Sepia Tugs

What’s this?  Where?  Answer follows.  It’s not really sepia per se, just an approximation.

I took this foto a week ago, then stripped out the color.  It’s Yemitzis, the former

PRR Philadelphia, launched 1954.  Major modifications have happened between the two incarnations.

Here’s another foto I took last week, Resolute.  With its ample pudding, it’s a perfect candidate to be sepia-fied.

The top foto was taken by Fred Wehner a few days ago;  that’s not Rosie the riveter but Capt. Wendy Marble, working to prep her vessel  Urger, for the 2013 season.  Here, here, and here are some full color fotos previously featuring Urger, who initially looked like this over a century ago.

Thanks to Paul Strubeck for the foto of PRR Philadelphia.

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro

I suspected as much when I saw this train . . . although I was quite surprised by the tug out front.

I hadn’t seen Yemitzis under way for a few years now.   Yemitzis dates from 1954, launched as Pennsylvania RailRoad’s Philadelphia, hull 227.  Here‘s the link. . .  but scroll about 2/3 through to get to PRR tugs info.   So Yemitzis is one of the oldest hulls working here.  Tailing tug Robert IV is 1975.  No, the newest hull is the black box between them, hull #92 just launched at Senesco, destined to be part of a drydock at Caddell’s.

Meanwhile , I’m happy to see Yemitzis out and about working again.

Does anyone have a foto of her as PRR’s Philadelphia?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Sixth Boro Random Delights 3

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 . .  . .

Tug Work

As I post this, Hurricane Isaac approaches New Orleans, and the work  of every mariner on the river is to ride out the storm. Even if it appears that almost nothing is moving on the river, movement is there and intense.  Click here (now) for live views on the street and on the river in the Crescent City.  To see what Isaac looked like over in Florida from Jed’s perspective, click here.

In the sixth boro, a race is a few days away, but vessels like Susan Miller--pushing the barge with the “rolled on and about to be rolled off” trailer–are at work.

Ditto an unidentified DonJon tug, Pati E. Moran, inbound CMM CMA CGM Eiffel, and schooner Pride of Baltimore II go about their business.

Having “rolled-off” said trailer truck, Susan distances herself from Mary Whalen (just the bow at the starboard stern of the cruise ship) and Queen Mary 2.

Viking moves a barge through the KVK,

as does Arabian Sea and 

Weeks’ Elizabeth, 

Dorothy J,

St. Andrews,

Gramma Lee T Moran, and

the list could go on.  Here, Doris Moran and Dace Reinauer . . .  that’s tug work too.   This last foto below comes compliments of Marian & William Hyman.  Thanks.

All other fotos taken by will Van Dorp, who will be at the race Sunday.  Thanks for reading.

People on the Boro 11

If you’re around my age, you remembered this yesterday, 47 years before.

Here People … 10.  Today the spirit of carpe diem permeated the overcast sixth boro:  mild weather and 60+ degree temperature won’t last long.  Chat outside on the JFK, or

work there as this crew on Rae

and a Hughes barge weighing

anchor.

New piles were going in at the St Geirge ferry terminal,

crew way high up on Brandywine headed for the Narrows,

Resolute paraded out in unseasonal furs to meet OOCL Oakland,

Miss Gill, the loudest boat in the boro, swooped around to pick up a scow of harbor bottom to scatter at sea,

a senior crewman on Ital Oriente watched himself distancing from  last glimpses of Staten Island for a spell, and

crew on Sarah Ann tightened up the wires.

I’m guessing it all seemed easier today–no matter what else difficult was going on–the mild weather made it just a bit easier.

All fotos by will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 56

Carfloat, front heavy,  moving from Jersey to

Brooklyn under the powers of Charles D. McAllister.    Remember that double click enlarges most fotos.  Notice the graffittoed railcars and the immaculate tug and barge.

Another shot of the mighty Brangus tending to the teeth of Florida, with more to come soon.

Treasure Coast pushing

uh . .  cement.

Meagan Ann noses along a barge of crushed

cars that may until recently have traveled along those roads.

Tarpon moves asphalt barge (?) Potomac up toward the Buttermilk.

Thomas D. dispatches more cars to the scrappers.

