What is in John Garner's Pocket
You don't really know a boat until she's hauled. Plying her trade on the water, her best half's submerged out of sight. We think we recognize her - "oh, there's Odin," or "Shelby Rose," or "Twintube" - but what are we seeing? The lines of the deckhouse, the shape and placement of the wheelhouse, the arrangement of the stacks? These are the parts known as the superstructure - "super," in this case, meaning simply "upon." It's a little like saying we recognize someone by his hat. The boat's defining structure starts at the main deck and goes downward from there. What little we see of it is low on the horizon. There's the deck's line, along with a smattering of bulwarks.
New York's New Faces
How many vessels entered New York Harbor for the very first time in the past year or two? Oh, probably a million. And probably most of them kept going, up the North River, out the East River, up to beantown or clamtown in one direction, cheesetown in another. Stop for a snack in New York, it's Boar's Head 24x7. Forty-eight hours later, it's catfish. Near everything, there are a lot of good reasons to come to New York, and a lot of good reasons to leave. A lot of good reasons to stay too, sometimes. Quite a few new faces have done just that, making New York Harbor all the handsomer. We thought we'd look a few over. At least four of the boats are new builds, arriving since May 2003; the others are acquisitions to enlarge and upgrade their fleets' capabilities.
