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Trust: Lilac can berth at Pier 40 when fendering of pier is done

Volume 16, Number 11 | Aug. 12–Aug. 18, 2003

Trust: Lilac can berth at Pier 40

when fendering of pier is done

The S.S. Lilac, an 800-ton steamer salvaged by a group of marine enthusiasts who had it towed up from Norfolk, Va., is in the Erie Basin in Brooklyn and waiting for a permanent home on Pier 40 at W. Houston St.

“We’re waiting for our engineers to certify plans for the protective fendering piles that we have to install on the north side of Pier 40,” said Gerry Weinstein, a member of the Tug Pegasus Foundation, which owns the 173-ft. steamship, built in 1907 for the U.S. Lighthouse Service.

The certification is expected in two weeks and the pilings will be installed at the expense of the Lilac owners.

Chris Martin, spokesperson for the Hudson River Park Trust, said the Lilac could come to Pier 40 as soon as the fendering system is approved and installed. A permanent home on Pier 40 for the Clearwater, the 1960s reproduction of a 19th-century Hudson River sloop, is likely next year, Martin said.

The Lilac, which served as a training vessel for the Seafarers’ International Union for several years, is owned by a group that includes Norman Brouwer, historian at the South Street Seaport Museum; Huntley Gill, a partner in the decommissioned fireboat John R. Harvey, docked at Pier 63 Maritime in Chelsea; Pamela Hepburn, skipper of the historic tug Pegasus, docked on Pier 62; and Weinstein.