Old Year 2017

The reference here is this post from the last day of 2011.  So the other day I found myself standing in front of the self-proclaimed “tree of knowledge,”  a place that also demanded that there be no smoke.  Tree of KNOWLEDGE!!!  Holy smokes!

It was a cemetery of sorts, a mass grave where over 4000 formerly-smoking steel machines were congregated…

Here’s a photo of more of the tree of knowledge . . . with, I suppose, fruits of wisdom, on some of its branches.

The truly rare are here, fodder for truckster posts to come. Can you identify this and the date of the Studebaker above?

I always go for the low-hanging fruit.

It’s so easy to anthropomorphize vehicles of this era.  As a kid, I saw these machines’ emotions.

By the way, the grove where I took these photos is in NW Georgia, and I’ve posted photos from there once before, but that time I had not noticed the tree of knowledge.

Evidence that this is automobile holy ground?  No shoes.

I had to read this one few times before I got it.

The final trip for this one.

My guesses:  1948 Studebaker,  1938 Mack Jr. delivery van, 1955 H-series International, 1969 GMC P-series Value Van, and 1960 VW Type 2 van.

I’ve got many more from this most recent pilgrimage to the grove.  Let me know if you’re interested in another take in 2018.

Meanwhile, be good decisions and make safe.  I hope I can stay with this program through the next year.  Out with the old . . . out into the honesty of daylight, that is.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, some of whose previous “old car city” photos can be found in these posts. And a short cut to “old boat bay” photos can be found here.

 

Random Tugs 218

For the last batch of tugboats for 2017, check out these workhorses of the harbor, run and maintained by devoted crews and owners . . . to whom this post is dedicated.  It’s a random sample for the sixth boro.

Rhea I. Bouchard,

 

Genesis Glory with

GM11105,

 

Eric R. Thornton passing the

monumental former supports of the bridge,

and Bouchard Boys.

 

To all those folks working this frosty day and to all my readers and commenters . . .  happy, safe, peaceful, and prosperous 2018.  All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Names 34

Given the number of posts I’ve done on names, you’re right to assume they fascinate me.  Of course, the names are just placeholders, but much preferable these names to numbers.   This recent salt ship, for example, could be called Ever Lion . . . if Evergreen had chosen to use animals rather than qualities for their “L” class.  I suppose “ever lion” might be misunderstood for “ever lying,” not a great name for several reasons. Ocean Lion used to be called Ocean Lyra, in fact.

I was planning to do a whole series of these Evergreen ships, but I missed Ever Liberal, Ever Legend, and a few other ones that recently called in the sixth boro.

Leader surprised me . . . the hull was black . . . but maybe that was a primer coating.

Global Andes . . . an intriguing name.

Genco Warrior . .  another one of their ships is called Knight . . .

Grouse Arrow seems to assume the opposite perspective, not predator but prey or rather projectile to render a being prey.

Tugela is a river in South Africa. That fleet uses place names all starting with T.

Obsidian . . . well, a mineral name seems appropriate for a mineral carrier.

The best name I’ve seen this fall is El Babe.  I’d pronounce it as one syllable, even though it’s probably intended as two.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who accepts the fact that it’s okay to miss a lot of traffic.

But here’s one more from Alaska, New General, thanks to Bob Heselberg. She’s in Skagway Alaska, loading ore for Asia.  Taken Dec 02 2017.  Thanks, Bob.

 

Maroon Tug Fleet 7

. . . in this case, Moran ship-assist tugs in the sixth boro.

Jonathan C leaves the waving lady to port,

James D waits with Brooklyn to port,

Margaret waits over closer to Red Hook,

Miriam treads water over along Bay Ridge,

JRT prepares to head dockside,

Kirby goes to the next job

Jonathan C and Kirby heading out to meet a ship,

Jonathan C prepared to exert counterforce,

And we’ll end with Margaret and James D following a box boat into the Kills.  All this you can see repeatedly every day of the year in the sixth boro.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wishes you all a happy, safe, healthy, and thriving 2018.

 

Port of Venezia 2

Low bridge, lower air draft, refrigeration box on the cargo area, hand cart loaded with boxes . . . that’s how your food and drink must be delivered in Venice. Notice in white letters forward on the reefer box . . . “order and delivery” in Italian.

Here are two more such cold delivery boats.

As to the green groceries . . . you pick what you want from the shelves of this boat.  Bumboats they’d be in some places.  Parlevinkers in other places.  I’m not sure what they call the boats at floating markets on the Mekong, or what the Italian word for these is . . . .

