Random Ships 19

Here was RS 18.

Let’s start with two fotos from Ken on the North Coast.  In fact, this first foto shows American Spirit on the legendary Whitefish Bay.  Note all the wind turbines on the distant ridge.  The 1000+ footer was built in Ohio and operated by American Steamship Company of greater Buffalo, NY.

Here the Wisconsin-built John G. Munson enters the Soo Locks, at the southeast corner of Whitefish Bay.  No visitors to the sixth boro have quite these hull designs, which border on neo-razzledazzle a la bowsprite.

Ships calling at the sixth boro tend to look more like this, Pacific Endeavor having been delivered from an Asian shipyard, this one from Oshima Shipbuilding.

Or . . . escorted by Gramma Lee T. Moran,  Santa Bettina comes calling, built five years ago in that place of many industrial superlatives that used to be assigned to Detroit . . .  Ulsan, Korea;

or NYK Demeter, Ulsan 2008,  stopping in NYC once every few months on its trans-Panama shuttle between eastern US and China;

or Korean-built MSC Emma . . .  operating between eastern US and

eastern South American ports, although registered in the Marshall Islands.  In the shot about, it’s Moran’s Laura K near Emma‘s stern and Barney Turecamo,passing to port.

One more . . . Korean-built sixteen years ago . . . it’s another Panama Canal-frequenter  APL Spinel, here escorted in by Louisiana-built  Amy C. McAllister.

Top two fotos thanks to Ken of Michigan Exposures; all others by Will Van Dorp.

Two resources I’ve just (finally) added to my blogroll are Workboat and ShipsandHarbours.

Mostly Seas

When I saw this unit arrive, I thought maybe I’d see one of the larger tugs painted in Kirby colors, like

Davis Sea pushing the barge and unlike Solomon Sea that still

bears K-Sea colors.

The Patriot has become DBL 83, pushed by Weddell Sea.

But I was wrong:  Tasman Sea looks as it has since it ceased being Ambassador.

Solomon Sea has worn this livery since

2007.

Unrelated and thanks to John Skelson . . .  Blue Angels were over the boros yesterday

prepping for Fleet Week . .  coming up soon.

Thanks, John.

Finally . . . I’ve failed to publicly praise tugboathunter for his site about Detroit River traffic.  Check it out  here.

Government Boats 20

Whatzit???  Answer follows.

Note what’s on the deck of USCGC Mackinaw WLLB-30, built in Wisconsin and homeported in Cheboygan, MI.   Foto thanks to Kyran Clune.

Now here’s my favorite local government boat, although

I’ve been unable to find any info about its age and place of

origin.  If I got a yacht, it would look like this.  Anyone help here on Hudson?

Maintenance o aids to navigation is needed wherever and whatever those aids be.  Note the Roncado crew on

the buoy.

Anyhow . . . here’s the bigger context on that top foto;  USCG 49405 seems to have more

buoys on her “to do list” than

her stern can accommodate.

This is NOT at all a government boat, but I snapped this a few weeks ago.  Upon further examination, I’m wondering about the barge and  . . . is that a portside offset upper house?

Last shot . .  again, no government boat is this, but exactly a year ago today, Papillon came ashore . . . prompting many hours of visitation of government employees . . . if not boats.  Here and here are two of my posts;  go back to the April 201 archives for many more.  Ironically, I have never been able to find out what became of the vessel.

Happy April!  Again thanks to Kyran for his Lake Michigan foto.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Really Random Tugs 10

Ryba’s Tenacious (1960 Mississippi-built) in lower right, then barge Great Lakes with tug Michigan (1982 Wisconsin), and USCG Mackinaw (not WAGB 83 but WLLB 33).

Durocher Marine’s tugs from near to far: Ray D (1943  ?), Joe Van (1905!! Buffalo, NY) , and Champion (1974 Louisiana).

Barbara E. Bouchard (1992 Mississippi)  afloat and

araised and dry.  Those props are at least 10′ diameter . . . I don’t know the exact number.  Barbara E. first appeared here in 2008.

Kirby’s

Davis Sea (1982 Florida).

Danielle M. Bouchard (1997 Louisiana),  who first appeared on tugster

three years ago but I hadn’t seen since.

