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Sorry about the washout colors below; what happened was the dawn light was intermittently too bright or dull, as winds washed clouds across the sky.
Nevertheless, I headed out because I saw a Spliethoff vessel in the offing, heading into the sixth boro. Painted a unique copper brown, Spliethoff vessels all have names ending in -gracht, or “canal” in Dutch. Saimaa is a lake in Finland. since they carry unique cargoes, I wondered what Saimaagracht would be carrying. I’ll direct your eyes, but won’t tell you until the end of this post. Some of you maybe have guessed from the photo below.
Vertical beams connected to high-up horizontal one, cabins, and wheels.
Closeup of cabins on 182 and 170. Ladders and landing.
Some of them are differently loaded, cabins positioned on the starboard side of the vessel.
Side view of Saimaagracht, showing escort Moran 6000 and all the machines. Who knows what’s in tweendecks–if anything–and holds.
Slightly different angle of cabins, and
cabins in their full context.
Just guessing here, these machines are 25′ to 30′ high, with a spread of just under 9′ or 10′. That actually a clue.
See the scudding clouds. I’m now curious about something else . . . the structure on the starboard side of the superstructure and connected by horizontal ducting. I didn’t zoom in on that in the moment.
My verdict is . . . they are a set of new Boxrunner straddle carriers, aka straddlers, by Kone Crane. The ship was arriving from Finland, so the manufacturing may have been done there. A next generation will be automated, just like self-driving cars, trucks, tractors, and ships.
And my conjecture is that starboard side stern structure is part of a sulphur oxide (Sox) scrubber plant.
All photos yesterday by Will Van Dorp. For previous photos of –gracht vessels, click here. I was unable to find a photo of Spliethoff vessel from the 1920s, when they began, but here I learned BigLift–with their Happy vessels– is one of their subsidiaries. Spliethoff was involved in a pilot container project between Europe and Cleveland a few years ago.
Unrelated: read this and listen to the audio . . . NY Media Boat takes journalists to the islands off the VZ Bridge.
Here are previous installments in this series.
You might look at this top photo and ask yourself where are the people, and is this really about the sixth boro?
They’re there, and to me bridges like this are hybrid creatures, attached to land but in air over water.
I’d been here for at least half an hour before I noticed the bridge workers.
Then I noticed how crowded the wires were,
all strapped in and employing some ingenious conveyances.
I don’t think this is a windy or cold weather job, but I don’t know.
I believe I’d have a hard time working here, since I’d be looking around too much. Has anyone been to the observation deck on the bridge in Bucksport ME?
If so, I’d love to hear about it. Meanwhile, here’s what Gay Talese had to say about the VZ Bridge back in 1964: ““The anonymous hard-hatted men who put the bridge together, who took risks and sometimes fell to their deaths in the sky, over the sea—they did it in such a way that it would last.”
Meanwhile I use the bridge both for passage to the other side and for framing photos like this of Meishan Bridge departing or
or Elsbeth III arriving.
All photos in October by Will Van Dorp, who tips his toque for the work these folks do.
I’m rushing December, but I’m eager to get through winter and back to spring. All photos here date from December 2008.
Bowsprite took this from one of her cliff niches: June K (2003) here is moving the Floating Hospital (1974, Blount) up to the Rondout, where she remains. Is she really now called Industria at Sea.
The geography is unchanged, but McAllister Responder (1967) is no longer in the sixth boro, and Sea Venture (1972) is dead and likely scrapped . . . .
Maryland (1962) has become Liz Vinik, after operating with Maryland in the name for more than a handful of companies.
Choptank (2006) is back in the sixth boro and environs. My autocorrect always wants to call this tug Shoptalk. Puzzling. NYK Daedalus (2007) is still at work, just not here. TEN Andromeda is still on the oceans as well, still transporting crude.
Now called Charly and working the Gulf of Guinea, Janice Ann Reinauer (1967) used to be a personal icon in the sixth boro. Note that 1 World Trade does not appear in this photo, as it would today.
Closing this out . . . Margaret Moran (1979 and the 4th boat by that name) passes APL Jade (1995 and likely scrapped by now) in the KVK.
I’m hoping you’re enjoying this glances back a decade as much as I am.
With the exception of the first photo, all these by Will Van Dorp, who alone is responsible for research errors.
Unrelated: Win a trip on a Great Lakes freighter/laker here.
This photo comes from the Chantier Davie Canada, aka Davie Shipyard, across from Quebec City, taken in the first half of this month. Two Ocean tugs assist a repurposed AHTS/Supply Ship Viking Vidar into the Davie’s docks to complete the transformation from private to public. Click on the link in the previous sentence to see her in her Arctic colors. I wrote the names of the two Ocean tugs somewhere, but . . . Maybe someone can help.
For a time, she flew the Russian flag and was home-ported in Kholmsk on Sakhalin Island. I sometimes call posts like these “second lives” stories.
She’s been renamed CCG Molly Kool, her namesake being a Canadian-born US sea captain. For posts with Canadian Coast Guard vessels, click here.
In other news, if you don’t see Ocean Taiga in Quebec City these days, here’s a development from last summer that I missed. This also explains why Ocean Delta now flies the Jamaican flag.
