil tanker that serves as office and floating venue for PortSide NewYork.

Chiclet also crowed about her computer work. “I designed the Twitter page for PortSide, although it was under false pretenses – I was led to believe it would attract birds. It took great willpower learning to use the mouse without picking it up it my mouth and offering it to my human, Carolina Salguero.”

Another job Chiclet takes pride in performing is her role as the boat’s official greeter, which was caught on camera last year. “When Charlotte Rampling came on the boat to film an interview show for European television, I hit my mark perfectly, reaching the actress just as she was about to climb the gangway. She reached down and stroked my head right on cue. It was a pleasure working with a real professional.”

Chiclet suggests that next time inclusion in the mascot list should be done democratically. “Make it like the All Star Game, not that I actually know what that is. Let us mascots vote for who deserves to be on the list. And get the humans out of the picture.”

More on my activities below:

Streaming Netflix and looking for Charlotte Rampling who I much admire

Inspecting during NY1 shoot. I'm sitting on their equipment case here.

Helping John Weaver cut foam

Attacking bikinis

Hiding in the pier Savannah

Fishing

Pipe inspection

Inspecting from the office

Report from Waterfront Sunday 6/19 in Red Hook

PortSide assembled a Power Team to man our set-up at the Red Hook sidewalk sale organized by RHED.  Fresh off the Mermaid Parade, we had Will Van Dorp Tugster; and Frank Hanavan, the creative omnicompetent and maker of the Schooner Pioneer and Admiral Nelson costumes; from PortSide, Stephanie Ortiz, one of our interns, Dan Goncharoff and Carolina Salguero, and Michele Kogon, copy editor, ensuring that all our written emissions were spot on.

Smitty played the guitar for a while.

Will Van Dorp aka Tugster

We engaged in some family-friendly, maritime street theatre to raise awareness of our programs (so hard to do while locked behind the port fence!) and money for our teen Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).  

Most of us took turns being Admiral Nelson to the amusement of passersby.

Frank, who also believes a good prop is key, used the kiddie pool to flag cars.

Suited up as the traffic schooner for the first time since the Bar Tini move, Carolina slowed traffic with a flamboyant leaf-letting technique and got cars to stop, talk, donate and/or take information on PortSide's fundraising drive for the teen Summer Youth Employment Program.

Frank - creating maritime awareness one knot at a time - left one of his Turks Head Tags on the bus stop pole.

 

One new storekeeper of the Fulla T-shirt shop liked our hubbub so much he asked if we'd be out every weekend. He said if we were, he'd open up on weekends - even though we looked pretty strong in the t-shirt department ourselves!

Waterfront Sunday 6/19 in Red Hook

Admiral Nelson, kayaking, seafood, circus on a barge, Red Hook-wide sidewalk sale & more...

Red Hook Sidewalk Sale 11am-4pm:
Enjoy hunting for treasures and discounts along Van Brunt Street. Or SELL. Set up your own table along Van Brunt.

PortSide will be in front of 281 Van Brunt Street (just north of Pioneer) selling t-shirts, talking about our programs and raising money for our Summer Youth Employment Program. 
 
If you can't see us in person, please donate here.    

Smitty will play guitar for an hour, we will have a kiddie pool with ducks and boats, a DIY photo booth with industrial objects such as our super-sized wrench (far right), and we will be joined by Admiral Nelson.

We'll be next to Kevin's Restaurant who will be selling smoothies outside and seafood inside.  Eggs Chesapeake (eggs benedict with a crabcake instead of ham) is a favorite.

Across the street and just up the block is the famed Red Hook Lobster Pound

Around the corner to the west on Pioneer is the new Filipino eatery Philly Pinoy  This hole-in-the-wall centers around a sidewalk tikki hut and is targeted at the Filipino crews of the cruise ships. They're hoping that the Brooklyn foodie scene finds them*** update, they are currently only open when a cruise ship is in. Schedule here. Hot food is made on the spot, and imported bagged and canned goods are inside.

Waterfront Museum Barge is running their annual Showboat Shazzam of family entertainment and circus artistry. $10 in advance, $15 at door. Shows 1pm, 4pm

Red Hook Boaters free kayaking Valentino Pier Park 1-5pm

For last minute shoppers, father's day gifts can be found at our three garden centers or Red Hook's unusual boutiques which include Metal & Thread selling lamps made from blowfish and curious, antique hardware.

Dads can end the day listening to live music at Bait & Tackle surrounded by taxidermy.

