ACL 3

Here was 1 and 2.  Twelve minutes elapses in the set of fotos.  In the distance beyond the pipelines, Siteam Explorer (more on her later) and ACL Atlantic Compass pass.  The green vessel center right is Atchafalaya, foto at the end of this post.

Tailing Atlantic Compass around Bergen Point is the vessel currently known as Elizabeth McAllister.  Click here for her long history, including a quite serious mishap almost exactly 25 years ago when she was called Elizabeth Moran.

Atlantic Compass–like some of her fleetmates–is 29 years old, built at Kockums in Malmo, Sweden–right across the water from Copenhagen.  Click here for some great archival fotos of this generation of ACL ROROs.

Atlantic Compass‘ green-faster-bigger replacement will come from near Shanghai, China . . .

That’s McAllister Responder now tailing portside.

Note the folded-down mast.

Unrelated:  Here’s a closer up of Atchafalaya.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Sixth Boro Maintenance

Like a galley or head or deck, the harbor itself needs maintenance of the routine as well as the extraordinary sort.  Given the amount of oil that’s found its way into the sixth boro the past two months, the latter sort is going on.  The bird sanctuary mentioned in the first sentence of this link is Shooters Island .  . whose history I spoke of here about a year ago.

A routine removal of silt from shipping channels is performed by the vessel below–Atchafalaya–as well as Padre Island, which I got closeups of here two and a half years ago.

Here’s shipspotting info on Atchafalaya (1980, Minnesota Twin cities along the river built!!) which I’ve yet to catch close enough for many details.   Here’s still another link on Atchafalaya.

Back to a different set of  post-Sandy extraordinary cleanups involve this vessel, with the appropriate name Driftmaster . . . not that it drifts around the sixth boro.  Rather, it collects and either removes or secures large floating materials drifting in the harbor.

These fotos come compliments of bowsprite.  What I believe is going on here is Driftmaster securing floating docks that in the highest of the surge floated right up off the pilings.  I’m not sure where this Driftmaster was built . . .  It may date from 1947.

Ditto here.  This floating dock needs to be locked back into the pilings.  The crane barge here is moved around by 1965 tug Harry McNeal.  In the bottom foto, notice the square holes through which the cylindrical pilings must fit.

All but the first two fotos (mine) were taken by bowsprite, whom I thank.