Non-Boro Tugs

Question:  Can anyone recall ever seeing a Smit tug in or around the sixth boro?  I’ve known the name for a long time in part because of a cousin who worked for them, although as an accountant.  Smit Kamara is Sea Bart’s vessel, that’s Bart of the uglyships site, a really subjective concept he has lots of fun with.  Let’s do a walk-around of Kamara while going off on some tangents.

Smit Kamara‘s habitat is the North Sea.  See this remarkable video of storm travel on a North Sea Smit tug.  The foto below shows the “offshore access system,” designed to get people from ship to unmanned oil platforms.

Smit’s history doesn’t go back near so far as Henry Hudson, but it’s quite old nevertheless.  1842 and started by a man named Fop.

Vitals on Smit Kamara:  loa 230′ x 52′ x 22′ and 2460 Kw x 2, i.e., just shy of 6600 hp, built in Singapore.  It was named here three years ago.   Technically, Smit Kamara is an AHTS, Anchor Handling Tug & Supplyship.  She has a winch.  Her sister ships are Smit Komodo and the Smit Nicobar, working in Egypt and Sakhalin, respectively.

As a gesture of ownership, someone saw fit equip the flagstaff with an aftermarket  bowsprite, er, figurehead . . . er . . . figureduckie . . . enlarged in the circle.

So, to return to my question:  has anyone spotted a Smit tug anywhere recently in a port along the western Atlantic?  Does the Donjon-Smit collaboration ever bring Smit vessels this side of the Atlantic?

All fotos compliments of Sea Bart aka Zee Bart.

Take his uglyship poll here.