Mary A. Whalen gets new and national recognition!

WE ARE EXCITED!  We applied to The NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (SHPO) to see if the Mary A. Whalen were eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and she is!

We've always said that we wanted to secure a lease before we could justify trying to raise money for the ship (please pick up the pace on that lease, EDC!) but enough things had aligned for us to start moving on getting recognition for the ship.

A first move to be eligible for major funding is to have the Mary Whalen become a NYC Landmark, on the National Register of Historic Places or "be deemed eligible to be on the National Register" a sort of interim status that implies significant documentation work in and of itself.

Many thanks to one of our spring interns Stephanie Ortiz,  an Architect in training from Puerto Rico and a Historic Preservation student at Pratt for helping to translate the preservation concepts, digging up the official guide on how to do this, doing additional historical research, and contributing to the whole process.

The process was itself gratifying because we came to realize how much information we had accumulated on the ship since 2005!

She came to PortSide with no history. Nada. Not even awareness of her role in the major Supreme Court decision US vs Reliable Fuel.

Tom Rinaldi, a young history buff working for the Central Park Conservancy, told us about the case around 2007. (This reveals how much more data has been uploaded and is now findable by google than in 2005).

We were able to fill in some gaps in our information via rushed consultations with Charlie Deroko, Norman Brouwer, Gerry Weinstein of Archive of Industry and Steamer Lilac. As Norman has helped write some of the national guides to ship preservation, his help was a real boost. Thanks to all of you!

We will be sharing some of what we learned from them in upcoming posts...

We pulled it all together and  SHPO reviewed our application in record time and wrote back "Great application!" They said they were pleased to hear from us, adding "we've been watching the Mary Whalen." 

Read their Determination of Eligibility letter here and check out her history page.  

The Mary Whalen's eligibility for the National Register increases funding opportunities and visibility for the ship, for PortSide and for Red Hook.

We have related news of PortSide's 2011 summer youth employment program to do restoration work on the Mary Whalen. You can support that via crowdrise. More on that soon!

Flooding bonanza

Saturday night brought heavy rainfall and high winds. Add to that a full moon, and what you get is very high tides which means lots of damage to trees, docks, whatever. And whatever hits the waterway upstream comes down to us.  That can be a scavenger's bonanza. One year I scored a 60' concrete dock, rather new and reeking of fancy marina. The boat PortSide uses for Operation Christmas Cheer is attached to that. (That boats needs a mechanic for small, gasoline boat engine, please email portsidenewyork(at)gmail.com if you have leads).

Such rains also overwhelm our own CSOs which then discharge street litter and sewage into the waterways.

This morning at 0820, at about high of the high tide, past all the messy flotsam,  I spotted a little float across the way banging into the rag-tag shoreline that is the sad remains of the Hamilton Avenue Ferry.  Quick inspection via binoculars: a float sized to 4x8' sheet of plywood with nice inset corner posts, through-drilled for docklines, bevelled tops to the posts even, a perfect little thing for working on the side of the hull. I called to Army Corps drift boats to see if they were in the area. Nope. No answer on the Gelberman. The Hayward was dispatched to Gravesend Bay.

A little while later, the purr of a small engine caused me to get up and look out the porthhole. A Miller's Launch boat was tending to the area that has a CSO, and I think the gate to the Gowanus Canal Flushing Tunnel. They have a contract with the DEP to tend the CSO discharge areas. Maybe they could bring the float over...

I watched them score a very large double ended fender. I waved them over as they came by. They didn't have a boat hook, so I lent them mine and they nabbed the float for us.

About an hour and half latter, another engine sound outside. This time it was a DEP skimmer boat picking up the floatables.   It reminds me of a baleen whale in that it opens its gullet and take all the little stuff into its gut.

Gullet end to the right, down and skimming

They cleaned up all the yuck that was floating around, a clog of twigs, branches and plastic unmentionables.

Gullet closed and up, stern to the right showing mass of collected wood

Later in the day, the tide was headed out and you could trace the line of the current, an arc of litter spread from the crotch of pier and bulkhead, out past the Mary Whalen into the stream of the Buttermilk.

2000 hrs,  I talked to a tug captain southbound on the Hudson from Albany off Haverstraw. He said "I don't know what you got for Saturday night rains, but up here it was incredible. It's like somebody flushed up in Albany, we're southbound at 13 knots."

