The U.S. Coast Guard training ship Eagle, docked at Pier 7, as seen from Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park, near the foot of Atlantic Avenue. The Eagle’s crew will be welcoming visitors for tours of the ship until 7:00 p.m. today (Sunday, August 7).

Your correspondent took his morning walk today along Brooklyn Bridge Park from Pier 6 to DUMBO, and got some photos along the way. Here is the East River Ferry passing Pier 1 on its northbound run, making haste from downtown Manhattan to Fulton Ferry Landing. More photos and text follow the jump.

Plants along the pond at the southeastern edge of Pier 1 have grown considerably over the past month, and blossomed.

Seen from Brooklyn bridge Park in DUMBO, a catamaran yacht sails under the Brooklyn Bridge heading up the East River.

For most of the 20th century, the site of Brooklyn Bridge Park was a 24/7 working waterfront, crowded with docks, railyards, and warehouses. Discover evidence of Brooklyn’s mercantile past, examine links to the adjoining historic districts and its influence on the park’s design, for which landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh received the 2010 Brendan Gill Prize from MAS.

The tour leader is architectural historian Matt Postal. It starts at 6:00 p.m. by the entrance to the York Street F train station, Jay and York streets, in DUMBO. The fee is $10 for MAS members, $15 for non-members. Pay at the beginning of the tour.

The historic tugboat Pegasus and Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79 will arrive at Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park (foot of Atlantic Avenue) this Thursday, July 14, and remain until Monday, July 25. A schedule of activities is here. This Saturday, July 16, is City of Water Day, and Brooklyn Bridge Park will participate with tug and barge tours, music, and other activities at Pier 6, a kayak demonstration at Pier 5, and free kayaking at Pier 1 (schedule here). On Sunday, July 24, at Pier 6, the Waterfront Museum will present “Showboat Shazzam,” billed as “New York’s acclaimed little big top at sea.” For details, and to purchase tickets, see here.

For many years, the masts and spars of the tall ships Peking and Wavertree, docked at piers 15 and 16 on the Manhattan waterfront, have been a familiar sight from the Promenade, as have the schooner Pioneer and the doughty little tug W.O. Decker sailing on the East River. Unfortunately, all of these ships are in danger of being sent elsewhere or, in the case of the magnificent Peking, the largest of the tall ships in the photo above, of being sold for scrap. Already, the Seaport Museum of New York (formerly the South Street Seaport Museum) has laid off all of the staff responsible for maintaining the ships, and cruises on Pioneer and Decker have been cancelled. In addition, the historic Bowne & Co. Print Shop has been closed, and is in danger of losing its valuable antique presses and other artifacts. Friends of the Museum, including its founder, Peter Stanford, are trying to rally support to save it, the ships and the print shop from being lost. In the photo above, the retired fireboat John J. Harvey, now privately owned, sprayed water yesterday afternoon in support of a rally to save the Seaport. To learn more, see the website Save Our Seaport. There is also a Friends of Bowne website.

Stuck in town for the weekend? Or, perhaps, you simply enjoy being in town on holidays, when things are a little less crowded and fast-paced. If beach volleyball isn’t your thing, you could take a tour of the Brooklyn Historical Society’s historic building, starting tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. It’s free for BHS members, and the cost for others is museum admission: $6 for adults; $4 for seniors (62 and over), students over 12, and teachers; and free for kids under 12. Another option is the Brooklyn Navy Yard tour jointly presented by BHS and Urban Oyster on Sunday from 1:45 to 4:30 p.m. Advance ticket purchase is required; go to the Urban Oyster website to purchase tickets, which are $30 each. If you’re a BHS member, you get a 10% discount; call 718-222-4111 x250 for your discount code. And then there’s Fleet Week.

If you thought you were truly in helicopter hell this morning, you were only partly right. Most of the racket was being made by a pair of V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft (we’ve seen these before) that were circling the area and occasionally touching down at the Downtown Heliport. This was part of the Fleet Week events. Your correspondent got a video of one from the Promenade. Meanwhile, Karl took his cam to Battery Park yesterday morning and caught the parade of ships entering the Hudson, and some planes flying over. Two videos after the jump.

The annual Fleet Week, scheduled to cover Memorial Day weekend, begins tomorrow (Wednesday, May 25) with a parade of ships passing through the harbor, into the Hudson River, and up to the George Washington Bridge, where they will turn and go to their docks. This will be visible from the Promenade from 8:30 a.m. to about 10:00 a.m. A closer vantage point is the Battery Park City Esplanade, in lower Manhattan.

