A SHIP’S HORN IN THE NIGHT

It’s on Gowanus Lounge today, who saw it on Clinton Hill Blog: A CHB reader asked: “Do you hear a noise like a fog horn or a ship’s horn on occasion? Is this noise from the Navy Yard, or from cruise ships coming and going from Red Hook, or from ordinary East River ship traffic?

My daughter asked the same thing last night. Here’s a transcript of that conversation to the best of my memory. We were walking down Third Street with friends.

“Is there some water nearby?” my daughter asked.

“No, the newstand is closed,” I said thinking she wanted some drinking water.

“No, I mean lots of water,” she said.

“Yeah, there’s a lake in the park and a big river not too far,” I said.

“Big enough for there to be big boats that make loud sounds?”

“Yeah,” I said.

Luckily my friend Ed was standing nearby. He grew up in Boerum Hil.

“It’s from the Gowanus. The boats on the Gowanus. When I was growing up I used to hear the boats on the Gowanus.”

Suddenly I got this very romantic picture of a boy growing up on Dean Street (back when Dean Street was Dean Street) listening to the far off boats on the Gowanus.

“Well, I’ve been hearing this low sounds at night. These horns or something. They sound like this…” she said making a low fog horn like sound.