Titanic on Twitter

99 Year anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic

Experience the RMS Titanic wireless messages in real time

On Friday, April 15, 2011, it will be 99 years since the tragic sinking of RMS Titanic. To commemorate this significant anniversary, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic will use Twitter to broadcast the vessel's original wireless transmissions. 

Ten years prior to Titanic's sinking, the first wireless transmission to cross the Atlantic from North America was sent from the Marconi station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. Much like the short messages we send today via text, instant messaging or Twitter, wireless transmissions bridged distances between people and made it possible to share information across the world. 

As the largest and grandest ocean liner of her time, Titanic was equipped with the most modern wireless technology available. When disaster struck, that technology proved invaluable as it was crucial in saving many passengers and, also, provided the world over with the stunning news of the loss.

This year, starting at 11:55 pm ADT on April 14, follow the hash tag #ns_mma on Twitter for a real time account of the famous disaster. Rather than re-telling the story of the ill-fated ship, this event provides the unique opportunity to experience the magnitude of Titanic through the same wireless messages operators received in 1912.

It should be noted that the transmission times are based on “ships time”, the local time aboard Titanic which changed every day as the ship moved west across time zones. When she sank, Titanic was about 30 minutes ahead of Atlantic Standard Time.  

thanks to Maritime Network on LinkedIn for this information

Summer friends return

from www.richard-seaman.com/Birds/USA/VoloBog/index.html

Returned to port 1145 tonight.

Another of the larger container ships on Pier 10, fueling barge already alongside. The port is ever busier.

Heard first croak of a night heron this calendar year.  Had it just returned from migration? I look forward to the cheerful chuffling of the swallows. They live under the pier. Clearly, they haven't read the DEC policy on shading, otherwise they would know they couldn't live there.

Fun fact: A group of herons has many collective nouns, including a "battery", "hedge", "pose", "rookery", and "scattering" of herons.

Save a lighthouse? Buy a lighthouse?

Want a lighthouse? 

See correspondence just in from the GSA about Romer Shoal Light and Great Beds Lighthouses (posted with their approval)

-----Original Message-----
From: meta.cushing@gsa.gov [mailto:meta.cushing@gsa.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 8:00 AM
To: portsidenewyork@gmail.com
Subject: Romer Shoal Light and Great Beds Lights - GSA offshore auctions

Dear Portside:

Your programs sound very interesting. -

sending this information along in the off chance your membership might be interested in these historic lights, offshore near the border of NY/NJ waters... they are available under the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act (NHLPA) via online auction.  Thank you.
..(See attached file: Great Beds IFB Final.pdf)(See attached file: Romer Shoal IFB Final.pdf)

MC

US General Services Administration
Boston

-----Original Message-----
From: meta.cushing@gsa.gov [mailto:meta.cushing@gsa.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 8:56 AM
To: portsidenewyork@gmail.com
Subject: RE: Romer Shoal Light and Great Beds Lights - GSA offshore auctions

Good to hear back from you!  I found your site while I was looking for maritime programs in NY and NJ...  - there has been so little interest in these two offshore lights, I am concerned and want to let more maritime people know about the auctions.  We will keep the auctions going as long as we have some bidders!  I had thought by now there would be some...(Usually, people do not start bidding until we have had an offshore inspection - but to do that, I need people to register!  I have only one person who has registered so far for Great Beds and no one for Romer, disappointingly.)

As a nonprofit, you may know like-minded organizations who might be interested in other lighthouses:  Starting on June 1, 2011 for 60 days, GSA will be contacting nonprofits about several other offshore lights in NJ and NY  - The  Federal government offers these historic lights out first and foremost for stewardship by nonprofits, museums, or schools or cities or towns at no cost.  Nonprofits need to apply for them, and be recommended by the Dept of the Interior, National Park Service.  My agency is in charge of outreach and also deeding once the applicant has been approved.  This year, we are offering Race Rock and Orient Point lights in New York to nonprofits and public entities, as well as Brandywine Shoal, Ship John Shoal and Miah Maull in New Jersey.  All offshores.

It is only when we can't find a steward that we sell them.. (i.e. Great Beds and Romer are at the selling stage)

Yes, please put me on the e-newsletter... Thank you..

In Memoriam - Bernie Ente

Photo by Cindy Goulder 2007

It is with heavy heart that I report that our small clan of harbor advocates has lost another soul. 

Bernie Ente died in the early morning of Friday, April 8.  May he and John Krevey be re-united in heaven and running their waterfront. Oh, what a heaven that would be. 

