Go West Again

Here’s a quick post to alert you that several days may go by without word or photo from tugster.  I’m repeating a trip I made last year from Warren RI to Chicago IL via the Erie Canal and other great American and Canadian waterways. If you missed it, you might check out last year’s posts here.

I’m onboard lecturer working a small passenger ship.  Despite my lightweight MMD, I am indeed gainfully employed, paid not to stand watch, throw line, read a chart, wipe spilled oil, bust rust, or maneuver the vessel.  I puff on no cutty pipe and chew or spit no quid.   I swab no decks, make no beds, brush no heads, shut no sheet, serve no drinks but to myself, “sir” no sirs, peel no spuds.  I leave others to juggle flower pots, pluck strings, and tickle ivories–although I play crazy air-concertina.  I could go on.  However, I do racont, if that be the verb exercised by a raconteur.  I indulge no ideology except that of the gallivant.

But in 2017, tall tales might be considered gauche, aka fake news, a phrase that goes back to the 1890s, although I’d suggest that Eve herself was an occasional purveyor of compromised truths, in conjunction with Adam’s dispersal of same.  So the racontage I disperse needs to be both researched and enthralling . . . a tough combo.

The article below truly comes from the April 27, 1921 New York Herald, and if I applied for the “perfect job” advertised there for the SS George Washington, I’d not be hired.  If you are in the need of a belly laugh,  rolling on and then off the deck guffaw, read the article in your best raconteur voice to your supervisor.   Or have a subordinate perform it to you, aloud or over the intercom.

Thanks to a Sandy Hook  pilot who shared it with me the other day.

I’ll catch up this account through the waterways to Chicago whenever adequate wifi enters my environment.

 

Random Ships 56

The top photo here comes from Brian Thigpen.  Last Monday, the first 13000 teu container ship–OOCL Berlin— entered port, and I missed it.  Bravo to Brian for photographing it.  I suspect soon the 14000 teu and then subsequent records will be set. Escort visible here is Eric McAllister, I think.

With larger ships, escort procedures seem to be changing also, like tugs coming in sets of three and meeting the vessel outside the VZ Bridge.  Just a few years ago, nothing of the the size of Northern Justice–8400 teu–was calling here.

 

I really should get more photos of the ships passing through the sixth boro and heading anywhere from Yonkers to Albany.  Here’s Western Aida along the cliffs of the UWS, 

leaving the Palisades to port once under the GW.

Here’s Spottail westbound on the KVK, assisted by Ellen McAllister and  Bruce A. McAllister,  and soon to pass

Stolt Pride, 2016, showing a new look for Stolt.

Thanks again to Brian Thigpen for use of his photo.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Combi Dock III & Peking Saga 5

or . . . the final installment from the west side of the Atlantic .  .  .  and I’ll use (what I imagine as) NASA times here, but I’ll modify it from “t-minus” to “U–as in underway” minus and plus.

So, at U minus 53 minutes, there’s a man-basket dangling off the portside.

U minus 48 . . .  a crew boat arrives with the pilot.

U minus 37 . . .

the pilot boards Combi-Dock III,

U minus 9, the crew boat, Nicholas Miller,  departs  . . ., likely off to deliver three technicians departing Combi-Dock III.

Judging from when I first detected “under way – making way” from my vantage point, 1616, the photo below is U plus 11 minutes.  Movement at first was barely perceptible, gauged by watching juxtaposition of Peking masts and background features.

U plus 13.

U plus 14.  The traffic in the background will welcome me when I leave my station . . .  A note on the flags here:   the red one (below) is Hamburg’s flag, and the one high in the mast of Peking (next photo below) is that of Stiftung Hamburg Maritim (SHM).

And finally–I shifted my station about a mile to Camp Gateway, Staten Island . . .U plus 21.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 204

I’m guessing Eric R Thornton is off in search of some scrap waiting in

the Bronx maybe?

It’s been a long while since I’ve seen Penn No. 6, and here she and Normandy are made up to Penn No. 121.  See those four shore cranes against the sky?  Here’s a post I did on them almost a decade ago.

 

Here’s B. No. 250 eastbound for the Sound, with

Evening Star in the notch.

Some people would be pleased with this juxtaposition: MTA’s Highbridge Yard, with Harbor II, MetroNorth, and the 44th Precinct Police Station!

Barbara Ann holds station at the University Heights Bridge, with the unmistakeable Hall of Fame for Great Americans dome over the treeline.  That’s a place I’ve yet to visit, one of many places in the five boros.

Ditto . . . Ireland on the north side of that bridge.

 

And to conclude for another day . . . it’s Penn No. 91 with

Skipjack in the notch.

Oops!  All photos by Will Van Dorp . . . from aboard Manhattan II.

Yachts a Million 2

Name this vessel?  Right there is the name.  Answer at end of the post.

I’d love to see the interior, as it might be as stark as the lines.

This is severe, almost military, but I like it.

This to is excess with an excessive name . . . Vibrant Curiosity, which

happens to be the slogan of the owner’s company.  Here are the particulars of the vessel built in Alblasserdam as was this vessel seen in this blog before completion.

All these photos I took on Sunday a high summer day for large yachts.  What might you call this one?

Podium.  What?  Yup that’s the name.  In spite of the too-analytical name, the manufacturer–Lürssen–has a long and interesting history.    And if I had the means and the need for a Lurssen I’d go for the spaceman’s boat here.

Over in the Hudson, I spotted this yacht with the “name” on the bow as an abbreviation for

Cantina,  built in Brazil.

