You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2012.
Ryba’s Tenacious (1960 Mississippi-built) in lower right, then barge Great Lakes with tug Michigan (1982 Wisconsin), and USCG Mackinaw (not WAGB 83 but WLLB 33).
Durocher Marine’s tugs from near to far: Ray D (1943 ?), Joe Van (1905!! Buffalo, NY) , and Champion (1974 Louisiana).
Barbara E. Bouchard (1992 Mississippi) afloat and
araised and dry. Those props are at least 10′ diameter . . . I don’t know the exact number. Barbara E. first appeared here in 2008.
Kirby’s
Davis Sea (1982 Florida).
Danielle M. Bouchard (1997 Louisiana), who first appeared on tugster
three years ago but I hadn’t seen since.
And of course with the gray training wheels and hard in pursuit of APL Spinel, it’s
Ellen McAllister (1966 Wisconsin), here neck-n-neck with Amy C. McAllister (1975 Louisiana). Ellen may have appeared on this blog more often than any other tug; here … with some additional lettering on her flanks … I believe is her debut post.
The tug only visible as an upper wheelhouse is Potomac. The bridge just beyond the flottage is the Queensboro . . . memorialized in this song.
Potomac (2007 and built along the Bayou Lafourche . . . third foto) moves neck-n-neck with . . .
Resolute (1975 Oyster Bay, NY), she currently with the most fibrous fendering in the sixth boro. In between the two is Weddell Sea (2007 Rhode Island).
And of course you recognize the tallest portions of Manhattan, a few miles across the Upper Bay looking across the southeastern tip of Bayonne, NJ.
Fotos here credited to Kyran Clune, Allen Baker, and Birk Thomas: thanks much. All others by Will Van Dorp.
Considering the shipyards mentioned above, I’m wondering why–so far as I know–no active shipyards remain on New York’s Great Lakes shore, and when the last one on that shore closed.
To paraphrase the line about the chanteuse grosse and something “being over,” I couldn’t really feel
that I was back until the
the fat lady came into port, then the big orange PCTC must be she. Topeka entered the sixth boro this morning, here escorted by Gramma Lee T Moran and Margaret Moran.
It turns out that Topeka and
Tortugas, which I saw just over two weeks ago in Panama, could not be more similar. Both were built in Nagasaki in 2006, registered in Southhampton, and have a car-carrying capacity of 6354 automobiles!
Topeka’s itinerary for March is as follows:
| 2012 March 30th, 10:00:09 UTC | New York |
| 2012 March 28th, 08:30:29 UTC | Halifax |
| 2012 March 18th, 01:00:53 UTC | Southampton |
| 2012 March 15th, 22:00:24 UTC | Zeebrugge |
| 2012 March 13th, 23:00:50 UTC | Bremerhaven |
| 2012 March 11th, 13:00:27 UTC | Zeebrugge |
| 2012 March 6th, 05:00:54 UTC | Barcelona |
| 2012 March 4th, 22:00:49 UTC | Voltri |
| 2012 March 1st, 19:00:17 UTC | Izmir |
Tortugas‘s for the past two months is as follows:
| 2012 April 7th, 06:00:56 UTC | Yokohama |
| 2012 March 26th, 01:00:23 UTC | Tacoma |
| 2012 March 22nd, 07:30:45 UTC | Port Hueneme |
| 2012 March 12th, 13:00:30 UTC | Manzanillo |
| 2012 February 29th, 02:45:56 UTC | Southampton |
| 2012 February 27th, 10:00:16 UTC | Zeebrugge |
| 2012 February 24th, 15:00:35 UTC | Bremerhauen |
| 2012 February 5th, 05:00:55 UTC | Brunswick |
| 2012 February 2nd, 18:00:15 UTC | Newark Berth 17 |
| 2012 February 2nd, 05:00:23 UTC | New York |
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
The newly named Patrice McAllister, sixth boro bound, experienced a fire near Kingston, Ontario. For the story, see boatnerd here. The Shipwatcher has the story here. Bowditch, ex-Hot Dog and here the rescue tug, was featured on tugster here back in 2010; see second foto from the end.
Several thousand miles south, Harding is an older tug still in use in the Panama Canal named for Chester Harding, not Warren G.
