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Quick post today, almost on time. I’m resting up after travels, reunions, summits, setbacks, ravines, tech glitches that turned out to be excessive cookie of the electromagnetic sort, and . . . more.
I took all these Lyons, NY photos in the past few weeks, although I missed all the excitement of the sixth boro, including a few CMA CGM boats . . . Magellan this morning. If any of you got photos, please get in touch.
Tug Syracuse may be looking for a captain. Contact me if you’re looking for a tugboat.
More on all this soon.
Happy to be back . . . WVD.
As I work to figure out my tech problems, here’s an appropriate post for today.
Fleet Week is part of the official marking of Memorial Day in the six boros of NYC each year. Maybe someone can tell me how long ago this tradition began.
DDG-55 Stout receives greeting from Fort Hamilton
This is the day set aside to honor those who died in America’s wars, but the listing earlier in this sentence does not list all of the skirmishes that resulted in the death of American military personnel. Take the Battle of the Pearl River forts aka Battle of the Barrier Forts. Know the details? I’ll tell you about it in a minute, but I stumbled upon this neglected, overgrown monument in NYC about five years ago. The public couldn’t see it because it’s fenced off.
Barrier Forts Monument
As it turns out, the stonecutters misspelled two names here, and two others listed here as killed were not.
The Barrier Forts Monument is located…
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I’m away from the sixth boro, so here’s another from the vault, archived May 2011.
Twin Tube back then still had her lighter stick. Lichtenstein now sails as Mr Tigris.
Sand Master, the sand miner, had not yet gone to South America.
A company called K-Sea still existed, and Norwegian Sea still sailed.
The 1976 tug now sails as Miss Rui for Smith Maritime Ocean Towing and Salvage. She’s currently in Amelia LA.
Colleen McAllister was still in salt water; she’s now on Lake Michigan but not in service.
Stena Poseidon is now Espada Desgagnes, sailing the Saint Lawrence, where I saw her less than two years ago.
In late May, the first attempts were made to load a half dozen tugboats onto Blue Marlin, the heavy lift ship, but I talk more about that when I open the vault next month. Blue Marlin still sails the seas with unusual cargoes, currently between the Philippines and Shantou, in SE China.
And this boat, the 1951 Dorothy Elizabeth, begging to be captured on a painting, imho, was still intact.
All photos, WVD.
Here was an unusual pair . . . within an hour of each other; Thor Confidence arrived,
escorted by Justine McAllister and
Capt. Brian A. . . .
and a bit later, a very light Thor Courage, escorted by Ava M. McAllister,
headed out for sea.
Built in 2009 and 2008, respectively, the two mostly identical 59000 dwt bulkers are part of the 20-vessel Thoresen fleet.
All photos, WVD, who may be miss a few days of posting . . . .
. . but first, I know I missed lots of excitement in the sixth boro this morning. If anyone got photos, I’d love to share them here for folks who don’t do FB. Now let’s head a few years back and down on the Chesapeake in Baltimore. . .
Sea Crescent . . . I believe she’s a 1981 Stevens Towing vessel, currently in Narragansett Bay. I took this photo near Annapolis.
The 1970 Capt. Henry Knott operates for Vulcan Marine Services. She’s currently in norfolk.
In the foreground, it’s the 1975 Indian Dawn, formerly Sea Star at Spentonbush-Red Star in the sixth boro. My notes fail me on the tug beyond the scow.
Now inside Baltimore, it’s Bridget McAllister. The 2006 tug was built as Leo for Foss and worked at one time under that name for Constellation Maritime, as seen here.
Also in Baltimore it’s the 1966 YTB now known as Timothy McAllister. Like Ellen and Steven McAllister, she brings 4000 horses to the job.
Harriet Moran is a 1978 Jakobson tugboat that was heavily modified in the 1990s.
James R. Moran is a 2004 Washburn & Doughty tractor, rated at 5000 hp. John W. Brown is one of the last remaining Liberty ships, off the ways in Baltimore in 1942. In that link, you see her in the sixth boro in 2016.
Rounding out the Moran fleet I saw in 2017, it’s April Moran and Z-One. They are from 2006 and 1996, respectively, and both rated at 5100 hp. I first ran into Z-One in San Juan, here.
Now out of Baltimore and headed for the C & D Canal, I ran into the 1981 Skiffs Creek Towing vessel Justin, with a loaded barge.
All photos, WVD.
Here are some previous Sound posts. Recognize those buildings about 30 miles from my location?
How about this tug with a string of scows?
Yacht traffic in this location between Huntington and Stamford seemed to be in a hurry.
If you didn’t recognize this tug earlier you can’t miss the name now . . . Mister T is a Blount built boat from 2001.
