Nola Surprise

I must get back to downstream and upstream tows on the Mississippi soon, but I seriously misread this oncoming vessel.  Some of you might figure out my misread before the end of this post.

What attracted my eye to Florida Enterprise was the superstructure, specifically the cranes overtop the holds.

I’d seen structures somewhat like these on a ship in the KVK here … but they were not quite the same.

Because of poor lighting and large distance relative to my position, I missed the really unusual feature of the vessel

–or rather vessels–which I should have

seen here.  See it?

Florida Enterprise is a barge, and the prime mover here

is now called Coastal 202.  Below is a photo taken by Barry Andersen, which I got permission to use from Fred Miller II, which shows Coastal 202–then called Jamie A. Baxter–light, an ITB out of the notch. The photo below was taken soon after the tug’s launch in mid-1977 from Peterson Builders in Sturgeon Bay WI.  Here’s another taken when the vessel was out of the notch and then known as Barbara Knessel.  

Click here for some ITB posts I did back in 2008.   Click here for a better view of Coastal 202 and her cargo barge that shows she is in fact an ITB.

Now I’d love to see Coastal 202 out of the notch from all angles and to see ISH’s rail ferry too.

Truth be told, another surprise was that nola hula was nowhere to be seen  . ..  maybe headed out to sea like that humpback that splashed around the sixth boro last month?