Canal Tug Project G

I’ve neglected mentioning the locations of the Albert Gayer photos, in some cases because I had no idea.  This photo, however, is easy to place:  top of the flight and just above the first guard gate there.  Center of the photo is the “Crescent Lake” portion of the canal, looking “west.”  The waterway flowing to the left is headed for Cohoes Falls, and a hydro plant before the falls.

What’s remarkable for me about the photo is the number of tug/barge units waiting to head down the flight to Waterford and the Hudson.  I count eight.  Anyone have ideas why so many units are waiting here?

Penn No. 2 is headed up the flight here, I believe, between E-2 and E-3.  I’ve not found any info on this tugboat.  It has an odd profile, may be on the shorter/smaller side?

Corporal began life as an Army tug and was a Conners vessel until 1951, so that places the time setting of this photo.

In 1951, she became the third Ned Moran.

Next are a set of tug/barges I can’t identify.  Nor can I guess at the location, although I’d guess the somewhere in the western half .  I can, however, identify the boat whose foredeck you see to the right and will post more info about it later.  For now, you can conjecture all you like. I’ll feature this boat (if I remember) in February.

Ditto, I don’t know the unit here, but I’m hoping someone reading this can identify the livery. As for location, I’d say somewhere between E-13 and E-14.

Yet another puzzler.  It’s E-8 westbound, but that’s all I can say.

The tug Salutation photo is another I can’t place, for now.  I’ve read a reference somewhere the past few days, but don’t have 100% recall.  I wonder which years the commercial traffic on the canal last flew this banner.

Also, notice that all the barges in this post are tank barges, moving petroleum products.  As total freight on the canal plummeted in the 1950s and 60s, the percentage of petroleum cargoes increased dramatically.

All photos, Albert Gayer, in the collection of the Canal Society of New York.  Thanks.

 

Random Tugs 363

We alternate back to Albert Gayer (1897-1976) tomorrow, but to maintain connection with the contemporary sixth boro, especially in the cold, crisp January light, enjoy these five varied boats from this past week.  Name the one below?

Pelham, of course.  The mighty Pelham was launched in 1960, loa is 80.4′, and has 3000 hp.

Who was rotating Marjorie K?

On the bow was Miriam Moran, 1979, 99′ loa, and also 3000 hp.

Name that boat?

Harry Mcneal is a busy boat launched in 1965, 53.3 loa, and 800 hp.

Which boat is this crewman on the bow of?

It’s the robust Rae, launched 1952, 46′ loa, and packing 450 hp.

And this one?

It’s the unmistakable Charles James, which started as a GLDD tug in 1985, 77′ loa, and 2400 hp.

All photos and any errors, WVD;  numbers from tugboatinformation.com

More Albert Gayer tomorrow.

Canal Tug Project F

Many thanks to all who commented on the “mystery tug” post and identified it as Callanan No. 1.  See the comments for much more info on the tug.  William Lafferty sends along this photo of the tug and its crew.  I count seven crew.  Also, that looks like a jackstaff on the bow to judge air draft;  it also has a wind vane.

Paul Strubeck sent along this colorful image of the tug in better days sharing a lock with Joan Kehoe. Jeff S points out that Callanan No. 1 ended her days sunk in Brandywine Creek and was cut up where she sank. 

Enjoy some more Kehoe boats.  I don’t believe Albert Gayer took the next few photos.

Note the difference in wheelhouse design between Erin Kehoe and Martin J. Kehoe.  The caption refers to the Martin J. as having a “pigeon coop” wheelhouse.  The lines running to spotlights on the barge are also noteworthy, indicative of commercial traffic then running through the Barge Canal 24/7 except during ice season.

The TBI Group have done a stellar job cataloging many 20th century tugboats, but for a company like Kehoe more work needs to be done.  Check this image from NJScuba;  might this be this Erin Kehoe later reefed as Colleen?

The Conners Marine Company had some tugboats at some point that did not bear the name “Conners.”  For now, especially since I’m on very little information, here are some obvious Conners boats

Above and below, it’s Arthur Conners.  I’ve no clue about the location of these shots along the Barge Canal. 

I don’t know if the Harry R. Conners below is the same boat as the one in this ad, proclaiming it as among the first (I’m skeptical about words like first and biggest.) to switch over from steam to diesel propulsion;  if so, Harry R. had an Atlas-Imperial engine.  “Among the” is always a good hedge. Tugboats of New York (George Matteson) mentions that Conners had an all-diesel fleet.

Conners Marine Company shows up in legal decisions from the Great Lakes to salt water.

Elise Ann Conners is still extant and awaiting rebirth on the Rondout, where I’ve gotten photos of her here. 

These photos were taken below lock E-27 in Lyons, NY, with Elise Ann eastbound.

Unless this name was used by Conners more than once, Elise Ann was launched in 1881, making her . . . way overdue for some serious attention.  I know the owners and have not spoken with them, so I mean no disrespect, but a 141-year-old tugboat is extraordinary.

