Film Tugs 2

Here was the first in this series, the result of watching an old movie featuring Yul Brenner and Marlon Brando.  What I let fall through the cracks is this identification from someone who sent this foto, the source of which I didn’t know until now.  The tug–supposedly in Tokyo–was actually Wilmington Transportation tug Long Beach.  Click on the foto to see the source.  So is this Revell model the same boat?

New business . . . the other night I watched another movie Losers for its tugboat content . . . and here are some screen captures.  In the movie, this scene was SAID to be Los Angeles.

Here’s a closeup from the movie.  Note the “stairstepping” of wheelhouse windows.

Here’s my foto taken in March of those same “stairstepped” window line as seen from inside.

Here’s the classy wheelhouse complete with

this fancy tiller belonging to this aquaclydesdale formerly known as Tuscarora.

Actually, she works in San Juan now.  The movie folks changed the port name, but not

the vessel name.

If you are interested in learning more about a film project in NYC’s sixth boro, I am passing along notification that a TV reality show producer named Lance Schultz will be in town on Tuesday, April 30 interviewing candidates for a series.  I am in no way involved and won’t be there.  The person to contact is John Doswell   john [at] doswellproductions [dot] com . . .  John will be able to fill you n.

Check out more of Zane Johnston’s flickr fotos here.  Non-film fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Tugs of San Juan

Here’s the entrance to San Juan Bay . . . Freja Taurus passing the #2 red under rain driven by 15+ knot wind out of the north.

OK . . . Elizabeth snapped this foto . . . that’s my “focused” look as I huddle–like the ghost of a century-ago Spanish soldier– out of the rain behind  the bottom level of El Morro.

Here’s the aforepromised foto of Beth M. McAllister (ex-YTB-805), three years and two months younger than the sixth boro’s own Ellen McAllister.  Both Beth and Ellen were built in Wisconsin.

Don Raul came out of an Ohio shipyard exactly five years ago . . . now operating for Borinken Towing and Salvage .  .  .

drifting in and

towing a fuel barge.

Getting back to the first two fotos, once inside, Handy Three takes Freja Taurus‘ bow.

OK . . . another view of Beth at the dock.

PRT’s Triton  (ex-AT-77) is a 72-year-old Texas-built workhorse, just recently involved in the rescue of ex-Smit Rotterdam . . . foto later in this post.

And here’s my quite-poor foto of ex-Smit Rotterdam. . . .  now called Global Destiny.   Here’s more story on the rescue that brought Global Destiny into San Juan harbor.    She’s since headed south and east, but I really wish I’d caught this monster headed out the mouth of the Bay past El Morro.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated . . . here’s a foto of a Smit tug in the sixth boro of NYC a few decades back with a quite famous tow called Peking.

Dredging Environment

Bear with me here . . . you’ll understand the title in a bit.  But first, any sense of the difference between these first two fotos A and

B?

It turns out that the person who sent these fotos to me has since also used them . . . and put them first in his post, just as I had chosen to before seeing his post.

Nearer vessel below is Terrapin Island, taken just outside the Narrows in May 2012.  Vessel in the distance is Ellen McAllister.

Here are more closeups of Terrapin Island.

At some point since May, she headed down south to southern Georgia . . . northern Florida coast.

Next fotos come from JED.  That’s Terrapin Island in the background.

To see what JED does with the above fotos and many more, click here.

Many thanks to JED for the first two and last fotos.  The difference between A and B is eight knots v.  twelve.

Old (and Less So) Wood 2

I took this foto in August 2010, here with my back to Anthony’s Nose.  Any guesses about the vintage of this chubby people mover?

Here’s a foto I took yesterday in Greenport of

this Morehead, NC veteran of WW1!!!

At the same locstion, I took this foto.  Anyone know what manufacturer this beauty is, frontal and

stern view.

And from inside the post-Sandy rebuilt Scrimshaw restaurant, I’d love to know what vessel

this figurehead once graced.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Sixth Boro Details 3

Here was 2.

