Engines 2

I’m working on identifying this . ..  tugboat and engine, but I know very little about these things.  I hope you enjoy the fotos as much as I liked taking them.   Is the wood/metal unit to the left side of the foto part of a coal hopper?

I homed in on text, but I don’t know this name.  The internet tells me they made marine motors but not what these motors powered.The wood/metal unit I mentioned before lies here between the engine and the boiler, I gather. 

Abaft the engine, I’m not sure what the pulley with chain would be . .. 

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who hasn’t been very helpful in this post.  Hope you enjoy looking at fotos and either identifying what I can’t or getting to this part of the post having learned very little along the way.  TES might offer more info at that link.  Maybe a trip to Mystic would help “demystify” these engines.  .

Whatzit 10

So here’s an old diesel, visible at low tide.  By its current habitat, I’d be accurate in saying it’s a submarine engine.  But that would not be a statement about the vessel it once moved.  Can anyone deduce any identification from the foto? 

And another whatzit . . ..   This vessel is between 25 and 30 feet loa.  I’m guessing it had a military role, but, as is true with the engine above, I’ve no clue what this vessel was called.

But here I do have an idea about the metal cage in the center of this wooden lighter.  I’ll share my idea at the end of the post, but conjectures/tall tales I’ve heard include . . .   a gorilla cage for the sixth boro harborman who had a large pet primate,

a lock-up for valuables that were being transshipped between ship and shore,  and still others have said it was a brig.  In fact, from about a year ago, here was a post in which I speculated about the purpose of just such a structure.

The most credible explanation is this:  this metal cage served as a fireproof seal between the pot-bellied stove and any flammable material shipped on the barge.  A foto I saw yesterday but have no copy of shows the barge and cage in better state of repair;  on that foto,  lockers were mounted on the bars to hold ice to keep the cargo somewhat chilled. 

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Engines 1

Not a transformer, although

they used to transform fuel to power, speed, noise, and heat.

I can’t tell the make or anything

about these engines, now–inert, silent, and cold– waiting to be transmogrified.

But I’ll bet someone reading this knows.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, needing a little power to get through the next week.   Can anyone say something more about these engines, the first ones of a series.

Government Boats 18

Know the boat behind this cutting edge?  Doesn’t this frontal view look like a human face with seriously trimmed upper lip whiskers a la cervantes?

Remember a vessel name that turned into a slur meaning “besmirch?”

It’s a swiftboat.  Until I saw a “swiftboat,” I hadn’t realized how much swiftboats look like the crewboats that run up and down the KVK.  Click here to read the origins of the design at Sewart Seacraft.  Looks like the company has evolved into swiftships, producing military and commercial vessels.  Now that I savor the new company name, it occurs to me that I saw a swiftships vessel (called Fort Jefferson) on Dry Tortugas.  I love it when connections happen where they’re not expected.

Here’s the encyclopedia of

info on swiftboats.

SS-285 Balao –cousin of ballyhoo –underwent the last overhaul of her career in  . . . Staten Island.  Read more on what once was attached to this conning tower and now lies on the bottom off north Florida here.

Here’s a foto of Barry I’d intended to include yesterday.  I certainly need to get back to the Navy museum, which

I now realize is easier to get to than I’d previously thought.  This is panel 2 . . . yesterday you may have seen panel 1.  What edifice is this?  Seriously, who wrote the text carved into this limestone?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  Silver worth $200 million lies unclaimed in one bottom location?

Government Boats 17

Guess the vessel and river?

The small red one with all the rowers is DC Dragons, and by now some of you already know the large gray one.

If you haven’t identified the destroyer yet, it was named for a man from County Wexford, Ireland, but that’s misleading because

John Barry  was born in 1745.

Click here to read of USS Barry‘s service record.  Click here to read of  my visit to another Forrest Sherman-class destroyer here.  Question here:  is the small vessel called a tender?  a launch?

Barry has two of these stacks.

Another question:  what is the function of the horizontally-oriented drum here on the stern of Barry?

And while I’m asking questions, does anyone recognize this panel?  What transportation-related building bears it?  More clues tomorrow, unless someone identifies the building . . .

