This is my Janus post . . . which I’ll start with a photo I took in January 2007 of an intriguing set of sculptures, since licensed to Trinity Church in Manhattan.
Since I’ve tons to do today, comment will be minimal. The photo below I took near the KVK salt pile on January 14, 2016. Eagle Ford, to the right, has since been scrapped in Pakistan.
The history of Alnair, photo taken in Havana harbor on February 4, 2016, is still untraced. It looks like an ex-USN tug. Click here for more Cuban photos.
This photo of JRT Moran and Orange Sun I took on March 12.
This photo of Hudson was taken in Maassluis, very near where my father grew up, on April 4. Many more Maassluis photos can be found here.
Sandmaster I photographed here on May 6. since then, she’s moved to Roatan, I’m told, and I’d love to go there and see how she’s doing. Maybe I can learn some Garifuna while I’m there.
June 1, I took this, with Robert E. McAllister and an invisible Ellen escorting Maersk Idaho out the door.
July 14, I saw GL tug Nebraska yank bulkier Isolda with 56,000 tons of corn through a narrow opening and out the Maumee.
August 23 I caught Atlantic Sail outbound past a nearly completed Wavertree. And come to think of it, this is a perfect Janus photo.
September 9 at the old port in Montreal I caught Svitzer Montreal tied up and waiting for the next job.
October 18, I caught Atlanticborg and Algoma Enterprise down bound between Cape Vincent and Clayton NY.
November 4, while waiting for another tow, I caught Sarah Ann switching out scrap scows in the Gowanus.
And I’ll end this retrospective Janus post with a mystery shot, which I hope to tell you more about in 2017. All I’ll say is that I took it yesterday and can identify only some of what is depicted. Anyone add something about this photo?
I feel blessed with another year of life, energy, gallivants, and challenges. Thank you for reading and writing me. Special thanks to you all who sent USPS cards ! I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2017. Here’s what Spock would say and where he got it.
Here was my “last hours” post from 2015. And here from the year before with some vessels sailing away forever. And here showing what I painted in the last hours of 2013. And one more with origins “oud jaardag” stuff from the finale of 2011.
tugster: a waterblog 
6 comments
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December 31, 2016 at 2:19 pm
William Lafferty
The Alnair certainly looks like one of the many Natick-class YTBs built in the ’60s and ’70s. Of course, the Navy couldn’t sell one to Cuba, but I wonder if the vessel is under another flag, most likely Panama or Honduras, or resold from another flag to Cuba. Three of those Natick class YTBs still operate at Guantanamo.
Your mystery is almost certainly one of the surplus World War II C1-S-D1 concrete ships sunk to form a breakwater in December 1948 to protect the new Cape Charles ferry dock at Kiptopeke, Virginia. My guess is we see the Arthur Newell Talbot or Leonard Chase Wason, both built 1944 at Hookers Point, Florida, by McCloskey & Company. You can read all about it here
http://www.abandonedcountry.com/2013/05/06/kiptopekes-concrete-ships-a-long-journey-to-obscurity/
December 31, 2016 at 3:20 pm
rich
Thanks Will for a great year of pics. Take me with you next time. LoL. Rico
December 31, 2016 at 3:22 pm
rich
Happy New Year!
December 31, 2016 at 4:47 pm
sfdi1947
A PROSPEROUS & HAPPY NEW YEAR WILL! Pardon me for venturing a guess on you’re quiz photo, are you looking southwest about 196 deg. from Cape May Beach across the stern of the beached concrete freighter at an O/B VLCC in the Rehoboth Reach?
Regards to You and Bowsprit
Joe
January 2, 2017 at 11:21 am
ws
The Bought and sold main stream media does not offer the depth of coverage like Tugster..
The Days of the Booze drinking, manual typewriter pounding, cigarette smoking, hat wearing reporter are long gone…
I still get the newspaper delivered, However, i always do a sanity check: Blogs, and the internet…
Many Thanks!
ws!
January 2, 2017 at 12:23 pm
George Schneider
I’ve spent a few hours trying to identify the ALNAIR, and I’m confident I have it narrowed down to 5 of the 83 postwar YTB’s. One identity feature is that many didn’t have the projecting pulpit forward of the bridge by the time they were sold; on some it was removed, and later ones were built without it. Also on many of the units the eyebrow was cut away on the sides of the wheelhouse by the time they were sold. And lastly, if they hadn’t been fitted with 3 fender cradles by the time the Navy sold them, I discounted those as well.
The 5 that I think are possibilities are YTB 763 and 781-784, oddly all sold in Pacific waters. I’d welcome any arguments or confirmations by others who find this kind of thing interesting.