Bernie was a professional photographer and an avid rail and marine fan, full of arcane bridge and transit knowledge which he shared with a mixture of boyish enthusiasm and wry humor. 

Years ago, I dubbed him the "King of Newtown Creek" because of his tireless advocacy of that creek and the genuine joy he got from the place and the endeavor. He surely helped to raise awareness of its issues and possibilities.  Before the waterfront was such a popular destination, he was out there giving walking tours and organizing boat tours of his beloved toxic creek; and of course photographing it. 

Bernie was so generous with his photos. Many organizations benefited from the selfless way he donated photos.  Many a day started with my finding an email from Bernie with another photo of the Mary Whalen, or of Red Hook, that he'd made on his latest harbor junket. Of these he made many as he was a mainstay of the Working Harbor Committee which gives harbor tours. He supported them with photography and so much more.

Around here, people who never met him are grateful to him as the man who told us about the tanker being scrapped in Seattle. That tip led to our getting so many of the engine parts to fix the Mary Whalen engine.  So like Bernie to be reading a distant Seattle newspaper to find news about a Bushey tanker on the west coast, and so like Bernie to share information that would help someone else.

Here are some of the photos that Bernie sent us out of the blue 

 

 

His close friend Mitch Waxman posted a tribute

The Working Harbor Committee tribute

Will Van Dorp's tribute on Tugster  here

Rest in peace, Bernie.


Carolina Salguero

Send off to Old Man Winter

Is shipboard life romantic? You decide. Here's some of life on Pier 9B since late December.  

Below is a video from the Christmas blizzard where Carolina and her brother Antonio get ready to put out another bow line due to 50mph winds whipping around the end of the shed and hitting the bow. A few hours later, the winds were pushing the ship so far off the pier, they decided to raise the gangway on the boom so the gangway didn't come off the pier. We've kept the gangway rigged to the boom, which has allowed us to raise it and protect it from wake damage at high tide. This has given the office crew an athletic interactive feature they use several times a day, and Chiclet has become expert at catapulting herself off it at high tide. 

In order to spring the spring that has not sprung, we offer this tribute to Old Man Winter on what he does for us on the Mary A. Whalen!  

Block the view Coat everything

Have us go for salt from the pile

Prevent office staff getting carpal tunnel by having regular shoveling breaks. Here, Dan Goncharoff demonstrates excellent shovel technique.

Provide opportunity for Smoke 101, or How to Use the Damper, a short intensive class for Stephanie Ortiz, our planning intern from Puerto Rico.

Beat up on the gangway chainfall until it snags, kinks and chokes and  needs rescue lubrication. Thank you ASI for sending this forklift 12 minutes after the request!

Oblige us to call Rich Naruszewicz of the Captain Log for diesel fuel deliveries to run the galley stove. Like the mail boat, he comes with sea stories (Brownwater Edition) new and old (he used to be a tankerman on the Mary A. Whalen). Attract better dressed shovellers on Volunteer Days! Here Claudia Steinberg, who writes about design and fashion for the New York Times and German publications, joined a shoveling committee, needed after our director Carolina Salguero was hit by a truck in January and couldn't shovel for most snowfalls after the blizzard.

Set off the ship colors so nicely

Make lovely patterns, such as this March snow where the frames under the deck, warmed by the sun the day before, are still warm enough to melt the damp coating of an early morning.

New and strange on Pier 9B

Our ship's cat stands a good watch; Chiclet detected something way before me.

11pm, April 2, I was carrying her up to the captain's cabin when she tensed up and began to shiver and stare off the boat towards our vintage Hyster.

I could see nothing.

After about a minute, a humpbacked something came out from under the rollup door, headed behind the Hyster and then came out towards the boat and us.

Then, it looked up, and I could see the masked face of a raccoon.

Weirdly, I couldn’t see a tail. A tail-less raccoon?

It was not a huge one.

I barked and growled, and it trundled away as fast as its humpbacked self could go around the offshore end of the shed.

No, this is not April Fool’s!

Best,
Carolina Salguero

Petrolero con Salseros (tanker with salsa musicians)

PortSide's home, the tanker Mary A. Whalen, performed magnificently during the 2nd annual Concierto Tipico in Sunset Park. The can-do Edgar Alvarez of Fiesta VIP produced the event which is sponsored by City Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez. See our video here.