How about this one? There aren’t many tugs in the area that look like this when the wheelhouse is hydraulically raised.
Here’s the skyline a few hours after the first photo, showing only midtown and up.
All photos from the Sound by WVD. That tug with raised wheelhouse was Justine McAllister, a 1982 product of Jakobson on Oyster Bay, one bay to the west from my vantage point on Sound Wave out of Huntington Bay.
Because the name and focus of this blog is tugster, you’d expect to see a lot of tugboats, both within the confines of New York harbor, aka the REAL sixth boro, and I hope you are satisfied that you find a plethora of tugboats in installments of this blog. So here’s Random Tugs #337, post 4877, and the tugboat is Foxy 3 moving an aggregate scow.
In the foreground, it’s Crystal Cutler; off in the distance it’s Normandy.
Diane B here heads east with a cargo in John Blanche. I did an article on this unit some years back.
Joyce D. Brown pushes an empty scow east. Notice anything on the scow that identifies it? See the end of this post.
James E. Brown passed sister Joyce D. that morning in the Kills.
Franklin Reinauer that morning may or may not have been under control of the author of a tugboat captain who shared his tales a few years back. I will stay mum. Off to the left, that’s Capt. Brian A. McAllister.
HMS Liberty muscled a barge full of bunkers to deliver to a thirsty ship over in New Jersey.
Centerline operates both Liberty above and HMS Justice below.
Susan Miller moves some material and equipment over to the project just west of the St. George ferry terminal.
Brendan Turecamo heads over to the next and the next and the next job.
Bruce A. McAllister assists a container ship into port.
Bergen Point came off the ways at Blount Shipbuilding way back in 1958.
So that scow Joyce was pushing above is called Maria and
this logo says it was once in the Disch fleet, now sold off in many directions.
All photos, WVD.
See at what point you can read the name of this tanker. Then ask yourself what it’s registry is.
Launched in 2009, her previous name was Caspian Galaxy.
Backlit photos have their own mystery.
So now you’ve got the name, I suppose . . . what’s the registry?
China Dawn is a fairly large crude tanker to be coming into the Kills . . . 805′ x 138′ and with a capacity of 115000 dwt, rounded up, and Aframax size.
All photos, WVD, who is currently away from the sixth boro. In case you missed this article on the “sixth borough” in the Post, here it is.
And related to my being “away,” here’s what I posted on May 13: “The 16000 teu, biggest ship yet on the East Coast US CMA CGM Marco Polo will arrive in the sixth boro at some time on May 20. However, I won’t be here. I’ll be far inland on higher elevations. If anyone gets good photos and wants the (dubious) fortune and fame of having photos posted on tugster, please get in touch. I’ll have some access to WIFI, so there may also be gaps in my posting, no DP class 2 position holding for me.” Do get in touch. Since then, I’ve learned that the mega ship will be entering the Narrows late morning on the 20th.
What follows is photos of eleven Vane Brothers tugboats. Can you identify the four that are 3000 hp; the others are all 4200 hp. The difference lies with the height of theupper wheelhouse.
You choices are Susquehanna,
Magothy and Fort McHenry,
Cape Fear,
Fells Point,
Choptank,
Fort McHenry again,
Pokomoke,
Hunting Creek,
and again . . .
Patuxent, and
Elizabeth Anne.
All photos, WVD.
The 3000s are Fort McHenry, Fort Schuyler, Fells Point, Hunting Creek. The key is the shorter upper wheelhouse stalk.
In six days, the gates along the NYS Canal system will be staffed and lifting/lowering vessels across the state. This is the third in a series of posts about the vessels that have worked to keep the canals functioning.
Not all these vessels, like Wards Island below, remain; it’s now over 50′ under surface of salt water on Hempstead Reef, scuttled. The bow of the tug here, Syracuse, does continue to work as she approaches her 90th birthday.
Below you see the 88-year-old tugboat Syracuse towing a group of canal vessels late in the season back in 2014.
Tender #1, along with most of the other tenders, are now in their 10th decade.
Ditto #9.
Curvaceous boats are out, and state-of-the-art boxy ones are in.
Boats like Waterford approach their eighth decade.
Grand Erie and Urger, both inactive, have been featured here many times.
And boxy, mostly nameless replacements have replaced them.
Urger here exits the lower side of Lock 17 in Little Falls as the sun illuminates the chamber.
All photos, WVD, who salutes the crews who operate these boats, even the finicky old ones. If you’re sailing the canal this summer and see these boats and crews, give a wave but also give them wide berth, as they diligently work to keep the waterway open.
Of course, if you need a guide, check out my virtual tours based on my boat transits and my one bike trip.
tugster: a waterblog 
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