Bob Henry News

It's sometimes said that great harbor cities don't appreciate their harbors, so the city of New York must be an exception. Look what happens every Fourth of July. For years without missing, regular as clockwork, Macy's fireworks display has locked-down the harbor with skies in eruption, which the masses trek shoreward to see. Around either side of that date, the fireworks season brings the burghers of Manhattan, the boaters and bathers of the Boroughs to their esplanades and beaches. Few of them know how those big black barges full of fireworks got there, but lo and behold, there they are.

Bob Henry (age 61), vice president and founder of Bay Marine, Inc. died December 18, 2003. Although Henry suffered from heart disease for years and more recently, from Parkinson’s disease, he battled back and was working nearly full time. Henry, a boat builder from a young age, completed his first at age 11. At 16, he built his own boat and cruised from Essex, Conn. to Lake Champlain. After graduating from the Webb Institute, Henry worked for Gladding Hearn Shipbuilding and Jack Gilbert before landing a job managing the Matton Shipyard in Cohoes, NY at the eastern end of the Erie Canal. In the early 70’s, he moved to Rhode Island with his wife Kathy and two young sons, Shawn and Seth where he went on to manage the Blount shipyard. In 1975, he started Bay Marine, Inc.

Every harbor has its share: hardworking boats that stand-out for some provacative reason. It's probably not for their beauty. Form follows function in most maritime architecture, and maybe there's a beauty in how functional these boats are. But such beauty resides in the mind more than the eye. And yet they're still head-turners. Every harbor has its share. In New York, three come to mind - aphabetically, Odin, Shelby Rose, and Twintube. You know 'em on sight. The first two are tugs, and sort of look it. As for the third, "I was trying to build something that would do everything," Luther Blount told us. It does. They do. They say you'll see boats that resemble her out west. We've seen similar craft heading up the Rhine in Europe. But on New York harbor, Odin looks unique.

Blount-Barker Shipbuilding Corporation was recently formed and James A. Barker has been named the President and CEO. Blount-Barker, based in Warren, R.I., specializes in the design and shipbuilding of tugboats, cruise ships, high-speed ferries and dinner and passenger vessels. The new company takes over the activities of the Blount Marine and Blount Industries entities, and operates as a separate corporation. As part of the new venture, Mr. Barker assumes management of Blount's shipyard and personnel, with the option to purchase the operations should they be sold in the future. "Jim Barker brings complementary experience that will greatly enhance the capabilities of the new Blount-Barker venture," said Luther H. Blount, founder of Blount Marine and Blount Industries.

What do you get when you spend 19 hours at a Fourth of July party onboard a tugboat in NY harbor? A sunburn, welts from hurled bagels, about 12,000 calories and some incredibly good memories, Don Sutherland found. Officially it's Independence Day, but everyone calls it the Fourth of July. Its inalienable rights accrue to the common man, whose life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness necessitate keeping things simple. And is any form of theater simpler than a fireworks dispay? No plot to keep up with, no dialog to follow, just plenty of action. America feasts during many of its holidays, but with varying complication - where Thanksgiving is an elaboration of side dishes and stuffings and sauces, July Fourth is plain barbecue. Sauces? What do you call mustard and ketchup?