Really random means just that . . . so that’s start with this one, Tutahaco, YTM-524, which has recently been hauled out of the water  between Daytona and St Augustine.   Michael Schmidt took these photos back last winter.

She worked for a time in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The next two photos come from Allan and Sally Seymour, whose twotugstravelin’ blog was mentioned in yesterday’s post.  Kathleen Turecamo (1968) is a staple these days in the Port of Albany.

A bit farther north on the Hudson in Troy is the footprint of NYS Marine Highway Transportation Company.  Pictured here from r to l are Margot, Benjamin Elliot, and Betty D; built in 1958, 1960, and 1980, respectively.

The next photo is from Kyle Stubbs, who writes “the original JOVI is still around. The simple answer is yes, and she’s quite a ways from the Sixth Boro, now taking up residence in San Diego in the service of Pacific Tugboat Service as the JAG. I’ve attached an image of her I took this past September.”  Kyle sent the photo along in response to a question about Lil Rip I’d posted here some years back.

George Schneider picks up the Lil Rip‘s origins question here and sends along his own photo of Jag, to wit ”

I was very suspicious of the story she was made from part of a Liberty Ship, since hacking up something like that just to make a push boat didn’t make sense.  But somewhere along the lines, I realized the LIL RIP was registered at 54 feet long.  I found a Liberty Ship was 57 feet wide, so that’s perfect, considering they had to cut away some of the “stern” for the propellers, so the registered length would be a few feet shorter than overall.

That gave me a reason to believe the reputed origins of the boat were true.  It makes even more sense, because if you realize the scrap yards generally had no drydocks or slipways, they’d cut a ship like that down to the tank tops while it was afloat, then somehow had to dispose of the double bottoms.  Sometimes they just took them out and sank them since it took so much extra effort to clean and cut them up.  But in New Jersey, whose coastline is inland, they probably had to cut them apart and lift them ashore, and voile!  What a perfect hull to build a pushboat on!

So I’m wondering if anybody has added more to the comments on that day’s page.  If anybody has ever seen her “on the hard,” they might have measured her across the deck, and if that measures a perfect 57 feet in length, I’d say that’s pretty close to proof.  I looked up the liberty ships sold for scrap 1961-64, and none were scrapped in Elizabeth NJ, nor were any scrapped by her owner.

But several deceptive things are at play here:  1)  A ship sold for scrap was not legally reused for anything, so the title to something made out of the pieces couldn’t reflect the original vessel.   2)  If the ship wasn’t sold for scrap, was “Sold for Non-Transportation Use’ which was also sometimes authorized, she might not have been included in the list of vessels scrapped, and 3)  Vessels were often bought by distant companies, then found the vessel couldn’t practically be towed to their scrapyard, were sold or contracted to other companies for scrapping.

As for the question of the original JOVI (283905), she kept her name long after the JOVI II, working for various East Coast companies, but then made her way out here to San Diego, where she now works.  She has worked as TUG JAG, then KODAK, and now simply JAG.  I’ve attached, unfortunately, the best and only digital photo I’ve taken of her.  You can reproduce this any way you’d like.”

Now I’m wondering about Logan and Mate.  Logan shows in the NOAA registry as built in 1974 and formerly called Kodak, Jag, and Guppy.   Mate doesn’t show.

Sarah D (1975) worked for White Stack, Turecamo, and Moran (each bought out the previous company) before coming to NYS Marine Highway.

And finally, once again out and about in the sixth boro, it’s W. O. Decker, the 1930 wood-hulled tugboat of South Street Seaport Museum.

Click here for some of the dozens of posts I’ve included Decker in.

The last three photos are by Will Van Dorp;  thanks to Michael, Allan, Sally,  Kyle, and George for the other photos.