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who can’t wait for life to slow down a bit.  Oh, and the river is NOT the Potomac but the Anacostia.

Random Tugs 78

The latest equinox is upon us, leading us to ways of celebrating it . . . making a “value-added” NOT tax but event.  For some,   it’s World Storytelling Day!  I like that.  It’s a huge improvement over last week’s “Talk Like a Sea-going Thug” day that lots of folks mark.  What I wonder is why someone  would  participate in a holidays that involves saying very little . .  all style and little substance.  I’d rather create an “act like Robin Hood Day” . .  or “smile like Mona Lisa Day.”

I’d love it if someone told me more of the stories implied here, like who was Eileen M. Roehrig and where did El Gallo (former names of vessel North Sea)  operate?   Kimberly Poling (in the background) used to be Jaguar.  What was her work history?

And if Nord Observer observed anything in the Nord, what was it?What has been the high point in Robert IV’s one-third century history?

Has Bohemia ever traveled up even a portion of the Bohemia River?  Could it even?

What thoughts did folks on board and on shore have about Kristy Ann ‘s style when she first hit the waters?

See the crewman in the extreme left side of this foto.  Who is he?  Where’s he from?  How long’s he been going to sea?  What curiosity does he have about the sixth boro?

Have folks associated with Morton seen bowsprite’s drawing?

What was peak drama in the half-century life of Thomas D. Witte?  How did DonJon–from all the other colors–choose this elegant shade of blue?  I mean it . . . I like this color.

Happy equinox, and celebrate World Storytelling Day, an event whose patron saint or muse or whatever you want to call it should be Scherazade.

If this link works, it’ll take you to a huge powerpoint presentation on Rotterdam’s recent “World Harbor Days,” a phenomenal water festival  where tugboats, pilot boats, security and rescue services, dredgers, cargo vessels, AND Chinese dancers and a draak (dragon)  got involved.  Could the sixth boro do this?    If so, THAT would be a story.  Click here for the first of many youtubes about the event.

I’m off on a gallivant this weekend.  Anyone have suggestions on where to find interesting vessels on the Potomac in the Arlington area?

Summer Yachts

I looked for a name, but saw only this . . . ballyhoo, which reminded me of the conch republic already a quarter year ago.  Can you identify the yacht?

Black Knight, head-turner that she is, sports

no ballyhoo.

Nor does this large trawler in town last weekend.  Know her?  I love the stacks that suggest Sea Raven . . .

Here following replica vessel Clipper City past Ellis Island . . . it’s Black Douglas, with its tender Wild Oats.

Milk and Honey . . .  not my cup of tea, although I like the other yachts in this post.

Here’s the last clue to the ballyhoo-sporting three-masted schooner, high tech version of sail.

Spirit of Bermuda it is, recent winner of large boat class at the Gloucester Schooner fest.  Click here for a video by Capt. Joey.

All fotos taken in September 2011 by Will Van Dorp.

Stopping by the Kills

Most of you know the poem by Bobby Frost that starts out with the line . . . “Whose woods these are I think I know . . .”  Living in NYC, believe it or not, I have woods AND the Kills. On my way home from work today, I stopped by this spot on the Kill Van Kull.  Friends know I refer to this as my office.  I hope the city never makes this place a “park.”  I love it the way it is.  Today there were friends, including Kristy Ann Reinauer eastbound and Ever Radiant westbound, on her way in from (exactly one month ago) Shanghai.   Two years ago I caught Ever Radiant . . . in the KVK near my office as well.  Actually, in reference to these fotos, I’d ask “whose docks these were . . . I’d love to know . . .”  They’re just east of the Caddell yard and right across the KVK from IMTT.  By the way, click on that previous link and get a great aerial shot of the KVK looking west.

Moments before, I caught Ital Mattina, a month ago in Honk Kong, eastbound with Laura K. Moran nearby just before she

turns the big ship loose, spins on her own axis, and heads back to base.

