Specialized 25

[Specialized] vessels don’t push or tow or transport cargo per se.  They are tools with a variety of applications, as diverse as the tools in a professional mechanic’s chest, in an entire full service garage, in fact.

Ocean Researcher has appeared here before, but not escorted by a tug, as James D. Moran is doing here.  I’m not sure why it was escorted in the other day.

 

She came in after some time crisscrossing the all-but-trackless sea off Atlantic City.

Fugro Enterprise has appeared here before as well.

In this case, she was headed back out to sea,

 

Below is a sample of Fugro Enterprise’ track earlier this week.

And for comparison, Ocean Researcher left the indicated track SE of Atlantic city during the same time period.

Kings Pointer also has appeared here before . . . and she’s a tool with its own purpose . .  training.

Before coming to the USMMA in 2014, this vessel was known as MV Liberty Star, and had a different use . ..  locating and retrieving jettisoned Shuttle external fuel tanks.

Here–above and below– she transits Hell Gate, first westbound and then east.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who never marked Highland Eagle–still in Lake Huron–as a specialized vessel.  Another Great Lakes-dedicated research vessel, with a notable environmental name, was recently put up for sale, as here.  I saw it in Sturgeon Bay over two years ago here.