A few days ago I stumbled into a rabbit hole and enjoyed it down there. I won’t stay in 2008 for too long, but evolution I found in the ship department intrigued me, change change change. It also made concrete the reality of the scrapyards in the less-touristed ocean-margins of the globe. Take Orange Star; she’s scrapped now and another Orange Star delivers our juice. But what a beauty this juice tanker is,
with lines that would look sweet on a yacht. Laura K has been reassigned to another port. This Orange Star was cut up in Alang in October 2010.
Ditto Saudi Tabuk. She went for scrap in November 2013. The tug on her bow is Catherine Turecamo, now operating on the Great Lakes as John Marshall.
Sea Venture was scrapped in January 2011.
Hammurabi sold for scrap in spring 2012. She arrived in Alang as Hummura in the first week of summer 2012.
Some D-class Evergreen vessels have been scrapped, but Ever Diamond is still at work. Comparing the two classes, the Ls are 135′ longer and 46′ wider.
Stena Poseidon is now Canadian flagged as the much-drabber Espada Desgagnes, which I spotted on the St. Lawrence last fall. Donald C, lightening here, became Mediterranean Sea and is currently laid up.
And let’s end this retrospect with a tug, then Hornbeck’s Brooklyn Service and now just plain Brooklyn. She’s been around the block a bit, and I’ll put in a link here if you want a circuitous tour. I caught her in Baltimore last spring in her current livery.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wonders what the waterscape will look like in 2028, if I’m around to see it.
tugster: a waterblog 
5 comments
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April 21, 2018 at 11:40 am
mageb
I have been thoroughly enjoying your entries lately. I am tempted to enquire if you have written about why tugs are sold. Are they under powered for the jobs, or are they worn out? Thanks.
April 21, 2018 at 2:25 pm
tugster
Hi Mage– Others might come up with other reasons for selling a tugboat, but the two you mention are on the list. Also, a company might “close shop” or change focus, necessitating sale of some or all tugs. Tugs are sold abroad because more stringent US rules preclude their use in the US. The USCG is phasing in a new set of rules called subchapter M, which will leave a lot of boats out of compliance (https://www.americanwaterways.com/subchapter-m. Maybe someone else can mention more reasons.
April 21, 2018 at 12:14 pm
Mike
Oh Stena Poseidon, how oft I climbed your nasty, crusty and at the same time slimy jacobs ladder from Millers Launch with port clearances to “Aruba for Orders” when we both knew you weren’t going there.
April 21, 2018 at 2:19 pm
tugster
if not Aruba, then where, Mike? Venezuela?
April 22, 2018 at 7:33 am
Mike
She usually went back to Europe but would occasionally head up to the Canadian Maritimes to reload. Whatever contract she was under at the time had her heading to wherever the cargo was cheapest to buy, so when she cleared NYC her crew didn’t usually know where they were headed.
Of course, you need to have a destination on your USCBP paperwork in order to get their fancy stamp and be cleared to depart, so it was always “Aruba for Orders”.