Weeks’ Elizabeth has sharp chines.

A hint of Dr Jekyl/Mr Hyde in United Banner.

Susan Miller with spud barge, almost full frontal.  Completely full frontal of anonymous gull.

Oxygen . . .  Don’t those anchor flukes look a bit like . . .  eyelashes?  What was that odd eyelash conversation I had recently?  Kimberly Turecamo to starboard and Laura K Moran to port.

Adriatic Sea emphasizes the vertical; bow wave defines the horizontal.

John B. Caddell with very little freeboard.

Linda Moran: difficult to anthropomorphize once I see the stacks as horns, unless the stalk plus upper wheelhouse plus mast is perceived as unusual headgear.

Newtown Creek moves in with goal posts.

What would Rosemary McAllister look like with a Cornell-esque pudding?

KT Venture is the first bulker I’ve seen offload salt directly at the Atlantic Salt dock, site of the late August Salt Festival.  More KT Venture soon.

Katherine Walker approaches, with a buoy in each cheek.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

like bubblegum.  And the transition from the previous three posts to this one is abrupt:  battleship gray to petunia pink.  Like cement to hybiscus . ..  or (later).  Now pink’s not a color you’d imagine to find on this blog.  But why not?  It’s a beautiful color.  Of course, when I commented on my Colorado sister’s wearing a pink helmet as she rappelled down a cliff, she stopped: “It’s faded red,” she announced, fighting gravity until I relented, abandoned using the P word.    

Anyhow, a lot of ships seem to use this bubblegum-color faded red bottom paint, not

that you’d know it from their names.  Golden Charlotte?  The only gold here might be around some parts of crew anatomy.  Call her Pinkblue Charlotte?  I love the oxidized anti-fouling painting on this tanker above carrying a deckload of limestone skyline and wearing Robbins Light as stern illumination.

Golden Venus . . . have to be careful here.  Would I even want my Venus to be gold?  Wasn’t  that a large part of Midas’ malaise?

No, I’ve no idea if Caribbean has any pink parts (like ex-Thornton Bros’ engine block?) , nor do I know if the surface under  the

sand does.  But, beyond the tow, it’s FR8 Pride, with that same hue of bottom paint:  pink!  Something’s going on here.

King David of Scorship . . . looks more pink than red to me . . . no matter what my sister wants to call her helmet. 

All fotos, Will Van Dorp.

And back to the transition similes:  gray to pink . ..  like flying through a fog only to be engulfed by a massive venus flytrap, overcast light on still water supporting a lotus bloom, graysilver wrap around some wild carnations, alpine blossoms eking out an existence among rock, or seeking shelter from a torrent on Lexington Avenue in Bloomingdale’s lingerie department . . . (Did I write that on THIS blog?  Can I do that?  Does my editor allow this?)

The last in the series includes the short video below and

focuses on some of the folks in the harbor this quite windy Monday morning, including McAllister Brothers and

Sea Knights (thanks Jed for pointing out they weren’t Chinooks) as well as

a Schweizer-300 carrying an intrepid photojournalist and fine pilot.

RB-S boats were hither and

and yon.

Waterfront Commission police have a boat named Rev. John M. Corridan,  the priest featured in On the Waterfront!!

Here’s a closer shot of the NYFD units set up at 130th Street in Manhattan.

Once LPD-21 was secured on the south side of Pier 88,

the local Navy League Council distributed bags of delicious grub to those employed either public or

private.  The Navy League seems to have an impressive mission.

Once Sturgeon Bay was secured back at home port, time for  . . .  shore power!!

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

OK, as Jed points out in his quite elaborate comment (thanks, Jed)  . . . it’s PCU (pre-commissioning unit) New York for a few days yet.  By the way, by the count of A. G. Sulzberger, this new New York is USS New York number seven.  Might it be that the cost of the previous six combined is less than the cost of this one, comparing uneven dollars?

Behold Sturgeon Bay, the generosity of whose captain and crew made these fotos possible.

Looking through my fotos prompts a thought on this ship welcome and our group identity.  We all have competing identities, and obviously this dozen plus one fotos taken over five hours were deliberately selected, but see where they lead you.  I’ll share my ideas at the end.

Sturgeon Bay, one of nine WTGBs,  receives a small boat long the starboard side while outbound to meet . . .