I’ll stop here.  Many thanks to William and Paul for sending along those photos of Callanan No. 1. 

Also, many thanks to the Canal Society of New York, which permitted me to bring these photos out of the dark archives and onto your screen.

Random ULCVs 13

January is named for Janus, the one who looked forward and backward . .  . transitions, this Roman.  The connection is this . . .   one day i post photos from 2022 and the next or two I post photos from the 1950s, supplied by Albert Gayer.

Charles James, framed here by the big green Tokyo Triumph and an Apex barge, pushes a bow wave in front of her.

Here’s the 13, 600 teu Tampa Triumph class ULCV that followed Charles James.  You also notice Maersk Vilnius following the ULCV. 

I know that names are just for convenient, but I wonder why this class of five Costamare ships carry the names Tampa, Tokyo, Toledo, Taipei, and Texas Triumph.  Surely there are larger cities starting with T. In fact, Tampa and Toledo don’t even make the top 50 by population.  And if Texas,  then why not Tennessee?  Taipei is fine because it’s home to Evergreen, the operator.

She’s deep, although I’ve seen deeper.

From the time she starting moving from her berth to the time she departs through the Narrows takes avbout an hour. 

The fact that all those containers can leave safely makes an hour a short time.

She meets Oleander coming in for her usual Thursday appointment, and this meeting shows relative scale of these two cargo ships.

I mentioned Maersk Vilnius earlier in this post;  I don’t recall ever seeing one container ship overtake another as they race out toward the Narrows.

All photos, WVD.

Albert Gayer Mystery Tug

I have lots more Gayer Barge Canal tugboat photos coming, but this set of photos had me puzzled until just now.

I’d seen the Merritt-Chapman & Scott crane barges Charleston and Concord with a tugboat in between.  Focussing on trying to identify the tugboat as well as the location on the Barge Canal blinded me to the activity in the photos.  I’ll give my interpretation later in the post, but first . . . tell me how you read the photos.

I love the lines on the small workboat Contest. 

All undated photos by Albert Gayer.

First, I think the photos were taken on the Rondout, not the Barge Canal, but I don’t know where on the Rondout that quarry might be located.  

 Second, it appears that Charleston and Concord have just raised that tugboat from where it sank.

Alternative interpretations, especially if mine is wrong and yours is correct, are welcome.

Canal Tug Project E

Albert Gayer’s photos beckon us back, with this well-known livery and the big white M on a black stack.  Mary Moran was built in Beaumont TX in 1941 and was called Mary Moran from 1947 until 1974.  Questions I’d have is about the voyages:  how far into salt water would she go and same  . . .  in the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence.    Note the Texaco star on the barge house.  Are there photos of her in the Welland Canal?

Seaval was launched in 1950 in New Orleans, and changed hands three times in two years, becoming Seaval in 1952.  She kept that name for about a decade.  Eventually she was owned by Purves as Anna Marie Altman, who scrapped her in 2021.  There must be lots of photos of her working on the Great Lakes. She’s pushing barge Pittston.

Marie S. Moran was built at the same Beaumont TX Bethlehem Steel shipyard as Mary Moran, just six years earlier.  In 1961 or 1962, she was sold to Sierra Leonian interests, renamed Afpet (African Petroleum) 5.  Note she appears to be getting some repainting on the wheelhouse.  There must be many more photos of her on the Great Lakes, since she likely had the same range as the younger Mary Moran.  How about a photo of the two of them crossing?

How about this beauty, with what appears to be a wood superstructure?

My question is this:  is this the 1914 boat by the name Clayton P. Kehoe or the 1943?  My money is on the 1914 boat, which carried that name from 1968 until 1971;  recall that Gayer lived until 1976, so he could have taken this photo.  Also, the 1943 boat had this name for only a year or less and looks quite different in the photo in the 1943 link. Interestingly, this boat carried several Moran names as well as Dauntless No. 5

in its lifetime and was built at the same Ferrysburg MI yard as Urger.

William J. Moran is a Moran name used at least twice, for a 1916 boat (which foundered in the late 1930s) as well as a 1938.  My money says this is the 1938 boat, which was built at Defoe in Bay City MI.  Eventually, she may have become Anne Moran and Eklof’s Yankee, which was scrapped in 1993.   Here she’s pushing tank barge Seaboard 38.

Recall that the Moran story, told so well in the 1956 book Tugboat by Eugene F. Moran and Louis Reid, begins with Thomas Moran, an immigrant kid in Frankfort NY in the vicinity of today’s lock E-19.  That 1956 book is an excellent read.

That was a digression from this last photo for today . . . Sheila Moran, pushing Barrett No. 2.   Two boats carried this name, twice very briefly and another launched in 1941, which would carry the name until 1975 (with a very brief interruption.  So this is the 1941 boat, also built in Beaumont TX. The 1939 boat carried the name Catherine Moran for most of its career on the Barge Canal from 1947 until 1960, and has appeared on this blog several times.  A model of that boat exists at Oswego’s H. Lee White Maritime Museum.