Pegasus the younger sports new primer paint.

Susan Miller and

Dorothy J (?) move spud barges.  Rae seems to be along for the ride.

And can anyone tell me the name of this small Reinauer tanker?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

People on the Boro 10

From the distance created by space or by economic analyses, these are big colorful machines … or … assets.   And they are, but

look closer and you’ll see people at work high up and

in between and

in baskets and

sometimes re-appropriating these machines for fun.  People

earn their livings with

their skill at using these

machines, these

assets.  It’s about earning a living.

Hats off.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

In fotos 1 and 3, the numerous yellow cranes are mounted on two Seaboard Marine vessels:  Vega Nikolas (shuttling between Brooklyn and some big Caribbean islands ) and Westerkade (between Brooklyn and Colombia).  The barge there is Double Skin 34 pushed by Sassafras.  Foto 4 shows repairwork on Lombok Strait (shuttling between Central America and the US East Coast with fruit that might include banana, pineapple, cantaloupe, and plantains.  Other tugs shown are, in order:  Petersburg, Ocean King, Jennifer Turecamo, Odin, and Robert IV.

Small Tugs

Uh . . . outboard up?  Just an illusion.  And official uniform?  uh . . . just a hot-day display.   This one’s small enough to be trucked, yet it

can move a sizeable barge.  No name was visible anywhere as it passed through the KVK Thursday.  In the background is (I think) St. Andrews, leaning on the landing at Snug Harbor.  That’s the salt dock to the left.

This incognito truckable tug herded up a smattering of scows over at Bergen Point, on the western Bayonne side of the Bayonne Bridge.  Remember, most fotos enlarge when you doubleclick on them; I notice raised letters “reliant” on the back of the house just above the two hanging lengths of line.  Reliant?

Any guesses on the size of the red tug headed to the southwest across the Upper Bay?  I’ll give dimensions a little farther.  For now, that’s the Red Hook Container Terminal in the background with Mary Whalen (red house) docked along the pier with the blue warehouse.

It’s Louise, first time for me to spot.  Louise came off the Oyster Bay Jakobson ways in 1959:  34′ loa x 11.’

Compared with Rae (green) built 1952 and 46′ x 15′ x 5,’  the farther half of this tandem, Robert IV is newer and larger:  built in 1975 and 54′ x 22′ x 9.’

With their low bows and push knees, these are  river and harbor tugs.

It’s Glen Cove with a “side tug” or “outrigger tug.”  Don’t quote me on those terms;  I just made them up.  I took this foto the day the fleet arrived; all the folk outside the house had something of a water platform to see and salute the fleet.

On Glen Cove‘s starboard hip, it’s Harbor II, which first appeared here.  For one of Glen Cove‘s previous appearances, click here;  use the search window on upper left to find the others.  Dimensions:  Glen Cove is the largest (actually not small at all) in this post:  71′ x 28′ x 11′ launched in 1975 and having previously starred as Mary Gellatly, Philadelphia and Capt Danny.

Last one for now, it’s Maria J (ex-Jesus Saves built 1971 and 63′ x 22′ x 9′) . . .  I know I’ve told you that before, but I just love that name as I do its former New England registry.

All these smaller tugs has traversed the sixth boro in the past month;  all fotos .  . . Will Van Dorp.

Motivation for small tugs?  Some call them “rule-beaters.”

Earth and Fire

Earth . . .  crushed rocky pieces of it . . . and

fire . . . at least its most widespread  fuel  . . .  move through the sixth boro all hours of day and night.  Franklin Reinauer approaches as Evening Mist distances.  Both earth and fire are essential

not only in the hinterland but also

in the metropolis to build and run.  Robert IV pushes the scow above.

How much aggregate comes from upriver, I’m not sure, but I’ve seen rafts of it float down at all hours  of day and night.

Petroleum has been refined in this area since the 1840s along Newtown Creek and since 1875 in Bayonne, then at Prentice Oil.  Ellen S. Bouchard leaves the Buttermilk.

Rock seems to head every which way, here Captain Zeke pushes through the Buttermilk into the East River.

