I’m always thrilled to see these specialized vessels in the sixth boro. I’d seen Regulus before, but see how her deck machinery back in November 2019 was different than it is now. Versatility is key.
That red T identifies her as a Tidewater boat, a PSV (platform supply vessel), one of hundreds of speciality vessels operated around the world. The link in the previous sentence provides lot of information about the company, its history back to the mid-1950s, and its boats. Most Tidewater boats have a two-word name, the second being “Tide”, eg., Desoto Tide or Ebb Tide, which launched the company in 1956. See a photo of Ebb Tide here.
The fact that Regulus does not indicates she came from the Gulfmark fleet, which Tidewater absorbed.
I’m out of my depth here, but I’d wager there’s a “moon pool” directly beneath the red tower, an opening in the hull though which subsea equipment can safely be lowered or retrieved. Scroll through this link to see a great photo through the moon pool and into the deeps.
The A-frame on the stern can also be used to lower/retrieve instrumentation, here inside the yellow frame.
If you didn’t notice in the links above, the dimensions here are 272′ x 58′ and powered by a total of 10250 hp.
As is true of many of the “exotics” in this blog, the impending wind farm construction explains their presence here.
As of sunrise this morning, the Jones Act Regulus has headed back to sea.
All photos, WVD.
tugster: a waterblog 
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
June 6, 2021 at 7:54 pm
Lou Carreras
Very informative post ( as most of them are!), thanks.
June 7, 2021 at 12:32 am
George Schneider
Interesting about the EBB TIDE. Even after that one, which really started the lineage of the modern supply boats, other operators couldn’t let loose of the concept of the converted boats. We had one out here on the West Coast named CALCASIEU that still had the side-island like the old LCU conversions.
“Moon Pool” is also interesting. If you’ve worked American Oilfield, which has spilled over into the jargon of oilfield worldwide, you realize many of the names of equipment are tongue-in-cheek. After essentially 35 years in that industry, I could go on forever about some of the colorful nomenclature.
Although coastal drilling was developed along the Gulf Coast, really “offshore drilling” developed on the West Coast, where shallow water only extends a few feet offshore. The first rigs had their “derricks” over the side, causing many problems as the vessel rolled or the weight on the drillstring varied. .
The first rigs with centerwells were developed off the coast of California, I believe on converted Navy LSM’s. The “pools” through the hull were under the rig floor, so got no sun, and not only trapped any petroleum fluids from the drilling, but also lubricants and hydraulic fluids from the equipment, and at least in my early days, disposable cups, cigarette butts, and other trash from the drilling crew.
Crews on their “days off” knew of local landmarks, and up at Hearst Castle, an opulent residence of Wm Randolph Heart of newspaper fortunes, there was a beautiful tiled pool with Greek sculpture around it, and on the right night it would reflect the image of the moon. I’m told the roughnecks on the rigs, spitting their chaw into the sloppy mess while rigging up subsea equipment onto the drill string, began calling that cesspool their “Moon Pool” and the name has stuck every since.
Don’t quote me on this.
June 7, 2021 at 6:09 am
tugster
I’ll never think of the term “moon pool” quite the same. Thx for stretching my associations . . .