Random Tugs 358

I’m posting early today and can’t guarantee I’ll be able to move this on to FB the next few days because I’m traveling.  So, sign up to get new posts straight to your email.  Also check the note at the end of this post.

Here’s one that got away:  the tug to the right is the 1975 Mary Emma, ex-Evening Light.  I’d been waiting in St George hoping she’d move from Mariner’s Harbor eastbound.  Finally I gave up and boarded the ferry.  Partway to Whitehall, I noticed she was headed east, right past where I’d been.  Once in Whitehall I boarded the next ferry south, hoping to get photos near the St George side.  It’s not a great shot and it would have been if only I’d stayed put . . .   but life is full of as many missed opportunities as fulfilled ones. 

Sarah Dann (1983) recently made a big move of a crane from Wisconsin to Maine, a longer trip by water than by land.   Two years ago, she made another long tow with components for a refinery.

Franklin Reinauer (1984) has been based in the boro and carried that name since she came out of the shipyard.

Osprey (1961) is a recent newcomer to the sixth boro.

Christian Reinauer (2001) is the most powerful of this batch, with 7200 hp moving her payload.

A year ago Eastern Dawn (1978) was still painted white.

Andrea (1999) came here without the upper wheelhouse.

Thomas D. Witte (1961) and James E. Brown (2015) pass each other in the Back Channel.

Diane B (1980) seemed to drift through this part of the channel the other day. 

And finally, I believe,  Morton S. Bouchard IV (2004) is the only remaining Bouchard tugboat over at the stack in Stapleton. When will her transformation to Jesse Rose begin?

All photos, WVD, who has left the boro for a while.

By the way, a few days ago I made up some 2022 calendars, of which 17 are left for sale. I used a subjective process for selection this time. More details later but if you’re interested, email me your interest and your address. Send no money at this time, please, but prices will likely be up a tad because, of course, politics.

Random Ships 95

It’s been over a month since I did a thoroughly non-scientific sampling of ships in the boro. I’ve not gotten photos this time, but ONE Apus is back in town after a long hiatus, a time to reconstruct the cells after a Pacific mishap. 

Above, not quite a month on, Nordspring is in the Atlantic between Charleston and Gibraltar.  Al Qibla, below, is currently in the Charleston parking lot, after having been in the Savannah offshore parking lot . . . well, technically,  anchorage.

 

Stolt Larix has departed Houston for sea.

Lady Malou, between November 9 and November 29, has made it through the Panama Canal and is now at a berth in Guatemala, Pacific side.

Polar Cod is heading between Houston and the Panama Canal.

Calypso–an excellent name for a ship–has departed for the Caribbean, maybe the north coast of South America.

The sixth boro’s own Katherine Walker is in the sixth boro.  She’s named for the light keeper who for decades–until 1919– tended that light right off her stern in this photo.

This month I finally caught another of the Explorer-class CMA CGM ULCVs, Magellan. Its namesake Fernão de Magalhães got involved in lethal politics between rival groups on or near the island of Cebu.

Magellan left NYC for Savannah, and now it’s on its way to the Canal and the Pacific.

Spar Pyxis is still in the boro, discharging road salt loaded in Hereke, TR at the Duraport salt pile.

All photos, WVD, who thinks this sixth boro place is the real NYC that never sleeps.

 

Exotic Friday

You know that day after T’giving?  Maybe you call it by another name, whose derivation you might not know.  For me it’s sometimes a good day to keep my eyes open, as was the case back in 2012.

Permute that number to 2021, and it was also a good day to be out, despite the gray leaden sky.  First I saw Candice L. in the sixth boro.  She’s appeared in this blog before, but never in the sixth boro. 

 

Note the red rings on her black stack?  Clearly she’s fleetmate of Cajun, Liz Alma, Camie, and Delta.  Now I’ve seen the whole fleet.

A bit later Katan caught my attention. 

Note the colors and logo seen here previously on Angelina Autumn.  Also, note the “davits” on either side of the wheelhouse holding knotted line for quick exit from wheelhouse to weather deck, not a common feature of sixth boro regulars. 

