Rhythms 4

Here’s 3.

Cape Washington left today, following in the wake of Lia.  Zim Beijing came in;  I’m guessing “my” Bebedouro will leave soon, and the pace of ins-outs is such that I have to content myself seeing in on AIS.

Although I’m intrigued with names and itineraries like OOCL Oakland and

Zim Qingdao back here yesterday,

traffic longterm runs together and

goes out of focus and even

blurs.

For a moment, that is.  HS Livingstone entered the harbor Saturday morning, and by midmorning Sunday, it’s off Atlantic City making for Baltimore.

In

in

inbound, then outbound  .  . .

I wonder about the blur for the mariner of these global box vessels.  Here’s a question I have insufficient info to answer:  Pick a year like 1940, and the number of dockworkers that year per ton of cargo transferred between ship and shore.  Now compare the tonnage of freight handled on the docks of NYC in 1940 and 2012 and thereby calculate how many dockworkers would be needed in 2012 using the 1940 dockworker/ton rate.  And why?  Check out this article in today’s NYTimes called “…Rise of the Machines.”

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Sixth Boro Details 3

Here was 2.

What kind of fotos does one get  on a dark and drizzly morning?  Well, through a fence I snapped this one of the virginal Evening Star . . . in the boro less than 24 hours!    And less than a year and a half after keel-laying down in Louisiana.

Alice Oldendorff came in this morning . . . the first moving vessel I spotted today AND the subject of my first ever post nearly six short and long years ago.   Alice shuttles aggregates between Port of Bayside, NB and Brooklyn Navy Yard.

And even more virginal than Evening Star, here’s DDG-112, to be commissioned in the sixth boro next Saturday.

USS Michael Murphy is named for a fallen SEAL and built at Bath Iron Works.

Here’s Alliance St. Louis, a US-flagged RORO with

a smudge on her bow that resembles smudges I’ve seen on other ROROs.  Anyone explain the origin of what appears to be primer paint over damaged coating?

Here’s the Kirby barge Pacific, which

has this unusual feature midships.

Moving her eastbound was Amy C McAllister.   The tanker in the distance off Amy‘s stern is Lia.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Soon-to-be commissioned USS Michael Murphy will be open for tours tomorrow.

 

Autumn Sail 8

Here was 7.

There are figureheads, and then there are figures on the head rig.

Or dancers on the jibboom?

Whatever part of a sail evolution this was, it looked

like fun on Shearwater.

Pioneer too seemed to relish playing in the Upper Bay the other evening,

tacking off Ellis Island.

I saw another too after dark, a non-sixth-boro schooner, but I couldn’t make the ID.  All fotos here by Will Van Dorp, who imagines  thrilling autumn schooner sails in his near future.

Random Tugs 97

B. Franklin Reinauer made its inaugural visit to the sixth boro this week.  Birk Thomas caught this shot.  I featured it last month at splash here.

The same day, Capt. Jason (1982) breezed through the harbor, a first glimpse for me.  I have not much more info.

Gulf Dawn appeared here.

And regulars include Catherine Miller,

Laura K. Moran,

Lucy Reinauer,

Evening Mist sailing here through golden evening sheen,

and Sassafras paralleling a container ship.

Except for the foto by Birk, all fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  An intriguing and troubling story from gCaptain about a captain in prison in Panama.  Maas Trader called in Red Hook just over two years ago.

 

More Cargoes 15

Freja Pegasus, Turecamo Girls, and Arctic Bay . . . the previous cargo post begs this one, so I spent three hours looking around the sixth boro yesterday.  If you click on the link embedded in each large vessel name, you’ll get a sense of their range by reading the section “port history.”   What’s NOT listed there is the land-scape (as depicted yesterday)  cargoes travel to get to the ports and seas.

Tverskoy Bridge and Peter F. Gellatly.  The tanker is bunkering before heading for the Bahamas.

Stolt Sneland and Linda Moran stern and

areas around the bows.  A name like Atlantic Rose make me imagine a fleet mate named Atlantic Fell. 

OOCL Britain and McAllister Responder, I think.

Ever Deluxe and Laura K Moran.  I’d be interested in knowing how much over a million sea miles Ever Deluxe ‘s traveled since she appeared in this post more than three years ago.

Off Laura K‘s stern, it’s passenger vessel Regatta.  Here’s more info on her.

Here are two of the 109 daily trips the Staten Island ferries make daily.   Vessels are JFK and Molinari . . .  I think.

Suzuka Express

Tverskoy Bridge again as darkness ends my ability to use the camera.

An AIS screen capture is not that photogenic, but I find the names fascinating.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Here’s a followup on SS Badger:  the coal-fired steam ferry gets a reprieve because of the trade in wind power!!!  Who woulda thunked!!?!

And finally, here’s a note I’d like to reiterate for anyone connected with the Gwendoline Steers‘ sinking of a half century ago:  “My name is Loary Milanese Gunn, you can see my posts on this Tugster blog re: the Gwendoline Steers. Steve Knox and I have since created the Facebook Page in Memory of the GS. We are having a memorial wreathe-laying ceremony to honor the 50th year of the sinking. I want to invite all of the crewmen’s family members. Would you please forward your email to me so I may extend to you and your family a proper invite?    Loary ”

I know not everyone does FB.  You can contact Loary through tugster.

