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Here was 1. Dawn’s early light is my favorite time in the city that never sleeps.
Even Navig8 Gauntlet snoozes, except for the person on watch.
Captain Dann is moving about, spinning
around for an assist. Radiant Ray is aptly named for this time.
Truth be told, the sixth boro never sleeps.
Ellen, along with
Charles D., was on its way to an assist over at Earle.
Like I said, this is my very favorite time of day. Of course, you won’t find me awake very much after 2100.
All photos, WVD.
A list of odd cargoes over the years would include an uncovered cigarette boat, other boats, military materiel, never-to-be-used wheel pedestals, port supplies, a Mirage F-1, . . . I could go on. At this point, I’d not yet noticed the cargo atop the India-bound Maersk Detroit.
Brendan Turecamo retrieved the docking pilot.
But that’s when I noticed it. And in a very branded color. Know it? Evidence follows.
Wonder what Hillco Sidehill S670 means? Click here.
It ain’t no snow blower!
See it?
It’s certainly a Deere, probably along these lines. It makes me wonder what fields this will harvest. See a leveling-combine in operation here.
This screening seems made-to-measure for passage through pirate waters.
Maersk Detroit is one of about 20 US-flagged cargo ships serving the oceans.
All photos, WVD.
From the archives of the Canal Society of New York, it’s a set of photos taken along the Hudson showing some unidentified cargo vessels of yore. The large building just off the bow of the T-2 tanker is unmistakably the West Point Gillis Field House. I can’t quite make out the tanker’s name, however.
Ditto here, as to the name of this cargo ship heading upriver at the Bear Mountain Bridge. Is that type called a Victory ship?
Heading downstream, it’s another T-2 tanker. Note the stack is differently marked from the one above. The location is off Iona Island and heading for Jones Point.
And finally, this may be the same T-2 as above. I can’t place the location of read the name.
South of Jones Point between 1946 and 1971, there was this presence. Here‘s a tugster blog post on this gathering.
At its peak in the mid-1960s, almost 200 ships were anchored here.
That’s it here. Maybe a reader can read more out of these images used with permission from Canal Society of New York archives.
Many thanks to Bob Mattsson for doing his best to lighten these photos. Check out his book and models here.
Thanks to Bjoern of New York Media Boat, it’s . . . LCU 1657. This was last week, March 2022
At first glance I thought it was a landing craft with a large add-on wheelhouse. Later I noticed the landing craft was being pushed by a small tugboat named Pierson. I’m not familiar with this unit. LCU 1657 was built by Defoe Shipbuilding in Bay City MI in the early 1970s.
George Schneider sent me these photos from July 2021 in San Diego of a very similar if not identical vessel. He writes “LCU 1648 was built in 1955 by Marinette Marine in Wisconsin. She is not a commissioned warship, and is considered a ‘boat’ in the Navy hierarchy.”
From August 2021, here’s something unusual. George writes “the remote-controlled prototype Sea Hawk passed us to the South. I was still on the bow [of my vessel], and although she was up-sun, I still got some good, clear shots of her. Then, just to be a nuisance, I called our bridge and asked if they could get the Sea Hawk to turn around and pass down our starboard side for better lighting. The Captain didn’t dignify my call with an answer, but the Navy must have heard me, because that’s exactly what she did. So I got excellent underway shots of her, plus
I got a shot of her boat number, which is slightly different than we thought.”
Since the sixth boro is not usual Navy waters except during Fleet Week, we don’t get such exotic vessels here.
We do see a lot of Vane Brothers vessels in the sixth boro and throughout the East Coast, but in August 2021, Delaware was in . . . LA! She’s currently working in Oakland CA.
Many thanks to Bjoern and George for use of these photos.
Between January and April 1905, Newport News Shipbuilding delivered four 231′ ferries to the Hoboken Ferry Company. Elmira arrived two months before its better known sister, Binghamton. Click here to learn why Elmira and Binghamton were called “hand bombers,” and a whole lot more.
Elmira was scrapped in 1983, but I’d guess this photo was taken in the 1950s or even earlier. I’m not sure of the timing that steam was discontinued.
Look at all the steam tugs and ferries then in the harbor between Manhattan and Hoboken. Maybe someone can more accurately place this photo in time. Is that a PRR steam tug between Elmira and the Hoboken terminal tower?
Arlington was launched from the Burlee Dry Dock in Port Richmond, Staten Island in November 1903 and entered service in March 1904. She had two sister, Tuxedo and Goshen, each 224′ loa x 64′ (another source says 206′ x 43′). Arlington made her last run from Pavonia to Chambers Street in 1958, at the end of over 97 year years of continuous operation for the Pavonia Ferry Company. “Stories of a Deckhand” by Raymond J. Baxter includes just that from the perspective of someone who worked on this boat.
Thanks to the Canal Society for use of these photos, interesting although connected to the Barge Canal in the same way the sixth boro is.
Can you make sense of this? Without a zoom, I was not sure what I was looking at.
I’d seen Miss Ila slowly making her way up the coast. “Slowly” usually means there’s a substantial tow,
and in fact there was.
She rounded up off the east side of Shooters Island, which has some interesting history here. I did a blog post about Shooters here with photos showing the Townsend-Downey shipbuilding operation at its heyday.
Round up took the “way” off the barges, and
as the crane boom was raised, lines were cast off
and Miss Ila took one barge alongside while
Vicki M came from shore somewhere and made fast to the crane barge.
All photos, WVD.
