One of the joys about living in the sixth boro is its size and dynamism. There are three bridges in this photo below that will not be the same if I take this shot again in three or four years; this is my first notice of the stays already in place at the new Goethals. Will the new bridge still honor an engineer who worked on the Panama and then the PANYNJ? I was interested in the ship because a friend had assisted docking when she arrived . . .
Overseas Long Beach last had a strange paint job, too. AIS showed that Erin McAllister was on the bow, which I took possibly being a misspelling of Eric, pictured a bit farther below.
To my astonishment, when the escort emerged around the stern, it was
Erin, not Eric. After the pilot was retrieved,
she spun
to port and
returned to base, allowing me to get a closeup and
compare the two boats, Erin from 1996, although I believe her bow has been modified since then, and
Eric from 2014. And the differences are clear.
Erin actually originates from the same time, design, and shipyard as this tug, Z-One.
Photo by Will Van Dorp, San Juan, PR, March 2013
For more comparisons, click on this “Tale of the Tape” post from a year and a half ago.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
4 comments
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January 15, 2017 at 2:06 pm
David Howard
Mr. Van Dorp, I have a question. My late father was a long time employee of Mc Allister Bros. I have always wanted to get a ride on a tug. Do you have any idea who I may contact to do this?
Thank you.
Keep up the great work.
Dave Howard
On Sun, Jan 15, 2017 at 12:01 PM, tugster: a waterblog wrote:
> tugster posted: “One of the joys about living in the sixth boro is > size and dynamism. There are three bridges in this photo below that will > not be the same if I take this shot again in three or four years; this is > my first notice of the stays already in place at the new” >
January 15, 2017 at 6:12 pm
Les Sonnenmark
There is a fourth bridge that may not be same in a few years. If Congress guts the Jones Act (in spite of the nominated transportation secretary’s promises to defend it) then you may see foreign seamen on the bridge of Overseas Long Beach, a product tanker built in 2007 specifically for the Jones Act trade.
January 15, 2017 at 9:27 pm
tugster
You raise a valid question, Les. Thx. Where are the laws going with this one?
January 16, 2017 at 4:03 am
Anonymous
Excellent job on this edition, Will!