LPD-21, which here heads north toward a water welcome and past

Our Lady of the Sixth Boro (and so much more)

and soon to pause across from North Cove (fantastic images here).

After heading north as far as the GW Bridge, LPD-21 turns and

makes its way close to the bank near 130th Street where another water welcome awaits.  Later,

an escort follows on the Jersey

side as  (Note:  PT728, DCV Gelberman, and tug Miriam Moran in foreground;  color spray from John McKean 1954)

LPD-21 crew enjoy the NYC and sixth boro greeting and sunny weather as

the vessel is made fast.   Ellen McAllister and Rosemary McAllister here prepare to depart for their next job.)

Refueling begins

almost immediately from barge delivered by Houma.

To say the fire departments were intensely involved in this welcome–as evidenced by both my fotos and those on the New York Times slideshow– is an understatement of huge proportions.  And of course reasons go directly back to that horror less than a decade ago that underlies everything about LPD-21’s existence.  And I certainly honor the Bravest.  I was happy to see you present on both sides of the River, all over the sixth boro.

And this is not to undervalue the efforts of all those folks working on the water yesterday in whatever capacity (public or private)  as part of ensuring that the welcome was appropriate.  This harbor enthusiast thanks you and all other of those working on the water.

Welcome to New York.

Here and here are a few articles about Lt. Scott Rae, commanding officer of Sturgeon Bay.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

What’s the story here?

Actually what are the stories?

There are many, as

is always the case.  Here and here are links too.   Leave a comment with yours?  Some people call this crowd-sourcing;  broadcast media have done this all along, calling it interviewing reduced to sound bites.

Remembrance and promise and

technology and

fears and

much more, wrapped in a 1.4 billion dollar package.  A complex tale . . . plowshares beaten into swords?  I wanted to put these fotos up quick before hurrying to work.  Tomorrow and maybe Wednesday . . . more fotos.

Many many thanks to Lt. Scott Rae of Sturgeon Bay.   Thanks Pamela for passing along the invite.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  See Rick Old Salt for visitation hours on LPD 21.

Reference “Random Tugs 44.”  The first time I saw Lil Rip, I didn’t even take a foto: I was in the Feeney yard on the Rondout, steady rain was creating lots of mud,  and the only parts of Lil Rip visible to me was the house and name.  But that was enough to intrigue me.  Months later, I spotted it a second time:  also in the Rondout dwarfed by almost 80′ of air draft on Java Sea.

On this September afternoon, I took only a few shots before I wrapped my camera in plastic.

A month later, third time to spot Lil Rip, October light and a fresh coat of paint . . . conditions could not have been better.   Wow!  I shot as many fotos as my shore office would allow, homing in on some details like the twin exhausts port side and

and single to starboard.

I put up some preliminary fotos and a question a week ago, and have since learned more, which I’m thrilled to share.  Example:  Three exhausts ventilate three engines, three GM12V-71 engines that generate 1500 hp and spin three screws.  I’d love to see her on the hard now.

Part of Lil Rip began as a 52′ section of Liberty ship being scrapped at the scrap yard of John and Violet Reich.  For a name, they called her Jovi II, combining the first two letters of John and Violet’s names.  Jovi II replaced a smaller boat, Jovi.  Does Jovi still exist?  Jovi II’s twin engines generated just under 500 hp and moved scrap scows up and down the Hudson.

Thomas J. Feeney Enterprises purchaed Jovi II in the early 1980s, repowered and outfitted with bunk room, galley and new pilothouse.  The new name Little Ripper eventually changed to a more manageable Lil Rip.  For some time Lil Rip moved stone scows in the river, but today is used mostly to shift vessels around the yard, with an occasional river tow to Albany or New York, which is where

I spotted her last week, leading to my learning all this new info.  And adopting another favorite from upriver:  Kingston and the Rondout are home to so many interesting vessels.  I’ll take a risk (of leaving someone out) and list them:  Cornell, now all-gray Hackensack, Spooky Boat, Hestia, 1956 Gowanus Bay (former ST 2201 and a major character in Jessica Dulong’s My River Chronicles, 1881 tug Elise Ann Conners, and PT728.    Who did I omit?  The Rondout is a must-visit creek if you’re nearby.

Is Lil Rip the only triple screw on the Hudson?  Is anyone willing to share a foto  of Jovi II?