What kind of fotos does one get  on a dark and drizzly morning?  Well, through a fence I snapped this one of the virginal Evening Star . . . in the boro less than 24 hours!    And less than a year and a half after keel-laying down in Louisiana.

Alice Oldendorff came in this morning . . . the first moving vessel I spotted today AND the subject of my first ever post nearly six short and long years ago.   Alice shuttles aggregates between Port of Bayside, NB and Brooklyn Navy Yard.

And even more virginal than Evening Star, here’s DDG-112, to be commissioned in the sixth boro next Saturday.

USS Michael Murphy is named for a fallen SEAL and built at Bath Iron Works.

Here’s Alliance St. Louis, a US-flagged RORO with

a smudge on her bow that resembles smudges I’ve seen on other ROROs.  Anyone explain the origin of what appears to be primer paint over damaged coating?

Here’s the Kirby barge Pacific, which

has this unusual feature midships.

Moving her eastbound was Amy C McAllister.   The tanker in the distance off Amy‘s stern is Lia.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Soon-to-be commissioned USS Michael Murphy will be open for tours tomorrow.

 

Government Boats 21

Here was 20.  And below is Wire, Saugerties-based “boat of the year” at the 2012 Waterford Tugboat Roundup.  In less than a year, the New Bern NC Barbour WYTL will be a half-century old, although to me she looked brand spanking new.

Note the crane on Gelberman‘s stern:  she’s one of several debris-collectors operated by the Corps of Engineers.

Like the “bear boats” I wrote about yesterday, seeing 32-year-old Morro Bay in the sixth boro is another uncommon seasonal indicator;  it’s going to get cold soon (maybe) and ice will need breaking.

Hugo started life as an oilfield support vessel, but now, painted gray, works as a weapons-training Naval auxiliary vessel.    Homeported near Hugo is Apache, subject of several posts including this one.  Recently, Apache has been tasked with a diver-training mission as reported here.

Continuing outside New York, Cheryl B sent this foto along from Grand Haven MI.  Vessel 105 is a WTGB that no doubt lay side-by-side in the shipyard with Morro Bay as they were constructed in Tacoma several decades back.  Neah Bay is Lake Erie-based  . .  but from there, the sixth boro is only a voyage away.  Any guesses on the red vessel off 105′ stern?

It’s Griffon, which appeared here on this blog four years ago.

The 42-year-old vessel is based on the St. Lawrence, just northeast of the top right corner of Lake Ontario. The “F-word” on her stern has no place on USCG vessels, although no doubt US and Canadian vessels found themselves on opposite sides of these wars of the late 20th century.

HMCS Moncton, last month, was paying a friendly visit to Port Huron MI.

And finally, thanks to JED, HMS Vigilant, a sub that resembles a whale.  Read about it here on JED’s site.

Any finally . . .  I mentioned earlier that Wire was “vessel of the year” at the Waterford Roundup.  Here, with thanks to Brian Gauvin, is a frozen nanosecond of the fireworks show that brought the roundup to a close.

Thanks again to Cheryl, Jed, and Brian.  Thanks also to Rick Old Salt for  a reality check on piracy.

OpSail 2012 Thames River

When this event happened on Memorial Day in the sixth boro, I wrote about it as “cast.”   The New London cast right after the 4th of July was quite different.   All these fotos come with thanks to Birk Thomas, now at sea. Ferry New London is automatically part of the local and daily cast .

Thames (rhymes with “james” ) Towboat Company’s   John P. Wronowski (2004) was built in Florida.

Gwendolyn (1975) was built in Louisiana.

USCGC Eagle began to take shape in Hamburg in 1936.

USS Carter Hall had her keel laid in Louisiana in 1991.

Adam uses her 450 hp mostly around the Thames Towboat Company yards, where it was built.

Patricia Ann came out of a Louisiana shipyard as a YTB on hull #758 . .  to Hercules #766, now in Nigeria.

