Really Random Tugs 11

This foto, and some others here,  comes thanks to Xtian, who had a question about a model he’s building a few weeks ago.  I hope someone can help.   This drydock foto shows Abeille Liberté , which assisted in the salvage of MSC Napoli five years back.  I’m guessing this is irrelevant, but “abeille” is the French word for “bee,” as in … the critter that makes honey and stings.  This hull is nothing if not sweet yet efficient.  As of this writing, Abeille Liberté  is at the dock in Cherbourg.

I’m always looking for outatowners or “never-before-seen”s in the sixth boro.  C. Angelo 

fits that description.    Here’s what Birk and Harold  had to say about her.  I got this foto Sunday, and the turbine WAS spinning.

Back to Xtian fotos,  Marseillais 6 is Voith propulsion tug based in greater Marseille.

Abeille Flandre is based east of Marseille in Toulon.

Here’s another of the same size and mission:  Abeille Languedoc. As of this writing Abeille Languedoc is docked in Boulogne-sur-Mer, just west of the Calais/Dover crossing point in the Channel.

I believe that since this foto was taken, Tenax has lost these hues of blue–can I call one of them “cerulean”–for orange and white.  Here’s another blue shot, with sibling vessels.

Finally, from Xtian, Baltic Warrior–built in Poland West Germany* in 1964– towing a disabled Eleousa Trikoukiotisa to Malta, where she remains.  As of this writing, Baltic Warrior is docked in Ramsgate.  * means see Xtian’s comment.  Baltic Warrior was originally Bugsier 26;  here’s Bugsier (Hamburg)’s current fleet.

Back to my  fotos, this is a Kirbified Viking.

Amy C McAllister and McAllister Responder race out the toward the Narrows and beyond, as

does Buchanan 12.  Given that Buchanan 12 often pushes a half dozen or more stone scows, I’d could easily squint and tell myself she’s pushing Swinburne Island closer to New Jersey.

All fotos by either Herrou Xtian or Will Van Dorp.

Abeille International is a division of Boubon International. Here’s their fleet.

Short Black Ships

A week ago, I posted this foto (last one scrolling through) and asked where it was taken.   Answer is Brazil.  And the relationship to this foto is what?  Buchanan 12 was built 1972 in Louisiana, but the black ship in the foreground handmade with woods such as olanje, jaquera, pau oleo . . .

was built in Brasil about 50 miles southwest of Salvador.  It’s a replica of Niña as seen from  . ..  Pinta.  Both hurried through Manhattan earlier this week on their way here in Newburgh until this Sunday.

Next  stop is then Rochester, NY (click for schedule)  . . . which means unstepping the masts and traversing the Erie Canal via Oswego.  From there it’s the Great Lakes and ultimately the Mississippi.

Pinta was launched in 2005 from the same shipyard in Brasil, about 1/3 larger to accommodate school groups.  Here I quote from the site:  both vessels were built by the Assis de Santana family, who have built wooden vessels there for eight generations using 15th century “Mediterranean Whole Moulding [techniques] with mechanically generated geometric progressions known as graminhos.  Shipwrights were using traditional tools, such as axes, adzes, hand saws and chisels, as well as utilizing traditional construction methods; and finally, the tropical forests of Bahia provided a source for the various naturally-shaped timbers necessary to build a large wooden ship. ”  This makes me think of Onrust upriver.

Surely  record of this visit

is being created by local artists.

This tender is said to have been built by an Assis de Santana family member, 14 years old at the time.

The catalyst for this project, John Patrick Sarsfield, has a tragic ending.

A few weeks ago Bounty was up this way.  From the dock in Newburgh looking south as Buchanan 12 pushes her hundreds of truckloads of crushed stone, you can see Bannermans Castle, marking the northern end of the Hudson Highlands.  Here is another “ghosts” post I did about Bannermans about five years ago.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Easter Light

Check out the light exactly two years ago . . .  here.   And my first greetings this morning came from the Easter ducks, who’d heard about an egg hunt, I believe.   Mergansers passed too, but dove each time to hide bright colored bills.

Norwegian Gem, her bow painted like a post-modern Easter ovoid,  sailed into a harbor entirely tinted with the rosy fingers of dawn, ending a passage from Cape Canaveral.

Bavaria made an attempt to get out to sea.

Nor Gem shrinks the closer she gets to Manhattan’s passenger terminal.

Sea Lion (1980) heads Jamaica Bay bound to deliver a crane.

Buchanan 12, (1972) herself made over and painted anew for an Easter parade, enters the east end of the KVK.

Pathfinder charges forward between MOL Express and Overseas Atalmar.  Express left the Panama Canal 12 days ago, and will spend next Sunday in Europe.

A mariner stands watch.  What I’d give to be able to tell you his name, history, and his thoughts as he heads for sea on a Sunday morning . . .

And two last beasts  . . . unicorn and Oliphant . . .  round out our marvelous menagerie

I hope you enjoy this day . . . All fotos by Will Van Dorp.