Patapsco Watershed 2

Whatzit?  Where has it come from and where … going to?  Doubleclick enlarges.

The piles are coal, the bucket-wheel at the tip of the stacker-reclaimer (s-r) might be at least 15′ diameter, so the s-r arm must be as long as an Oldendorff self-unloader.  Note the white vessel between the stacks.

A different view of the stacks shows more of the white vessel.  Can you identify it, pretty as an Edsel or gorgeous as a 1953 Studebaker?

Savannah, resplendent, built in New Jersey and designed by George G. Sharp Company, who also designed several classes of Staten Island ferries, and many other vessels.  Here’s a memory site devoted to the vessel that has very interesting historical fotos and  info. Under the section “radioactive waste,” I like the detail of the waste discharge barge called Atomic Servant.  I understand that Savannah is open only on rare occasions to the public.   It seems appropriate to see this foto of Savannah surrounded by mounds of coal, given how miniscule the “bulk” of her fuel was relative to that of ships that burned coal as fuel.

Nearby in the Canton portion of the port, here’s another look at USNS Comfort, a vessel with an interesting past life.  Guess?  Look at the hull.  Answer below.

Atlantic Impala (built on the Russian Black Sea) offloads containers while off its stern, Navios Star prepares to head for sea with many tens of thousands of tons of coal . . . bound for South Korea’s steel mills.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

And the unusual history of Comfort:  she began her life in 1976 as an oil tanker called Rose City.