And of course with the gray training wheels and hard in pursuit of APL Spinel, it’s

Ellen McAllister (1966 Wisconsin), here neck-n-neck with Amy C. McAllister (1975 Louisiana).   Ellen may have appeared on this blog more often than any other tug;  here … with some additional lettering on her flanks … I believe is her debut post.

The tug only visible as an upper wheelhouse is Potomac.  The bridge just beyond the flottage is the Queensboro . . . memorialized in this song.

Potomac (2007 and built along the Bayou Lafourche . . . third foto)  moves neck-n-neck with . . .

Resolute (1975 Oyster Bay, NY), she currently with the most fibrous fendering in the sixth boro.  In between the two is Weddell Sea (2007 Rhode Island).

And of course you recognize the tallest portions of Manhattan, a few miles across the Upper Bay looking across the southeastern tip of Bayonne, NJ.

Fotos here credited to Kyran Clune, Allen Baker, and Birk Thomas:  thanks much.   All others by Will Van Dorp.

Considering the shipyards mentioned above, I’m wondering why–so far as I know–no active shipyards remain on New York’s Great Lakes shore, and when the last one on that shore closed.

Other People’s Fotos 14

The newly named Patrice McAllister, sixth boro bound, experienced a fire near Kingston, Ontario.  For the story, see boatnerd here.   The Shipwatcher has the story here.  Bowditch, ex-Hot Dog and here the rescue tug, was featured on tugster here back in 2010;  see second foto from the end.

Several thousand miles south, Harding is an older tug still in use in the Panama Canal named for Chester Harding, not Warren G.

Foto taken almost 25 years ago from aboard sugar bulker Sugar Island, northbound in the Panama Canal.   Being a sugar-dedicated bulk carrier would make this one sweet vessel.

Top foto from USCG via boatnerd;  next two thanks to Allen Baker.

I’ve now also added Ship Watcher to my blogroll.

Also, check out photosbytomandpolly, who shoot from not far away along the western end of the St Lawrence Seaway.

Two Canals, Two Ships

So here’s the question . . . two locks, almost 3000 miles apart, Miraflores Esclusas in the Panama Canal and Poe Lock in the Soo. . . each recently traversed by a large vessel,

CSAV Suape in

the Panama, and then

Mesabi Miner in the Poe.

Question . . . without looking it up, which of the two vessels is larger . . . CSAV Suape or Mesabi Miner?

And let the record show that I would have gotten it wrong, but although their beams are the same,  Mesabi Miner is 39′ longer than CSAV Suape!  Mesabi is named for the mountain range it is involved in hauling away.

Here’s more info on the Soo.  Mesabi Miner fotos come thanks to Ken of Michigan Exposures, where more Mesabi fotos are available here and here.

Panama fotos by Will Van Dorp.

North Coast News 2

I’ll get to more of the Louisiana and Panama fotos once I “deglitch” something, so thanks to these shots from Isaac Pennock of tugboathunter we can head north.

Do you recognize this shade of blue?

It’s DonJon Marine’s new Great Lakes’ ATB Ken Boothe Sr. and barge Lakes Contender  in Erie, on Lake Erie. 

And it’s huge.  How huge?

Compare it with Witte 1407.

Here’s a video from more than a year ago showing Boothe first in the water.  It only gets somewhat more exciting than watching ice melt (like watching paint dry or grass grow)  after 3:40 . . .

Many thanks to Isaac for these shots.

North Coast News

Thanks to Ken of Michigan Exposures . . .  her starboard.  You saw her portside back in November.  Might stuff happen with the Boblo boat such that some day we might all freely see her inside and out?

Unlike the case in saltwater vessels, Great Lakes ships like Herbert C. Jackson and M. V. Algolake tie up for the winter;  maintenance happens, but no cargo gets moved.  Re-opening of the Soo Locks is about three weeks away . . . March 25.

The sixth boro has been virtually snowless this winter;  not so, though, areas along the North Coast.  Alice E (1950)  hibernates in Benton Harbor.

Although rough as the Great Lakes can be, there was no ice on the St. Joseph pier when Ken took this foto.

Many thanks, Ken, for keeping us apprised of the season along that other coast.

This just in from Paul Welch . . . Mighty Servant 1, whom you saw here in several posts between December 12 and 19, has recently loaded Sevan Brasil off Shanghai bound for Rio.

