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Here’s an extraordinarily busy photo; Nicole Leigh is about to ease right around Shooters. Beyond that tug, a half dozen or so more tugboats, an antenna, a bridge, a refinery, steam . . .
Gulf Coast waits in front of a 12-pack of IMTT silos.
Navigator continues shuttling around, moving fuel.
Buchanan 5 is not a common visitor here, so I was happy to see her pass.
Brooklyn and Dorothy J head west although with different goals.
St Andrews moves a barge eastbound.
Ava M. waits for a container ship at sunrise.
Sea Fox moves a loaded recycling scow toward the Arthur Kill, and
Caitlin Ann moves an empty one back.
And finally, C. F. Campbell, first photo here with her upper house, heads west. Light.
All photos, WVD.
At first light, Navigator passes a docked Saint Emilion.
This 1981 build has called the sixth boro her home since 2015. Saint Emilion (2007) has been here in two previous liveries and names.
Barney Turecamo was launched in 1995. Note her cutaway forefoot.
Barney, married to Georgia, gets an assist from Doris Moran, 1982, as she departs the dock.
Meaghan Marie, 1968, follows a box ship into port but is not involved in the assist.
Meaghan Marie is a former fleetmate of Margaret Moran, 1979, doing the assist.
Emily Ann, 1964, moves a sanitation scow.
And finally, coming in from sea with a dump scow, it’s Captain Willie Landers, 2001.
When she first appeared on this blog in 2015, she had a prominent mast, not an upper wheelhouse.
All photos, WVD.
A new tug in town . . . Osprey? Built in 1961, she’s a sibling of Kodi. Photo thanks to Tony A.
B & B . . . it’s Brendan Turecamo in the distance and Bruce A McAllister. It turns out they are not clones: Brendan is a year newer, and Bruce A. is few feet longer and packs a few more horses.
Curis Reinauer is the third tug to carry that name. This Curtis dates from 2013. The previous one was sold to Nigeria, and the one before that has been reefed.
Emily Ann dates from 1964; she appeared on this blog just a few weeks ago but out of the water then.
Mister Jim, 1982, has been in the sixth boro for about eight years.
Doris Moran, also 1982, is a powerhouse.
Navigator, 1981, is the only boat currently operated by Balico Marine Services.
Gulf Coast, 1982, got her upper wheelhouse up at Feeney‘s on the Rondout.
Patrice, 1999, has so far spent half its life working on the Great Lakes.
Shannon McAllister is a rare one in the sixth boro, but she passes through here once in a while. like this week. She dates from 1991.
Thx to Tony for that first photo; all others, WVD.
I took this photo after dawn, technically, and what detail of tug James D Moran is lost because of low light is somewhat compensated for by the lights of the boats and on the Brooklyn background.
Ditto . . . a few minutes later, the lights are dramatic as James D passes the illuminated IMTT facility.
Evelyn Cutler passed a bit later; light was still low from an overcast sky.
JRT Moran heads back to base, the sky is still overcast, wind brisk, and standing around taking photos was cold.
Paula Atwell is quite common here, but usually the boat is obscured by the containerized garbage she pushes.
Navigator passed with her barge . . . and the sun I’d wished for was still not forthcoming.
Barry Silverton . . . pushing a deeply-loaded Fight ALS toward the Sound. Here’s a document I’d never seen in its entirety explaining the Harley “naming” project. It turns out that Mr. Silverton was a victim of ALS. What I thought was a one-off vessel naming is actually a fleet-wide enterprise. For example, Dr. Milton Waner is named for a pioneer in the treating of hemangiomas.
Franklin Reinauer, passing Nave Ariadne, has operated with that name–I believe–since she first came off the ways.
Marjorie B McAllister waits alongside New Ability to assist an incoming container vessel.
which Capt Brian A. McAllister is already assisting.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who at this point had the luxury of having some indoor work to attend to while warming up.
When the temperatures drop and days are short, tug and barges units in the NE get busier than in summer.
RTC 42 here gets pushed by Franklin Reinauer, as Gracie–-above–waits at the dock with RTC 109.
A bit later, J. George Betz moves her barge B. No. 210 toward the east.
Navigator appears from the east with her barge.
Barney moves Georgia toward a Bayonne dock, with assistance from Mary.
And Curtis comes in with RTC 81 for more product.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, currently in the state of Georgia, but a few days back when I took these, needed some of that fuel to stay warm. Here from 2007 was my first post by this name.
Well, maybe your subscription to something has expired, but reading tugster requires no subscription, and no lucre flows into tugster tower from your –I hope–daily habit of checking in here.