Figureheads need inspection.

John P. and Paul A. Wronowski (1980 in Connecticut) assist USS Carter Hall into its berth.  Paul A. was one of the first z-drive tugs ever built.

Ticonderoga (1936 by Herreshoff in Boston as Tioga) begs to be seen from closer, much closer.

Ferry Race Point is cast, even if she’s really working the run to Fisher’s Island.

Behold Wolf . . . she flies the flag of the Conch Republic, where I found myself exactly a year ago!

Cisne Branco . . . like Eagle was in the sixth boro almost two months ago.

Schooner Brilliant, 1932 in the Bronx, is truly brilliant.

Schooner A. J. Meerwald, 1932 in South Jersey, homeports in Bivalve . . . yes the village is truly called that.

Wisconsin-built YP-700 had its keel laid in 1987.

Another shot of Paul A.

It’s Amistad  (Connecticut with a 2000 launch) with its unmistakable rake.

Again . . . many thanks to Birk for these fotos.

From the Line Locker 11

A line locker, in my experience, is the place on a boat where all manner of miscellaneous line and rope is kept.  It’s like the “junk drawer” in your house.  I haven’t used this title in over three years, but when I get behind and have a set of unrelated fotos, it seems a needed catergory.

So . . .  since yesterday’s post had a foto of  Indy 7, which Harold Tartell’s wonderfully detailed in a comment, I went back to fotos from two years ago that I’ve never posted.  Behold the stern of Indy 7′s mother ship, Brooklyn Navy Yard’s own CV-62, USS Independence, which as of two years ago still

languished in Bremerton, WA, next to another Brooklyn vessel, USS Constellation, the last carrier built anywhere other than Norfolk.    Indy 7 . . . behold your mother.

The next three fotos come from John Watson.  Here’s another shot of the Chinese-built Algerian corvette Soummam 937.  Here–scroll through interesting fotos of other “small navies” –are some fotos of Soummam at the shipyard in Shanghai.

Also from John, recently the Massachusetts Maritime Academy T/S Kennedy left the sixth boro after work at GMD Brooklyn.

Here’s John’s Friday morning foto of Horizon Producer, in service since 1974;  by Saturday, she was outbound for San Juan.

I took this foto Friday morning, mostly curious about the two tanks on the afterdeck.

A few weeks ago here I ran the “fish flag.”  In response, Capt. Mark Helmkamp, manager of Ocean Tug and Salvage Ship class for the Military Sealift Command wrote the following:  ”I had APACHE paint the “Fish Flag” on her bridge wing in reference to the Navy ASR’s – particularly the CHANTICLEER Class that I rode as a young officer – as the T-ATFs picked up that Navy mission along with the T-ARSs when the ASRs (CHANTICLEERs and PIGEONs) were decom’d.  The Fish Flag was flown during Submarine Rescue Chamber ops – the McCann chamber – designed by Swede Momsen, [my note:  who grew up in Queens].  The ASRs used to exercise the SRC to a ‘false seat” a few times a year after laying a four-point moor using the “cloverleaf method” that preceded GPS. . .

 We also had the Fish Flag painted on the bows of the ASRs…this goes back to the SQUALUS rescue. . .

Currently, SALVOR [T-ARS-52] is eligible to paint the Fish Flag too as she has worked the SRC for training.”

The MSC poster below shows sibling vessels of Salvor.

When I visited Apache in Little Creek, I also saw Grapple ARS-53.

Grapple was involved in the recovery efforts for Egypt Air Flight 990 off Nantucket in 1999.   Click here for a complete set of missions performed by T-ARS Grasp, including the recovery of JFK Jr.’s Piper 32 and remains.

Thanks to all who contributed.

Unrelated:  Thanks to Walter Scott for sending along this obit.

T-ATF 172 USNS Apache 1

Click on the image below and you’ll see how I posted it just over five years ago.  So what do the big blue tug Powhatan below, Ellen McAllister, USCG Katherine Walker, ATB Brandywine, ATB Dublin Sea. and the Staten Island Ferry Spirit of America (as well as ferries Molinari and Marchi) all have in common?

