Here is one of the previous photos I’ve posted of Petersburg, a Higgins-built LT-2088, delivered in 1954.
Floating in a soup of eelgrass on a windless afternoon after a stormy week, every part of this half-century vessel begs to be admired.
The small fish in the clear water of New Harbor could not ever disturb the reflections.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Click here for more info on Petersburg, from an article in the NYTimes a few years back.
Unrelated: In the late 1980s a “pirate radio” ship broadcasting as RNI anchored off Jones Beach. The ship was called variously Lichfield II and Sarah. According to this entry in wikipedia, “it was towed to its location off Long Island by Frank Ganter using his tugboat the M/V Munzer.” Does anyone know anything about Munzer or Mr. Ganter?
tugster: a waterblog 
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October 10, 2015 at 3:58 pm
sfdi1947
“Its a small world, after all!” We spent many an night rafted to or moored near the USAS. Petersburg, Battlefield Class Large Tug [LT-2088] in my first ship USAS. Anzio [LT-2085] in Vung Tau, Quoin Yon, Na Trang, Hue, and Da Nang.
I will email Will a 2003 photo of her still serving with the USA-TC at Curtis Bay, MD as she takes a Fuel Barge from us, USAS BG Anthony Wayne [LT-803] {Formerly BG George Pickett, LT-803, renamed after some influential wag complained about honoring Confederate Traitors.} in Baltimore.
October 11, 2015 at 1:23 pm
William Lafferty
The vessel in question was the R. J. Munzer, an offshore supply vessel built 1969 by American Marine Corporation, hull number 1032, for United States Leasing Corporation, San Fransisco, and named for the then-president of California natural gas distributor Petrolane, Inc., Rudolph Munzer . 156.6 x 38 x 12.5; 173 gt, 117 nt; twin Caterpillar 12-cylinder Diesels, 1700-bhp. Ganter seems to have acquired it in the mid-1980s and enrolled it under his FWG Corporation, operated out of Boston (see below). Later the Chad D., R. J. Munzer again, and Mr. Fred, it is now the DC Fred, owned by Deepcor Marine LLC, Broussard, Louisiana. Here is what it looks like today:
http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=2112033
More about Mr. Ganter, who was not directly involved in RNI, here:
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/east_boston/2011/11/east_boston_man_once_had_white.html
Some time back I managed to track down the Lichfield I. It was built as the fishing trawler Hoko Maru No. 35 in 1959 by Nippon Kokan KK at Shimizu, Japan, hull number 164, for Hoko Suisan KK, Tokyo. 164.1 x 25.8 x 10; 409 gt, 222 nt; 6-cylinder Akasaka Tekkosho Diesel, 800-bhp. It was sold in 1970 to Panamanian Llloret Lopez and renamed Lropenzo No. 3. By 1988 it was owned by Lichfield Shipping & Trading SA, Panama, renamed Lichfield I. Its adventures from that point can be found here:
http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME05/Ill-fated_WRLI.shtml
October 11, 2015 at 5:54 pm
tugster
Bill– You’ve given me a lot to digest here. Thx much!
October 11, 2015 at 7:21 pm
William Lafferty
I’m mortified that I used “it’s” and not “its” third line from the bottom, above.
October 11, 2015 at 8:37 pm
tugster
Bill- its-no–it’s-fixed now. But of course i no, ewe were just testing me. Write?
November 30, 2022 at 10:05 pm
Leif Sorlie
I was a engineer on the 2088 for 3 years in the early 1980s. Best army boat I ever worked on. I could stop and start the old Cooper Bessemer engine like no other.