It is April first, and I quite like the day. Here was what I did April 1, 2010, and here . . . . the day in 2009. I don’t always mark it, although once I shifted focus of the blog entirely to trucks, the first time. That generated a bit of hate mail . . . which led to a whole new division of tugster, i.e., trickster. which autocorrect always wants to spell incorrectly. Truckster it is.
Since you’re here, let me share some miscellaneous photos. Sea Hunter has recently turned up near the McAllister yard. I posted my photos of Sea Hunter as she appeared in Boston three years ago here. Anyone know what fate she’s hunting for in the sixth boro? Also, on the photo below, there’s the Atlantic Trader barge. That’s the short-sea shipping hull I last saw in 2015 here.
Here’s a dense shot: near to far, the far tugs are Crystal Cutler, Jacksonville, Navigator, and another unidentified Vane tugboat.
So while I’m at it, let me share some mail.
From Phil Gilson, an article about fast US Navy vessels converted into shallow draft speedy banana boats, and that’s no April Fools joke. See it here.
And finally here’s an oldie-but-goodie from Steve Munoz. Jane McAllister (1968) and Margaret M McAllister (1928, converted from steam to diesel in 1957) assist a Sealand ship in Port Elizabeth back in 1986. Note the Old Bay Draw is still bissecting Newark Bay in that shot.
Thanks to Phil for the story/link and Steve for the photo.
The other photos by Will Van Dorp, and inscribed in tugster tower by invisible watermarks.
Navigator looks great in the yellow trim. For some quantifiable info, she dates from 1981 and reports 1200 hp.
Ellen always strikes me as a brawler, more so than identical YTBs. Maybe it’s the ships’ hull paint she’s rubbed off with the bow rendering. For numbers and facts, she dates from 1967, built in Marinette WI, and currently has z-drives putting out 4000 hp. Click here for photos I took in Marinette this past summer.
Dory looks great, having added an upper wheelhouse. Click here and scroll for photos of Dory over the years, pre-upper wheelhouse. Who operates her now?
Amy Moran and Atlantic Salvor meet under the bridge. As an indication of winds, notice the bridge “curtains” movement. Numbers: AM 1973 and 3000 hp. AS 1976 and 6480. For previous Atlantic Salvor posts, click here.
If Buchanan 5 looks like she has new paint, she does. It used to work around here as Taft Beach. Numbers: 1983 and 2600 hp.
Normandy benefits from a simple and classical paint scheme. 2007 and about 1900 but with triple screw. As I understand it, she used to work in Colombia. Anyone have info on her propulsion plant?
Kimberly Poling got a makeover almost 10 years ago and she is just a beauty. 1994 and 3000 hp.
I’ve long heard Thomas D. Witte once worked the Erie Canal as Valoil, but I’ve never seen photos of her superstructure from that time. Anyone help? 1961 and 1500 hp.
And finally, Matthew Tibbetts once won the most attractive tug at a North River Tugboat Race, and she truly looks good. 1969 and 2000.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Kirby Moran here seems to have some symbiosis going on with the gulls,
and Jonathan C comes in for a closer look.
Zachery Reinauer repositions light under the parking lot forming on the lower deck of the Bayonne Bridge.
Diana B moves another load of product, likely to the creeks.
Thomas D. Witte is on the paper recycling run, I think.
Does anyone have a photo of her working up in the canals?
I’ve not yet seen Sapphire Coast light.
And finally, the unique paint scheme on Balico 100
moved into the Kills by Navigator.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
As you know, tugboats do all manner of work on the water. They push train cars, increasingly these years–according to Peter D’Amato— after quite the plummet.
Tugboat here is James E. Brown with barge 278.
Christine M. McAllister is a 6000 hp tug that usually
wired to RTC 502.
Ditto Evelyn Cutler, usually working with Noelle Cutler.
Mister Jim here is pushing sand (or aggregate?), and
Gateway’s Navigator is pushing a newly painted GT Coast Trader dredge scow, in the same time/harbor as
Balico Marine Service’ Navigator pushes oil.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who offers this bonus below.
The Cornell (1950) with Clearwater (1969) on Hughes 141 photos come with thanks to Glenn Raymo. The Hudson Valley is particularly beautiful this time of year, especially if you catch it in the right light, which of course is true everywhere.
The other tugboats and landscapes in this post are mine. In the KVK, Sarah Ann (2003) passes RTC 135 just as the morning sun clears a bank of low-lying clouds.
An upriver-bound Navigator (1981) clears the Kills with HT 100 around the same hour.
. . . passing lighthouses,
gantry cranes, storage facilities,
and impossible towers.
Many thanks to Glenn for use of his photos. I’m sure Paul Strubeck plays a role here also. And I took the photos of Sarah Ann and Navigator.
Here and here are some previous photos of Clearwater on its winter maintenance barge.
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