On a sterling September day when the Rondout in Kingston was bustling with tourists who came down to see boats that work the river, Jessica DuLong navigated the tug Gowanus Bay out into the Hudson River and back again, giving rides to eager passengers all afternoon. As she eased the vessel up against the dock and struggled to tie her to a pier so the next group could come aboard, DuLong maintained the singular attention the task demanded. It’s a habit she’s developed purposely, not out of false modesty or to slight anyone—rather, to concentrate her energy on the task at hand whatever it might be, by avoiding eye contact and the inevitable engagement with onlookers who cannot help but marvel at the idea of a young woman at work in a man’s world.

DuLong is a U.S. Coast Guard-licensed Merchant Marine Officer and, notably, one of the world’s only female fireboat engineers. Her fascination with maritime work emerged unexpectedly, after a decade of freelance journalism and brief dot.com career. Her story is told in the newly released book My River Chronicles: Rediscovering America on the Hudson—how she happened upon the 1931 fireboat John J. Harvey as it was being restored by volunteers, how surprisingly good it felt to wield a power tool and toil until her clothes were saturated in sweat, and how easily hooked she was into working full time in the diesel exhaust-filled engine room.

DuLong’s book begins with the early 20th century catastrophe that took the life of NYC fireman John J. Harvey, for whom the fireboat was named, and follows the chart of its history along with the growth of industry in our young country. In fact, her discoveries point to the Hudson Valley as the birthplace of American industry, with the river and its tributaries making industrialization feasible. As a New Englander who admits she’d not been an avid student of history in school, she blames the river for her latent passion and intrigue, and says she spent her idle time at the controls of the Harvey reading about the region’s development. “Primary source material was always interesting to me—you get a closer connection to people who are long dead; you put yourself in their shoes. On the fireboat, I was literally walking the diamond plate decking in the engine room, living and breathing in the actual space of history. Being able to walk into the places where history happened—it’s such a huge gift.”

Operating now as a living museum that offers free public trips around the New York Harbor and annual tours up the Hudson River, the John J. Harvey was destined for the scrap heap just ten years ago. That DuLong’s life path would intersect with the reincarnation of a fireboat, causing a radical alteration of lifestyle in which she’d spend the next few years looking out portholes at the Hudson River waterline, never occurred to her. And that her travels up and down the river would prompt unquenchable curiosity for the history of the Hudson Valley was a bonus surprise. “The more I became immersed in my job and the more I learned about how to take care of the engine room, it just spiraled out—from the boat to the New York Harbor and from there to the Hudson River!”

Past and more recent struggles in the region, like the Storm King Mountain and the St. Lawrence Cement controversies, are layered with accounts of historical accomplishments, like the building of the Delaware & Hudson Canal and the WestPoint Foundry at Cold Spring, in prose that’s both engaging and informative. DuLong sees the shifting cultural landscape of the Hudson Valley as a microcosmic picture of the nation’s changing composition. “Core issues and values have been brought to the surface in these disputes, [forcing] communication, and interaction. The transformation—decisions being made by people who are coming together and carving out new approaches to the economy, like heritage tourism where industry once dominated—I start to see how that’s reflecting the changes in these industrial towns, and I see it happening in the entire country!”

Absorbing the region’s history while learning the mechanics of the boat, DuLong has come to appreciate the value of physical labor—both as rewarding personal work and as that which fostered an early American drive for self-sovereignty. She maintains that labor intensive, problem-solving, hands-on work led to our independence and eventual industrial preeminence in the world. And as we lose our self-sufficiency in this post-industrial era, she feels a re-acquaintance with such an ethic is vitally important. “Hands-on work has been devalued and debased, and certainly the wage gap between men’s and women’s income is staggering to this day. A lot of good, high paying, stable jobs are those like being a welder or a machinist or others in advanced manufacturing … and if women actually realized those jobs are available to them, they could fill a need that the country has now.”

One moving chapter of the book presents a visceral description of the Harvey’s participation in extinguishing the fires at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The city’s fireboats—including the retired Harvey—were the only water sources at the site. She writes, “When firefighters on land bent over their hoses to rinse the ash from their faces, they spit and sputtered in surprise, tasting the salt of the Hudson.” DuLong and crew helped evacuate some of the three hundred thousand people fleeing Manhattan that day, for which they were later recognized in the Congressional Record for their service.

As unapproachable as DuLong is when focused on piloting a tugboat or managing the controls of a diesel engine, her demeanor relaxes in conversation with other Hudson River enthusiasts. She recently held her own at a gathering of the Society for Industrial Archeology—a rather “nerdy” group of social scientist types who tour the country in search of old technology sites to visit. She especially enjoys having children on the boat and is scheduled to speak at a conference of 5th and 6th grade girls in Westchester County, focusing on making choices, career and otherwise. “Being a role model comes with a lot of pressure. Images are really powerful, and the ability to let kids know that this is possible … to stumble through your life and end up doing things that are valuable, when you find your passion … there are a lot of choices in terms of how that ends up.”

Jessica DuLong will be at the Village Square Bookstore in Hunter to read from My River Chronicles: Rediscovering America on the Hudson on Saturday, December 5 at 1 pm. For more information call 518 263 2050 or visit www.catskillmtn.org.