Bracketed by brightly colored inflatable kids rides, the Mary Whalen's hulking steel self held a powerful allure.




Over 400 people toured the tanker, many of whom had never been on a boat before.



















We gave tours in Spanish and English.










NYC Councilwoman Sara Gonzalez invited PortSide to bring the tanker for this event.


Several of the bands toured the ship, as did kids, a great grandmother and the pina colada vendor.


At the end of the day, Councilwoman Gonzalez and headliner Willie Colon stopped by for a photo op and to sign autographs for our crew. Some survivors of the Mermaid Parade joined us too.

Many people hoped the tanker would become a regular feature at Brooklyn Army Terminal pier 4 (aka the 58th Street pier). We told them all to come check us out in Red Hook's Atlantic Basin July 1 to Aug 24.

Thanks to a dynamic group of volunteers who had great team spirit and who made the day a success and lots of fun:

Diane Cho in the galley, Ray Howell engine room, Terry Reilly in the wheelhouse, Michele Kogon office monitor and copy editor, Iris Abra gangway reception (5 hours in the baking heat!), Maria Diaz tour guide and networker and quicker picker-upper, Mina Roustayi indefatigable guide in Spanish, Dan Goncharoff tours and deck monitor, John Weaver video and Official Fence Dismantler and Remantler.

Above is Amy Bucciferro playing air guitar on PortSide's photo-op wrench with boyfriend Matt Perricone, owner and captain of the Cornell, looking on. Amy works at PortSide one day a week. Thanks to the historic tug Cornell for towing us there and back for free!

We left the southside of Pier 9B at 0900, passing a containership unloading in the Red Hook port...

and returned at 2200 hours to the northside of 9B where we had the crippled Del Monte container ship as a neighbor on the southside of Pier 9A . They were there for about two weeks undergoing repairs. It was a long but glorious day!

Branding - not the cattle

post by John Weaver of PortSide NewYork

RAZORFISH: The very name conjures a creature slicing through the water so rapidly and with such precision as to leave no perceptible wake!!!
Unique indeed!!! As so, equally unique, is Domenic Venuto, Managing Director, of the aforementioned RAZORFISH.

A devoted fan of PortSide NewYork and an outstanding practitioner of the art of “Branding”, Domenic has come aboard to lead our core group in the exercises that will result in a re-branding of our enterprise.

As well as we know who we are, the personality, thrust, and mission of our efforts needs to be more accurately telegraphed to those we wish to serve and those who are increasingly approaching us to get involved.

As a veteran of 25 years in the “Ad” business, I have experienced this kind of effort in workshops and “brain sessions” many times over. This one was a standout being so expertly led, engrossing, and conducted in the maritime atmosphere of the Mary Whalen’s galley which we all look forward to sharing with visitors more often in the future.

Editor's Notes: Domenic is working independently with PortSide on this branding exercise.

John Weaver of PortSide was staff Director at WABC-TV. He turned to producing and directing commercials for twenty five years, becoming a Senior Vice President at Young and Rubicam before he retired.

Photo captions:
branding words submitted for consideration
Domenic Venuto and John Weaver
Dan Goncharoff and board member Jeanne-Marie Van Hemmen

The family grows

Out of the blue, we get calls or emails from people who are moved by the fact that the Mary A. Whalen (originally christened S.T. Kiddoo) has been saved. It's always a moving experience on this end. The ship speaks to quite a range of people and for very different reasons. I'll start blogging about these as they come in. Dunno why I didn't think to do so before.

---

From: Tom and Julie KIDDOO
Sent: Saturday, January 30, 2010 5:10 PM
To: portsidenewyork@gmail.com
Subject: S.T. Kiddoo

To whom it may concern,

My name is Thomas E. Kiddoo III, and Soloman Thomas Kiddoo was my great grandfather. I am one of those people who can't help but "google" their own name, and I found the boat formally known as S.T. Kiddoo! Growing up, I remember a picture of the ship with S.T. Kiddoo written on the side of it hanging on a wall just outside of my fathers office, but never really paid much attention to it's signifigance. I currently live in Vail, Co, I am sure S.T. would be proud to know that his great great grandson (Charles Thomas Kiddoo) just turned 7 last week. I look forward to the day I can bring my children out to the East Coast to visit a ship formerly named after their great great grandfather!

Best Regards,

Tom Kiddoo
Owner
www.thanks-dad.com

and here is the Mary A. Whalen as the S.T. Kiddoo