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And the answer is . . . “Can’t stump me on this one either. I witnessed this from Fort Wadsworth . . . the final departure from New York of Queen Mary September 22, 1967.” Harold . . you win again. Here’s a link to roughly corroborating evidence from videoal’s flickr stream. And Another.. . although in both these videoal give September 16 as the date. ? Like Harold, though, I come up with September 22, 1967 from this article.
This “tugster teaser” calls attention to my selective vision of sixth boro traffic: over half dozen cruise ships traverse the harbor weekly, but I had to go back to early summer for the most recent cruise ship foto I’d taken. Norwegian Hussy, I think this vessel is called, given the meretricious lips on this vessel. If I’d waited a split-second longer, the building onthe ridge would give a more convincing sense of being an oversize stack for Bart to wax eloquent about.
Don’t misunderstand . . . I like Norwegians. And full disclosure, my only “passenger vessel” trips have been the length of the Red Sea and across a portion of the Med on what I chose as a cheap and scenic alternative to flying, aboard Al-Makkah and another vessel whose name–egad! I’ve forgotten. I enjoyed seeing the sharks and flying fish.
Thanks to Dave Boone for use of this foto, which identifies as October 1957, with tugs Turecamo Girls, Newport, Carol Moran, and Diana L. Moran. I’m wondering about the blimp. In 1957 the Navy was experimenting with airships. Might this event be honoring Snowbird‘s record-breaking flight, or is the blimp there to help fete some other honoree not depicted? Anyone hazard a guess?
By the way, the current Turecamo Girls was launched in 1965. Carol Moran was reefed off New Jersey in 1990. Diana was scrapped in 2006.
I hadn’t intended this as the next Tugster Teaser, but I would like to know the event. Airships, yeah, we see them . . . like here framed between the fins of the flying fish on Pier 66
in summer over the harbor; in fact, the one below I posted back in December 2006. One of my favorites, I had taken it on an especially hazy summer day that summer.
I might not know what I’m choosing, but I’d love a long voyage in an airship. Here are images of Hindenburg interiors. Here are many more images: scroll through to see my favorite is the bedroom called “deluxe cabin.” Might I get “re-honeymooned” just for a spot for a voyage in this cabin!! Wait . . I never had a first honeymoon.
Maybe post-cheap-oil, we’ll return to this technology??
By the way, if you’re interested in seeing fotos of the final departure of another legend, check out “Surfing QE2’s Wake . . .”
Okay . . . now for something new. Recall the question I tossed out with the “Relief Crew 9” about suggestions for a puzzler-post name? Well, Jed came right up with Tugster Teaser, and I like the ring of that name. The problem though is that this puzzle relates to a ship, not a tug. Hence, the title above.
The question: identify the date the foto above was taken. The bright shiny clue is the passenger vessel bound for sea in the middle of the foto, the one with the three stacks. This was her FINAL departure from New York. With that clue, you super researchers might even figure out the three tugs starboard of the three-stacker.
While your brain goes into involuntary analysis mode, enjoy some random fotos all taken in the past week. Sea Service (ex-Sea Star) 1975 eastbound headed for KVK. Sea Star is so less utilitarian-a-name than what it currently responds to.
I put up a slightly later foto from this scene two days ago: Christine McAllister and Kimberly Turecamo.
Kimberly Poling (ex-Jaguar) 1994 understated beauty on an October afternoon, splendor nevertheless.
Ooops! the best ones always get away! When I pressed the button, the shutter (shooter?) lagged like never before. You should have seen what was right there! @#@!
New York Central No. 13 with two piercings (and related implants) looks impatient about getting splashed; I can hear that hull wondering how maneuvres will feel with two thrusters.
Final shot: Penobscot Bay (WTGB 107) aligns with Robbins Light, Our Lady of Bedloe’s Island, and some point over on the west shore of Manhattan. I hope to have an exciting gallivant story from a certain 140′ ice breaking tug very soon. Not WTGB 107.