On a different note, check out this video of a flotilla headed up to the tugboat roundup a few weeks back.

A View of Cargoes

Late last week I alluded to an imminent gallivant.  I imagined it’d be like this (truck’s not mine and I didn’t steal it), being transported away from all

thought of the sixth boro as I explored the bountiful  interior on the first day of fall.

So down this valley about 300 miles upstate we traveled to see what would be around the next bend, and

the next.

Look at the terrain on this foto, left side.  Notice anything?  I’ll come back to it.

Who would imagine this is New York state?

And then the birds caught my attention:

buzzards and

and hawks of some sort.

Bird play was interrupted by the rumble of a train, and I’d imagined the bridge in the foto above was derelict!  It was long.

Here’s the cropped version of the foto above I asked you to look at.  Notice the horizontal break in the trees?  I didn’t get to that side, but once there was a

canal there, the Genesee River Canal.  Click here to see the same ridge from more or less the same vantage point about 150 years ago.  And the tugs looked like this.

And that bridge . .  here’s what it took to build its predecessor.

The beauty of the Genesee River convinced me to follow it up toward Lake Ontario.  Here’s High Falls in Rochester . . . and another train crossing it, this one with containers ultimately bound for  . . . China via the sixth boro, which

these reminders won’t let me escape, and that’s not a bad thing.

And this business has operated here since Prohibition.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who’s pictured in the gratuitous foto of the 1959 Chevy Apache pickup.

A View of Ships and Boats

Wordless foto essay on vessel fronts.  See  a bowsprite rendition here.

OK, I guess I can’t be wordless with this one above.  Clue:  vessel above is the same as vessel below.

I took this one of Woody Guthrie and Clearwater three months ago at Croton.

Foto of Woody Guthrie‘s improvised figurehead was sent to me by Steve Schwartz.  Thanks much, Steve.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 96

Colleen basks in early morning light before the race earlier this month.

Resolute makes a quick turn to assist with a tow.

Discovery Coast turns westbound into the KVK.

Resolute takes the stern of Thomas J. Brown.

Miriam Moran reports for yet another job.

The inimitable Herbert P. Brake leaves the east end of the Kill.

Laura K. Moran . . .  speed turning.

Taurus heads for the mooring.

Treasure Coast crosses in the foreground after Taurus  gets to the mooring.

Discovery Coast cruises back to home base.

It’s Choptank light about to cross the Upper Bay for Brooklyn, and

a whole bevvy of McAllisters, including Helen. in Mariner’s Harbor . . .  also just before the tugboat race almost three weeks ago.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who does a short gallivant starting later tomorrow.

Government Boats 21

Here was 20.  And below is Wire, Saugerties-based “boat of the year” at the 2012 Waterford Tugboat Roundup.  In less than a year, the New Bern NC Barbour WYTL will be a half-century old, although to me she looked brand spanking new.

Note the crane on Gelberman‘s stern:  she’s one of several debris-collectors operated by the Corps of Engineers.

Like the “bear boats” I wrote about yesterday, seeing 32-year-old Morro Bay in the sixth boro is another uncommon seasonal indicator;  it’s going to get cold soon (maybe) and ice will need breaking.

Hugo started life as an oilfield support vessel, but now, painted gray, works as a weapons-training Naval auxiliary vessel.    Homeported near Hugo is Apache, subject of several posts including this one.  Recently, Apache has been tasked with a diver-training mission as reported here.

Continuing outside New York, Cheryl B sent this foto along from Grand Haven MI.  Vessel 105 is a WTGB that no doubt lay side-by-side in the shipyard with Morro Bay as they were constructed in Tacoma several decades back.  Neah Bay is Lake Erie-based  . .  but from there, the sixth boro is only a voyage away.  Any guesses on the red vessel off 105′ stern?

It’s Griffon, which appeared here on this blog four years ago.

The 42-year-old vessel is based on the St. Lawrence, just northeast of the top right corner of Lake Ontario. The “F-word” on her stern has no place on USCG vessels, although no doubt US and Canadian vessels found themselves on opposite sides of these wars of the late 20th century.

HMCS Moncton, last month, was paying a friendly visit to Port Huron MI.

And finally, thanks to JED, HMS Vigilant, a sub that resembles a whale.  Read about it here on JED’s site.

Any finally . . .  I mentioned earlier that Wire was “vessel of the year” at the Waterford Roundup.  Here, with thanks to Brian Gauvin, is a frozen nanosecond of the fireworks show that brought the roundup to a close.

Thanks again to Cheryl, Jed, and Brian.  Thanks also to Rick Old Salt for  a reality check on piracy.

Made in Croatia 2

I’ve seen another Penguin here already, but it was not part of this colorful fleet that I first traced to Croatia here . . . and grouped by their bear logo here.

No vessel–not even passenger carrier–is quite so distinctively colored.

Given their frequency here during winter, I think of the fleet (of which I’ve recorded more than half) as an uncommon seasonal indicator:  hungry bears coming to town . . . happens in the cold season. Name and placement on this vessel suggest the bear chases forever across all the seas–like Ahab–but never catches.

Assisting Penguin into port were Brendan Turecamo and

Margaret Moran.

Be on the lookout for more bear ships in the sixth boro.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.