The ships, some of which will dock on Manhattan’s West Side and some on Staten Island (details here), alas, none in Brooklyn, will be open for public tours Thursday through Tuesday, in accordance with the schedules shown on the press release linked above.

NotifyNYC gives us this cautionary note:

During Fleet Week (5/24 to 6/01) expect low flying military aircraft, 21-gun salutes, a parade of ships and other events in the NY Harbor, including the Hudson River, Lower Manhattan and the Downtown Manhattan Heliport areas.

Other Fleet Week events, some of which are in Brooklyn, are listed here.

The giant (703 feet long, 56,650 gross tons) combination container and RORO ship Grande Benin, belonging to Italy’s Grimaldi Group (no relation to the pizza folks, so far as we know) will depart from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she has been undergoing repairs for the past several weeks, at 1:00 p.m. She should be passing under the Brooklyn Bridge and heading past Pier 1 of Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Promenade shortly after that.

Grande Benin is so tall that, to fit under the Brooklyn Bridge, she had to be ballasted down and have her mast removed. Thanks to PortSide New York for the tip.

Photos by C. Scales for BHB.

Starting this June, there will be year-round, every day ferry service connecting Fulton Landing, at the foot of Old Fulton Street, and other points in Brooklyn and Queens, with downtown and midtown Manhattan. During the summer this service will be extended to Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6, near the foot of Atlantic Avenue.

New York Times: For all their dominance on Staten Island, ferries have long struggled to muscle their way into the city’s mass transit mainstream. Experiments in Queens and Brooklyn have been held back by infrequent service, outsize operating costs and low ridership.
…
Under the plan, to be announced on Wednesday, ferries will travel along a seven-stop route that stretches from Long Island City, Queens, to the Fulton Ferry landing by the Brooklyn Bridge, and includes Manhattan terminals at Pier 11 in the financial district and East 34th Street. During peak hours, boats will arrive at each stop every 20 minutes and travel in both directions.

According to the Times article, the city has committed to subsidize the service for a minimum of three years. The fare between Fulton Ferry or Pier 6 and downtown Manhattan will be $3.00; to or from midtown it will be $5.50. See the linked Times article for a map of the service.

Cunard’s “Three Queens” rendezvoused last night in New York Harbor. The Queen Mary 2, the Queen Victoria and the recently launched Queen Elizabeth met under a spectacular fireworks display. Karl Junkersfeld caught the display on tape. His report after the jump.

At about 6:00 p.m. the three Queens will depart from their docks and converge at about 6:45 in the harbor near the Statue of Liberty, where they will remain during a Grucci Brothers fireworks display, then proceed to sea. This should be visible from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and from the pier near the foot of Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, although the best viewing will be from Battery Park or the Battery Park City Esplanade. More details are on Cunard’s website.

Cabaret Red Light will present two performances of Seven Deadly Seas, one at 8:00 pm and one at 10:00 pm, on Gazela’s deck each evening Thursday through Sunday (Monday is the rain date). The show is described as “an adult thing” because it includes “a modest burlesque” at the close. Tickets are $25, and may be purchased here.

Gazela was built in Portugal in 1901, and served in that country’s cod fishing fleet until 1969, crossing the Atlantic to fish on the famous Grand Banks. In 1971, philanthropist William Wikoff Smith bought her and brought her to Philadelphia, where she is now maintained by the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild (your correspondent photographed her at her berth at Penn’s Landing four years ago). This is her first visit to New York.

Gazela’s visit is sponsored by PortSide New York, which maintains the historic harbor tanker Mary Whalen at Pier 11. Tomorrow evening, Mary’s deck will be the venue for Jalopy Theater’s Roots & Ruckus Show, featuring Two-Man Gentleman Band, Stephanie Nilles, Mamie Minch and Dayna Kurtz, and Feral Foster. Tickets are $10, and can be purchased here, where you can also get more details about the event (e.g. free lasagna!).

BHB Photo by C. Scales

Clipper City is a 1984 replica of an 1854 vintage schooner built to haul cargo on the Great Lakes. This is her second summer taking passengers on cruises in New York Harbor, departing from Pier 17 at South Street Seaport. She can often be seen from the Promenade (from which the above photo was taken today) while leaving or approaching her dock.

Cruises on Clipper City can be booked through Manhattan by Sail’s website, which also shows the daily sailing schedule, or by calling 212-619-0907. Fares start at $39 for adults, $35 for seniors, and $17 for children under 12.

