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March, 2006 • MarineNews 21 By Don Sutherland "Tugboats of New York" is one of those rare constructions where everything works just about perfectly. The text is insightfully, appreciatively, and master- fully written. The illustrations are infor- mative, handsome, and sometimes — deliberately, one gathers, given some of the credits — quite beautifully artistic. The photo captions are detailed and often lengthy, turning the book into sort of an A-V show on paper. And what paper. The stock is coated and 60-lb. heavy, bright, easy on the eyes, apparently formulated to last the next century or two. The illustrations glisten with a sheen more reminiscent of actual photographic prints than something screened into a book. The quality of manufacture echoes the lavish production values of coffee- table books produced in Asia, although this one is American-made. All these indi- vidual excellences combine with a tactile and sensual force when the volume is hefted and spread-open for a read, a page- turner whose deluxe composition digni- fies its subject. With a title like "Tugboats of New York" and a subtitle, "An Illus- trated History," what the book's about would seem fairly inescapable. Yet with so many cogs in the machinery of its telling, author George Matteson may have intended other messages besides the one that's spelled-out. NY Long Ago The author upholds the New York theme of the book in grand style, taking local history back to before there was a New York, or even a place to build it. "Eleven hundred million years ago," states the opening, "the Manhattan Prong began to form under the relentless pres- sure of collision between tectonic plates bearing the North American and African continents." That's how the "New York" pedigree of the work begins; the tugboats come later "About nine thousand years ago," we're told after an intervening couple of para- graphs of geological development, "Long Island Sound became an arm of the ocean; the Narrows a tidal strait ... Vagaries of terrain made Staten an island and the East River a tidal strait leading to Long Island Sound; and thus, Manhattan, the artifact of a thousand-million-year-old prong, was ready for business." It was still a bit early for the tugboat business, but a fundamental characteristic of the eventual city was by then cast. "Most of that business is conducted at the will of the tides ... through the labyrinth of channels that make up the Upper and Lower bays, the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers, the Kills that encircle Stat- en Island, Raritan and Newark bays, and the Hackensack and Passaic rivers." What do these formations, laid-out in an unpop- ulated landscape during the time of the Pharaohs, have to do with a local industry which got its start no more than 189 years ago? "The behavior of the harbor currents and the consequences of that behavior have become a vital language learned by generations of boatmen." Boatmen. The author included. "Early on in my education, I was given the opportunity to steer a tow comprising two empty scrap barges out of the Kill Van TUGBOATS Book Review: Tugboats of New York It's no simple thing to illustrate a review of a book without reproducing its illustrations, but they're so well-done that we'd hate to spoil the surprise. So we'll show related things. The book mentions the K. Whittelsey a couple times, and here's her house as it appeared on September 11, 2002. (Photo: Don Sutherland) Railroad tugs are no longer the common sight they once were, not because of a failure of tugs, but because of the failure of the railroads. The book covers plenty on their contributions to New York commerce. Their counterparts today would be more "intermodal" — that is, boxes that fit boats, trains, and who knows what corporate entities replacing the railroads could make of container barges? MARCH MN2006 3(17-24).qxd 3/3/2006 2:46 PM Page 21
