Getting Lept . . .

. . . upon.  That’s what happened when I was just minding my own business the other day . . . and a voice calls my name and “Be careful.  I could have thrown you to the fishes,” he said, before showing this photo below.

Getting USNS Red Cloud,  Helen Laraway, Andrea, and Sea Wolf into a single frame had been my aim just seconds before.

No matter.  Here goes Lucy Reinauer pushing RTC 83.

I think Stephen-Scott was headed for a barge out beyond Gulf Service with GM11103.

What I found was Bluefin and

Morgan Reinauer and

Amberjack and

Scott Turecamo with barge New Hampshire.  And more.

And maybe getting kept upon and thrown to the fishes . . . might just work out alright, although watch out for shadowy characters like the lurker over there.

It made me think about a day a mere 100 or so days from now when photographers photographing get photographed themselves.

Happy leap day.

Here’s what I put up last leap year.

All photographs here–except the obvious two–by Will Van Dorp.

 

Seven Seas 5

Here was 4.  Of course, many more than seven Seas exist and work east, south, and west of the United States.

Let’s start with Irish Sea, which was called something before that . . . .

taken September 2009, with Iona McAllister in Brooklyn Navy Yard

 

taken February 2016

Siberian Sea, before it was called that.

taken in 2007

 

taken in 2009

 

taken in 2013

 

taken in 2015

Barents Sea . . . .  anyone have news on her?  She too had names before it became Barents, although I suspect Barents Sea will be her last name ever.

taken in 2015

Mediterranean Sea, which  originally painted green.

taken in 2015

McKinley Sea, and I hope you get the point that all these boats had previous names.

taken in February 2016

Ross Sea, which actually shows its Thoma-Sea heritage. If you don’t know what I mean, look at the string of vessels built by Thoma-Sea just after Ross Sea was launched in February 2003. Thoma-Sea here actually makes eight seas.

taken in 2015

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Thanks to Jed 3

Over the past few years, John Jedrlinic aka “Jed” has shared a lot of photos he’s taken near Norfolk, which is great since otherwise I’d never have seen some of these.  Take Huntington, below, apparently the in-house tug of the shipyard in Newport News.

photo date 19 APRIL 2010

Or McAllister Boys, I’ve no idea which foreign port she works out of today.

PHOTO DATE 19 april 2010

And Russel B. Murray.  Express Marine units used to be common in the sixth boro, but no more.

photo date 16 MARCH 2010

Russel B. Murray used to work in New York the year I was born  . . . then called Shamokin. 

photo date 16 MARCH 2010

I did see Night Hawk several times on the Elizabeth River in Fall 2015.

photo date 10 SEPT 2011

Chief is now Dann Marine’s Diamond Coast, but I’ve not yet seen her.

photo date 8 FEB 2011

And finally, a former regular in the sixth boro, Lucinda Smith.  See her here in the KVK in 2011.

photo date 16 MARCH 2010

All photos here were taken by Jed.  Thanks.

Astrand

All photos today come thanks to John Huntington.  Check out his new site here, one which I mentioned a week and a half ago here.

Here are the basics on what you are looking at, mostly from John’s caption:  “FAR ROCKAWAY, QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY, NY/USA – FEBRUARY 25, 2016: The 24 meter (78 foot) scallop fishing vessel the Carolina Queen III, rests in surf in the Atlantic Ocean off Far Rockaway on the Rockaway peninsula of the borough of Queens in New York City. The boat ran aground at about 2am and all the crew were safely evacuated by the US Coast Guard.”   Of course, there are also the related stories about the USCG 25′ RIB attempting a rescue and capsizing in the 10-12′ seas, and its crew, trained and geared up for such a possibility, safely swimming to shore;  and the rescue of Carolina Queen III crew by helicopter.  Photos here.  A number of the RIBs can be seen here.

Salvage plans are underway.  The fishing vessel–to my untrained eye–seems to have held up well, a tribute to its builders as well as to the fact of coming ashore on the sand.  Those builders are responsible for two of the newest tugboats in the sixth boro as well.

I’m sure the owners and crew of the vessel feel sick right now.

 

But looking at John’s remarkable photos, I’m struck by their allure.  The calm water, patches of blue sky, reflection of a beautiful machine misplaced on soft sand  . . .  contrast sharply with how the scene must have appeared to the crews Wednesday night when the wind and spray made the decks feel like hell, a time of uncertainty and fear.

I’ve previously done a set of posts on a vessel ashore here.  And from South Africa four years ago, these photos from Colin Syndercombe and another fishing boat astrand.

Thanks again to John Huntington for use of these photos.

For a photo of Rodriguez Boatbuilders’ 2015 James E. Brown, click here and scroll.

For a sense of how shipwreck has attracted photographers of four generations of a British family, click here.

 

Wise Ratty

Back in mid-January, I’d planted myself up in Fort Wadsworth to see a new ship come in.  While I was there, I saw this CMA CGM vessel leave, racing this sailboat.

