Like the other five boros, the sixth boro is trafficked by creations large and small. Two diverse large vessels are Cunard’s QM2 and MSRC’s New Jersey Responder, a key player in 
the case of any oil spill in the New York area. The 210′ vessel, in spite of all its systems, might be dwarfed by the crisis. Fifteen of these Oil Spill Responder Vessels are positioned around the US. Check out “moondogofmaine” ‘s posting on these vessels compared with the European counterparts.
Here Bohemia and Patuxent are dwarfed by a container vessel, wheras only
only moments later, something comes westbound on the KVK to magnify the Vane tug into something of the Gulliver-class.
I didn’t catch the name of the small gold tug before it disappeared behind a light Bouchard barge.
A final word on scale: all are important. For example, consider the power of a snowball v. the power of an avalanche. Easy . . . the more powerful is the snowball if that triggers the avalanche. Without the snowball, no avalanche would occur.
All fotos yesterday by Will Van Dorp.
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November 17, 2010 at 9:09 pm
Les Sonnenmark
As a participant in the design and integration of the spill collection and processing equipment into the RESPONDER class vessels, I think moondogofmaine has a limited view of these and the European ships. They should be viewed as part of a large system of vessels, barges, bladders, booms, skimmers, pumps, separators and most importantly people which are intended to work together to respond to a spill. None of these were designed to respond to an open water gusher like that in the Gulf of Mexico this year, but to a VALDEZ-type spill. Although we considered tanker-type response vessels when setting up the MSRC system, it made more sense to use a tug-and-barge concept–keep the response vessel on-station, collecting and filling barges and bladders, then exchanging the filled ones for empties. How much dredging does PADRE ISLAND get done when it has to transit to an offshore site to dump its spoils? The MSRC vessels did perform inshore work in the Gulf, but the slick had dispersed substantially by that time. With good seamanship, improved tanker design and luck the RESPONDER class vessels will be the Maytag repairmen of the waterfront.
November 17, 2010 at 10:54 pm
mageb
Thank you for the drama of scale. I did include one of our naval tugs in yesterdays post. Just for you.