Scotty Sky first appeared here on this blog over three years ago. Here’s a light Scotty Sky westbound
on the KVK, drawing a little more than my canoe, and
here she goes eastbound to an oil terminal up some relatively shallow creek
impossibly heavy laden.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Scotty Sky keeps tanker trucks off the roads and bridges and that’s good for us all. Our roadways, bridges, and tunnels are OVER capacity sometimes, as defined by congestion. Too bad we don’t ship MORE by water in the metro areas, things like food and consumer goods to waterfront bigbox stores.
Can anyone explain the origin of Scotty and Patrick Sky names?
tugster: a waterblog 
7 comments
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February 4, 2011 at 9:57 am
Michael
Yikes that boat is low in the water. A decent sized wave from the side could be surfed without catching your fin on the deck!
February 4, 2011 at 10:53 am
Mage Bailey
Those post WWII stirrings by GM away from rails of any sort, also effected river traffic. It’s all politics.
February 8, 2011 at 10:31 am
Bobby
The Scotty Sky and Patrick Sky were named after Scotty’s boys Patrick and Sky Gellatly. They also used to have the tanker Patricia N. Gellatly. She was a WW2 Navy oiler, sister ship to the Jet Trader and John B. Caddell… The Patrick and Scotty Sky were both built at Blount in Bristol Rhode Island.
February 8, 2011 at 1:02 pm
tugster
bobby– thanks.
November 22, 2012 at 9:36 am
Bob Whalen
Patrick was named for Sean Carlin’s son when he and Pete (Scotty) were entering into a partnership.
November 22, 2012 at 10:23 am
tugster
thanks, bob. and my mistake referring to patrick as scotty was the result of fatigue and inattention.
March 4, 2011 at 9:48 am
Phil P
The Scotty and Patrick Sky are owned by American Transport and Petroleum. They represent a few of the last single hull inland tankers in the country. They are scheduled to be phased out in a few years, victims of OPA 90. The Patrick Sky has a full time crew and moves fuel into creeks and small terminals around the area. The Scotty spends most of it’s time refueling Water Taxis (which also keep our streets clear) in Erie Basin. Throughout the winter The Scotty uses ad hoc crews to pick and deliver oil to small terminals and ships in the harbor. I believe that this fleet (also add the Capn Log) and the Kristin Poling are the last single hull tankers in the operating in the area. When they are gone there will likely be no more, as it will be cost prohibitive to convert them to double hull. Ships like this are no longer being built because it’s too expensive to crew them. Tugs and barges are now performing the work they were designed to do. Tugs and barges keep truck off the road, but they just don’t have the same character as these girls.