The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 23

SPORTS THEATERS CLASSIFIED REAL ESTATE LA 123 UV SECTION TWO- BROOKLYN, NEW YORK SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 1952 23 Our 'Lavender Lake' Is a Busy Ditch i i Gowanus Canal Is No Venice But It's a Vital Area By JEAXXE TOOMEV The seasoned European traveler looking over the borough's most famous waterway Gowanus Canal might well utter'a sigh and lay, "Venice was never like this!" Gowanus resembles the 'fl- I canals of Venice about as much as a Myrtle Ave. sa loon duplicates a Parisian cabaret. A preponderance of liquid characterizes all of them but the similarity ends there, No purple, perfumed sails bedeck the sand and gravel barges of Brooklyn's best I II-' im-i CAP'N ALLEN AND HIS WATER SPRITE Fifty years ylSSSjl 4 I on owanus ave not shaken Skipper Fred AJlen in his pmfg 'afijiwl' 2ftr. jV) "'SSIJi I allegiance to Brooklyn's most famous waterway. A mere A -jr.

,1 C5 -vi newcomer, his "almost" police dog, Prince, urv I.M,Jgial3 has adapted himself nicely to life afloat. VITAL WATERWAY Qld Gowanus, victim of a multitude of gags, rolls along with the help of an impeller which keeps the water moving. Industrial installations important to the life of the borough flank its turgid sides and in the right background may be seen the Williams-burgh Bank Building. The man-made stream is shallow in depth, being from 1 1 feet to 1 8 feet deep. known channel.

No Cleopatra has been known to glide regally down the Gowanus, but Brook-lynites still find in the approximately mile-long estuary a certain charm. It may not be the Nile, yet Thomas Wolfe and other literary figures have sung of the Gowanus. Miniature tugs, so tiny that they seem like terra cotta toys topped by stubby red and black stacks, ply through the canal. One Is grandly dabbed Hesperus. A kind of aquatic traffic cop calls the signals on this bustling man-made water avenue.

He is Patrolman Mike Har-rigan of 1669 Hendrickson St. who has spent 29 of his 30 years on the-force attached to harbor duty. He formerly patrolled the old Wallabout Canal, since filled in. A bill reported on favorably this week by the House Public Works Committee would pro-ide for the deepening of Gowanus Creek Channel so that deep water cargo may be carried through without waiting for the change of tide. The project will cost an estimated $287,000.

The bill was introduced by Representative John J. Rooney. A Busy Waterway Gowanus Bay. an indentation on the South Brooklyn shore, between Erie Basin and Bush Terminal, narrows into the canal. In its concentration of piers and industry activity, the area Is of great importance.

From Gowanus Parkway may be sefen a bristling bas-relief of masts, funnels and superstructures. Right at the point where the municipal warehouse is encountered, the odors begin which once won Gowanus the title of "Lavender Lake." "I've been down here so much, I don't even smell it," Harrigan observed peacefully when asked the probable origin of a particularly powerful stench. "They used to pull the boats through here by Aiule or horse," he continued, "I've been lucky. I never fell overboard yet." A pumping station at the foot he maintains, to the health-giving properties of the canal. Years ago, Skipper Allen had a canal boat of his own on, the Gowanus.

He now commands a McLain Co. coal barge. His loyal companion on the barge is an "almost" police dog named Prince. Asked to hold Prince steady for a picture, he told the dog, "Hold still here, now, or I'll give you a poke in the nose, now." The animal posed prettily. Traffic Is His Job Directing 2,500 incoming and outgoing vessels a month, Officer' Harrigan comments, "My job is traffic.

I have to keep the canal open at all times for navigation. Fire boats must have access here in case of fire." The Gowanus Towing Company for 52 years has maintained the fleet of Gowanus tugs. There are seven in all, with four in operation at the moment. Harbor launches patrol the area also for the Police Department, seeing that order is maintained along the way. Capt.

William G. Schnabel commands the Harbor Precinct, which is an adjunct of the Emergency Service Division headed by Inspector Walter E. Klotzback. Lt. Vance Parkinson, who has been 30 years with the Marine Division; and formerly served ort ships as an ensign, is one of Schnarjel's assistants.

CANAL GUARDIAN Mike Harrigan, who has spent 29 years on harbor duty with the Police Department, really considers Gowanus a "region of the dead," like the River Styx of mythology. He should he has picked up, he recollects, "a couple of thousand bodies" while on duty there and on the now filled-in Wallabout Canal. The Canal vet also remembers when a baby whale tried to make the Canal its home and got stuck in the pumping station installed to move the Aroma de Gowanus along. He doesn't notice the olfactory impact of the conduit thinks the Canal has cost him his sense of smell. ,.4.,.,.

ilMWl' 'V 52- "1" ZSrrZ of the canal near the Butler St. Shelter of the A. S. P. C.

