First, to get back to the mystery tug . . . It was taken in Dordrecht, a city of about 120,000 whose history goes back 1000 years. In this area about 20 miles southeast of Rotterdam, the rivers Noord, Oude Maas, Dordtse Kil and Beneden Merwede meet. That foto–as well as all the others in this post– comes via Jan van der Doe, frequent commenter on this blog. According to Jan, Dordrecht is the busiest shipping intersection in Europe. It has been and still is very important for the inland shipping.
Tug below is Rotterdam, 22,000 hp, formerly owned by Smit, then Smitwijs, and now Switzer. A foto of a Smit tug (or related subsequent) company towing bark Peking into the sixth boro appeared here. Rotterdam towed SS France on its long journey to Alang here (scroll about halfway through).
Study this foto Jan took on the waterfront in Rotterdam; look for odd features.
Info follows.
Dockyard IX is a 500 hp steam tug, currently owned by The Maritime Museum. It was built in 1940 for dockyard work and owned by the Rotterdamse Droogdok Maatschappij (literally, “Rotterdam Drydock Company”). The stack location allows the skipper unobstructed view while towing and assisting during docking and un-docking.
Enclosing the stack in the house also solved the heating problem during the winter months, although I’m not sure what that means for summer.
Variable height houses are used in the Netherlands, like on Maasstroom 9 (1957), here near Vlaardingen (my father’s birthplace!!), and
Matricaria. (Note: in this link, check out all the wind turbines in the background; the Dutch seem to have traded old model windmills for new.)
Left to right, MTS Vengeance (1988) and Koral (1976).
I love the colors. Vengeance is UK-registered and Koral Maltese.
These last two foto make me wonder when last a foreign-flagged tug traversed the sixth boro.
All fotos by Jan van der Doe. Jan, hartelijk dank.
Unrelated: I’ve NOT seen Rosemary McAllister for some time now. Anyone know where she is?
Updates on Mon Lei, see Matt at Soundbounder.
tugster: a waterblog 
5 comments
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April 21, 2010 at 9:09 am
Mage B
Morning Will….I was thinking you might enjoy Willhem’s Maritime Pages. His photographic record of the Rotterdam is splendid. He last visited her on the 18th. Great pictures. You might also enjoy the photos of the Ocean Countess….tho there isn’t a tug in sight.
http://www.vdleek.nl/
April 21, 2010 at 9:17 am
tugster
mage–thanks! this is quite the site. btw, willem is my birth certificate name.
April 21, 2010 at 11:09 am
Mage B
Glad you like it. He’s passionate about Ocean Liners.
April 21, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Les Sonnenmark
There seem to be a number of vessels named ROTTERDAM (or variations, like PRIDE OF ROTTERDAM, a ferry) carrying their namesake city’s pride around the world. In addition to the US Navy’s new USS NEW YORK (LPD-21), and aside from the local pilot boat NEW YORK (aka PILOT NO. 1), what other current ocean-going ships carry a Sixth Borough name to other places? (There was an SS MANHATTAN and an SS BROOLYN, but they’re not longer around.)
April 22, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Dennis
Lots of mentions of Rotterdam in your posts lately. Appreciate that since it sends me right down the memory lane to the time I very briefly worked at the Port of Rotterdam in 2000.