All fotos except the puzzler ( or ship-trip-teaser) by Will Van Dorp. Captain Allen Baker . . . thanks much for the puzzler. Answer soon.
Finally and related, Steve Turi sent along a link to dramatic ocean liner postcards. Besides drama, they radiate romance and mystery, especially the ones with handwriting on the back . . . a range of emotions recorded in ink now public and immortalized. Anyone game for some Griffin and Sabine? Last spring, Steve sent along fotos of toys he’d carved from driftwood.
Also related: today I enjoyed the “Edge of New York” at the Museum of the City of New York, thanks to a reminder from Old Salt Rick here. Looking large there, I also found a model of Norman Belgeddes’ 1932!! design for an ocean liner. See it here. Wow!! And now that I think on this a bit, doesn’t it look vaguely like Bowsprite’s avatarship?
According to the family history here, they started with schooners and currently, besides oil, they push water and do more. Monday I caught Susquehanna standing by along the KVK as container vessel Zim Shenzhen hurried for its assignation in Port Elizabeth.
The following four pics come from Jim Demske, who’s worked for Vane for over twenty years as Captain and is now Port Captain in charge of “New Tug Construction.” Elk River entered service mid-summer 2009, just a little over six months after Sassafras did.
Seabart sends along a link to the 23 August issue of Tugs Towing & Offshore Newsletter with a short piece about the Charles Burton launch: see page 4/12 of this link. Charles Burton is sibling to Elk River and Sassafras.
Compare wheelhouse of a Sassafras class with
that of Vane Brothers largest class–Brandywine. Click on boatnerd’s site here for pics of Brandywine’s first splash in early 2006 at Marinette Marine in cold Wisconsin. These folks also built the Molinari class Staten Island ferries.
More Brandywine and its mate Double Skin 141 here, loa 480′ and capacity of 145,000 barrels, also built in Wisconsin.
Jeff Anzevino took the next two fotos, Potomac of the Patapsco class, operating in the icy
Hudson north of Poughkeepsie.
Like the lead foto, I took this one. In this case, Patapsco thrusts forward and divides Hudson water in the Great North River race in 2007. Beyond Patapsco are Lucy Reinauer and Nathan E. Stewart. The two cruise ships mostly visible are Norwegian Spirit and Norwegian Dawn.
Again, special thanks to Jim and Jeff for use of these pictures.
Lil Rip !! I’d seen this unique tug twice before; both times were in the Rondout on rainy, dark days. To see Lil Rip yesterday in the euphoric October light . . . it has been worth the long wait. Long waits usually make outcomes more satisfying, eh? Lil Rip, the Empire State Building and even the Chrysler Building! I am
satisfied. Now I understand why my friend Jeff Anzevino chased it through 30 miles of the upriver portion of the Hudson to get pictures a few days ago. Go, Jeff! I’d like to do a whole post on Lil Rip: the three-exhaust configuration itself qualifies as unusual. Help me with some specs/genealogy and I’ll put up more fotos. Here she’s following bulker Florence Lily, delivered by Oshima Shipbuilding in Spring 2009. Lil Rip brings dynamic color (October leaf-red & yellow) to the otherwise gray cityscape;
It’s Miss Gill (ex-Samson, Karl Foss, Mister Mike) 1970 last week and smaller sibling
Captain D (ex-Dick Bollinger) 1974 from last summer.
Christine McAllister (ex-William L. Conlon) 1975 of Great Lakes Dock and Dredge, and Kimberly Turecamo (ex-Rebecca P) 1980.
Penn No. 4 (ex-Morania No. 4) 1973.
Co (ex-Draco) 1951 and based in New Bedford! Some rainy day I can imagine the fun to be had figuring out “re-namings” for vessels using this subtraction method. Like Falcon could become Fa . . . or DEP North River could re-enter as No River . . . you get the idea.
Take my word for this one: the tug dividing the shimmery water from the wintry sky is Volunteer (1982).
