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.