Mercury Comet Caliente

1964 Mercury Comet Caliente. It's been parked down the street from my apartment for months. I've never seen it moved, even for street cleaning. I don't know how it avoids being ticketed. It's full of bike parts and straw hats.

Draw a thon

Last Saturday I went to the Draw-A-Thon at the High School of Art and Design. It's a seven-hour drawing session that's a fundraiser for the school. I've heard about it for some time, but this is the first time I was able to make it. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend for about two hours, so I was only able to do a little bit of work.

Dry Dock No. 4, The "Hoodooo" Dock

I am almost done posting all the Navy Yard drawings, almost a year after completing the visiting artist program. Here, a number of drawings done around Dry Dock 4. This dry dock has an overall length of 723', and could receive a vessel 717' 3" in length with a draft of 32' 5 1/2". The most distinctive feature of Dry Dock 4 is the remnants of two giant Orton cranes which I did several studies of. Like the Orton cranes, this dry dock is now defunct. It's just a long, stagnant rectangle of water, separating a qaudrant of the Navy Yard from the rest. As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be a plan for it. Around its perimeter are unused remnants and relics of the past.

The tour guide from Turnstile Tours (which I recommend) claimed that this was the smallest building in the Navy Yard. It's the dry dock pumpwell dating back to 1914.

Standing forlorn in the weeds near this building, an old capstan. These motorized devices rotate on a vertical axis, for hauling ropes and cables.

Laying on the ground near the second, mostly-demolished Orton Crane, a seemingly-discarded block hook.

The view from the edge of Dry Dock 4, of a pier at the junction of dry docks 2 and 4. In the far distance, you can see the top of one of the World War II-era radio antennas, and to the left is the edge of the giant new office building on Dock 72. This building was meant to be a giant WeWork space. I wonder what's going to become of it now that that company's demise seems imminent.

Here's some photos of the dry dock in its heyday. First, the USS Utah, the first ship to utilize the dry dock, circa 1912.

Photos via Brooklyn Navy Yard Archives

The battleship New Mexico, 1918.

Library of Congress

Dry Dock #4 was authorized by Congress in June 1900, with a budget of $1,000,000, to accommodate the new dreadnought-style battleships that were in development. Construction began in 1905, and lasted 7 years. Located near Dry Dock #1, contractors encountered the same problems that plagued that project; a tidal marsh with very soft and sandy soil, crisscrossed with underground waterways and quicksand. The first contractor, George Spearin, quit after just 18 months, having severely underestimated the scope of the project and seriously underbidding the cost. Under the second contractor, the project was beset by regular setbacks and accidents, resulting in delays, hundreds of workplace injuries, and between 8 and 20 deaths, earning it the nickname, "The Hoodoo Dock."

The NY Naval Shipyard Buildings Historical Review chronicled its long journey:

April 12, 1907
Spearin [the original contractor] had stopped work in August 1906 over a dispute about who should pay for a repair job to a broken sewer which threatened to drown men working in the dock. It was the confident belief of government officials that Spearin would never resume work at the dock; that he decided to quit, realizing that he can only lose money by continuing. 

Aug. 4, 1908
There was talk of abandoning the project of building DD#4. . . Not only quicksand, but subterranean streams have been contributing to the general apprehension. 

Jan. 30, 1909
Navy Department stated it may be necessary to annul the contract due to the unsatisfactory completion of the work. . . .  Quicksand in the dock foundations was the cause of all the trouble. 

Jan 31, 1909
The first concrete for the foundation of the big basin was laid amid great jubilation. There is now hope that it can be finished. 

Aug. 26, 1909
Williams Engineering Co, was reported "sick of contract", having stopped work on the weak excuse that one of the cable towers that operates one of the orangepeel buckets is said to be weak. . . . The contractor never had more than 200 or 300 men on the job at one time, whereas at least a thousand should have been employed. 

Nov. 4, 1909
It was decided that, with Williams Construction Co. out of the picture, that this dock will be finished, either by the government by use of day labor under the direction of the civil engineer, or by a contractor. . .  Two contractors already have forfeited their jobs. The government was plunged into litigation in an effort to recover damages . 

. . . An agitation was commenced to have the dock completed by day labor, with local Navy Yard officers in charge. This would mean the employment of hundreds of Brooklyn men who have qualified through the labor board of the Navy Yard, instead of cheap European labor, such as had been employed by the contractors. 

Dec. 2, 1909
Drydock 4 became known as the "Hoodoo" dock. A landslide occurred which practically wrecked the dock. 

Dec. 16, 1911
On 15 December 1911 the drydock was flooded, intentionally, for the first time. This marked an important milestone in its construction. 

May 9, 1912
Drydock No. 4 which had just been completed was given its first real test when the battleship UTAH was towed into dock and the water pumped out. Thus the drydock was finished at a cost of approximately $2,800,000, 400 men injured, and the number of workers killed variously reported from 8 to 20 men.

I think it's hilarious that this government document official Navy document is so bitchy and side-eyed!

Dry Dock 1

Dry Dock 1 is the oldest dry dock in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the third-oldest in the United States. It is now the last dry dock operating in Brooklyn, now operated by GMD Shipyard, and one of very few in the area.

The site was first surveyed in 1826, with construction beginning in 1841. It was completed in 1851 at a cost of precisely $2,146,255.36. It is constructed from 23,000 cubic yards of hand-cut and hand-sanded blocks of granite excavated from quarries in Connecticut, Maine, Staten Island, and upstate New York.

Though modest in size by today’s standards, at the time it was a major engineering feat, being the first large project to use a steam-powered pile driver, and utilizing the largest pumping engine built at the time. Over the 20 years it took to construct, the project ran through at least three civil engineers and had to contend with a variety of setbacks, including 75’ deep quicksand, underground springs, and a faulty dam design which flooded the worksite.

Ships built and serviced there included The Niagara, which laid the first transatlantic cable; Halstead’s Folly, the prototype of the first submarine; The Maine, the destruction of which triggered the Spanish-American War; and The Monitor, the first iron-clad, steam-powered warship of the US Navy during the Civil War. It was declared a New York City Landmark in 1975.

There are several working docks and piers at the Navy Yard, most of which are off-limits to enter and not easily observed, but there's a handy viewing platform overlooking Dry Dock 1. It's the one spot where you can view the goings-on pretty up close and personal. 

Ships are no longer built there, but it is still used for maintenance, repair and inspection of tugboats, barges, and other smaller vessels. Two ships were serviced while I was there; the tugboat Evening Light and the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Dauntless.

Here's a cool time-lapse video showing this dry dock in action.

Inktober Week 3

Week 3. I missed a day in there.

Inktober 2019 Week 2

Week 2

Strange & Unusual Aquatic Beasts And Other Ancient Secrets And Mysteries Of The Deep

Last Christmas, my wife got me a sketchbook from Brooklyn Art Library as part of The Sketchbook Project. The Art Library is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and they'll send you a blank sketchbook that you fill as you please, return, and is incorporated into their collection.

It took me awhile to think of what I wanted to do with it. I knew I wanted to do something different than my usual urban sketching. Eventually, I decided to do something related to mythology. Something made me think of depictions of sea serpents on Old World maps, and that expanded to various water-based mythological and folkloric creatures from various cultures. The result was Strange & Unusual Aquatic Beasts And Other Ancient Secrets And Mysteries Of The Deep.

Here's part of it. You can see the entire sketchbook here. If you're in Williamsburg, you can see the actual book at their library, and I just heard that it's part of the collection that's going on tour to Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.