 

Although she carries nameboards for Michelle, AIS shows her as Katan, a name whose origin puzzles me.

She dropped off some barges and went right back out to sea. As of this morning, she’s back in Norfolk.

The vessel that got me out looking to begin with was this one, Martin Explorer, which my associative brain processed incorrectly as Martian Explorer, which would have been an interesting sighting indeed. 

She’s clearly a Candies design of a certain vintage, reminding me of Emma M. Roehrig/Greenland Sea, a former regular in the sixth boro but now possibly done for.  See that same boat here before that as Tecumseh and S/R Providence, out of the notch and showing her lines clearly.

Unfortunately, she went to the anchorage and these are the best photos I’ve gotten of her for now.  Martin Explorer is the first Martin Midstream Partnership vessel I’ve seen. As of this writing Sunday morning, she’s still anchored in the Upper Bay.  For more of the Martin Midstream fleet, I may have to travel south.

All photos, WVD, who’s glad he went out on exotic Friday, a once a year event.

By the way, yesterday I made up some 2022 calendars, of which 24 will be for sale.  I used a subjective process this time.  More details later but if you’re interested, email me your interest and your address.  Send no money at this time, please, but prices will likely be up a tad because, of course, politics. 

 

 

Susan’s First Run

Gray day, gray water, gray sky, gray bridge, grayish black barge, gray upper wheelhouse . . . .  I just had to saturate that patch of bluish cloud.

I’d seen Susan Rose on AIS with Normandy as escort, and I figured that meant she was pushing a barge, a loaded barge.

You can see where the old identification has been painted out.   RCM must be Rose Cay Marine . . . ?

 

The yellow patch “under” the ladder really pops.

 

And she’s headed upriver. 

All photos, WVD, who has a busy week ahead.

By the way, my first photos of this boat appeared here in 2019.

 

Chemical Pioneer No More

An icon of the sixth boro will no longer be seen in its waters.  Two days ago, Chemical Pioneer departed through the VZ Narrows for Philadelphia, where she is currently.  After discharging her cargo and being prepared, she will depart the Delaware on a towline to a foreign port to be scrapped. 

An icon you may say?  In early June 1973, and under the name C. V. Sea Witch, a 612-teu container ship, she was outbound for sea from Howland Hook for Norfolk.  As she rounded the turn beyond the east end of the KVK, a non-responsive rudder caused her to collide with a tanker, Esso Brussels, anchored in Stapleton.  I’ve written about this earlier, particularly in this post with photos of the burnt out vessels.  For context of other spectacularly tragic shipboard fires, click here. Auke Visser’s great site has a narrative as well as graphic photos of the fires this malfunction caused. 

I took these photos in early November when Chemical Pioneer arrived in the sixth boro for her penultimate voyage.

All photos, WVD, who hopes to see photos of the tanker on a towline as she heads out the Delaware for the final journey.

Last but certainly not least, click here to see bowsprite’s tributes to the lives of Chemical Pioneer.

 

About That Warranty

Wait . . . my phone is ringing.  To answer or not . . .

THIS YM Warranty has become a regular at GCT on the Bayonne shoreline of the sixth boro.

Gregg tended the portside line as she came in the other day.  I forget if she was inbound from Colon PA or Cartagena CO, but heavily laden she was.

 

Ava M. on a tether was her brakes and supplement to steering as she eased toward GCT.

As of this posting, she’s departed the boro and more than halfway to Norfolk, scheduled to arrive there on the morning after Thanksgiving.

All photos, WVD, who thanks you all for checking in wishes you a very happy Thanksgiving.

Also, check out a blog I’ve just stumbled on to called Millennial Mariner, which appears to be produced by a sixth boro mariner.  If you like what you read, then subscribe.

About those cursed spoof calls of “We’ve been trying to reach you about your expired car warranty,” check out this Money magazine article if you need more reading today.

And, thanks to bowsprite for sharing this with me,  if you still need to kill another 25 minutes to get away gathered relatives, Martin Machado has a great video here called Six Months at Sea in the Merchant Marine.