Other People’s Fotos 12

All fotos today come from Isaac Pennock at various Canadian shorelines along the eastern Great Lakes.  And an interesting set of vessels this is.  Take James A. Hannah, foto shot in Hamilton.  Look at her lines.  You’ve seen a sibling of this vessel here before.    Recall Bloxom here and in the graveyard here. More on James A. Hannah and siblings at the end of this post.

This foto of M. R. Kane was taken in Toronto.  Kane appeared in the sixth boro on this blog three years ago in a foto Bowsprite took from her cliff.  Finally . . . a closeup.

Wilf Seymour foto was taken Port Colborne.  Seymour is Port Arthur, TX-built in 1961 and some of you may remember her as M. Moran!  Here are more specs from the McKeil Marine site.

Salvor is Long Island-built former Esther Moran. Salvor, delivered in 1963, was hull # 417.   To add some context here, K-Sea’s Maryland was also built  at the Jakobson yard in Long Island, hull # 406 and delivered a year before Salvor.

There’s not much to see here, but I believe–Isaac asserts– is the Australian-built, Canadian-flagged K-Sea tug William J. Moore, taken here in St. Catherines.  I’ve never heard of this vessel. I quote from Birk and Harold’s site:  ”at one point she was dubbed the largest and highest-horepower tug in Australia.”  Who knew?

I located this image in the photo archives of Marietta Manufacturing.  Taken on May 20, 1944, it shows LT-650.  Bloxom was launched a month later, same location, as LT-653.   Two years later, LT-650 was sold to China, and current disposition . . . I’ve no clue how to trace.  Is there an US Army tugs-in-China expert out there?    James A. Hannah was launched a year later–July 1945 as LT-820.   Fleet siblings of James are David E. Hannah and Mary E. Hannah, respectively LT-815 (April 1945) and LT-821.  David E. appears to have been out of service since 2009, somewhere near Chicago.  Birk and Harold have her series of names listed here;  one of those former names was   Kristin Lee Hannah, shown here, although the date of build listed as 1953 is wrong.  Click here for a 2009 article on the demise/auctioning off of Hannah Marine.  I’d love to see a current foto of David E. or know her approximate whereabouts.

Many thanks to Isaac for these fotos.  Also thanks to the Point Pleasant (WV) River Museum pointing me in the direction of the Marietta Manufacturing photo archives.

Other Peoples’ Fotos 11

Here was 10.

And here, from John Van Staalduinen,  are fotos of Legend, a sibling of the virgin tug Liberty I posted about a month ago.  Doubleclick enlarges. The size of this behemoth can

measured using the load line (draft markings) on the stern.  Eyeballing it, I’d say that from the top of the stern bulwarks to the top of the brownish bottom paint is almost 20′.  I.e., if (post-launch obviously) I dove from the bulwarks into the water, it would be a long way just to the water!  ??  Stern anchor is already in place.

Also at the shipyard in Anacortes, John got this foto of a dry-docked Nanuq, a 301′ loa oil recovery/platform supply vessel build by Edison Chouest.  Nanuq was delivered in May 2007; here’s a youtube of its launch.   Click here for a foto/info on the newest vessel Edison Chouest is undertaking for Shell’s Arctic drilling.

And from Isaac of the tugboathunter blog, this foto taken in Toledo. OH, (it reminds me of those shots taken by “future car spies”) of the former tugboat Cleveland, possibly headed for the sixth boro as the new (and third) Patrice McAllister.  Another shot of the future Patrice can be seen in the last foto here on this post from Isaac’s blog.  For archival shots of the vessel, check out Birk and Harold’s site, of course.

Thanks again John and Isaac.

Related:  If you haven’t seen Jed’s blog, Cumberland Soundings, check it out here.

Also related:  I’m suddenly thinking seriously about visiting the Panama Canal.  A site like this one gives me the impression that there is an Canal/shipping enthusiast-friendly tourist infrastructure in Panama.  Can anyone who’s been there comment?  Would it be better to use Panama City or Colon as a homebase for a four-day trip?  The “screen capture” below is interactive but time sensitive.  When I studied traffic just now, I quickly recognized a half dozen vessels I think I know from their transit through the sixth boro.   One is NYK Meteor, which I got fotos of eight days ago exiting the KVK.  Is this possible?