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Looking at this set of fotos, words beginning with “w” came to mind. Like wind-swept, an apt way to describe this land’s end called Halibut Point in Rockport, here looking toward Maine. That’s “halibut” as in “haul about,” because as you sail round the point, you’ll encounter different winds. The rockpile is quarried chunks never loaded onto to ships, never built into construction sites.
Wind again comes to mind in this assemblage of traditional and new-fangled means of harnessing it. One is up, and two will follow. Schooners are Highlander Sea and Adventure.
Wavemaster is NOT the familiar name for the 47′ MLB like these, but it should be.
Wake . . . follows codzilla…
OK . . this one’s a stretch, but whenever I see a small RIB like this of the Massachusetts Environmental Police, I think sirens . . . not whistles, but then
there’s a Rupert, a 50′ RIB, and if the previous was whistles, then this is whistles and bells. If anyone’s thinking to give tugster a gift for Christmas, this is tops on my wishlist.
Viking Starliner wandered through the sixth boro the other day, possibly in for some work, but then it headed south . . . Florida-bound?
And finally this, a winter-cold sunrise, taken a week ago with a hint that December is not far off, a year winds down, waning hours of light.
And just apropos of absolutely nothing, had we had a few more hurricanes, we’d have gotten to hurricane William this year.
All manner of small vessels traverse the waters of the sixth boro. Twin Tube is truly one ageless fixture of the harbor. If I did photoshopping, I’d have the boom dangle something tantalizing over the Statue’s upstretched hand.
Annie G II . . . makes me wonder about Annie G I. Here she
stands by as crew perform some truck task over on the west side of Governor’s Island. I’ve enjoyed watching the derelict buildings on the Island disappear. A largely unseen harbor project farther south (sorry no pics from UNDER the sixth boro) has been the tunneling of a new deeper “water main” (p. 7 ff) between Brooklyn and Staten Island.
A small USCG boat stops for maintenance on the red 32. Unfortunately, I was on a vessel headed away from the buoy, and a few seconds after I took this, one crewman stepped aboard the buoy, on the other side.
A small USACE vessel speeds to the southeast past Robins Reef Light.
John P Brown pushes fewer than a dozen of the mere 1500 cars per year across the harbor, the miniscule fraction of merchandise that travels between NJ and parts of NYC on non-rubber wheels.
A small fishing boat crosses the bay under the cranes on hovering over Bayonne.
St Andrews runs light past some unidentified tugs obscured in the fog. I spent July 4 docked near St Andrews.
New England style fishing boat heads out of the Bronx while Fox Boys (I think) pushes some scrap probably toward Jersey City.
In fading light, HMS Liberty heads for the Kills. I’ve often wonder what the HMS stood for in this case. . . . Is the H his, her, or something else . . . .
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who wonders whether Sandy will be sandy or just windy, snowy, rainy, . . . tricky . . . .
Of course, here’s another approach to lifting smaller boats onto a transport deck. All fotos here are compliments of Rod Smith, about 10 days ago. Rod operates Narragansett Bay Shipping, where I know him best for his tireless documentation of vessel construction at Senesco Marine. (Doubleclick enlarges.)
It starts here, as Ocean Freedom enters the Bay, passing Castle Hill Light, Saturday, May 5, 0740. Ocean Freedom works for Intermarine.
And here’s the cargo. A recent Workboat article discusses the deal: four new Army ferries bound for the Marshall Islands, specifically for the Reagan Test site. The builder is Blount Boats, which I did posts about here and here.
Sunday, May 6, 1313h.
Sunday 1436h. Note the diver in the water directly below the port prop and rudder.
Sunday 1448h.
Monday, May 7, 1035h. In the foreground is Conanicut Island; Newport is in the distance.
Monday 1038h
Monday 1039h.
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All of which answers a question: given my recent obsession with the Panama Canal, I was wondering if Ocean Freedom carrying possibly the latest government boats might cross paths there with a US government boats on its last voyage. The vessel is USS Glacier, and it is in tow by Rhea and the company that recently towed the Artship (also with South Pacific connections) to the scrappers. . . but according to marinetraffic, as Ocean Freedom heads into the Pacific, Rhea and Glacier are following Baja California.
