Any guesses on the ID of the building with the massive curve? Answer at the end of the post.
A lot of Offshore Supply Vessels (OSVs) anchored off Amador. By appearance, I’d wager a vessel like D. Oceano once worked in the Gulf of Mexico. OSVs “sold foreign” can likely be found in numbers in places elsewhere in the Caribbean and Gulf of Guinea. How about the Caspian?
These have the same basic design. Of these, all I can identify is the 1982 Diamond Sea, whose previous names were Coastal Moon and Geri Tide. Their purpose is likely to transport large floating fenders.
Big Dolphin provides confirmation of the design/build: this site says she comes from Thoma-Sea in Lockport LA in 1982, although it’s my sense that Thoma-Sea didn’t exist yet at that time. Her previous names are Patricia Bruce, Grady Allen, Maple River, Viveros V, and Great Darien.
It’s Panama Responder I (1954?) in the middle and –the blue North Sea trawler conversion to the right–Gamboa Express.
Above to the left and below . . . I don’t know. Might she be used to collect slops? Notice Gamboa Express to the right. I could do a post on her.
Meyers Gustav here is way at the limits of my zoom. Built 1963 in Port Arthur TX, she has previously sailed under the names Lafayette, Beverly B, and Galapagos.
Bocas Mariner (1981 and ex-Rebel Brio and Gulf Fleet No. 303) and Burica Mariner (1982 and ex-Arcemont Tide) also have that US Gulf look.
Orion XX, with Algab in the background, appears to be an oil pollution vessel now, but her life began as YOG-77 built in Bremerton WA in 1945. Since then, she’s also been Bob’s Boat and Northern Orion. She was once a twin of a vessel that ended up in the “Graves of Arthur Kill.” See other YOGs here.
Victory is definitely NOT an OSV, but she was anchored near us.
Schlep is all I can identify here, and I include her here because of the Yokohamas alongside.
The photo below I took in early December 2014, Intl Defender near LaRose, LA, along the Lafourche. So besides Panama, where has the excess OSV capacity gone off to, particularly after the Gulf oil slowdown? Here’s a post I did back then.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
And that curved building . . . who is it associated with? Answer here.
Finally, I have a request: Show me your seat. What I mean is this: I’d like to do a post on captain’s and/or pilot’s chairs. I’m looking for the luxurious all the way to decrepit or basic. Email me a photo of the chair and identify the vessel. I appreciate it.
tugster: a waterblog 
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March 21, 2018 at 10:43 am
William Lafferty
I’m pretty certain the Victory is the former Bona 1 and earlier Pacifica 1 that served as a bunkering tanker at Veracruz for years. It was built by Blount in 1978 for the Marine Fueling Division of the Reiss Oil Terminal Corporation as Reiss Marine, and arrived at Superior, Wisconsin, in June 1978 to begin bunkering duties there. It was sold off the lakes in 2000. AIS lists its name as “Tram Victory” and it previously sat at Lima, Peru, for the last few years.
March 21, 2018 at 5:43 pm
tugster
William– Thx much for that. She does have the lines of Scotty Sky (1960) and Patrick Sky (1966), also Blount tankers.
March 22, 2018 at 10:43 am
William Lafferty
And also built for the lakes as the L. G. LaDuca and L. G. LaDuca II and used at Buffalo and Cleveland, respectively.
March 22, 2018 at 5:39 pm
George Schneider
What a great bunch of images! Now I want to pack the wagon and gallivant on down there.
The mysteries abound. Equasis shows the tanker BONA 1 and her IMO number as no longer in service. Just in case that proves true, I do see that SCOTTY SKY was sold to Cameroon owners in 2015 and she’s now under Panama flag. PATRICK SKY has also dropped from U. S. documentation recently, and so far I can’t find an explanation.
Your first shot, D OCEANO, I located through a surprise connection on the internet. She’s still being called by her earlier name, HUDSON RIVER (7417329), but she shows on AIS with the newer name. She was previously U. S. flag, originally ALINE MARTIN (ON 565218) before becoming MR KENT and then HUDSON RIVER. She was built in 1975 by Halter Marine at their Lockport LA yard.
Unless you saw fenders on DIAMOND SEA, I wouldn’t say her design necessarily indicates she does that work. The moving of fenders is mostly for lightering supertankers into smaller tankers that fit into port. Ex-oilfield supply boats are good to modify for that, but I imagine there’s significantly more opportunity in the cargo business, either doing short hauls to small ports or lightering cargo to ships at anchor.
You’re right about Thoma-Sea not being in business when BIG DOLPHIN was built. Many databases keep the link to the yard when the yard changes names or is sold, so when you pull up the data, it shows the present name for the yard. The old Halter Marine and its various sister companies over the years have nothing to do with the Thoma-Sea yard now. The only connection is that it stands on the same property.
PANAMA RESPONDER I is a fascinating one, only because Lloyd’s has been fooled about her identity. Your photo clearly shows the original name, CAVALIER, on her hull. Somebody looked for a vessel about that size named CAVALIER, found the only one that recently went off the radar, and decided that was she, an Equity tug from the 1950’s. I’m guessing this was a very different CAVALIER, an oilfield utility boat built in 1983. I have a photo of her from the 1990’s, but at the bottom of your narrative, you show INT’L DEFENDER of that class. In fact, CAVALIER was last operated under the name INT’L CAVALIER. The reason she didn’t show up among the candidates is that she is less than 100 gross tons, so doesn’t automatically get assigned an IMO number. I’ve notified Lloyds through Equasis, and I expect she’ll soon be assigned one and that name will be disconnected from the 1954 tug.
I’d sure like to find out more about your slops boat. The closest I can come to her name, based on your photo, is BIRDIE, and I can’t like that to anything. She’s clearly a supply boat by origins, and the tall stack indicates she once also had a deckhouse over her cargo deck, so possibly a seismic vessel or fish processor. I’d like to say she’s also U.S. built, but there’s just certain things about the curves in her metalwork that might make her foreign-built.
MEYERS GUSTAV, similarly, is back to cargo work after being converted to a fishing boat. The new bridge and heightened bulwark sections are from that interim conversion.
Great shot of BOCAS and BURICA. The shot of them nested exhibits the two main profiles of oilfield supply boats. BURICA shows the earlier “mud boat” design, which was simple and plenty satisfactory for handling cargo. When the boats began doubling at tugs for handling the moorings for offshore rigs, they had to make some undesirable decisions about getting the stacks out of the way of lines under hundreds of thousand pounds of tension, and the stack-forward design developed for the multi-purpose boats, and now is more common even for straight supply boats. It was awfully nice of them to then pull apart and let you get clear shots of each.
The most fascinating shot, in my opinion, is the ORION XX. It’s wonderful to see those old vessels getting still another lease on life. Thank you for making the effort to share your adventures with us, Will.