Skepticism–that’s what I felt upon first learning about a category of ship called fruit juice tankers. But after taking them out of the corner of my mind where I’ve relegated the Easter bunny and Santa Claus, I’d still not seen one until a few weeks ago. Meet Orange Star offloading your favorite breakfast drink into a silo in Port Newark. A clean old vessel with “modern” (v. post-modern) lines, she dates from 1975! And here‘s a gallery of her peers.

Then there’s Althea, who caught my attention because her name matches one of my all-time favorite tunes, she who advises me, who foolishly lost her. It’s not about the marginally comprehensible lyrics though, but about the beat and how one moves from the previous, and about how once you can play that beat in your head, no problem can stand in your way. That’s the bow of John B. Caddell, featured here on a winter solstice.

A name like Butterfly obscures so much yet what difference does it make to us who use what she delivers. . . . It’s really about the name.

I rarely use the word cute, but . . . CFL Prospect, this calf of a ship . . . embodies cuteness, even perkiness as it heads south through Newburg. This website has great pictures although most of the text forces you to learn Dutch . . . oh well, you wanted to do that anyhow, right. Here it is about the cute and perky lines as well as the logo.

Finally, here’s Antwerpen. This link shows the self-unloading mechanism deployed and functioning. Guess that types her like Alice . . . who’s still hanging out in the Gulf of Guinea.

Alice . . . Maybe I should ask her about some Spanish boots? Mermaid boots?

Photos, WVD.