Tugster: a Waterblog: A. A. Low moved to Brooklyn Heights after spending six years in Canton’s markets dealing with Wu Bingjian aka Howqua. From Brooklyn Heights, Low could observe the goings and comings of his fleet of China clippers over at South Street when it was a seaport in the years between the First and Second Opium Wars.

Low’s son, Seth, named for his grandfather, served as Mayor of Brooklyn, then as President of Columbia College (which moved from midtown Manhattan to Morningside Heights and became Columbia University during his tenure), and then as mayor of New York City following its merger with Brooklyn.

BHB photo by C. Scales

AOL News (Jason Straziuso, AP): NAIROBI, Kenya (March 18) — These Somali pirates picked the wrong ship to hijack.

Troops aboard the Dutch warship HNLMS Tromp fired warning shots Wednesday off the coast of East Africa as suspected Somali pirates in two small skiffs raced toward their warship, the EU Naval Force said.

After the pirates realized they had made what spokesman Cmdr. John Harbour called a “rather silly mistake,” they turned around and fled. EU Naval Force personnel tracked down the two skiffs and a third suspected mothership, finding ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades on board, said Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force.

Update: Tromp managed to trump the pirates despite the likely presence of gays and lesbians among the crew.

BHB photo by C. Scales

Update: Belgians, Canadians, Dutch, and Norwegians join in! More photos and text after the jump.

BHB photo by C. Scales

BHB photo by C. Scales

Better put some Duvel Ale, Molson, Heineken, and Ringness in the cooler, too. And, maybe some akavit.

“The Waterpod is a sustainable, sculptural art and technology habitat, with 4 artists living on and off it, generating food, water, and power in a contained and self-sufficient environment,” and now it’s here in Brooklyn Heights through August 17th on Pier 5.  It’s open to the public on Fridays from 3-7 pm and on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 7 pm.  Just walk down Joralemon Street to the very end, make a left on Furman and follow the signs.

I did on Saturday night for their benefit party.  At first, approaching the pier as the sun was setting, it was all greys and blues, the area desolate with barbed wire.  As I got closer, I caught a glimpse of the white dome bobbing against the Hudson River.  I walked the gangplank onto the barge and noticed first of all a profusion of greenery, a miniature garden to my immediate right.  I felt dizzy.  Why?  Then I remembered:  I was on a boat and it was rocking.  Then I saw a chicken coop.

The air down here was devoid of humidity, and it reminded of the days of the Floating Pool; the vast expanse of space, of water and the skyline of downtown Manhattan.  All around the edges of the barge are more gardens, some hydroponic, called window farms— suspended in the air.  On the right side of the barge are the living quarters. One room looked particularly inviting;  a loft bed, a small window to glimpse the stars and the bright ribbon of traffic on the BQE. At the far end of the boat, the galley, people were grilling fish tacos, and serving local beer.

I thought of a Japanese garden; a precise arrangement of stones, plants and flowers.  I thought of Noah’s Ark for the new millennium.  I mentioned this to Mary Mattingly, the green genius, who is the founder and Art Director.  She liked the analogy.  I asked her, “How long from conception to realization?”  She replied, “Three years.”  Click on the above link and read her log entries; they are a fascinating record of the creation and journey of the pod, as well as its philosophy. I was particularly impressed that the link marked Manifesto was a long passage from Joyce’s Ulysses.

The Waterpod is both on and off the grid.  Electricity doesn’t come from Con Ed, but rather from solar energy and even sometimes a bicycle.  Read more on the website for how this happens as well as the process for transforming rain water into drinking water.  I began a skeptic.  But when I saw a white flag unfurling in the breeze that read: I Remember Earth, I was a convert.  And you will be, too.  Take your kids, your dogs and parents.  All are welcome.

The City’s Economic Development Corporation and Department of Transportation are jointly conducting a study to determine what new ferry routes should be established. In connection with this, they are holding a town hall meeting at Kingsborough Community College, Room U 219/200, 2001 Oriental Boulevard, starting at 7:00 P.M. on Wednesday, July 22, to which Brooklyn residents are invited to present their ideas about new routes on which they would like to see service.

Among the locations identified as terminals for new service are the existing ferry landing at the foot of Old Fulton Street, and a proposed new landing near the foot of Atlantic Avenue. Locations to which service could be provided include, in addition to those mentioned above, various landings in downtown Manhattan as well as up and down the east and west sides, Roosevelt Island, Bay Ridge, Sheepshead Bay, Floyd Bennett Field, and the Rockaways.