And just for the record, as of 1030 this morning, I’ve received about 30 emails, over 20 of which have the words “cyber” and “giving” in them. Enough!
Prescript: As if the “black friday” term were not already overused, now everywhere I look online pops up a cyber reference. If you didn’t see enough there, here are more. If I’d have to pick my favorite cyber, it would be Cyber, the Marvel universe character, a villain, I might add. And who knows, there may be Marvel characters, like aquaMorlocks inhabiting the sixth boro.
NAFTA? MSC Paola‘s trade route seems to be ports between and including Montreal, Canada, and Altamira, Mexico. So NAFTA could expand to “north americans floating and trading along the Atlantic” if we want.
I caught MSC Paola coming under the Bayonne Bridge almost two weeks ago with
assistance from Margaret Moran and
Kirby Moran.
Since then she’s departed NYC, traveled up to Montreal and departed there for St. John.
Happy cyber blog reading, and I recognize the tautology there. All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp.
Remember “badger badger badger“? If I did animation, I’d do a “cyber cyber cyber” . . . .
Unrelated but incorporating another overused word: fake. fake history: the July 13, 1977 UFO abduction of a tugboat crew!
Pacific Reliance (9280 hp) transfers cargo before heading to Texas . . .
with the 155,000 bbl barge 650-1.
B. Franklin Reinauer (4000 hp) passes by
with RTC 82 (80,000 bbl, if I read that right)
and Austin (3900 hp) eastbound here light.
Dean Reinauer (4720 hp) moves westbound under the Bayonne Bridge.
Foxy 3 (1600 hp) and Brooklyn (2400 hp) wait at the dock west of Caddell Drydock. Foxy was previously Barker Boys, and this Brooklyn, Labrador Sea.
Brooklyn on her way to a job.
Delta Fox (1200 hp) and Morton S. Bouchard IV (6140 hp) tied up here just east of Foxy 3 and Brooklyn.
Morton S. Bouchard IV makes up the next three photos here: in front of a Saint Lawrence like eglise
against the Brooklyn skyline, and
and still more in front of T-AKR-306 USNS Benavidez.
And let’s finish up with Patrica (1200 hp) and Robert (1800 hp).
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who alone is responsible for any errors in info here.
Elsbeth III appeared in the Lower Bay on AIS Thanksgiving Day morning, and no matter the temperatures, I headed out to the surest intercept for photos.
It turns out she’s not the boat I’d seen here over two years ago, delivering 20 barges all at once . . . but the fleet sisters surely look alike, until
you start looking at dimensions another numbers. III is 20′ shorter, and 4′ narrower than II. Both II and III are triple screw, although the engines differ.
Read all about II here and III here. I saw another fleet mate, non-Latham-Smith-built in the Pacific last spring here.
She passed the Sandy Hook Pilots station on her way in, from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, I believe. As of this morning, III is over by the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I don’t know if she’s being dry-docked or just picking something up.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s previously posted exotics here.
For some Smith Maritime projects, click here. For more on the company, click here.
And by looking around the Smith Maritime site, I just learned whatever became of a sixth boro and Hudson River regular once known as Norwegian Sea. She’s now Miss Rui.
From a distance, all these might appear black. But closer up . . .
a lot more detail
crowds out
the color.
Textures,
labels,
abrasions,
assemblages and imprints . . .
and lights, I just am tired of hearing about black Friday.
How about black Tuesday, Thursday, hole, magic, tie, gold, list, box, market . . . . the list goes on and on.
Let’s retire the notion and activities of black Friday.
Sentiments and photos by Will Van Dorp, who can be quite stubborn and will stay out of the marketplace real or virtual today just on principle.
It’s been six years already since the blue Friday series that started the day after Thanksgiving here.
Whether you’re already on Happy River
or just bearing down on (into) it,
literally
or
just
figuratively,
we all have things to be happy, to be thankful, about. Hope you feel them, and help others feel theirs.
Happy thanksgiving from the tugster blog. And thanks for continuing to read the blog, comment, and even send photos.
Oh, those immersion suit dives were a drill, into warm fresh water. Know the town?
Kirby Moran and James D Moran wait, like a team of horses, actually a team of 12,000 horses.
Here’s a different perspective on Kirby as she returns from a job.
CMT Otter and a salt barge lies alongside Nord Summit while along the other side, the venerable Twin Tube reprovisions from stern starboard.
Atlantic Salvor (or Enterprise??) . . . I’ll never catch up as she heads for one of the many skylines of Brooklyn. By the way, has anyone caught a photo of Hunter D in the sixth boro?
With Shooters Island and beyond that the cranes of Howland Hook in the background, it’s Discovery Coast, these days somewhat rare in the sixth boro.
Mister Jim is looking sharp these days, much better than her earlier livery.
Kodi is quite far away here, but she is a mere 42.6 footer.
Bering Dawn . . . she’s been on the East Coast some time now,
but all told, she’s spent more time on the West Coast.
The elusive Thomas stopped by the salt pile the other morning to retrieve a crane.
Margaret Moran . . . as always assisting ships into and out of the sixth boro. More Margaret soon.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
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