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For a low-emissions all-weather pilot boat, the Dutch port of Rotterdam looked . . . to the US. Kvichak has built for many ports. Fotos courtesy of Fred Trooster.
So would that be a Dutch pilot in middeck with the bare-shoulder uniform?
Sandy Hook Pilots, serving the port of New York, have gotten some of their boats, like Yankee, just up the Sound at Derecktor Shipyards in Bridgeport.
Docking pilots travel in . . tugs like Laura K. Moran.
Click here for a link to vessels carrying pilots in a number of East Coast ports. A highlight of 2011 has to be the ride on an Edison-Chouest C-Tractor, thanks to JED.
Unless otherwise credited, fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Harold Tartell and Jan van der Doe were 100% correct in their identification of the white-striped red self-unloading vessel in Road Fotos 11. It is the Arthur M. Anderson. I didn’t get to see it close up, but through the magic of YouTube, it’s rubbing-or-scrapping distance here. At about a minute into the video, you learn how the can be that close.
One of the joys of gallivanting is meeting new folks; this was especially true here. One person on this waterfront had a focus I recognized; he carried a zoom camera and looked at the same things I did. Seeing me take a foto of Arthur M. Anderson, he said its name (which I’d not been thinking of). Then he added, “And farther down there, it’s American Integrity.” Check out Ken’s blog here. Here are some highlights of Ken’s blog: American Century, the Westcott delivering mail to a passing vessel, Stephen B. Roman, a 1000-footer dwarfed by “big mac“, and check this one . . . the Huron Lightship . . . which I spotted from the Blue Water Bridge but couldn’t quite figure out. When I have more time, I plan to digest Ken’s archives, now added to my blog roll.
Here are my shots of Westcott and Hogan. I’d love this job although it has risk.
My zoom camera quit as this vessel approached, frustrating because I’d recognized the Algoma bear logo. And I’d assumed it was a bulk carrier too, as I thought that was Algoma’s only business, but Algosar is a tanker. See her history here.
Just south of the Ambassador Bridge, Dutch-flagged Moezelborg transfers cargo near the now-abandoned Boblo Island Detroit dock building. Boblo lives on but only in the way that this whole list of defunct amusement parks does. When Moezelborg left the international port of Detroit, she headed north, west, and south for the next international port of Chicago.
Here’s another shot of the two steamers that served Boblo Island, SS Columbia and SS Ste Claire. I wanted to get better shots but even as I got this–along with my anonymous partner–we were threatened with arrest for trespassing, which I firmly believe we were NOT doing. Here and here are more links for Ste Claire. The second one is a video of a tour of Ste Claire, interesting video but unfortunate audio.
I hope to return to Detroit in August, and at that time, hope to arrange for a boat tour of the waterfront, possibly to get better shots of these vessels.
I have returned to the sixth boro, but part of my heart got left behind in Detroit, a place of both rust and new molten steel.
Here, fun but otherwise a propos of nothing except a post on the official end-of-hurricane-season, check out “bone in its teeth” blog.
This very quick post from Miami before hitting the road for Key West starts with this question: can you identify the doodle/logo at the lower right side of this foto? Answer at end of post. My first thought I must admit was that a lurking bowsprite had drawn this, unable to resist the artistic impulse.
Quick and dirty of tugboat Florida: I’ll have to research this upon my return. Here and here are some youtubes about Miami tugs.
Pilot boat Biscayne returns from sea.
WLIC 801 Hudson is docked around the corner of Dodge Island from
all of these and more. Vessels here from left to right are: Chandeleur, Yellowfin, Gannet, Diamondback, Drummond, and at least one unidentified vessel beyond them.
Things I saw but couldn’t foto: Cargo vessel Caribe Trader escorted into the port, and a pelican that glided past me as I treaded water . . . less than 10 feet from me and with wingtips dragging low less than 6 inches from the water . . . a prehistoric but beautiful flyer. And Linda Lee Bouchard pushing a fuel barge southbound about five miles off Miami Beach yesterday.
Things I didn’t see but wish I had: the Belzona tugs and the banks of the Miami River as it snakes (alligators) toward the northwest through Miami.
