Barge Canal Miscellany
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 […]
Barge Canal Miscellany 2
B. No. 90 is clearly a Bouchard barge, this one eastbound at lock E-17. Pushing it might be the 1946 Evening Light, but that’s just speculation. Evening Light has appeared in this series a little over a month ago as Margaret Matton et al. I added this because this IS a miscellany post. I’d love […]
Government Tugs Barge Canal 3
Here’s a history-packed and very detailed photo. In the foreground you see James K. Averill and Amsterdam. In the next row back, that’s Urger behind Averill and a boat I can’t identify [name board just to the right of Averill’s stack shows a name that ends in –le No 1 ] behind Amsterdam. Also, in […]
Government Tugs Barge Canal 2
It appears this tug and derrick barge are working over by the power house at the Vischer Ferry 2000′ twice-bent Dam opposite lock E-7. This is the dam where Margot and Watermaster have broken up ice jams the past few winters. Here’s a closer up and an even closer up, confirming that it’s Canal tug Amsterdam […]
Government Tugs Barge Canal 1
I’ve seen this image printed and framed somewhere . . . in a lower Mohawk town, but I don’t remember where. The lines are quite similar to those of Urger. As to Schenectady she was ex-Buffalo, George W. Aldridge, and City of Schenectady. Around 1910 the name was shortened to just Schenectady. Per her […]
Canal Motor Ship Project B
As William Lafferty pointed out in the previous post in this series here, Robert Barnes Fiertz was not a tanker. I’ll have several more posts on Fiertz and her sisters including the one we now call Day-Peckinpaugh, but here we focus on a vessel launched two years later (in 1923) that builds on the same […]
Canal Tug Project L 2
Cargill’s Carneida and her sisters were unique enough, forgotten enough designs that when I stumbled onto this image yesterday AFTER posting, I decided to dedicate a whole post to Cargill’s vessels on the Barge Canal. The resemblance to the cargo portion of the 1000-footers currently on the Lakes is unmistakable although she’s less than a […]
Canal Tug Project I
That’s a letter I, not a number 1, by the way. Tugboat Syracuse is still in service, pushing 90 years of service next year, although I believe she did not work this past season. I can’t place the location of this shot (maybe the Oswego Canal or somewhere between Brewerton and Three Rivers come to […]
Canal Motor Ships D3
You’d imagine there would be a groundswell of interest in saving and cleaning up such an iconic Barge Canal veteran as this. I’d love to see a correctly colorized photo of this weeks-old cargo ship at the beginning of its first transit through the waterway that dictated its dimensions. It’s time to close out part […]
Canal Tug Project J
Hugh O’Donnell appeared in installment “I.” In fact, this photo might very well have been taken just seconds after the photo showing the string of barges following her. As for location, clearly it’s a part of the Canal with riprap along the banks. Other than the name, Thos. R. Coyne, and the fact that the […]
tugster: a waterblog 