It was 20-something years ago that I last saw this exhibit of generations of lobstering boats at Maine Maritime Museum.

Since then, MMM has installed this most effective display of a vessel built on the grounds, schooner Wyoming, the largest ever wooden ship, the last of 10 six-masters.   For scale, note the workmen and the black pickup truck and yellow lift at the bow.

And from this site, if I rotate a quarter turn to the right, it’s BIW and the emerging DDG-1000 Zumwalt.  Its namesake is this remarkable man.

Here’s the vessel and a fleet of Winslow tugs as seen from the Route 1 Bridge.

Prock Marine’s Marie hangs in the balance.

Rubbing shoulders with the brawn at the pier is the beauty Wagon Box.

Gimmick like the brass spheroids hanging from some pickups I’ve seen?

Hardly . . . it’s one of the few Amphicars.

Gladding & Hearn‘s 1980 academic tug Pentagoet heads back to the Castine.

Now if I can follow signs like these to reorient myself, I might get to Portland  . . .

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who may go a few days before posting again.

What enforces this sign is . . .

this.  David put the specs up on yesterday’s post.

The “towed” vehicle will be observed from here.

Also on hand are Maine Maritime Academy vessels.  Here’s tug Pentagoet, training vessel powered

by two sets of Detroit diesels.  Note this is one set, two blocks mounted together.

And the wheelhouse . . . shows TLC.

Another MMA vessel is Ted, as in

Ted Nusunginya, revealing its previous Alaska work and soon to be renamed for an MMA alum.  Vessel Ned is a classroom, a lab, in fact, for courses such as Navigation, Celestial Navigation . . . and more.

The pilot boat is

Florida built.

If you have a chance, you might fall in love with Belle fast.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Ayup . .  this is a clue.

For some of you, this is a giveaway.

Meet Atlantide, featured in this blog here three and a half years ago.  Scroll through.

It’s Belfast, a place for restless feet to come for National Maritime Day.  More tomorrow.

All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.   More Fournier tugs soon.

Eclipse, the huge yacht in the distance has taller masts than Clipper City, the tallest sailing vessel operating in the the harbor.  Eclipse left the harbor Tuesday, headed for Gibraltar.

Schooner Virginia left Wednesday, headed for Virginia . . . by way of Portland, Maine.

Anyone know the manufacturer of the speedboat in the foreground?  In the background is Zephyr, launched 10 years ago from the Austal Shipyard in Mobile, AL . . . and Wavertree, launched 128 years ago in Southampton, UK.

I could almost imagine this boat has a bowsprit.

Smaller workboats seem more commonplace this time of year like Henry Hudson,

this Oyster Bay government boat,

an OCC vessel,

and of course the ubiquitous all-weather sludge tanker North River, frequently mentioned on this blog.

Thanks to Ashley for the first foto, and I’d love to know what that structure on the Weeks barge is.  All other fotos by Will Van Dorp, who feels the urge to go somewhere too.

As of this writing, these three vessels are entering the Indian Ocean on a historic re-enactment.

Earlier this month, Colin Syndercombe visited the three vessel at the docks in Cape Town.  Oosterschelde, Europa, and Tecla have an amzing combined age of 295 years!!  Tecla was built in my father’s hometown of Vlaardingen, nine years before my father’s birth.

Preparing to get under way.

Departing on this leg of the trip are some cadets of the South African Navy.

Fair winds . . . bon voyage.

Click here for fares and schedules.  Of note, in August 2013, there’s a sail from Perth to Houtman Abrolhos archipelago and back to Perth.  This picturesque Indian Ocean island chain saw the mutiny and wreck of the VOC ship Batavia on her maiden voyage and the subsequent murders of over 200 survivors by a band of other survivors.  This Lord of the Flies tale serves as basis for the Mike Dash’s compelling account Batavia’s Graveyard, if you’re looking for summer reading.

For an upbeat parting shot, here.

Many thanks to Colin, who has previously sent lots of interesting fotos from 8000 miles away in Cape Town.