Also during my stay at the KVK, this crane configuration went by, although if you doubleclick and look at this in larger format, you’ll see the Great Lakes New York eastbound, propelled by Miss Gill; and Weeks Marine 527 westbound, moved by Catherine Miller.

Speaking of cranes, you’ve seen WTC1 as background in many fotos here;  here’s a foto I took over the weekend looking straight up about 100′ from the west side of the base.

More cranes . . .  barge Farrell 256 is pushed into the KVK just shy of two weeks ago.  Can you identify the tug?

A slightly closer look help you?  Anyone know (I don’t ) what to call the series of four winches on the barge?

It’s the formerly orange  tug now know as Sarah Ann, and after two years, I’m still of two minds about the new paint scheme.

All fotos in September 2011 by Will Van Dorp, who’s just outa breath sometimes.

Unrelated . . .  click here to see the marine art of Tony Moffitt, hailing from Newcastle, Australian.

Random Ships 17

Just to contextualize this, here’s Random Ships 16 and 15.  Below is one sight that thrilled me yesterday . . . Orange Star.  Nice sternlines, eh?  Just over three years ago, I took fotos of Orange Star, a different and older vessel by the same name.  If you open only one link in this post, open this one for the 2008 version of Orange Star.

This foto taken from more than a mile away shows Barrington Island leaving Red Hook bound for sea with the assistance of Margaret Moran and an unidentified Moran boat.

These Brazilian juice tankers HAVE to be the most beautiful large motor vessels (IMHO) anywhere: immaculate exteriors exuding sublime colors and hues, bespeaking what I imagine are gleaming stainless steel interiors redolent of citrus.

Bulker Medi Antwerp passes Conti Benguela on its way to sea.  The fact that “benguela” appears on a tanker speaks to the success of offshore drilling there.

A new word for the beauty of these tankers?  Try pulchritudinous!   No, really . . . that’s a good thing!  Even the old Orange Star may have registered a old, worn out, tired feeling to itself or others,   but she was always pulchritudinous to my eyes.  Orange Stars to me . . . I view as resplendent as the day they came off the ways.     A statistic for the volume of Brazilian juice:  (2007)  It produces 53% of all orange juice consumed in the world!  For more statistics like that, click here.    I do–I admit–recognize the problem of getting staples like orange juice from a continent away;  maybe I should move to a place where I can grow my own oranges, lemons, mangoes . . .?

Here Medi Antwerp (recently in Chile) passes between the salt pile and Bow Sun  (less than a month ago passed Cape of Good Hope!).

Back to these juice vessels . . . their charms disarm me.  Now here I could have taken a closeup of this structure, starboard side of where the pumps and controls must be, but I didn’t think to do it.  Anyone explain the device below the crane and abaft the horizontally oriented tank?   Next time I’ll try to keep my analytical wits about me and not go all aflutter.

Overseas Kythnos, Korean-built and launched last year, has a great slogan painted along the top of the house.

All fotos this weekend by Will Van Dorp, who readily admits to having an orange juice drinking problem as well as eye problems that sometimes let me see what I want to.

Random Tugs 77

If I haven’t not yet mentioned/heaped praise on tugboatinformation.com, the site started by Birk Thomas (see last foto) and now co-administered by him and Harold E. Tartell, I am truly remiss.  Now that they have begun creating this capacious database, I don’t have to replicate some of their info.  So how about some fotos from the last two days:

North Sea . . . which I haven’t seen in quite a while.  Doubleclick enlarges.

Margaret Moran on her way to Red Hook,

Sarah Dann headed for home-barge-home in the AK,

(I think) JoAnne Reinauer III, with Navig8 Faith in the background,

Kathleen of Weeks,

Gramma Lee T Moran . .  and I’ve no idea what that Coast Guard RIB was doing,

Quantico Creek following a strange puff of cloud,

Kimberly Turecamo assisting Mount Kibo.  By the way, Kibo is one of the volcanic cones near the summit of Kilimanjaro.

Patapsco awaits  favorable movement through the Gate,  and finally

Stephen-Scott Reinauer, making for the Buttermilk.

All fotos this weekend by Will Van Dorp.