McAllister Brothers has an interesting stack/top of wheelhouse line. I can’t help notice the drab yellow & red foliage on the far bank.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Check out Jeff’s 2010 calendars, one of which is a fundraiser.
Bonus: two more Lil Rip closeups. Portside . . . with Goldman Sachs in background; safety buoy is Albany . . .?
and starboard. And to add here what I put in comment, if Lil Rip is little, I’m eager to see Rip or BIG RIP!
Yesterday afternoon along the Arthur Kill, I communed with this creature, which I thought erroneously an osprey. Peregrine? Some type of hawk? I was amazed that while tearing apart its rare-rat lunch (I declined a portion), it allowed me within 10 feet! More fotos of the encounter at the bottom of this post. I knew I would post some fotos, but in considering a context, it occurred that the sixth boro (and beyond waters) is ideal bird-look space.
Here an egret or heron steals across a dawn shot.
While Cyprine was easing in, a gull streaked across a foto.
A wonderfully-titled work in Pamela Talese exhibit is “Je n’egret rien.” Check out her show before October 30! Pamela’s caption reads, “The ITB (Integrated Tug & Barge) Jacksonville came into the Navy Yard pretty beat up. As I was painting, I noticed a white egret splashing around in the waters of Dry Dock 5—wildlife among industry!” Coexistence! Check out these birds-in-the-meadowlands tugster fotos here.
As bulker Oxygen came in yesterday, a gull escorted it. Oxygen referred to here is about six months new, headed for Port Newark although I don’t know what cargo.
Here’s a first for tugster: Bowsprite‘s art migrated electronically from her site to mine, and it shows self-help-oriented Laridae. Related to birds, recall my suggestion in September that Bowsprite can fly.
Pioneer travels with its very own familiar.
“A swarm of starlings so darkened the skies one July day at precisely 1:33 pm that sunbathers left the beach…” Sounds like a good opener for a sci-fi tale.
But back to my hawk. At one point when I closed within 10 feet, it picked up its lunch with its left talon, and hobbled back. Another bird might use its beak for that. I took that as a indication of its self-confidence.
Long beautiful legs.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Here’s an older birds-post. A Moveable Bridge has tracked some geese, and if you check in at Reid’s on 1000daysatsea Day 914, you’ll see he’s begun communing with a heron.
One day Atlantic Coast moves the scow, and the next it moves what would scoop sixth-boro-bottom into the scow.
Michele Jean does pre- and post-dredging surveying.
An eight-leg stand bucket (?) in autumn light is as beautiful as a spring daffodil about to open, a bud just quivering with excitement.
Fin Kennedy has its niche.
More buckets . . . er quivering petals.
Red Rogers has its niche.
Bowsprite’s favorite is the cutter head, fierce though it be.
See the fine print on the hull midships . . . it’s another survey boat.
and two barges loaded with buckets and cranes over by Atlantic Salt. More on this soon.
Not a very good foto of Seis Surveyor, but I did catch it as an unusual profile about a mile and a half away. Read all about this transient here. Here are her fleet siblings.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Note: all these fotos were taken in about a four-hour period over two days in the past week. More dredging than typical in fall?
I wonder if Little Richard would substitute “dredgin'” for “shakin,'” THE anthem of the dredging world then.
If you want to see some of the 92,754 steps in building one of the world’s largest dredgers, click here for Leiv Eiriksson.
From Newsday, here’s an interesting story on a controversial USCG training decision in Montauk . . .
Below await a USCG RB-S and an RB-M. Bowsprite does a pleasing rendition here, fifth boat down, even though she disarmed it. Uh . . . Bowsprite, are you authorized to do that?
And while I’m shadowing Bowsprite’s sketchbook, here’s my version of the NOAA R/V Thomas Jefferson she was so taken by.
Moving now from the sublime to the . . sewerage . . . see another shot of the sewerage commissioners’ boat later, but isn’t the timing here unfortunate? Clean discharge, right?
Here’s New York Naval Militia 440.
A less-messy foto of RV Passaic River.
Neptune, a small DEP boat, overtakes Hoegh Trooper.
