Allie B’s Epic

Preliminary question:  When is Brooklyn Bridge not a bridge?  Answer below.

Thanks to George Graham of http://www.goliathcrane.com, (link below)  here’s news of a foto contest and an epic voyage for the vessel below, which I foto’d in KVK in late January 2009.  It’s Allie B., with vitals:  1977, 106′ loa x 32,’ ex-Express Explorer and ex-Janet Graham.

The story:  at low tide (11:30 am) on Saturday, March 7, Allie B will depart Quincy, Massachusetts, towing a barge carrying the disassembled 1200-ton Goliath crane formerly of Fore River Shipyard, the structure that for several decades dominated the Quincy skyline.  My eyes used to gravitate unconsciously toward the structure every time I traveled I-93 south of Boston.  For the sake of redundancy, here’s info on the foto contest.

Destination for the Goliath:  the Black Sea port of Mangalia, Romania.  Mangalia was mentioned in this blog back in November 2007, as launchplace of Alice‘s sibling, Harmen.  Read that here.  And has anyone seen Alice lately?  Foto below shows Allie B eastbound approaching our Brooklyn Bridge in 2006.

Can anyone augment my limited imaginings about vessel and crew preparations for the trip.  Fuel of course.  And spare parts and provisions, obviously.  Crew size minimal?  Duration of the trip . . . three weeks?  Any planned stops?  Chance of finding a return tow?  By the way, in trucking, a tractor not pulling a trailer is “bobtailing” or “deadheading.”  Besides “light” what terms describe a tug without a tow?

Oh, Brooklyn Bridge is the name of the barge carrying Goliath to the Black Sea.  More pics of Goliath in this slideshow.

Again, thanks to George Graham.  Now, can I get up there by Saturday morning?  Anyone up for a field trip to Boston?  If I don’t make it up to Quincy, could someone email me some fotos?  Are credit, attribution, and fame–coins of my realm–dazzling enough?

Images, WVD.