Oh! Oleander!

Oleander has been a regular in the sixth boro since 1990.  It’s so regular that I’d not take photos of it, much of the time;  it’s as regular as Staten Island ferries departing on the top and bottom of the hour, as regular as crocuses in spring or NYC Marathons in early November.

Technically, it’s Oleander III, and I’ve been unable to find images of the first two boats by that name, ones that shuttled between Bermuda (BCL expands to Bermuda Container Lines) and Elizabeth NJ.

I took the photo above and the one below on December 16, 2017, feeling sorry for the crewman on that cold day checking and securing the load straps on that trailer.  The photo also shows the limitations of the Oleander III.

On January 02, 2018, I took this photo because of the saltwater ice on the hull.

Yesterday Oleander came through the KVK, and I almost didn’t take photos . . . because it was a Thursday and there would be nothing out of the ordinary about Oleander coming through the KVK.

Except I thought she looked different.  I wondered if my general indifference to something that regular had led me to forget what this the actual vessel looked like.  When I got home, though, I thought I’d look up my earlier photos of the BCL vessel.

Then I realized it was clearly NOT the regular. It’s Oleander IV, technically, and yesterday MAY have been her inaugural visit to the sixth boro.  With a check in the accuracy department of tugster tower, I learned the new vessel only first arrived in Hamilton, Bermuda on March 19, 2019, from Yangzijiang Shipyard in Jingjiang up the Yangtze River from Shanghai, China.   Click on the image below to see the differences in profile as the “old” and “new” pass in Hamilton.  The most significant visible change is an increase in size and “garage space” so that the exposure of cargo as seen in photo #2 above is no longer needed.

 

For a tugster shot of Oleander in 2009, click here.  For more news from Bermuda on Oleander, click here.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who learned a lesson about looking but not seeing yesterday.