And if you need still more time away from the gathering, maybe you could rake leaves, chip rust, or  . . .  go for a paddle.

Really Random Tugs 48

We’re going west to east to south to farther east in today’s post, starting with the Missouri River north of Omaha by about 50 miles at the port of Blencoe IA.  From here grain and soybeans are barged all the way to the New Orleans area for transshipment to foreign markets.  That’s MV Tony Lippman stemming the current after dropping off some barges with fertilizer ingredients she’s pushed all the way here, fertilizer that arrived in the US by bulk carrier from foreign producers.

MV Tony Lippman is 144′ x 35′.  For more specs on this 1971 build, click here.

These two boats, at the Upper Mississippi River port of Hannibal, almost look familiar, but they are Sir Josie T and Sir Robert.  For more info, click here and see a photo by Tim Powell, frequent contributor on this blog.

CMT on the stack above stands for Canton Marine Towing. Near to far here are Sir Richard and Sir Robert. 

Now we’re back in the sixth boro and at the south side eastern tip of Motby.  From left, it’s Teresa, barge Acadia, Jane A. Bouchard, Evelyn Cutler, and Susan Rose.  Note that Teresa has a small US flag high in the rigging.  Might that be a courtesy flag in the wrong location, since she’s said to be flagged Liberian?  I was hoping to see her stern to confirm that. 

From Tony A and on a rainy day,

it’s Steven Wayne!  She first became a regular in the sixth boro as Patapsco.

Courtesy of a son of Neptune aka Neptuni filius himself, the vessel alluded to in a recent post and now here for all to see, it’s M. A. R. S. War Machine, ex-Paul T. Moran.   The photo was taken somewhere in the south.

And finally, from the mighty Ij River, it’s a 1907 or 1904 built Anna Sophia.  Photo by een zoon van Ij.

All photos, except of course those by Tony A and the sons above, WVD.

Rumor has it that tomorrow is an unusual day that in years past I have acknowledged.  I’m staying put.

Jane 2

I took the photo below in late October, and

I caught this sight yesterday.  Susan Rose was repainted a month ago or so, but alongside her and not showing an AIS signal,

it’s Jane A. Bouchard, and not Anna Rose as I thought she was being renamed.  Well, it’s possible her name boards have not yet been redone.  I’ve posted photos of Jane A. many times since this blog was launched, and you can find them here.  As an aside, I love all the shades of gray in the photo below.

All photos, WVD.

For other transformations, click there or here for Blueing.  Second Lives posts have some of the same focus.

 

 

Names 47

Is the Commander around here too?  How about the Mistress, although that name might cause some complications or misgivings.    Other names I’ve recently noticed on AIS approaching the sixth boro include Artemis Angler (great name for a research vessel, although I associate Artemis more with hunting than fishing) and King Baton Rouge.  King Red Stick would conjure up very different connotations.

For a very different set of associations, suppose you operated a company called Modern American Recycling Services, and you purchased a tugboat, like Paul T. Moran, which in fact they did.  What name would you choose to rechristen your boat?

The photos above in mine in the sixth boro, and the photo below comes from eastriver from somewhere.  I’m giving you more time to ponder my question here.  Remember the company name is Modern American Recycling Services.

And the new name is M.A.R.S. War Machine.  Now if you saw this name on your AIS for a vessel approaching from just over the horizon, would you change course just a little to ensure that it stays over the horizon?  That combo-name would summon thoughts of War of the Worlds

Photos by eastriver and WVD.

For all the 46 previous posts on remarkable names, click here.

For a previous post with a tug named Warhorse, click here.  With a hat tip to Hannibal, are there any boats out there named for a pachyderm?

People on the Boro 32

See the crew?

Scale is interesting here, even though Torrente is NOT a large container ship by today’s global standards.

Now you see him clearly, but recall the context provided by the first image.

That line is bigger around than his arm, yet gossamer compared with the ship and the tug.

With line all made up on the forward H-bitt, the crewman is done . . .  for the moment.

All photos, WVD.

Now contrast this set of photos with a set from almost a decade ago, when a crewman had a very bad day.