On that same deployment, he caught this foto of SS France, speeding past his vessel toward the Straits of Gibraltar.

Here’s another of Chris’ fotos, Sac Badalona (see #113)  . . . at that time  not long to be afloat and intact.

Here’s Chris’ ride low and dry and cold in Boston Naval Shipyard’s Drydock 4, winter 1969-70.  What shrinks ASR-16 Tringa once accommodated Leviathan.

During that drydocking, Chris had a chance to get fotos along the Boston waterfront.  You can read the restaurant sign as Anthony’s Pier 4.  Can you identify the steamer and the schooner?  Answer follows . . .

This foto taken some time between December 1969 and March 1970 shows two tugs afloat and one sunk at the dock near Rowes Wharf in Boston . . . now a very different place.   Can anyone identify?  Chris has no clues other than the time and places info.   I’m grateful to Chris for sending along these scans, although both he and I will rely on some group-sourcing to know more about these vessels.   Enjoy.

Disintegrating in Noank in the 69-70 time frame, it’s the remains of once-four-masted schooner Alice L. Pendleton.

Moving south to New London, it’s W. H. Welch.

Also in New London . .  does that say Spaigo Carroll?

Also in New London . . . it’s ferry Martha’s Vineyard.

And this is the Thames River boneyard a,

b,

and c.

And finally, identification on the vessels at Anthony’s Pier 4 . . . steamer Peter Stuyvesant (victim of the Blizzard of 1978) and –a real coup in terms on an identification by eastriver and his “new englander” shipmate”–it’s 1863 Alice S. Wentworth, who went victim to a storm in 1974.

Many thanks to Chris for sending along these fotos, which belong to him.

Although not quite wide enough to contain a football field, it is more than long enough.  It would certainly redefine the game.

Here’s a foto of the drydock taken from the upperwheelhouse of Dean.  Can anyone identify the tug-in-progress directly in the foreground?

Finally, another of my fotos showing the tow just about home entering the Buttermilk Channel.  The octagonal structure to the left is the vent tower for the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

Again, many thanks to Rod for use of these fotos.  If you do Facebook, Rod has just posted fotos of arrival of United Yacht Transport’s Super Servant 4 in Newport, RI.  Now if I were free, I’d head up and watch the float-off process.

Here was my first post on this drydock.

Schooner Virginia was in town.  As of this writing, it’s anchored south of the George Washington Bridge.   Two very different places I’ve seen Virginia in the past year are here in tropical waters and here in her home waters.   I’d loved to have been on the tug HMS Liberty at this moment.

Here’s where I first caught sight of her . . . approaching tug Liberty Service lightering Amalthea.

Another delight in port was T/S State of Maine, by now headed south for the 2013 training cruise . . . with San Juan as its southernmost destination.

Also in port . .  Prisco Elizaveta and Atlantic Jupiter.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who in the course of the day, was so thoroughly and delightfully showered upon that the clothes are still wet

It’s Breakaway‘s inaugural entry into the city . . .  Here’s an article about some of the related welcoming events.

Here’s the full monty, and about twelve hours later, here she

exits as captured by John Watson from his cliff over on Staten Island.

Thanks to l’amiga and John Watson for these fotos.  Here’s an article about building this vessel;  this series on building her goes all the way back to 2011.  Anyone explain why it’s called Breakaway?

I’ll try to catch her entering the Narrows one of these days.

this huge newbuild under the Brooklyn Bridge, the very same

day this tip was added to the WTC1 spire.  Also, it was about 175 days ago that some parts for the spire came barging in like this.

Those are South Street Seaport Museum’s vessels over beyond the drydock.

Someone can refresh my memory of the dimensions this drydock will accommodate, but I can see the Staten Island ferry eyeing it already.

The tow headed through the Buttermilk Channel before

John Watson picked up these shots as they headed across the Upper Bay, passed Robbins Reef Light, and the

KVK, where she will operate.

The last two fotos here come from John Watson;  all others by Will Van Dorp, who got these fotos inside another Caddell drydock three years ago.