All photos, Albert Gayer and used with permission from the Canal Society of New York, who hold a winter symposium in about a month, although it appears the website has not yet been updated.

Related question:  When did the last Moran tugboat exit the Barge Canal?

My sources include these:  http://www.tugboatinformation.com/     and   https://greatlakes.bgsu.edu/item/438169     and https://gltugs.wordpress.com/

 

Other Peoples Photos 96

We’ll go back to Albert Gayer‘s 1950s Barge Canal photos soon, but today it’s back to some 2022 sixth boro shots from Tony A.

Any guesses on what Osprey is moving on that deck barge?  I’ll share my thoughts at the end of the post. 

Here’s a new boat for the sixth boro . . .

Sitka, formerly K-Sea’s Tiger, a boat that worked several decades on the other side of the continent but had me wondering.

 

Many thanks to Tony for all his photos, but especially his knack for catching the unusual.

My hunch on that orange device on the deck barge in the first two photos–and Tony concurs–it’s a hyperbaric chamber.

Canal Tug Project D

Tugster gallivants now and then.  It turns out that Albert Gayer did the same thing, as evidenced by this very rich photo clearly taken from the Route 104 bridge crossing the Oswego River and Oswego Canal looking north toward Lake Ontario.  Remember that the image enlarges when you double click on it.

The only constants–other than the water–are the cement silos to the left and the lighthouse center and above the stern of the barge.  Too many towing companies had red livery, so I can’t tell if that tug is a Conners boat, with the mustard yellow stack, or something else?  

Other details here, l to r;  see the two straight-decker steamers to the left, i.e., the west side of the river.  The outside one says Huron Cement on the hull.  Along the distant horizon, that’s not land;  it’s black smoke blowing to the right along the horizon emanating from a passing laker. Moving to the east side of the river, a ship with a tall mast has a gangway out and people are embarking or debarking. What would that ship be, government boat maybe?  See the Mobil flying horse sign at the inlet where the marina is now?  Guess that’s long been a fuel dock, and maybe the tug/barge will discharge fuel there?  Has there been a lot of fill at the port, or is the land below obscured by that low-slung building?

See the black 1940s automobile on the open dock space, at a point where the tug and barge seem headed?  That space is now occupied by a Best Western and Alex‘s.  On the extreme right side of the photo below the top window, see the letters “Kni…”?  Not many words or businesses in Oswego start that way in English.  Today there’s a gym attached to a Clarion (?) hotel there.  I love the guy in the hat and trench coat jumping the fence from his boat where a car is parked right around the corner of that building.

Here’s a rafted up set of boats, Sagamore, Cree II, and a barge B. No. 80, which certainly seems like Bouchard nomenclature.

This might be the same scene, slightly different time and vantage point at lock E-8.

Cree II pushes Hygrade No. 26  (or 28?)in westbound.

Cree is a 1938 Bushey boat, pushing Hygrade No. 5, I think.  It was later Joan Kehoe.

 This Crow is a 1938 build, sister of Cree above and Chancellor.  Later Crow was Elsa Carroll, Kerry K. Kehoe, Osceola, and Kerri K.  Obviously, This is NOT the Crow that operated for Donjon until about 10 years ago.  That Crow’s last ride [May 2014]  to the scrapper is here.  

Bill Endter was a Morania tug, here

pushing Morania 180 westbound at lock E-14.

Let’s end this post with a Morania tug, I think No. 8.

All photos by Albert Gayer.  His archives are one of many treasures maintained by the Canal Society of New York.

Any errors, WVD.  Your corrections, additions, and comments are most welcome.

Rubia

Today was my first chance to get a closeup of the “blonde,” aka Rubia.  I have wondered about the name since it was first given.

Formerly Denise A. Bouchard, Rubia just came off the Sound and 

she pushed a frosty UMS 284.

Aside from the lion logo, 

she’s a uniform blanched out white. 

 

All photos, this morning, WVD, who will get back to the Albert Gayer photos soon.

Canal Tug Project C

I believe Albert Gayer took these photos at lock E-14.  This unit was transiting westbound and has just entered, as the lower gates are still open.

 

Note the long “reins” running from the spotlight all the way back to the wheelhouse.  I’ll be corrected if wrong, but I suspect these allowed someone in the wheelhouse to swivel the light to illuminate what was needed during night passage:  buoys, other vessels, debris in the water, etc. 

J. Raymond Russell was built at Liberty Dry Dock (where is that?) in Brooklyn in 1939.  For the next quarter century and until 1963, it was a Russell Brothers Towing vessel

The Russells began their business in the sixth boro in 1844, finally selling to McAllister Towing in 1962.  More on Russell Brothers Towing here, and if you want 150-some pages of their history, check out Hilary Russell’s book here.

All photos, Albert Gayer.

The most frequent Russell Brothers boat on this blog is the wooden tug W. O. Decker, ex-Russell 1 from 1930 until 1947.