16 December 2008, At sea.

We had a nice morning and then it started to cloud over. Courtesy of a mini cold front coming over. To weak to change the wind much, strong enough to bring increasing cloudiness and followed by rain during the night. At least it will mean that we will have a sunny day tomorrow in Belize, although it will be windy on the open waters.

I promised a story about the HAL dog in New York. This was during the days that Holland America had their piers at Hoboken, opposite Manhattan. In 1964 the company moved to pier 40 on the Manhattan East side and now of course we use the regular cruise ship piers. However from the beginning until 1964 Holland America Line docked at the Hoboken piers. In the Hoboken days the piers were used by both the passenger ships and the cargo ships, there were no separate piers. The longshoremen more or less worked always on the same pier and everybody knew everybody. The docks were open for all and everybody and that included various dogs and cats who had made the piers their home. There was security of course but more in the form of a friendly gate keeper than a gun toting martial arts expert that we have nowadays.

One of the more unusual dogs was Blackie, who, she; was an illegally landed emigrant.
She had jumped off a Red Star Freighter in 1944 and decided to stay on the pier. Apart from making the pier her home, she also worked on the pier. Duties included keeping order among 75 cats, inspecting every person who entered the pier and supervising the tug operations in relation to the arrivals of the HAL ships. For this she used to swim out to the tug and then sat on board. Being of some sort of Labrador lineage no doubt helped. She was the only dog on the HAL pier, except one other dog who was part of the night patrol of the police on the docks. He was also her husband and together they produced 43 puppies, which were all adopted by the various longshoremen working the docks.

She had her own bank account with $ 75, — in it, a result of a collection among the longshoremen when she needed the help from a Vet. She had her regular breakfast, lunch and dinner, provided by three senior people working on the pier; who considered this an honor. An honor that was not to be shared with anyone else.

She ruled the pier for six years and then drowned under the pier when the ebb tide was one day stronger than ever before. The longshoremen organized an official funeral and she was buried near the pier where she lived and worked for 6 years. It was because of her special character that she quickly became a mascot for the HAL piers and even the passengers on the ships that came in knew about her existence. Although the longshoremen took another dog (one of blackie’s children) but that dog never achieved the cult status of Blackie.

On board ships, dogs and other animals were not unusual but they were seldom on ships calling at American ports in the later years. USPH/USDA rules put a stop to that. The last time I saw a dog (not a guide or service dog of course) on board was in 1984 on the Noordam. He walked on board in Puerta Vallarta, when security had a weak moment. We found him after the ship had moved off the dock and so we kept him on board until we returned to Puerta Vallarta after calling at Acapulco. He enjoyed 5 days of grand hospitality in the Bo’ sun store, dining almost exclusively on T bone steak and other goodies that are normally reserved for the dining room.

Tomorrow morning we will be in Belize, with our normal early arrival at the pilot station. The ship will drop the hook at 7 am for a full day in Belize.

Note: the photo inserts are from the web/archives of the Hoboken museum. I have those in my collection as well but did not have them with me. Therefore: photo courtesy: Hoboken Museum New York.