This past Independence Day, spectacles begat spectacles
as pedestrians filled-up the east side drive, closed for the
occasion, to gawk by the thousands at the boats on the river,
while the boats gawked back at the panoramic masses. The
event as a whole covered miles end-to-end, with rockets set-
off from barges at two sites on the East River, a third just off
Liberty Island.
No aspect of the Macy's fireworks event was unimpres-
sive. The Coast Guard locked the harbor down, and even the
Staten Island Ferry suspended operations. A dozen-or-so
ships were said to have backed-up at Ambrose, so Macy's
probably had more co-sponsors than were generally men-
tioned. But the Coast Guard had announced the design of
the event way back on June 13, which should have been
plenty of time to plan.
The McAllister Brothers was one of five from that fleet,
peopled mostly by company folks and their families. The
other four- Bruce A., Girls, Iona, and Marjorie B- were tied
abreast for a crossable feast of friends from Maersk. Not far
to the south, five Reinauer tugs - the Kristy Ann, Stephen-
Scott, Zachery, Jill, and another whose name eluded us -
were bundled together for the show. K-Sea's Viking, joined
August, 2005 • MarineNews 27
Redoing the Sky
in the Month
of July
Traditionally explosions and the
maritime industry do not set well
together, but this was not the case
last month as Don Sutherland
found in visiting with the Grucci's
— the first family of fireworks — to
discuss the maritime muscle needed
to pull off a massive show on the
waterways of New York.
From the deck of the McAllister
Brothers, happy Independence
Day. Boats with flashing blue
lights will remain part of the dis-
play, we presume, for a time to
come. (Photo: Don Sutherland.)
AROUND THE HARBOR
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