Many thanks to Rod Smith for the fotos and to David Hindin for the info on Rhea and USS Glacier.
In my personal life, the beginning of a calendar year seems the best time for maintenance, new starts, re-evaluations. Today I cleared out and organized a tool closet, tossing out with gusto and energy what I hadn’t been able to . . . in “cleaning” attempts for the past few years.
As I looked through fotos some of you have sent, I “read” maintenance in them, too. Like this foto of Ambrose from John Watson. I’m wondering how many years it’s been since LV-87 had her previous
haircut and a shave.
Lou Rosenberg sent this foto; even QM2 needs touch-ups. Here are some fotos I took of QM2 arriving in the sixth boro for the first time in April 2004.
Finally, Captain Thalassic sent some fotos from up on the Erie Canal, Lock 28A, where Erie Canal boats Emita II (1953) and Colonial Belle dry out their hulls over the winter, as does
. . . is that Seneca, and blindfolded and trussed in back of the dry dock? Does Seneca need help? Here’s another shot of Seneca by Jason LaDue.
Two more shots by John Watson, although these have no connection with maintenance . . . except my own. Catherine Turecamo here escorts bulk carrier being escorted Steel Anna.
Now there’s a name!! I imagine introducing myself . . . “Hi, I’m ‘steel will.’ If I needed some life maintenance , that would be an energetic start.
Thanks all for sending these fotos along.
Not quite two weeks ago I did my first post of Blount-built boats in far flung places. Read it here; a list of sixth boro Blount vessels appears at the end.
Now I’m thrilled to put up these fotos, generously sent by Julie Blount, executive vice president of Blount Boats, Inc. This is the launch of Blount’s cargo vessel Kasai, 1960, bound for
the huge inland waterways of the Congo.
Unrelated but what you might see on the inland waterways of central Africa could include MV Liemba, the second oldest operating steam ship in the world. MV Liemba is the ex-Graf von Götzen built 1912 in Papenburg, Germany on the Ems River, taken apart, and reassembled on the banks of Lake Tanganyika) . See this fine fine video trailer of MV Liemba underway.
Gratuitous foto of an interesting Blount vessel Sailor, taken on the Delaware River south of Philly last summer, and
one of Twin Tube provisioning Songa Emerald taken in the sixth boro last week. Fire Island Ferries operates over a half dozen Blount boats.
Back to Blount’s Kasai, I wonder where it is today. For an interesting set of fotos of Congo River system vessels from the time of Joseph Conrad until the relative present, click here. The last shot of the skeletal remains of a steam vessel on a riverbank is haunting.
Thanks again to Julie Blount for the two fotos from the Blount archives. The last two fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Thanks to Fairlane and Ben for pointing out an example of “you travel far away to find what you left behind” : shipbuilders in southern New England labored to create vessels like Cayo Largo (2008) , below and here (fotos 6 and 7). In fact, Cayo Largo displays front-and-center on the Blount Boats Shipyard site here.
The same Blount workers built Isla Grande (1976) and Cayo Norte (1995) , and if you want graphic evidence, look at this shot of Cross Sound’s Caribbean Ferry (1972) that despite its name never left New England, I don’t think. They built Isleno in 2004. (third foto down) and La Princesa (2009) (fotos 2 and 3).
As you enjoy these “walk-around” shots of Isla Grande, some of you
might consider her applicability for short sea shipping on
the Hudson, if not elsewhere as well.
Other Blount boats already depicted on tugster include the following:
Twin Tube (1952)
Bergen Point and Vulcan III (ex-Bethtug I and Bethtug III, respectively. 1958)
Scotty Sky (1960)
Miss New Jersey (1991) and bunches of other Circle Line boats.
Mister T (2001)
Labrador Sea (2002)
I’m sure I’ve missed some Blount boats that I’ve seen. The one I’d really like to know the disposition of . . . is Kasai (1960) and built for the rivers of the Congo, where I worked from 1973 until 1975. Anyone know? Here’s a story of a ferry disaster on the Kasai River just a few years back.
Unrelated: I’ve looked high and low for fotos of Asso 22, the tugboat seized yesterday off Libya. See story here, with fotos, of course, of politicians.
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