The Empty Vessel

Read Andy Newman's story: The boat is called the Empty Vessel.

The name was meant to conjure infinite possibility, a floating tabula rasa on the Gowanus Canal in the form of a 63-foot World War II Navy rescue craft.

Fifteen months ago, the Empty Vessel journeyed up the canal on a mission both modest and, in this fenced-off, parceled-up city, almost unthinkably grand: to provide a floating meeting place and performance hall available to anyone with a creative idea.

The Gowanus, which retains an off-the-grid feel despite a planned future as Brooklyn's own condo-lined Venice, seemed just the spot. And for months, anything went on the wooden boat with the tin-ceilinged cabin: punk-jazz squawkfests, knot-tying classes, antiglobalization documentary screenings, Russian lessons and poetry readings by tour bus guides.