And the name of the top boat here is “water,”  a quite good name for anything that floats.  Check out the kanji here.  Japanese is pronounced as “mizu,” and I’m not sure how Mandarin would be pronounced. Here’s an article with info on a feature I missed . . . a feature I’ve seen on ships in the harbor, since crews of no matter what vessel need exercise on the water.

All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp, who’s posted on similar yachts here and (more modestly) here.

OK, one more, a photo I took in October 2008, an expedition trawler over in Long Island City and said to have belonged to Björk Guðmundsdóttir.  I wonder if she still owns it.

 

 

 

Other Peoples Photos 61

You saw Lauren Foss in yesterday’s post here.  Here’s a followup, from sixth boro interiors I don’t get to much.  Richie Ryden writes:  “Look who showed up on the Hackensack River in Kearny NJ:   Lauren Foss with the barge American Trader in tow with the new deck for the Wittpenn Bridge. The bridge deck was built in  Vancouver, Washington  shipped through the Panama Canal to NJ.”

If I read the AIS info correctly when I first saw Lauren off Sandy Hook, that voyage took about a month and a week.

 

And thanks to Joseph Chomicz, here’s more of that area, photo taken just upstream of the others.  Joseph writes:  “Lauren Foss was destined for the Hackensack River.  She brought in the lift span of the new Route 7 lift bridge they are building.  Also Donjon is [nearby] in the process of moving coal out of the power plant on the Hackensack River as well.   [I could count] four Donjon tugs in the photo below:  Meagan Anne, Thomas D, Emily Ann, and Sarah Ann.”

From a decade ago, here’s a post I did about the Hackensack River, including a photo of a barge delivering that coal to the plant.  The deliveries used to be made by ExpressMarine equipment. 

Thanks to Richie and Joe for these photos.

For you not familiar with the area, the green line below represents rough approximation of the track Lauren Foss followed in and

the red circle, the location of the Wittpenn Bridge.

For more of the story–on four more bridge section deliveries–click here.

 

 

 

Sixth Boro Summer 4

As I went to one of my locations Thursday, I saw this tow headed up the Upper Bay toward Bayonne, and lamented being too late.  I knew it was one of the new DSNY garbage cranes recently being deployed to new marine transfer stations in Manhattan & SW Brooklyn…

Panning slightly to the right, a group on Miller’s Launch boats were attending Afrodite . . .

Panning more than 90 degrees over past the VZ Bridge, I noticed a crane and some tugs over in the direction of Coney Island . . .

Shortly thereafter, I realized the sanitation cranes were returning . . . outbound, moved by Catherine C. Miller.

The next day, from the same vantage point, I noticed two large tugs in Gravesend Bay, one less familiar than the Moran tug.

The unusual stacks identified it immediately . . . Lauren Foss, which I had not seen since 2014, three and a half years ago here….  By the way, notice the ferris wheel and roller coaster on the skyline of Coney Island?

If you’re new to reading this blog, the high point of summer in the sixth boro shoreside for me is the first day, because it brings the mermaids ashore, a whole series of posts about which you can find here . . .

But back to Lauren Foss, a large oceangoing tug used for large barges.  RORO barge American Trader , 400′ x 105′ qualifies as a large barge, although some of the Crowley container barges are larger as seen here and here.

Click here for the specs on the 8200 hp Lauren Foss.

CCA . . . here’s info on this busy but mostly invisible corporation that dates back to the Reagan era.

Here’s the scoop on McLaren Engineering.

 

The sixth boro is truly the part of NYC that never sleeps.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Combi Dock III & Peking Saga 4

I passed by this afternoon, so here’s a quick post.  Peking seems to have disappeared in this hold.

But for scale, check out this photo I took while she was on a dry dock at Caddell’s  nine and a half years ago.  See the yard worker in a white protective suit lower right?

photo by Will Van Dorp Jan 9, 2008

Even the masts seem diminished by the cranes.

Safe passage!  And with that I pass her off to spotters off the coast of the UK!

Sixth Boro Summer 3

Lest you think Combi-Dock III and Peking–I will get back to them– are the only thing happening in the watery parts of NYC, here’s just a sampling . . . in a series I started last summer.

SBI Macarena –a fairly new bulk carrier– came in past the Brooklynside ramps for the VZ Bridge,

passing Jo Provel on the way out . . .

looking quite large relative to the new NYC ferry.

Tanker New Confidence tested its systems–water and sonic–as Doris Moran arrived.

Where the Wind Blows sails south toward the Narrows, so fast that

I lost track of her, although I admit to being distracted by this squadron passing overhead Elizabeth Anne.

Pioneer–one of South Street Seaport Museum’s schooners–also sailed past and ever went outside

the Narrows, where I’ll pick this up another day.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, waiting for Combi-Dock III action.

 

Combi Dock III & Peking Saga 3

No need for much language here.  I started these photos around 0830.  Despite some rain, conditions were ideal for this loading . . . or engulfing.

Here Dorothy J gently moves the antique barque foot by foot closer to Hamburg.

Combo-Dock III, the engulfer, lies in wait.

Robert IV assists when needed.

Without the zoom, I imagined the gentleman with the yellow helmet to stand by on the helm.

We have 20 meters and closing . . .

 

 

 

With big power on minuscule tolerances, Dorothy J eases her in.

 

 

 

The barque floats gently forward in the hold.

Lines to capstans on the heavy lift ship are doing the work, as the tugs stand by until released from service.

 

 

 

 

 

Peking is now engulfed.  Time is about 1130.  Operations to make fast and secure now begin before they head out into the Atlantic for Germany.

Many thanks to Jonathan Kabak and Jonathan Boulware for the floating platform.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who is thrilled to have seen this today.