Thanks to Tim Feeney and Harold Tartell for some of this information.  All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  a hearty tugster salute to engineer Tommy Bryceland, working the North Sea aboard Svitzer Milford.  Send me some news and fotos from your part of the waters, Tommy.

And the answer is . . . “Can’t stump me on this one either.  I witnessed this from Fort Wadsworth . . . the final departure from New York of  Queen Mary September 22, 1967.”  Harold . .  you win again.  Here’s a link to roughly corroborating evidence from videoal’s flickr stream. And  Another.. .  although in both these videoal give September 16 as the date.  ?    Like Harold, though, I come up with September 22, 1967 from this article.

This “tugster teaser”  calls attention to my selective vision of sixth boro traffic:  over half dozen cruise ships traverse the harbor weekly, but I had to go back to early summer for the most recent cruise ship foto I’d taken.  Norwegian Hussy, I think this vessel is called, given the meretricious lips on this vessel.  If I’d waited a split-second longer, the building onthe ridge would give a more convincing sense of being an oversize stack for Bart to wax eloquent about.

Don’t misunderstand . . . I like Norwegians.  And full disclosure, my only “passenger vessel” trips have been the length of the Red Sea and across a portion of the Med on what I chose as a cheap and scenic alternative to flying,  aboard Al-Makkah and another vessel whose name–egad!  I’ve forgotten.  I enjoyed seeing the sharks and flying fish.

Thanks to Dave Boone for use of this foto, which identifies as October 1957, with tugs Turecamo Girls, Newport, Carol Moran, and Diana L. Moran.  I’m wondering about the blimp.  In 1957 the Navy was experimenting with airships.   Might this event be honoring Snowbird’s record-breaking flight, or is the blimp there to help fete some other honoree not depicted?  Anyone hazard a guess?

By the way, the current Turecamo Girls was launched in 1965.  Carol Moran was reefed off New Jersey in 1990.  Diana was scrapped in 2006.

I hadn’t intended this as the next Tugster Teaser, but I would like to know the event.  Airships, yeah, we see them . . . like here framed between the fins of the flying fish on Pier 66

in summer over the harbor;  in fact, the one below I posted back in December 2006.  One of my favorites, I had taken it on an especially hazy summer day that summer.

I might not know what I’m choosing, but I’d love a long voyage in an airship.  Here are images of Hindenburg interiors.   Here are many more images:  scroll through to see my favorite is the bedroom called “deluxe cabin.” Might I get “re-honeymooned”  just for a spot for a voyage in this cabin!!  Wait . .  I never had a first honeymoon.

Maybe post-cheap-oil, we’ll return to this technology??

By the way, if you’re interested in seeing fotos of the final departure of another legend, check out “Surfing QE2’s Wake . . .”

Okay . . . now for something new.  Recall the question I tossed out with the “Relief Crew 9” about suggestions for a puzzler-post name?  Well, Jed came right up with Tugster Teaser, and I like the ring of that name.  The problem though is that this puzzle relates to a ship, not a tug.  Hence, the title above.

The question:  identify the date the foto above was taken.    The bright shiny clue is the passenger vessel bound for sea in the middle of the foto, the one with the three stacks.  This was her FINAL departure from New York.  With that clue, you super researchers might even figure out the three tugs starboard of the three-stacker.

While your brain goes into involuntary analysis mode, enjoy some random fotos all taken in the past week.  Sea Service (ex-Sea Star) 1975 eastbound headed for KVK.  Sea Star is so less utilitarian-a-name than what it currently responds to.

I put up a slightly later foto from this scene two days ago:  Christine McAllister and Kimberly Turecamo.

Kimberly  Poling (ex-Jaguar) 1994 understated beauty on an October afternoon, splendor nevertheless.

Ooops!  the best ones always get away!  When I pressed the button, the shutter (shooter?) lagged like never before.  You should have seen what was right there!  @#@!

New York Central No. 13 with two piercings (and related implants) looks impatient about getting splashed;  I can hear that hull wondering how maneuvres will feel with two thrusters.

Final shot:  Penobscot Bay (WTGB 107) aligns with Robbins Light, Our Lady of Bedloe’s Island, and some point over on the west shore of Manhattan.  I hope to have an exciting gallivant story from a certain 140′ ice breaking tug very soon.  Not WTGB 107.

All fotos except the puzzler ( or ship-trip-teaser) by Will Van Dorp.   Captain Allen Baker . . . thanks much for the puzzler.  Answer soon.

