Waiting in my car for the rustiest ship in the fleet to dock. My buddy, who is sitting shotgun, warns that you can get tetanus just from looking at it. I half believe him.
Tag: photography
Haiku Archives: Summer Storm
the first thunderclaps,
like cannons in the distance –
we brace for the storm
Photo Archives: Last Lift and a Hail Mary
Longshoremen double check the cables and shackles before sending the last lift out of the cargo hold. The piece weighs in at about 120 tonnes, so somebody throws in a Hail Mary for good measure.
Photo Archives: Fog on the Waterfront
Foreground: A signalman watching over the cargo hold of a freighter ship communicates with an onshore crane operator through a series of hand gestures.
Background: On another vessel moored in the adjacent slip, longshoremen marry two ship’s cranes together by rigging the same beam to each of their hoisting blocks. This procedure is necessary whenever the cargo’s weight exceeds the lifting capacity of a single crane. In this instance, the cargo was a 105 metric tonne machine piece.
Photo: Rain and Vines
Here’s the sequel to yesterday’s photo. Not everything is blue skies and sunshine, but the rain has its own kind of allure.
Photo Archives: The Fuzz
Operations on the waterfront come to a halt when various law enforcement agencies show up for a surprise shakedown. I instruct the crews laboring in the cargo holds of the ship to take a break because the Fuzz is here. My terminology confuses several of the younger longshoremen, and they ask for clarification. I tell them it means the cops, but I admit I don’t know the etymology of the word. One of the guys does a quick Google search on his phone and informs everyone the term “the fuzz” originated in England, and is a reference to the felt covering on the helmets worn by members of the Metropolitan Police Service. The explanation seems plausible enough. Some of the guys take the opportunity to catch up on their sleep. Others ante up for a game of Poker.
Photo Archives: Bunker
I snapped this photo on one of those disposable Kodak cameras in the summer of 2004. It was taken from inside a 1940’s era bunker in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Pictured is a monument to those who lost their lives during World War II.
Friday’s Photo: Stone Sentinel
Photo Archives: Skinny Sunset
Heavy cloud cover reduces the sunset to a narrow band of light along Lake Erie’s horizon. The silhouette of a cargo ship is seen in the distance.
Fridays Photo: Psychedelic Sunset
I was playing around with the photo editing software again.
The Hawk Squawks 