Random Tugs 167

Given the history and range of projects of Elsbeth II, you might imagine how thrilled I was to see her for the first time yesterday.  And she has to be among a small set of working vessels based in North America with brightwork!  She truly fits under the category exotic.

 

I saw this tugboat six years ago in the Delaware River, but Sarah D looks spanking new  in NYS Marine Highway colors.

Happy flag day.  Do you know the significance of this date?

OSG Courageous, she’s one large tugboat and an infrequent

visitor in this port.  I can’t quite make out the barge name. Of course, she’s not as colossal as her big sister –OSG Vision–who spent some time here . . . four (!!) years ago.

Sassafras is a fixture in the sixth boro, but she rarely looks as good as she does when many shore dwellers in the other boros are just waking up.  Here she

lies alongside Petali Lady.

Mister Jim here is lightering (?) bulker Antigoni B, who seems to have since headed upriver.

 

And since this is called random tugs, let me throw in two photos from the Digital collections of the New york State archives . . . SS Brazil entering the sixth boro on May 31, 1951.  What the photo makes very clear to me is how much traffic in the harbor has changed in 65 years.   Can anyone identify the six tugboats from at least three different companies here?  I can’t.

Here the party passes a quite different looking Governors Island.

All photos except for the last two by Will Van Dorp.  These last two come from a treasure trove aka Digital Collections of the New York State Archives. 

Unrelated:  If you’re free Saturday, it’s the annual mermaid migration on Coney Island.