And that doodle is NOT bowsprite’s . . . unless she’s done this work on commission for the Irish Coast Guard. Check this. I took the foto in the Capt. Peter Boucher’s study, where I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing the stories behind Nautical Log. Peter has just returned from his hometown of Waterford, Ireland, which hosted the WTSF. Fotos can be found here and on two subsequent days.
Places I hope to get to some day: Waterford, Ireland!
Friday, July 1 means it’s the start of a long summer holiday weekend, marking 235 years since the independence declaration was signed. Because fireworks flash and spark unchecked in a plethora of state and federal budget debates, I thought time called for government boats shooting water. FireFighter II under the Verazzano Bridge today seemed
testing its pumps; I wonder what the crew of
APL Qatar thought as they entered . . . feted? dissed?
Fireboat Curtis Randolph has seen 32 years of service already in Detroit.
Actually not one of these three boats . . docked near Curtis Randolph is a government boat: Huron Maid is a pilot boat (see in at work in this “boatnerd” video), Joseph J. Hogan is mail boat . . . as is
the 62-year-old J. W. Westcott II.
This vessel, eastbound in the KVK this morning, probably is
NOT a government boat, but she’s gussied up like a flag. I wondered if the paint job was new and this was a sea trials run?
Edgewater has its own fireboat, as does
Newark. Judging from this video, Newark and Jersey City have twin fire boats?
Closing shot: is this what 50,000 gpm looks like? For an effective quick summary of the features of Fire Fighter II, see this video. Fire Fighter II and its twin–343–have more than 16 times the water-pumping capacity of FDNY’s first fireboat, William F. Havemeyer.
Detroit fotos comes thanks to Cookie Baker (my sister, and NO she does not work in any aspect of food prep and YES that is her name.) Thanks, Cook.
All others by Will Van Dorp. Happy Independence Day. Be independent!
Here was H & D 6.
Thanks to Stuart, Harold, and “Ann O’Numess” for identifying the Kosnac tug steaming past Riker’s in Carlito’s Way. Here’s a foto I took three years ago, and below I took of Dorothy Elizabeth (1951) in Tottenville a month ago. Might she really already be slivers of scrap?
Hercules (1963), sibling of Maverick and others, awaits her emigration with
the return of Blue Marlin. Note Alert (1976) in the lower left.
Matthew Tibbetts (1966) was high and
dry on Saturday.
With unusually high exhaust, that’s Marlin (1974) on left and Penn No. 6 (1970) beside her. No one has yet told me how designers decide to run such long exhausts v. equally serviceable short ones. Sea Raven is another high-exhaust vessel.
Click here to see Kathleen Turecamo in its element, not where it stood last weekend.
Barents Sea (right) and Na Hoku . . . I wonder how long they’ve spent tied up here. I recall feeling excited when I first spotted Barents (1976) more than three years back, and Na Hoku (1981) used to work the California-Hawaii run, but I can tell you when she last floated on Pacific water.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who DOES reduce foto resolution before posting them here.
Apologies for forgetting to link the half-hour video on Charles Hankins building a Sea Bright skiff until someone asked yesterday, so here I attach it again, really. It’s REALLY there. I really enjoyed watching it, really.
So surprises on the creek in Belford . . . what yellow house protrudes above the second shack from the left? Dwelling for a moment on this foto, if I climbed a 50′ platform and fotoed in the same direction, I’d get the Narrows and the Verrazano Bridge . . . about a dozen miles away . . . in the center of the foto.
It’s Coastline Girls, bigger sibling to Coastline Kidd, shown doing bridge work in Narragansett Bay in the fifth foto down here. Forward of Girls (1943, ex-Ruby, Ruby M, Beverly) is the stern section of Mary Beth (1954, ex-Fort Edisto).
If you have time for only one link today, check this one showing Coastline Girls pushing an immortal Egyptian diety around the sixth boro!! How COULD I have missed this? Maybe I should gallivant a smidgeon less.
Right around the corner up the creek is contracting equipment like this dredge on the marine railway; painted in the same color, this
truckable tug (foto by Andy Willner a year or so back).
Continuing around the bend in the Creek, who knew?! Another pilot boat fleet, Interport Pilots, federal pilots since 1959. I’d love to see a foto of their first pilot boat named Carp.