Foto taken almost 25 years ago from aboard sugar bulker Sugar Island, northbound in the Panama Canal. Being a sugar-dedicated bulk carrier would make this one sweet vessel.
Top foto from USCG via boatnerd; next two thanks to Allen Baker.
I’ve now also added Ship Watcher to my blogroll.
Also, check out photosbytomandpolly, who shoot from not far away along the western end of the St Lawrence Seaway.
So here’s the question . . . two locks, almost 3000 miles apart, Miraflores Esclusas in the Panama Canal and Poe Lock in the Soo. . . each recently traversed by a large vessel,
CSAV Suape in
the Panama, and then
Mesabi Miner in the Poe.
Question . . . without looking it up, which of the two vessels is larger . . . CSAV Suape or Mesabi Miner?
And let the record show that I would have gotten it wrong, but although their beams are the same, Mesabi Miner is 39′ longer than CSAV Suape! Mesabi is named for the mountain range it is involved in hauling away.
Here’s more info on the Soo. Mesabi Miner fotos come thanks to Ken of Michigan Exposures, where more Mesabi fotos are available here and here.
Panama fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Here’s a link to the entire fleet, but for my experience of them, see below. Built in Louisiana or China, they look quite alike.
Rio Indio,
Veraquas 1,
Dolega,
Pacora,
Cacique,
Near to far, Cacique and Calovebora,
D. P. McAuliffe,
Farfan
and back to Veraguas 1.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
The hat here is not misplaced. On the job here
a pilot guiding
Histria Coral through the Canal. She’s less than half an hour ahead of Cap Palmerston
in the adjacent chamber.
Canal employees (v. vessel crew) can be identified here by their
blue uniforms.
Histria Coral is a six-year-old vessel, built in Romania.
Note the plants in the wheel house, sunshade over the bridge wings,
and color-coded manifold.
Ship’s officers?
Once this chamber empties, Histria Coral will be in Pacific waters.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
A few postscripts:
like . . . fotos from the perspective of a Panama Canal pilot, click here.
Ms Pilot, a Panama Canal hawsepiper
and an incomplete tolls caclulator . . . here
One type of post that has evolved here is Whatzit? Know what this juxtaposition of hardware and jungle might be?
This might help . . . well-maintained metals and uncontrolled jungle coinciding in this case is two
ships side-by-side nearing their transit of the Canal from north to south.
I have no more understanding what happens within the 10 miles or so of piping that make up the manifold of this parecel tanker than I have of the circuitry inside a computer.
One of the many joys watching traffic at the Miraflores lock was getting new perspective on these vessels. Just a few weeks back I caught sister ship Bow Chain in the KVK, but from the platforms allowed me, I could not see above deck much.
So here’s a chance for both of us to look into recesses, nooks and crannies.
We can familiarize ourselves with the rules and
codes . . .
Contemplate her high and
low.
If you return to the top foto here, you’ll see the green bow of this vessel–Ever Dynamic–sharing the Miraflores locks with Bow Summer.
One of these days, I’ll do a post on the silver mules, like the one lower left.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
To see the construction and innards of a tanker in fast motion in Philadelphia, click here.
Tying the recent Nola visit and this post together, click here for a tugster post from over five years ago. S/R Wilmington was one of the first ships I got upclose fotos of; she was built in Avondale, LA, and has recently been scrapped. A related vessel currently called Oriental Nicety is also bound for the scrappers; Nicety‘s previous names have been as follows: Dong Fang Ocean, Mediterranean, SeaRiver Mediterranean, and last but not least . . . . Exxon Valdez.
At my age . . . I’ve come to some places where –at each–I could spend a lifetime; choices need to be made. And if I can’t spend that much time at each, the alternative might be to just keep moving . . . since it’s too hard to figure out how
to get access. Those do look like parts of the superstructure of USS New York, which makes the Avondale Shipyard over there somewhere. In the sixth boro, tugboat Dorothy Elizabeth and prison barge Vernon C. Bain come out of Avondale, along with this huge international list.
Bayou Lafourche along 308 sports signs like this, birthplace of lots of Vane Brothers tugs, a Gellatly & Criscione, and several Penn Maritimes.
