By Johna Till Johnson
Photo by Vladimir Brezina
New York is an iconic place to paddle.
But sometimes it’s good to remember there are many other iconic places. Our friend Adam recently fell in love with Nantucket after spending a week there with his sweetie—a love that even extended to haberdashery. In a recent chat, we discussed “Nantucket Reds“, the trademark New England chinos.
With that conversation fresh in mind, imagine our surprise at seeing this at the start of our paddle out to the Gowanus Canal on Saturday…
We hope to paddle there some day….
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
I loved Nantucket too. I’m sure you’ll get to paddle there one day. :)
LikeLike
Thanks!
LikeLike
What a sight!
LikeLike
Yes, it was… looming out of the clouds and mist like that. And right after the conversation with Adam about “Nantucket Red”… what was that Jung said about synchronicity?
LikeLike
Don’t see many light ships these days, can’t have ben a very exciting job. good photo.
Mike
LikeLike
It was probably a very boring job… until it wasn’t.
From Wikipedia:
“Lightships and their crews were exposed to many dangers. In addition to the obvious hazards posed by the weather and sea conditions, vessels marking shipping lanes on occasion were struck by the very traffic they existed to protect. Ships would home on their radio beacons at night and in fog, but were expected to post lookouts and to turn away in time.”
“Lightship 117 at Nantucket was sideswiped by the SS Washington in early 1934, and four months later, on 15 May 1934, she was rammed and sunk by the British White Star ship RMS Olympic homing in on its radio beacon in dense fog. Four men went down with the ship and seven survivors were picked up by Olympic. Three survivors later died of injuries sustained from the collision.” (This was the Nantucket lightship two incarnations before the one in my photo.)
The Ambrose lightships had similar troubles: “The Ambrose was involved in a number of collisions during this time. In September 1935, she was rammed by the Grace Liner Santa Barbara, with both ships sustaining heavy damage. In January 1950, it was “brushed” in heavy fog by an unidentified vessel, suffering damage to the radio antenna and losing her spare anchor. Eleven weeks later in March the Santa Monica, another Grace Line vessel, rammed the Ambrose in a dense fog, rupturing her hull.”
Eventually, the Ambrose lightship was replaced by the Ambrose Tower, which in turn was damaged and eventually destroyed by ship collisions…
LikeLike
Awesome seeing my current city harboring something from my hometown.
LikeLike
Great! :-)
LikeLike
Saw it yesterday. It seems it rode out Sandy without issue.
LikeLike
I would expect so—it rode out plenty of storms in its time. If anything were to give way, it would be the pier…
LikeLike