Puget
Sound Maritime volunteer researcher Joe Baar was given the assignment of
identifying a number of stray photos unearthed during preparations for our
recent big move. His analysis of this photo demonstrates the difficulties and
rewards of engaging in photo forensics.
Photo courtesy of Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, for now....
The Photo
Our photo is a black and
white matte print, approximately 14 x 10 inches, of a Japanese motorship maneuvering in a waterway on the U.S.
Atlantic coast, just offshore from lighted buoy #30, with a Moran ship-assist
tug alongside. PSMHS records give no evidence of the print’s provenance.
The Ship
Neither the ship’s name nor
that of the tug is fully legible on the print. However, the shipping company is
clearly identified by the ship’s funnel insignia and by lettering on its hull:
“Mitsubishi Line”. The ship’s hull, superstructure and masting shapes place it
at a time after World War II; the tug’s streamlined funnel shape contributes to
this placement. A rough estimate of a ship’s size depends largely on the
relative size of its visible components, their proportions, and how they
compare to other, known, vessels. If a normal deck is about 10 feet high, then
what multiple of this distance matches the height of the ship’s bow as it appears
in our photo? Since the ship is positioned at an angle to the camera and its
bow is farther away than its other parts, how much should we correct this
height for perspective? All this information taken together yields an estimate
of around 450 feet in length and probably smaller than 10,000 gross tons
measurement – a slightly less boxy design than our World War II EC-2 Liberty
ships, but similar in size.
Lloyd’s Register List of
Shipowners for 1959-60 shows vessels belonging to Mitsubishi Kaiun Kaisha to
include six 7,500 GRT motor ships built 1951-56 and three 8,400 GRT motor ships
built 1957-58. Photographs of all nine of these ships, available on the
internet, show the former class was configured with a “three-island”-type hull
and the latter class was flush-decked with a forecastle. Inspection of the
vessel in our photo shows it to be one of the three later vessels, either CALEDONIA
MARU, GLORIA MARU, or OCEANIA MARU. Very close inspection of the name visible
on the starboard bow allows a conclusive identification as GLORIA MARU.
The When
Japanese shipping lines
underwent a consolidation in April 1964 (Chida and Davies, The Japanese
Shipping and Shipbuilding Industries, Bloomsbury, 1990). In that month
Mitsubishi K.K. transferred its vessels to Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK
Ltd.), whose funnel, hull colors and markings are entirely different from those
of Mitsubishi, so our photo was taken between March 1958 when GLORIA MARU went into service, and April 1964. Lloyd’s
Register also reflects this changeover.
A postcard sold in October
2014 on eBay shows GLORIA MARU in a view almost identical to the one in our
photo. In general, the ship appears to be moving ahead slowly; a Moran tug is
alongside the bridge superstructure moving ahead almost at full speed on what
appears to be a parallel course. The card’s reverse side contains the following
information:
NEW YORK HARBOR
The M.V. Gloria Maru, with a Moran
docking tug at the bow, on its maiden arrival in the world’s busiest harbor. Photo
from Moran.
This photo appears to have
been taken less than five minutes later than the one in our print, adding
significantly to our understanding of the scene. Lacking evidence to the
contrary, for the time being we can accept this, and our own photo, as views of
the ship on its first arrival in New York.
EBay
Postcard view of M.S. GLORIA MARU taken a few minutes later than our view.
The New York Times’
“Shipping -- Mails” news discloses 14 voyages GLORIA MARU made to the United
States’ Atlantic Coast between March 1960 and June 1964. The first arrival
occurred on 3/27/1960 from Japan via Cristobal, Panama, and that voyage departed
New York on 4/9/1960 destined for Kobe, Japan. A similar pattern was in place
for all the following voyages, with occasional intermediate stops, either
inbound or outbound, in Hampton Roads, Philadelphia and Baltimore. GLORIA
MARU’s Atlantic Coast service continued after June 1964 but since she came
under NYK ownership and colors the previous April, information about these
voyages is not germane to the identification of this photograph.
The Where
A foreground feature in our
photo is lighted buoy number 30. The Moran ship-assist tug would seem to place
the general location west of Sandy Hook and south of Orient Point, Long Island.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s current Light List for the northern portion of the
Atlantic coast discloses 29 red “30” buoys, of which four are lit. One of these
is out-of-area in Maine and two have bells, one at Gowanus Flats in New York
Harbor’s Upper Bay and one in Raritan Bay just south of Staten Island. The
remaining R “30” buoy is in Arthur Kill between Fresh Kills Reach and Tremley
Point Reach. The 1947 chart edition does not show any buoy at this location,
and the 1966 edition shows this buoy just south of a relatively new pier and dredged
dock at the channel’s bend between these two reaches. The surrounding land on
both sides of Arthur Kill at this location is low and marshy, which corresponds
to what our photo shows. Two chimneys north of Tremley Point, as noted on Chart
285 of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, are just visible in the distance on
our print, ahead of the tug’s pilot house.
U.S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart 285, 1966, for the area covered by both photos, showing buoy R30.
The current Google satellite
view shows the pier’s southwestern end collapsed into Fresh Kills Reach and the
middle part of the pier is enclosed in what appears to be a steel-clad
structure two or three storeys high, extending over the dock and supported on
three large cylindrical caissons in Arthur Kill. The building extends inland
some distance to at least 15 truck loading docks and the site includes baled
material stacked on an associated hardstand and two loaded, uncovered barges
moored at the remaining northeast pier. Google identifies this complex as the
Pratt Industries Paper Division, whose own web site lists its activities as a
paper mill for recycled corrugated cardboard. The whole complex is located just
south of the Travis-Chelsea NRG Energy electricity generating plant, whose
structures were first placed at this location in 1948 by Staten Island Edison. A road and conveyor
system connect Pratt and NRG, making possible use of Pratt’s waste products as
fuel for the power plant. Further research is needed to determine what the
predecessors of the recycling facility were, in order to understand what cargo
GLORIA MARU brought or took away in 1960.
In our photo GLORIA MARU
appears to have just finished backing down and her engine has completed
shifting to an ahead bell. Evidence for this activity is the flattening boil of
propwash along her starboard quarter with a growing wash into the stream
astern; and a dispersing cloud of smoke wafting toward the photographer. These
ships were propelled by a single direct-drive 16-cylinder diesel engine,
normally producing visible exhaust when revolutions are increased under maneuvering
conditions. GLORIA MARU has backed out of her berth at Travis-Chelsea and is
headed north toward Kill van Kull and New York Harbor. If the date is before
April 8th then she’s bound for Norfolk; if it’s April 9, 1960 then she’s headed
to Kobe, Japan via Panama.
The Why
The print in our collection
lacked any material to substantiate its origin, either as notations on the
print’s face or on its reverse side, or as an attachment. A search within the
contents of all our Deeds of Gift might turn up a reference specific to this
print, but such a search would consume far more resources than we have
available. We are thus unable to determine where this photo should reside
in one of our collections, but whether it should reside there is now
easily answered: since our identification process has now placed the photo’s
venue definitively on the Atlantic Coast, it clearly falls outside our area of
interest and is most likely a candidate for de-accession from our collection.
****
Joe Baar has been
fascinated with ships since his childhood on Brace Point. His lifelong
avocation has included stints with the Sea Explorers, small-boat school
courtesy of the U.S. Army, working on yachts on Lake Union, and amassing a
large collection of maritime books.