Here Evening Tide spins Barge No. 262 into a berth along the Red Hook waterfront.  Now, identifying those buildings . . . starting from the tall ships at South Street Seaport at lower left:  Verizon Building; Conde Nast (41, with antenna);  Met Life (42)  with Bank of America Tower (4)  right behind it; Empire State building, of course; Met Life Tower (106);  New York Life, with elongated gold pyramid; Con Edison Building.  I’m not sure what the green-pyramid-tipped building behind the Con Ed Building is .  Also, notice schooner Pioneer in the lower right corner of the foto.   The numbers in parentheses denote rank among tallest buildings in the US.

A water train of aggregate pushes past the ventilator for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

Charles D. McAllister assists Evening Tide get the barge into the berth.  In the background are the Manhattan-side Tower of Brooklyn Bridge; Chrysler Building (6); Citigroup Center (22); and (just behind Evening Tide’s upper wheelhouse) Trump World Tower.

Aegean Sea pushes empty rock scows past 1 New York Plaza, Manhattan’s southernmost skyscraper aka gratte-ciel.  The ferry terminals (at water level, left and right) have boats leaving for Staten Island and less frequently for Governors Island.

Patriot Service, port of registry New Orleans, pushes a light barge, most likely toward one of the refineries in the Kills.

Which brings us to the elephant in the elevator, so to speak, the ongoing issuing of liquid mineral in the Gulf of Mexico.  Lincoln Sea, below, is pushing DBL 140, so-named because its capacity is 140,000 barrels. Current estimates of the spill daily flow rate range from 5000 to 70,000 barrels; i.e., one of these barges full every two days for the top end of this range.  It may be hard to judge the dimensions of DBL 140:  504′ loa x 78′ x 37.’

Brooklyn has its own lingering spill under  Newtown Creek:  over 500,000 barrels of petroleum products.  See an article from today’s Times here.

Read Oil-Electric’s post on MV Joe Griffin‘s cargo  here.  Keep in mind that a common feature among all the buildings identified in this post is the inability to open their windows or (easily) do a walk-up.  One implication is that all of them are air-conditioned, i.e., unbearable and practically unscalable without electricity.

Thinking about the spill got me to reread Lisa Margonelli’s Oil on the Brain today: some stats from her book include … about 7000 fuel tanker truck accidents since 2000 leaving 49 people dead and (from the National Academy of Science, 2002) “drivers and (recreational) boaters spill more oil every year than the Exxon Valdez (11 million gallons);  leaking oil from cars and trucks and two-stroke engines adds nearly 19 million gallons to waterways and the sea every year.”  I presume that means in the US.

All fotos taken this week by Will Van Dorp.

Related but belated:  YouTube turns five years old today.  YouTube makes possible footage like this one of the worst ever offshore drilling accident, 1988, Piper Alpha, North Sea.

Random Tugs 53

Niz C. Gisclair, (2003, 66′ loa) an infrequent visitor to the sixth boro, last appeared here in this blog in 2007.  Some buildings to identify:  one with greenish pyramid cap just to the left of the Statue  has the pretentious name of One Worldwide Plaza and the towers to the left of that is the Times Warner Center.

Marquette Transportation Company Offshore uses Jacques Marquette in a canoe as a stack logo.    Note the knotted rope ladder manrope aka monkey line for egress from the wheelhouse.  (Jed–thanks fer the correction.)

Similarly, I don’t recall seeing Colleen McAllister, solo, here in a long time.

Here Colleen meets Gramma Lee T. Moran, about to back down Rigel.

Dorothy J, ex-Angela M, 1982, about the same loa as Niz C,

shows off the Henry Marine logo.

Falcon heads up the East River.  More East River architecture tomorrow, once I figure out some the lesser-known buildings.

Ross Sea in morning honeyed 7 am light heads for an assist.

Stephanie Dann wrestles with a scow in a 25 mph cross wind.

Sassafras hangs off the bulkhead at Howland Hook.

Virtual twins . . . Elk River brings bunker barge beside Zim Moskva with assist from Sassafras after

Sassafras is mystified by the runabout aka runaround.

Shannon Dann heads into the Arthur Kill to hang off the “dock” in Elizabeth until

the next job.  I like the clean white  winch.

All fotos this week by Will Van Dorp.