My approach to reporting on the archives so far has been to sort the images there, as you noticed if you’ve been following along.
This follows a different tack: a set of photos I wasn’t sure where to sort. First, a July 1920 photo showing excursion steamer Ossian Bedell and steamer/barge Saratoga in Buffalo Dry Dock on Ganson Street. The 1901 Ossian Bedell was named for its owner, operated between Buffalo and Grand Island, where Bedell had a hotel. More information on its ownership changes can be found here.
Saratoga, according to Benson is described as follows: “Saratoga was the first of the USRA steamers built at Erie, Pa. by Dravo. She carried a crew of twelve in freight service, a homeport of Baltimore, Md, 400 hp, and a tonnage of 272 gross and 152 net. Her dimensions were 147.5′ x 20.1′ x 10.5′ Her first owner was the USRA, followed by the New York Canal and Great Lakes Corp. in June 1921.
William P. Palmer, 1910 to 1978, was a steel laker loading sugar here from a canal steamer and her consort barge. Presumably, Palmer would then take that sugar elsewhere on the Great Lakes, and that it would have arrived by sea from the sugar lands, and in NYC, it was transshipped to these unnamed canal boats.
The large tug here is GLDD’s H. A. Meldrum; working alongside are John Pearce and a third unidentified tugboat. Meldrum was a 70′ x 20′ wooden tug built in Buffalo in 1899; eventually she made her way to the sixth boro, sinking in Barnegat Inlet in March 1970.
GLDD currently has a cutterhead suction dredge New York, but this is likely not it. Judging by the bollards and lamppost design, this was along the Barge Canal, but I can’t quite place the geography. The date must be in the 1930s, given the automobile to the right.
Here’s a closer up of the center of the photo, showing the string of barges being towed. Dog of New York is a classic name.
Supreme was a 1931 Sparrows Point MD tanker built for Gulf Refining. She was 212′ x 37′ and propelled by a total of 700 hp.
She appears to be eastbound shown here departing lock E-23. In 1960, she was renamed Pacific, and in 1970, she was scrapped. I know that names are just names, but I’d love to know if she ever transited the big canal into the Pacific.
I’ve no information on what is identified as steam tug V. R. Baldwin, headed northbound here in Albany with seven barges. I love the carved eagle atop its wheelhouse.
All photos used courtesy of the Canal Society of New York. Any errors . . . WVD.
Technological marvel and global supply chains spawned by the deindustrialization of this country go hand in hand with these huge vessels. CMA CGM J. Adams comes in with +14,000 teu, a peak capacity reached in August 2017 when her sister vessel T. Roosevelt arrived first.
That’s 1202′ x 166′ and running deep.
Tokyo Triumph comes in slightly smaller, 13,870 teu and 1197′ x 168′.
CMA CGM Argentina brings in +15,000 teu on her 1200′ x 167′.
Monaco Bridge carries in 13900 teu on a 1197′ x 168′.
Wanna guess for OOCL Chongqing?
Her 1202′ x 158′ dimensions transport 13,208 teus.
CMA CGM Alexander von Humboldt comes in at the top, +16,000 teu on dimensions of 1299′ x 177′.
That puts her in the class with CMA CGM’s Marco Polo and Jules Verne as the largest trio to call in the sixth boro so far. She’s been here before, I believe, but this is my first time to see her.
These ULVCs are sometimes referred to as CMA CGM’s Explorer class box boats. If you’re unfamiliar with the the name, Von Humboldt surely deserves to be grouped with Polo and Verne. See his bio here.
USACE Dobrin followed the ULCV around Bergen Point.
And then, there’s the case of Ever Forward, shown here in a photo shared by Captain Nemo. Ever Forward is the newest of the ULCVs in this post, carrying 11,850 teus on dimensions of 1096′ x 157′. Ever Frustrated is likely how her owners, crew, and recipients of cargo must now feel. Ever Forward would have called in NYC this past week, as have her sisters of the Ever F class.
All photos except Ever Forward, WVD, who is responsible for any errors of fact.
The past few months I’ve been feeling my way through the archives of the Canal Society of New York. Doing so, I assumed that all the images I found there had relevance for the Barge Canal. That assumption confounded me in this case. So I’ll leave this as a clue. What, where, when built, and anything more you can tell. I have located that info on this one.
Previous “tugle” posts, inspired by world and all of its spawn, can be found here.
Thanks to Tony A and a new contributor, Ray M, here is more on the dispersal of the Bouchard fleet. One boat has been renamed William F. Fallon Jr. Know the boat? Know the reference? I’d say William F. Fallon Jr. is the newest name in the sixth boro.
Tony A sent the photo above and below, showing Susan Rose and Anna Rose. Do you know their previous names?
Ray M got some closer up photos of the stern of Anna Rose yesterday.
The barge used to be the 2012 B. No. 250. More on that and her 2019 sister 252 here.
And how new is the paint on that name? Well . . . isn’t that masking tape beside the letters?
Many thanks to Tony A and Ray M for use of these photos.
Here’s more on William F. Fallon Jr: the namesake was a Port Authority manager who died on 9/11. The vessel used to be J. George Betz and has been purchased by Centerline Logistics.
Susan used to be Evening Breeze and Anna used to be Jane A. Bouchard.
Unrelated: Greenpeace is in the sixth boro, protesting Russian crude deliveries here, allowed by the sanctions. Here is a Greenpeace tracker that follows some of the tankers that have departed Russian ports with petro cargo since the attack on Ukraine began.
tugster: a waterblog 
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