As the title indicates, this features #26 in a string of specialized posts. And what is specialized in what, you may think.

A lift boat, aka an elevator!  I’ve had lift boats here, and here.  I’m led to believe they’ve been around at least since Jehu.  Really, Jehu is a vessel I’ve not found an image of, but built around the time I was born.  Equally early examples might include Sal Duhe, and any of those on this shipyard list.

Stable above the crashing waves, that is Brazos, a 2014 lift boat with maximum berthing for 47 (!!) currently elevated near Smith Point, and there to provide data for wind farm construction.

But that space . .  . this design, what else might this be used for?  Nemo, both the Verne character and his modern wannabes, had their submarines, and the Maldives have The Muraka.  If you need and have time for a lengthy digression, see this analysis of Nemo, reread 20 Leagues under the Sea, and reimagine the story in  . . . say . . . 2120 in a world modified by sea level rise.

But let’s get back to this sometimes spuma-stern beach . . . which I visited exactly a decade ago.

What other flags could fly here, what decorative rings of paint?

It is indeed a vessel.  Note the plimsoll marks, the draft numbers, and the nozzle wheels, which to see clearer you’d have to get a boat.  And this lift boat also has a life boat, or at least a number of life rafts.  So what other usages are possible?  

Well, John Noble had his scrap boat, which you need to go see if you’ve never been to the Noble Maritime Collection on Staten Island.  Seen in the sixth boro, here are some conversions. There’s MLB 36391.   For really big budget projects, there’s Arctic P and Lone Ranger… now Sea Ranger.  Oh the possibilities for other second lives!

All photos and fantasizing . . . WVD, who leaves the ball in your court.