A couple of twists and turns later, there’s this Bollinger yard, home to the Sentinel-class of Coast Guard cutter. Consider this, two major US shipyards in a town of less than 3000!! Here’s more info on those cutters.
Continue south for 12 miles and you’ll see North American Shipbuilding, one of several Edison-Chouest Offshore facilities. Provider was delivered in 1999.
Manufacturing and then . . . those are banana “trees.” And in this tropical waterway, a cornucopia of boats can be found like
Victor J. Curole, (1979)
as well as
Capt. Thuan, (1987)
Squeegee and Sponge, (turns out they’re oil recovery vessels or were at one time, 1966)
Wyoming, (1940 fishing vessel)
nameless and Big Tattoo, (1981)
a floating home?
Mia Molloy bow and
stern,
Winds of Change . . . (2002) which appears to have a pusher knee integrated into its bow,
Mr Russell, (1995)
and I’d love to know more about this one,
Capt. Manuel, (1982)
this nameless variation on Lil Rip,
lots of dipnetters,
nameless, Carissa Breigh, (1980) and Junie Bop, (1981)
Lugger Tug, (maybe 1981)
swarms of swamp fans,
… let me stop here on this post which breaks my record for number of fotos . . . nameless, but I can almost make out the spelling of TUGSTER on the stern. Is it possible I’ve found myself and my place to settle here? She looks to have some pedigree . . . 1940s lines? Can anyone help with a bit of history here?
Time for tugster (1952) to stop this trip and contemplate and refresh with some Bayou Teche biere pale . . . . For more on Bayou Teche, the place, click here.
I intend to return to the Bayou soon, spend more time, and . . . who knows what might transpire.
All fotos here by either Will or Christina, partners in this jaunt-within-a-gallivant.
For a waterman’s view of the general area, click here.
I’ll get to more of the Louisiana and Panama fotos once I “deglitch” something, so thanks to these shots from Isaac Pennock of tugboathunter we can head north.
Do you recognize this shade of blue?
It’s DonJon Marine’s new Great Lakes’ ATB Ken Boothe Sr. and barge Lakes Contender in Erie, on Lake Erie.
And it’s huge. How huge?
Compare it with Witte 1407.
Here’s a video from more than a year ago showing Boothe first in the water. It only gets somewhat more exciting than watching ice melt (like watching paint dry or grass grow) after 3:40 . . .
Many thanks to Isaac for these shots.
From the air you can see the traffic . . . the sinuous lines it scribes into the legendary river.
From the bank, you can see sometimes three tugs abreast (l. to r. Bobby Jones-1966, David G. Sehrt-1965, and Born Again-1974) pushing more than a dozen barges slipping around the turn between Algiers and the 9th Ward. And when I say slipping, I mean even big vessels seem to slide through this crescent. That erosion in the foreground bespeaks higher water.
Uh . . . a variation on seasnake?
Crescent’s J. K. McLean (2010 at C & G Boatworks of Mobile, AL) and New Orleans (1998 at ThomaSea) maneuver in front of 1995 American Queen.
Close-up of McLean.
Empty Barge Lines’ Grosbec (1980).
Olga G. Stone (1981) pushing oil downbound.
Miss Abby (1960 ?) upbound.
Slatten’s Allison S (1994) light and headed upstream past Bollinger’s.
Ingram Barge Company’s Mark C. A few years back, I saw Ingram boats all the up in Cincinnati, OH and Pittsburgh, PA.
Another Ingram vessel featured a few days ago . . . David G. Sehrt.
Vickie (1975) pushing . . . crushed concrete maybe . . .
Port Allen (1945?!!)
Chelsea (1989)
I’m back at work in environs of the sixth boro, and this is the last set about Nola strictly defined. Tomorrow I hope to put up some fotos from a jaunt-within-a-gallivant southwest from the Crescent City, a truly magical place to which I really must return soon because there’s much I’ve yet to understand . . . like why
the nola hula only appears to salute certain vessels.
And is it true there’s a nun driving a tugboat somewhere on the Lower Mississippi? Here’s a ghost story, and if you have a chance to find it, listen to Austin Lounge Lizard’s “Boudreaux was a Nutcase.”
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who also has tons of fotos from Panama to put up.
tugster: a waterblog 
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