Like everything else, time is slowly taking the wrecks away, Witte Marine ran the yard for many years and slowly cut up boats but many that were sunk stayed where they were. Every ;winter and every storm eating away at the remains. In the 70s complete boats were there, now only the heavy metal of the hulls and boilers and engines remain, mostly under water. It is a cemetery of sorts, so much history was here, history of New York Harbor, NYC ferrys and fireboats, fireboats that responded to the GENERAL SLOCOM fire and the NORMANDIE fire as well as dozens of Railroad tugs, barges, lighters, derricks ect. Now these work boats of the harbor sit quietly being eaten up by the water they worked in. let them kind of "rust" in peace.

Photos labeled STANDING TALL and SIDE DECK are Navy sub chasers.

It is the former USS ATR 89, a Navy rescue tug, later was named HILA before becoming a resident of Witte's maritime retirement home. Sub chasers wer much longer and narrower. Also nowhere near as high in the bow.

A sort of update, Yard is very active, the two transfer tugs apparently have just collapsed away, the boilers and I guess machinery are still there but only visible at low tide. I passed there the other day and both of their boilers were visible, the HEWITT I cant see at all so it may have been removed. You should have seen this place in the 70s when I use to spend two days a week there, talk about history!

If youy want to see sub chasers today look at the Circle Line boats in New York Harbor, some of them are Ex Navy sub chasers. You can even ride on one if you want.

Michael, get in touch with me at ahrensjim@hotmail.com I have photos of the DUANE.

This is not a sub chaser, this is an ex Navy ATR , a rescue tug, there were three in the yard. The sub chaser was in front of this closer to shore. I have been on both of them. Trust me!

Sorry Nicholai, it is a Navy tug, I removed the engine order telegraph from it many years ago. It is next to the old fireboat Hewitt, its a Navy tug. Try to find a photo of a Navy sea going tug they are quite big.

My guess would be a clock and bell ringer, there was something similar in the big clock tower at Pier A, the old fireboat station at the Battery in NYC. That had a great Seth Thomas brass movement in it and a plaque dedicating it to the solders and sailors it was built in the era of mayor Hyland ?

I think this is the Beacon from the Beacon Newburgh NY run. Before that it was the Lt. Flaherty or some similar name from the Boston East Boston run. It is a steam boat.

I crawled around these wrecks in the 70s and they were in bad shape then. When they cave in they go fast and without warning. Enjoy the photos and stay safe. Also after all these years there really isnt anything left to see.

Cassie, The light ship in Red Hook is GONE. Weeks is removing it as we speak. The siloh behind it was a sugar processing plant. Sugar came in by ship and was unloaded and processed bagged and shipped. They are building a Ikea (I think) there where the old ship yard was. The history of Brooklyn is rapidly falling to parking lots and discount stores. It is great that people, like here are recording our history. Keep up the good work. Jim

Go to Google "barge explosion at Port Mobil" it occured on 2-21-03 with a loss of 2 lives on the barge.

Hi Dunny, I never saw the USS Holder by name but there was an ex Navy boat they cut up in the early 70s that was perhaps DD or DE size, it was painted blue or had a blue tint to it. If that was it then it was definately cut up. I have pictures of it being cut up but you cant tell what it was, I figured it as another sub chaser.

By the way, the third boat in this photo, on the left, is the fire boat ABRAM S. HEWITT built in 1903. She was a coal burner with reciprocating fire pumps. She operated most of her life out of the fire boat house near Fulton Street, Brooklyn

FIRE FIGHTER, is 138 feet long ans still in service, built on Staten Island in 1938. Pumped 20,000 Gallons per minute and powered by two Winton/Cleveland 16-248 diesels each putting out 1500 horse power and driving three generators that provided electric power for the electric propulsion motors and electric motors for the fire pumps. The "Fighter" though a senior citizen, always seemed to know when it was needed, she pumped for something like 11 days and nights at the World Trade Center. Most of the water used there for firefighting was supplied by the fire boats as the city water mains were destroyed when the buildings came down. Most large waterfront fires over the past 69 years would find the "Fighter" there slugging it out with the fire enemy! What a well designed and dependable vessel.

I think it is still open as the Essex County Cancer hospital. Power plant is gone but hospital is still there. They used this hospital in one of the movies or TV shows, it was supposed to be a military hospital. Somebody must remember where it was used?

To the two previous comments, sorry, it is a steam engine powering a direct connected Generator, look at it on other side of flywheel. The steam engines generated power that operated the elevators in the hospital, the exhaust steam heated the hospital. They had about 4 steam driven generators and later one or two diesels. I grew up in this town and would visit this engine room from time to time. The hospital was for contagious diseases, I spent 20 days here when I was a kid with scarlet fever, a few years back my son had scarlet fever, he was allowed to return to school after 24 hours on medication. I guess you could call that progress. By the way this power plant is gone and now homes are built here.

I think it may be so you can see if the level of paper towels is getting low so you can refill it?

I love these photos and the opportunity for people to comment on the boats shown here. I had the opportunity to spend a day or two a week in the yard exploring the boats when they were a lot safer to be around. At this point you would be a fool to go on them. Even in the 70s I ended up with stitches and had an overworked guardian angel! The mud there is about 10 feet deep and if you fell into it you would never be seen again. Enjoy Motts pictures he has done us a real service talking and displaying these photos. Stay safe look at them and dream. One of the reasons these boats stay where they are is they are stuck in the mud, ever step in deep mud and have a hard trime pulling your foot out, these boats, and you if you fell in are held by the same force. The steel boats would probably collapse without warning and take you with them. I dont mean to scare you but the truth of the matter is there is a lot of danger in these wrecks. Enjoy the great photos and stay safe. Respectfully, Jim <ahrensjim@hotmail.com>

Jeff, Navy sub chasers were made of steel, this is a rescue tug, it it made of wood. The 1264 is in the yard but closer to shore. This was Hila formerly USS ATR 89. Auxillary Tug Rescue. There were 3 Rescue tugs in the yard. These were steam boats, the sub chasers were diesels.

This is a former Navy ATR Rescue tug. It was ATR 89 later named HILA. The USS PC 1264 was closer to shore. That is the truth.

It is a Pennsylvania RR lighter. Nothing else! It was built as PRR 115, Later named Bucyrus.

Bill Murphy, email me at ahrensjim@hotmail.com and I can give you some information on the Astoria.

JAMES DUANE was at other end of yard. Is this Harold Knox of M-6 fame?