 

Then there are the water buses and taxis.

 

And if I’m not mistaken, this is the dock that provides transport between the Marco Polo Airport and  town.  Note the luggage.  Also, note the location of the radar.

 

And where there’s people, law enforcement is needed as well. The photo below comes thanks to Tommy Bryceland.

All other photos come thanks to Jonathan Steinman.

And I truly need to plan a trip to Venice, along with lots of other places.

From “Jacht” to Yacht

You’ve seen Onrust on this blog many times even before she floated.  Click on the link that follows for the time she flew through then air  in transition to taking the waters for the first time. “Jacht“, the term, originates from the Dutch word for hunt.  The “j” in jacht is pronounced like the English “y” and the “ch” sounds like you’re rudely scrapping your throat.   You maybe know this if you’re a fan of Jägermeister, translates as master of the hunt, or something like that.

Here’s a yacht I saw this summer, Trumpy design, Trumpy being an American naval architect born in Bergen, Norway.

For more info on Trumpy and Mathis, click here.

For more info on Freedom and other yachts including Enticer, click here. I’ve seen Enticer in places as diverse as Kingston NY, Buffalo, and Mackinac Island; however, it appears I’ve yet to do a post on her.

Here Freedom is made fast at Chelsea Piers.

And Onrust, she was a sight to see the other night almost appearing to float through the night air.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has previously posted about yachts here.

Merry Christmas 2017

Well, the season is wrong and the implement over the right shoulder belies merriment, but the hat and beard are almost right . . .

The colors here are festive, but  . . . it’s not right.

Floating here in a TowBoatU.S. water sled “pushed” by 150 horses past Boldt Castle . . . or if you choose to believe that’s what the North Pole looks like, or

 

here, near a navaid in the 1000 Islands . . . yes, these last two are much better.  Santa transport, another service of Seaway Marine Group.

Merry Christmas to all my faithful readers and commenters . . .  Now you can leave the internet and enjoy the day with whomever you choose to.  Or, you can check out all these tugster Christmas posts from past years.

Top two photos by Will Van Dorp, and last two from Jake Van Reenen.

Who knows what an imaginary guy looks like anyhow?  Here’s a mid-19th century view. The Dutch descendants upriver celebrate him this way, from a 2013 tugster post.  Or, is this Santa person really based on a folktale from the Sami in Lapland?

Icing on the Niagara

New York Power Authority, the parent organization to the Erie Canal, pays close attention to the temperature of Lake Erie.  The magic number is 39 degrees in the fall.  Why?

When that happens, Breaker and

other equipment such as Havasu II and Daniel Joncaire

start moving those rust-brown, sausage-looking objects on the bank.

Here’s a better look at those objects, floats I’ll call them.

I believe at least one new tug is now being used, although it was docked elsewhere and a photo follows.

Here you see more of the floats beyond Washington and Vermont,  launched in 1925 and 1914 respectively.

This aerial photo by Derek Gee for the Buffalo News shows those structures as an abstract pattern in summer bank storage, waiting for the temperature of the water to drop to 39.  To get the complete source and read the story, click on the photo itself.

Credit for the photo above to Derek Gee;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Click here and  here to see installation of the ice boom on the upper Niagara River.

Above and below, this is Daniel Joncaire II, the newest NYPA tug, I believe.

And where does the Joncaire name come from?  Check here.

 

 

Boxes on Ships

This is the time of year when boxes are moving every which way on land.  Delivery drivers for companies like FedEx and UPS work even longer hours on dark streets, especially here in the north.  Click here for a graph of global container ship capacity in seaborne trade since 1980.  How many containers exist worldwide?  Answer follows.

Box ships move containers around the world all year round.  Astrid Schulte departed the sixth boro a week ago and has moved through a handful of US ports since then, approaching Savannah now.  Assisting her around the bend at Bergen Point are (r to l) Ellen McAllister, Marjorie B. McAllister, and Charles D. McAllister.

 

I haven’t found the resource with info on air draft, so I don’t know if this vessel (ex-APL Illinois) would have fit beneath the old roadbed.

 

 

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

And the answer to the question in paragraph one is . . . . there is no answer.  See more here.

Nor is there an answer on airdraft, since it is a range based on loading.

Something Different 31

So what is different?  Look carefully.

It is underway.

 

 

If you said she’s under way and moving astern, you were right.

Training, I suppose, from near Port Elizabeth . . . all the way back–literally back–to the yard.