Belford Seafood Coop dominates the Creek, though, and crabbing seems to be the seasonal catch. Notice the rake on the side of Alexa J.
Behind the fingers
of the rake is a net.
Last foto here . . . boys having fun like I used to . . . icebreaking on kayaks with cylindrical baitfish traps strapped onto the after deck. But despite wearing PFDs, they appeared NOT to be wearing drysuits or even wetsuits. It made me shiver . . .
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Many thanks to Andy Willner for the tour. I’m wondering whether the restaurant at the Seafood Coop is still open.
Three more surprises from the Raritan Bayshore of New Jersey:
Aeromarine. Great “flappers” on flying boats in sixth foto down here. . . with many fascinating period shots in between. Is it possible that not a single aeromarine aircraft remains extant?
Matawan Creek, the original “Jaws” events in July 1916.
Sayreville, October 4, 1918 . . . bigger than Black Tom, July 30, 1916. In Sayreville, “the explosion destroyed enough ammunition to supply the western front for six months”
It surprises me that I haven’t used this title again in over three years. No matter, over between Cape Henry and the CBBT, ships always seem to cluster, here viewed from a “cliff” in Virginia Beach. While they anchor here, morning light bathes them for a brief magical spell, as here with Grand Diva at 7:20.
or Myra, pilotboat Old Dominion, and more distant vessels at 7:23. They wait like huge predator fish for whatever avoids the weir closer inshore.
Here’s the paint splashed on Bulk Japan and other vessels a few seconds later.
But after 8:00, the color is gone, yet Old Dominion continues its shuttle for vessels not at anchor–inbound or out, like
Liberty Island also works in between the anchored fleet, which
After 10, the colors are still as washed out as they will remain until late afternoon, by which time
I had already gotten to the head of the Bay.
The last of the “road fotos” tomorrow.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Last sunset of 2010 in Charleston, SC, sees YM Seattle headed for sea in the distance and
pilot boat Fort Moultrie (another Gladding Hearn vessel of the … no surprise … Charleston class) waiting for the next job.
Happy New Year!
Here’s a foto of a foto taken at Fort Wetherill. I couldn’t make out the name of the vessel, but can you identify the objects on the dock in the foreground? Answer follows.
Fort Wetherill serves as a great venue for shipwatching; here’s another shot of Danalith bound for sea, and
tailed by Northeast Pilot IV, which also
met Thalassa Desgagnes when she arrived. 
Thalassa is an apt name for a vessel.
Here’s a close-up of Northeast Pilot IV, a product of Narragansett Bay’s own Gladding-Hearn.
Here’s Northeast Pilot V, which I presume is
a newer boat.
Also based in Newport is Tiger Shark,
WPB 87359, one of dozens in this 87′ class.
Hidden away here is the stern launch small boat.
Back to that first pic . . . those are mines.
Does anyone know the name of that mine-laying vessel?
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Last time I posted a foto of WLV-612, the year 2009 had just begun and she was docked in North Cove in Lower Manhattan. Now she’s on the Newport waterfront; I’ve no idea the identity of the huge sloop at Nantucket‘s stern.
Narragansett Bay is a ria (never heard that word before today) Pell Bridge (below) between Newport and Conanicut Island, and Jamestown-Verrazano Bridge (who knew?) between the Island and North Kingston
Lobsterboat Shamrock here passes Rose Island, between Newport and Jamestown. Rose Island Light is a B & B.
Here’s a view of calm waters below the cliff that runs in front of the “cottages” of notables like the Vanderbilts and Astors of the Gilded Age.
Coastline Kidd moves one of the painting barges working on the Pell Bridge. A year ago in the KVK I caught sibling Coastline Girls here.
Entering the Bay from the north around Castle Hill Light and accompanied by the pilotboat, it’s
Thalassa Desgagnes, here passing Fort Wetherill.
Leaving the Bay and passing the same park, it’s 34-year-old general cargo vessel Danalith, here outbound for
the Republic of Cape Verde?
More Narragansett Bay soon. Many thanks to Rod Smith (of NBS.com) and Birk Thomas (of tugboat information.com) for hospitality and info.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
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