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Tours will explore the harbor Saturday
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New York's "hidden harbor" will be yours to discover this Saturday, May 17, when narrated boat tours leaving from Lower Manhattan's Pier 11 will showcase both remnants of the harbor's rich past and evidence of the present-day maritime industry along the downtown shoreline.
Hidden Harbor Day, a slate of tours conducted via replica fixed-wheel paddleboats, will take passengers past naval facilities where aircraft carriers and battleships once were built as well as to the sites of several sunken ships and spots where waterfront industry is still alive and well.
"This is the harbor that you don't normally see," said John Doswell, executive director of the Working Watercraft Committee of New York and New Jersey, which is hosting the day's events in conjunction with the North River Historic Ship Society. "We take you from the graving docks where boats get repaired to the place where the tugboats all go home at night," he said.
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| Tours show graving docks where boats are repaired |
The tours are designed to remind -- or teach for the first time -- that New York's is today very much a working harbor, said Doswell. The boats will pass near active cranes, railroad float bridges, barge repair yards, and even a fireboat facility.
Though the number of boats in the harbor has decreased significantly since the 1950s -- due to both a decline in the passenger ship industry and a shift in the freight industry toward ports outside of the city -- there are increasing numbers of dinner boats and sightseeing ships, growing ferry boat traffic, "even kayakers," said Doswell.
"We hope Hidden Harbor Day will encourage visitors to take advantage of the educational and recreational activities available in the harbor in the future," said Huntley Gill, co-chair of the Working Watercraft Committee, in a statement about the event.
The tours will be narrated by tugboat captains, historians, harbor exports, and other "wharf rats," said Doswell. Norman Brower, curator and head historian at the South Street Seaport Museum, will be among the guides. An eight-page brochure describing the activities and history of the harbor will be distributed on all tours at no charge.
Four tours will travel from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn, where they will explore the Brooklyn waterfront, Navy Yard, Atlantic Basin, Erie Basin, and Gowanus Bay before returning to Pier 11 at Wall Street. These tours will depart at 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m., and 2 p.m. Two additional tours at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. will travel from Pier 11 to New Jersey and Staten Island. All tours will last approximately two hours, and the charge for each is $2 per passenger.
A grand finale cruise will take place at 4 p.m., in which the historic retired fireboat John J. Harvey will spray water while escorting four cruise ships departing from Manhattan's midtown passenger ship terminal. For those who choose to join the flotilla, additional tour boats will depart from Pier 11 and Pier 83 (at West 42nd Street), also at 4 p.m. Spectators can watch the parade of ships pass from the Battery Park esplanade at about 4:30 p.m.
Tickets for all Hidden Harbor Day tours will be on sale at Pier 11 on Saturday. Reservations can also be made by calling the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance at (800) 364-9943. Passengers are encouraged to arrive at the pier approximately 15-20 minutes before departure time to board the boats. For more information about Hidden Harbor Day, click here.
The images accompanying this article were taken by Al Trojanowicz and provided courtesy of the Working Waterfront Committee of New York and New Jersey.
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