And another small boat . . . this one of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Check out an interesting slideshow of their history, including lots of old fotos, here.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated: Flinterborg arrived safely in Harlingen Saturday, Oct 24 and may even now have started dismasting itself. Update thanks to Seabart Uglyships.
Also, thanks for your comments on respecting “creative commons licensing.” It seems to have been an honest mistake. It happens.
Seeing the Moran boats on the upper left side of this foto reminds me that I owe you an answer to Relief Crew 9‘s question, which herinafter, shall be dubbed the “tugsterteaser,” term coined by Jed. Tugster teases maybe but always delivers. Answer comes thanks to Harold Tartell:
“The year of that photo would be early 1962. The M. MORAN (brand new but doesn’t look it) has returned to New York from Pusan, Korea after towing a floating generating plant for the U.S. Navy. She left her builders (Gulfport Shipbuilding in Texas) in Oct. 1961 and made the tow from there directly to Pusan. The MARIE S. MORAN built in 1961 (now TERESA McALLISTER) and sister MARGARET MORAN (now BRIAN A. McALLISTER) were both built in 1961 by Dravo Corp., Wilmington Del. They were on charter to Moran with an option to buy. McAllister took them over with the same agreement later that year, and ended up buying them. They were the first two tugs in McAllister’s fleet single screw with Kort Nozzles.” Thanks Jed and Harold!
So back to more posteriors. After reading the bottom paragraph of this post, decide whether to some the expression should be “negatively posterior”?
L. W. Caddell is a 1990 built 16′ breadth tug working around the Caddell yard.
Christian Reinauer, 2001, 40′ breadth.
Pati R Moran, 2007, 36′
Zachery Reinauer and Thomas J. Brown, 1971 and 28′ and 1962 . . . 19′.
Rosemary McAllister, 2008, 36′.
And while we’re looking at sterns, here’s an unexpected detail on Peacemaker, a boathouse behind the fold-down stern. Bowsprite sends along this foto.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except the last one.
And some discoveries lead me to reiterate my creative commons licensing. Fair is fair. More on this later. But please comment on this: what should I do if unauthorized use of my work turns up? What would you do?
Veery quick post while I recuperate from doing what I do to pay the rent, lights, orange juice habit. Thanks to Allen Baker, identify the year in the foto below. The place . . . unless I’m way off is the Moran Yard on the KVK. What year is this?
Historically I’ve called these “relief posts,” but with homage to the CarGuys, Click and Clack, I might rename this the Puzzler or TugPuzzler or SixBoro Puzzler. Any suggestions? Answer soon.
Also, a perturbed bowsprite told me yesterday that ads appear on my blog . . . and hers . . and others? I’ve never seen them. If you’ve seen ads–like for TV shows!!@#@! –please let me know. I never put linked or added or sold out to them. We just cannot have a perturbed bowsprite . . . or unauthorized ads.
Cheers. Thanks, Allen . . and bon voyage.
Choptank . . .
Nanticoke again . . .
Wye River . . . though it looks the same as Nanticoke and Choptank.
Christiana . . . is in a different class, for Vane, although she looks a lot like a certain Reinauer.
Chesapeake . . . thought it could be –at least to my eye– either Wye River, Choptank, or Nanticoke.
Wye River . . . although it could be Chesapeake with nameboards switched?? [No, there’s a slight window difference in the wheelhouse.]
The nameboards say Wicomico.
Wicomico again.
Wicomico a third time, passing what looks like Charles D. McAllister.
Patapsco, according to the nameboards.
Brandywine is a twin of Christiana. At 6000 hp, they’re a smidgeon less than 1/3 more hp than the Patapsco class.
Back to the Patapsco class, it’s Bohemia.
Of that class, I’ve yet to see Patuxent, Anacostia, and Severn.
Has there ever been another company that had 15 identical (are there nuances I’ve missed??) tugboats? And on the Patapsco class, why does the forward companionway lead starboard rather than port?
All fotos . . . Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
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