Random Tugs 300

The year 2007 spawned this series here.  Since you’ve stayed with this blog, I’m celebrating a milestone . . . the 300th post in this series.  Thanks for continued visits to tugster.  To honor this event, I solicited photos from you, particularly photos that’d never previously appeared on this blog.  I threw some of my own unusual ones in to round out the post.  Thanks to all who sent in photos, or thought about it, and added some explanation.  Since the internet allows quick and easy photo exchanges globally, I’m always interested in folks sharing photos of tugboats and other workboats from everywhere.  Vladivostok?  Karachi?  Baku?  Port of Spain?  Paramaribo?  Douala?  Luanda?  Umm Qasr?   I hope you get the idea.

Tim Sansom wrote:  ” taken at Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter in December 2016, showing the tugboat Koraki and the cement barge Marsden Bay.  Koraki, built in 1985, regularly hauls cement barges between Auckland and Whangarei for Golden Bay Cement. The Wynyard Quarter is a redeveloped part of Auckland harbour between the ferry and cruise ship terminal and the marina, and usually has a few fishing boats tied up as well as ferries to the Hauraki Gulf islands, one of which you can see in the background.”

I took this one of Elizabeth Anne at the King’s Point dock in 2015. That’s the Throg’s Neck Bridge in the background.  The 1980 tug was donated to the US Merchant Marine Academy in 2014.

I took this on Oneida Lake NY in November 2016.  My platform was craneship Ward’s Island, now fish and other aquatic life habitat, but then was doing one of its last seasons plucking channel markers from the NYS Canals portion of the Lake. Tug Syracuse, 77′ x 20′ , has worked exclusively in NYS Canals since spring 1934.

William Mitchell took this photo of Donna and Charlie Costa’s Hobo in Wickford RI.

Jan van Sluisweg took this photo of the 1976 Arion, 94′ x 30′, towing City of Dubrovnik and approaching the lock in IJmuiden in 2014.

From Kyle Stubbs:  “Brusco’s Capt Bob Campbell hasn’t appeared and  offers a fun connection to Lindy Marie seen in your post Columbia River Tugs. Both the Lindy Marie (as  Fireball) and Capt Bob Campbell (as  Warrior), were in-house products of the Smith Tug and Barge Company of Rainier, Oregon. Founder Wilbur Smith had been witness to a number of accidents on tugboat decks, and as a result embraced a design philosophy that eliminated blind spots on the deck as seen from the pilothouse. The result was a series of tugs with unique, sloped deckhouses that earned the company the nickname of the “Studebaker Fleet” in reference to that automaker’s distinctive models of the 1950’s.”

The Studebaker fleet . . . I love that.  Kyle took this photo at Grays Harbor on the Washington coast.

From George Schneider:  “Maybe this one is too wee to count, but she’s the tug Elsa.  She was built back in 1955 by the Welding and Shipbuilding Company of Costa Mesa CA as their hull #1, and to my knowledge, the only vessel built there.  Her original owner was Francis P. Jones of the Jones Tug & Barge Company of Long Beach CA.  At the time she was 50 ft in length and rated at 290 HP.  Jones later lengthened her to about 60 ft. (58 ft registered) and HP was increased to 600.   Jones closed shop in the 1980s.  Since then she’s moved bunker barges in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area, and is now owned by Global Marine Transportation Inc. of Los Angeles.”

Another from George, not so wee: “Here’s my next , a Gulf tug.  She was originally built as Abdon Martin by Halter Marine at their New Orleans yard in 1976, and ownership was always listed as Halter Marine Inc, although Andrew Martin Sea Service Inc. appears to be a separate company who operated her.   In 1985 she was sold to the N. J. Guidry & Sons Towing Company, who remained listed as her owner while named Harvey Trojan, showing Harvey Gulf Intl. markings.  When Harvey Gulf decided to concentrate on supply boat activities, they sold her in 2014 to Signet Maritime Corp, and since then she has sailed as their Signet Trojan.”    If my info is correct, she’s 110′ x 34′ and rated at 13,500 hp.

From Antonio Alcaraz:  “VB Andalucia [built in 2004 and 97’x 36′] underway service Algeciras port.”

One of my own from Block Island, it’s Petersburg in October 2015.  The 1954 107′ tug was recently used in a movie.

Another of mine from February 2016, Sea Wolf A in Havana harbor.  The 1996 tug was built by Damex Shipbuilding in Santiago Cuba.

And in the sixth boro, I took this one of Paul T Moran.  Currently the 1975 built 138′ x 40′ 150′ x 49′ behemoth is in Mobile AL

Westbound in the East River, it’s Thomas D. Witte with Powhatan alongside.  My record keeping for the period is scrambled, but i believe I took this is 2005 or 2006.  As of this writing Powhatan, now operated by the Turkish Navy as Inebolu A590 is on the Turkish Black Sea coast between Trabzon and Samsun.

Again from George Schneider, who took it in June 2014 on Portrero Reach, Richmond CA on San Francisco Bay:  “One class of tugs you may not have seen in the Sixth Borough are the recent tractor tugs from Jensen Maritime Consultants.  They’re a widely respected group, evolving since Bay Delta put the first one in service in 2007.  Since that time, some of the majors have chartered these from Bay Delta, including Foss, Crowley, and AmNav, and once the quality of the design was recognized, companies have also gone directly to Jensen’s to have them built.  Bay-Delta began congealing as a company in the early 1990’s with second-hand tonnage.  They remain small, but obviously have been a leader in tug development.   This shows Delta Cathryn, built by Nichols Brothers in 2009.  She’s the second Jensen tug by that name, the first is now operating for Crowley as Vigilant.   In 2019 the first hybrid tug of this series, Delta Teresa,  was completed and also immediately chartered to Crowley.”

I took this photo of Ocean Henry Bain in Quebec City in March 2017.  The 2006 z-drive measures in at 95′ x 37.’

From Maraki, a Chinese built tug Pino, working in Colombia then off Cartagena.

Many thanks to Tim, William, Jan, Kyle, Antonio, George, and Maraki for these delightful photos and text.  I’d love to do this again, maybe at the 400 mark, or maybe sooner.  My editor is very easy-going.