For starters, the Menominee River in Wisconsin.   And from that, given corporate acquisitions, an “in-law” relationship exists with Fincantieri vessels including Costa Concordia as well as the caissons that’ll try to re-float her.

But closer to home, the list above was built at the same Wisconsin shipyard as seven fleet ocean tugs, four of which are active in Military Sealift Command today.  Click here for the 2012 MSC vessels poster, one fifth of which is reproduced below.  MSC operates over 100 vessels today using 5500 civilian mariners.  Civil servant mariners!!

The DonJon Marine Powhatan above has since 2008 become Inebolu A-590 of the Turkish Navy.

The Powhatan-class T-ATFs hare huge, by New York tugboat stands:   226′ loa x 42′ x 15.’

And they do long, large tows.  Here about a year ago, Apache begins to tow a decommissioned USS Nassau to join the reserve fleet  in Texas.  Click here for more context on the foto, taken from USNS Grapple, another MSC vessel that may appear on this blog soon.

Thanks to Birk Thomas, I have a few more fotos of Apache in New London.  Note the towline . . . attached to a sub in this 2010 foto, and  . . .

light in 2011.   Here’s a question I do NOT know the answer to:  Apache visited NYC before 2001, but I don’t know when.  Does anyone recall this?  Have a foto of this?

In the next post, we look inside Apache.  Next question . . . does this marlinespike seamanship have a name?  Would this have been original to this 1981 vessel?  By the way, Apache’s 31st b’day (technically d’day . . . D for delivery)   is late July.

Only the first and last fotos are by Will Van Dorp. The second and third from last are thanks to Birk Thomas.  All the others come from Military Sealift Command.   Many thanks to Susan Melow, MSC Public Affairs Officer,  for setting up a visit and to Apache Second Officer Michael R. Rankin for guiding the tour.

Click here to see Apache towing USS Forrestal.  Here she is in St. Petersburg.  Finally, here she deals with Atlantic Ocean pirates.

Finally, once again, does anyone remember when Apache visited NYC?  Is there an archive online for vessels visiting during Fleet Weeks going back to 1982?

Road Fotos 18

Ironically, Road Fotos 17 were taken where this post ends up.  And I had planned NOT to post today, but . . .  time affords posting, and posting makes a drive more like a gallivant.  Given that I drove to Hampton Roads, it’s interesting to reflect on what scenes are absent from this post.  Three hours after locking my house door, I was on New Jersey at the southern tip on NJ, looking

across Delaware Bay, where I narrowly missed a close up

with a Kirbyfied . . .  can you guess? . . . .

Greenland Sea.   Lots of other vessels anchored just outside the channel, here looking roughly toward the northwest.

Entering Lewes, we met a dozen or so dolphins . . . who all managed to evade

my camera, which seems to be more skilled with stationary objects like this pilot boat.

I’m guessing a fish boat, although I’ve not seen this configuration before.   It reminds me of an updated version of a menhaden boat?

The Cape Charles light is a skeleton a quarter mile inland.

The lights at Fort Story in the background, and Trabzon and Red Iris anchored outside Hapmton Roads.

This might be USS Samuel Eliot Morison foreground and USCGC Legare farther away.  And then again, the nearer vessel might be something else.

And finally, any guesses what Atlantic Dawn is towing into the mouth the the Chesapeake?

Cutterhead dredge Illinois!!  If Illinois makes it all the way to the sixth boro, you know who will have more opportunities to perfect her rendition of the toothy snouted machine.

And the reason for this gallivant–other than gallivanting for its own sake– will be clearer tomorrow.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp today.

@#$#!! . . . as I write this, USAV Winfield Scott is passing the precise location Atlantic Dawn was 90 minutes ago.  To see USAV Winfield Scott, check Jed’s most recent post here.