As the sailboat passed, I caught the name, which certainly made me wonder who Ratty is and what wisdom Ratty possesses other than leaving town a few days before the big snowstorm hit.

Whatever the answers to those questions are, Rattys Wisdom is now in the Bahamas, likely a milder place than the sixth boro.

And completely unrelated, back five and a half years ago, bowsprite saw a strange trimaran, Soundbounder identified it, and I alluded to it here and kept wondering about it.  Here was an article about the vessel from 2010.   Here’s an article I just found from almost a year ago suggesting it may no longer exist . . .   The place Zamna sank is near the long pier in Progreso, Mexico, once associated with Yucatan sisal, favorite at different times of farmers and sailors.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Also unrelated, while the winds were howling last night, here’s what was developing off Rockaway.

 

Random Ships 46

What can you tell about this vessel?  Here’s a clue . . . try to give it at least 30 seconds of a listen.

Here’s a bit more of her.  Actually, I’d love to get a fast rescue craft to explore harbors with . . .  Anyone know of a online marketplace for used FRCs?  Norsafe is a leading manufacturer, and their site introduced me to a new term, daughter craft.    But I digress.

The sixth boro can be quite crowded sometimes.  Like here, how many large vessels do you count?

From left to right, there’s Red Cloud, STI Fulham, Maersk Weymouth, Opal Express, Anthem of the Seas, and Leopard Sea, with an unidentified tug and barge unit along Opal Express port side;  and when I move the camera to the right, there also Zircon, with Sunny Williams delivering lube oil and I can’t identify the tug bunkering.

Still farther to the right, there’s Marie Kirk, Irish Sea, and an unidentified fishing boat her the CNJRR station.

A bit earlier, I caught this photo of Kirby Moran escorting STI Fulham out of the “inner harbor” to the anchorage.

Over by the salt pile and deeply laden with ice remover . . .

it’s Arcturus, newly arrived from the Antofagasta region, waiting to be discharged.

Which returns us to the mystery ship at the top of this post.  It’s Carmen.  WW has named many of its PCTCs after characters from operas.

Click here and here for more of these WW vessels. That’s either Miriam or Margaret Moran seeing Carmen in.

 

All photos here by Will Van Dorp.

Scale 8

Count the containers across . . .  I see nine.  And the width of a standard container is . . . ?

This container is beamier than the tug alongside, but by a factor of less than three.  Guesses?

Since the beginning of 2016, Frisia Inn, which I consider a very strange name unless I’m missing an insider’s story, has called at ports in the US as well as a few in the Caribbean.

Her dimensions are 482′ x 75.’   A standard container is 8′ wide.

It’s port-appropriate size.  Its 2016 ports of call outside the US have been St. Maarten, Trinidad, and Dominican Republic, with populations of 75,000;  1.3 million; and 10.4 million, respectively.

And the UCC stands for ??

Here’s the answer.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 155

First, my take on the identification of the tug from the film in yesterday’s post, it’s a model and filmed in New Deal Studios in LA.    That would explain the logistics.

So, for today, let’s start with Miss Katie . . . outbound last Thursday.

Miss Katie, 1998

 

Mister T, 2001

 

Ruth M. Reinauer, 2008, pushing RTC 102

 

Discovery Coast, 2012

 

Kirby Moran, 2015, assisting STI Fulham

 

JRT Moran, 2015

 

McAllister Girls, 1968, moving B. No. 231

 

Amy C McAllister, 1975, also assisting B. No. 231

 

Brian Nicholas, 1966.   Sturgeon Bay, 1987

 

Eric McAllister, 2014, passing NYK Nebula

 

Irish Sea, 1969

 

James D. Moran, 2015, assisting NYK Nebula

And finally, we return to Miss Katie because two days later, she caught some unwanted attention.  Details here.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Film Tugs 6

Here are the earlier posts in this series.

And for today, see this screen grab from Coen brothers Ladykillers, a fun movie I thought for an otherwise uninspired evening.  That’s a tug towing a garbage barge under a bridge supposedly in a southern state.  A good half dozen bodies get tossed onto the garbage as that tow reappears a half dozen times in the movie.  So here’s the question . . . what tug is that?

 

And I’ll get you the answer–my best guess, at least, tomorrow.

Stacks 6

Here are the previous five in this series.

Triple engine/screw/stack Andrea’ might be the “newest” tugboat in the sixth boro.  All those triples is not something you see every day.  Of course, in the inland waters quadruples show up some time.

 

My question is . . . why

is there that apostrophe after the terminal A in Andrea’  ?

But briefly back to the triples . . .  here’s a photo I took near the Ohio/Mississippi confluence just over three years ago of American Pillar.  Click here for other Mississippi boats I photographed back then.   Any idea where/when  American Pillar came into service? Answer follows.  And Andrea’  ?

American Pillar is here, Nashville, 1976.  Andrea’ is Houma, 1999.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.