Finally and related, Steve Turi sent along a link to dramatic ocean liner  postcards.  Besides drama, they radiate romance and mystery, especially the ones with handwriting on the back . . . a range of emotions recorded in ink now public and  immortalized.  Anyone game for some Griffin and Sabine?  Last spring, Steve sent along fotos of toys he’d carved from driftwood.

Also related:  today I enjoyed the “Edge of New York” at the Museum of the City of New York, thanks to a reminder from Old Salt Rick here.  Looking large there, I also found a model of Norman Belgeddes’ 1932!! design for an ocean liner.  See it here.  Wow!!  And now that I think on this a bit, doesn’t it look vaguely like Bowsprite’s avatarship?

According to the family history here, they started with schooners and currently, besides oil, they push water and do more.  Monday I caught Susquehanna standing by along the KVK as container vessel Zim Shenzhen hurried for its assignation in Port Elizabeth.

The following four pics come from Jim Demske, who’s worked for Vane for over twenty years as Captain and is now Port Captain in charge of “New Tug Construction.”   Elk River entered service mid-summer 2009, just a little over six months after Sassafras did.

Seabart sends along a link to the 23 August issue of Tugs Towing & Offshore Newsletter with a short piece about the Charles Burton launch:  see page 4/12 of this link.  Charles Burton is sibling to Elk River and Sassafras.

Compare wheelhouse of a Sassafras class with

that of Vane Brothers largest class–Brandywine.  Click on boatnerd’s site here for pics of Brandywine’s first splash in early 2006 at Marinette Marine in cold  Wisconsin.  These folks also built the Molinari class Staten Island ferries.

More Brandywine and its mate Double Skin 141 here, loa 480′ and capacity of 145,000 barrels, also built in Wisconsin.

Jeff Anzevino took the next two fotos, Potomac of the Patapsco class, operating in the icy

Hudson north of Poughkeepsie.

Like the lead foto, I took this one.  In this case,  Patapsco thrusts forward and divides Hudson water in the Great North River race in 2007.  Beyond Patapsco are Lucy Reinauer and Nathan E. Stewart.  The two cruise ships mostly visible are Norwegian Spirit and Norwegian Dawn.

Again, special thanks to Jim and Jeff for use of these pictures.

Lil Rip !!  I’d seen this unique tug twice before;  both times were in the Rondout on rainy, dark days.  To see Lil Rip yesterday in the euphoric October light . . . it has been worth the long wait.  Long waits usually make outcomes more satisfying, eh?  Lil Rip, the Empire State Building and even the Chrysler Building!  I am

satisfied.  Now I understand why my friend Jeff Anzevino chased it through 30 miles of the upriver portion of the Hudson to get pictures a few days ago.  Go, Jeff!   I’d like to do a whole post on Lil Rip:  the three-exhaust configuration itself qualifies as unusual.  Help me with some specs/genealogy and I’ll put up more fotos.  Here she’s following bulker Florence Lily, delivered by Oshima Shipbuilding in Spring 2009.  Lil Rip brings dynamic color (October leaf-red & yellow)  to the otherwise gray cityscape;

It’s Miss Gill (ex-Samson, Karl Foss, Mister Mike)  1970 last week and smaller sibling

Captain D (ex-Dick Bollinger) 1974 from last summer.

Christine McAllister (ex-William L. Conlon) 1975 of Great Lakes Dock and Dredge, and Kimberly Turecamo (ex-Rebecca P)  1980.

Penn No. 4 (ex-Morania No. 4)  1973.

Co (ex-Draco) 1951 and based in New Bedford!  Some rainy day I can imagine the fun to be had figuring out “re-namings” for vessels using this subtraction method.  Like Falcon could become Fa . . . or DEP North River could re-enter as No River . . . you get the idea.

Take my word for this one:  the tug dividing the shimmery water from the wintry sky is Volunteer 1982.

McAllister Brothers has an interesting stack/top of wheelhouse line.  I can’t help notice the drab yellow & red foliage on the far bank.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  Check out Jeff’s 2010 calendars, one of which is a fundraiser.

Bonus:  two more Lil Rip closeups.  Portside . . .  with Goldman Sachs in background;  safety buoy is Albany . . .?

and starboard.  And to add here what I put in comment, if Lil Rip is little, I’m eager to see Rip or  BIG RIP!