concessions here and there.
Time and Tide
With all the gingerly handling the tug masters brought to their task, the day of the big parade and shipdocking extravaganza -- May 21 -- was uneventful and routine. Scheduled maintenance dredging had ensured sufficient draft for the warships, although the tugs kicked-up grand clouds of mud. "It was very shallow in there," reports Capt. Watts. "We plugged up the sea strainer." The contour of the harbor and its one-sided pier at Staten Island also influenced the agenda for the day. The currents of the North and East Rivers cross the harbor and run into Staten Island's east shore, in what's sometimes described as a "scrubbing" action. The Navy pier is just about centered on that shoreline. "That ebb current at Staten Island could have been a recipe for disaster," said McAllister's Capt. Pat Kinnier, who as in past years orchestrated the event from the docking company's perspective. "With three Navy ships on the one side of the pier, you have to fight the current to keep them from banging into each other, to keep them straight
Capt. Brian Fournier at the helm of the tug Reliance, beginning the evolution of docking three warships side-by-side at the sole available pier on Staten Island. (Photo: Don Sutherland.)
as you ease them in." It became preferable to wait the tide out.
(Continued on page 46)
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