A. keeps up an apparently hopeless fight to keep the waters bright cfnd crystalline. Capt. Fred Allen has been I traveling on the Gowanus for 60 years. He will be 70 July 17, tug admirals have seen half a century wreak its changes along the Canal.

The company has only four tugs now in active service, including the wonderfully named Hesperus. UP-SADAISY! Ninth St. drawbridge reluctantly opens its jaws to allow one of the Gowanus Towing Company's tiny tugs, the Victorious, to drag its giant-size barge through the Canal. Many of the Gowanus 8I1Q IS line piljcK-ai men for his age and a tribute, Bait Staff Photos bj Oelltt Brooklyn's Man Of the Week NO-HIT GAME LAURELS REST LIGHTLY ON HIS BROW By RICHARD J. ROTH Carl Erskine was sitting on the Dodger bullpen bench at Ebbets Field, his uniform shirt, moist from shagging flies under a noonday sun, pressed against the cigarette ad in right field.

"You know," he rejected, "a no-hit game is a freak sort of thing. There's no rhyme or reason about it. It Yf Vf A doesn't always pick the best pitcher and it doesn't always have to be the best game, the pitcher ever i worked." But, admitted the right-hander at 5 foot 9V the smallest hurler on the club the masterpiece he had turned in the day before, when one Chicago player reached first base on a walk, was the best game he ever pitched. That lone base on balls was the only thing which prevented him from pitch TfePS I While he began playing ball at an early age, he didn't break into organized baseball unti) alter the war. After attending schools in Anderson, he entered the Navy, taking his boot training at Sampson Naval Base up-State, and then serving about a year in Boston.

"I never did get out of Boston," he said, and then grinned. "There wasn't a Jap left alive up there by the time I got out," he gagged. Kids Spot No. 17 and Yell He got up and excused himself, explaining that, he had to get in some running before practice was over. As he ran out towards center field a bunch of youngsters, out for the Friday game early, spotted his No.

17 and began to yell. He sprinted around for about five minutes and then came back and sat down, his forehead glistening with sweat. After the war he returned to Anderson and enrolled under the GI bill at Anderson College, a small school in his home town. He completed one semester butthen, having signed with the Dodger organization, had to leave college for Spring training. Erskine pitched for Danville in the Three-I League in 1946 and 1947, and then was promoted.

The next two seasons he shuttled back and forth between Brooklyn and Fort Worth, in 1930 between the Dodgers and Montreal, and, finally, in 1951, he was a full-fledged Dodger pitcher. After a slow start, he clicked and, with a 16-12 record, wound up tenth in the league in number of games won. Last year Erskine' and his pretty, brunette wife, Betty, lived with their two sons on Dorset St. in East Flatbush. This year their apartment is on Lafayette Walk, near 93d SU in Bay Ridge.

got sort of a Dodger colony out there," he although he gets but little opportunity during the season. In the Fall he and Preacher Roe pack up their rods and reels and hit the Arkansas streams near French's home. He also gets some fishing in during Spring training in Florida. Home movie-making and woodworking are his other hobbies. During the Winter, he' and Betty take the kids back to Anderson, and he works as a salesman.

Last year he sold appliances, while the two previous Winters he worked for a lumber company. He liked that because he could keep outdoors. Planning to Set Up Business "We've been thinking about the future, of course," he said. "I hope to set, up some kind of business home before very long." Was he nervous while the scoreboard was ticking off his hit less innings? "Xo," he answered. "I began to get a little tense in the ninth inning when Miksis came up with two out.

But I wasn't really nervous. That, game witli Cincinnati last year sort of conditioned me for this one." In that game, Erskine pitched Seven hitless innings and then gave up a hit to Ted Kluszewski to open the eighth. Stallcup homered in the same inning to spoil Erskine's shutout. "I got almost as much of a thrill in pitching th" shutout as in the fact it was a no-hitter," he said, pointing out that until this season he had never pitched one. This was his second this year.

Erskine conceded that he's in a bit of a hitting slump, having gotten only one hit in his last 55 attempts. He's confident he'll connect soon. Then he grinned: "Guess I'm pressing a bit at the plate." Carl Erskine PITCH OF THE WEEK Start of the curve that baffled the Cubs. remarked in the soft voice which betrayed his Hoosier background. "Snider, Walker, King and PeeWee all live real close, and Preacher, Pafko and Rutherford live within walking distance." The junior members of the Erskine family are one of the star's biggest outside interests.

Danny, who is 35, is already a Dodger fan of no small proportions, and Hi-year-old Gary is ready to follow in his footsteps. Like many ballplayers, Erskine likes to go fishiiig, ing the first perfect major league game in 30 years. Back home in Anderson, where the 25-year-old Erskine was born and still lives during the off season, baseball comes naturally to young Hoosiers, and by the time he was 9 or 10 he was playing regularly in a small-fry league. "I used to pitch most of the time," he said, "but once In a while I play some shortstop. I always likea the Infield, and I've always had a hankering to be at some position where I could play rery day.".