East River Catch Up 6

Let’s get back to some Pete Ludlow photos.  Co Morgan has such a long history of names going back to 1951 1965, I’m just going to paste it in here.  

A high vantage point helps convey appreciation for the train of three Mister Jim tows through Hell Gate. 

Ditto Navigator.  From this perspective, her smart color scheme is clear. 

Meghan Marie heads into Hell Gate with a destination somewhere along the Sound or farther. 

All photos by Pete Ludlow.  Thanks, Pete. 

New Hulls, Lines, and Liveries

Flux.  “Everything changes and nothing remains still; and you cannot step twice into the same stream.”  Heraclitus said that, or maybe he did not, but I’ve attributed it to him before.

Click here for the 1966 Charles Burton and the 2010 Charles Burton.  Above and below, that is the one from 2010, but the missing “V” in the nick in the green band suggests a livery change soon.

Over on the KVK, I first thought I was seeing one specialized barge, but

a closer look shows that CMT is getting not just new tugs but also new barges, CMT Y Not 5 and 17.  I hear tell there are more new ones also.

The ship is not new:  Polar Colombia dates from 2017.

But with Polar Colombia and Polar Peru both calling in the sixth boro in the same week,

I read that as a new line or at least new Hamburg-Sud names on their North-South trade?  Polar Colombia has already departed the sixth boro, called and reloaded in Costa Rica, and is heading back north!

Zhong Gu Shan Dong appears to be a new direction.  The ship dates from 2007 and it’s small . . . only 3400 teu, but it is registered in China.

Maybe a Chinese-reading person can translate both the vessel name and the characters on the hull?

But some of the containers are interesting, with Zhong Gu Logistics (upper left corner of the green containers) being something I’ve not noticed before.

Even more interesting to me, nerd of nerds, is what’s on the brightest orange containers . . ..

Alibaba.com!!  I know they are huge, but do they have their own shipping containers now?  Here’s more on Jack Ma‘s  Alibaba Group, including the name origin story, which I’ll quote below.

All photos recently, WVD, who’s always seeking novelty.

Here’s that story:  “One day I was in San Francisco in a coffee shop, and I was thinking Alibaba is a good name. And then a waitress came, and I said do you know about Alibaba? And she said yes. I said what do you know about Alibaba, and she said ‘Open Sesame.’ And I said yes, this is the name! Then I went onto the street and found 30 people and asked them, ‘Do you know Alilbaba’? People from India, people from Germany, people from Tokyo and China… They all knew about Alibaba. Alibaba — open sesame. Alibaba — 40 thieves. Alibaba is not a thief. Alibaba is a kind, smart business person, and he helped the village. So…easy to spell, and global know. Alibaba opens sesame for small- to medium-sized companies. We also registered the name AliMama, in case someone wants to marry us…”  quoted from here.

Random Tugs 367

Tony A sent this along labeled as “m-o-a-t,” mother of all tugs, and Pacific Reliance is truly a large tugboat at 121′ x 42′

with 9280 hp turning two 12′ diameter propeller and pushing around a 560′ tank barge that carries 155k barrels of liquid product.  But there are larger tugboats.  Justine McAllister gets called in to assist the Crowley unit into the dock.

CMT Pike heads north about to be obscured by an incoming MSC ship.

 

Seeley pushes along a block of four scows.

 

JRT and Kirby prepare to sail a Minerva tanker.  Minerva, Roman goddess of war and other things, seems appropriate these days.

The indefatigable Ellen McAllister passes Barney Turecamo on her way to a job.

Catherine C. Miller moves Weeks crane 577 to a lift site.

Emily Ann returns from a job. 

Nicolas Vinik gallops off to a job,

following Liz Vinik, herself

follwing Gregg McAllister.

And the beat goes on . . . all photos, WVD, except of course the one from Tony A, to whom I am grateful.

Random Tugs 362

Two separate parties sent me this article from the LA Times.  With a title including the phrase “humble tugboat,”  I was interested but not prepared for the fantastic photos.  Thx John and George.  Enjoy.  Meanwhile, here are some more of my recent photos.

James D. Moran assisting on a towline above and Robert Weeks leaving the fuel dock below,

 

Andrea walled off from her barge above and Sarah Ann light below, 

 

Gregg McAllister returning to base and Pegasus heading to work,

 

A light William Brewster and an equally light Daisy Mae,

 

Mackenzie Rose and Philadelphia, and

to close out this installment . . . Kimberly Turecamo assisting a ULCV.

All photos, WVD, who never associated the adjective “humble” with tugboats or their operators, and that’s not a bad thing.

If you’re new to this blog (or even if you are not), I’m always looking for photos from other people and places, especially, tugboats seen in South America, Asia, Oceania, and Australia.

Fog 25 B

Yesterday’s post ended with Timothy L.

Sarah Ann, and

Treasure Coast at different amounts obscured by the fog. 

Treasure Coast spun around before my location to set Cement Transporter 7700

into the Lafarge North America Bayonne

dock with assist by Pegasus.  I wondered about the vintage of Cement Transporter 7700;  she was launched from Todd Shipyard in Houston in December 1981 as Ideal II, then Midnight 1, and now its current moniker. Todd Shipyard has a distinctly Manhattan origin in the form of DeLameter Iron Works.

Meanwhile, from the western end of the KVK came

a Manzanillo-bound Lars Maersk assisted by James D. Moran.

At that same moment, Pegasus, after having completed the Treasure Coast assist, heads west of the Bayonne Bridge.

 

From that same fog bank west of the Bayonne Bridge emerge Daisy Mae pushing a light scow and

Cape Henry, returning to its barge at the west end of IMTT.

All photos, WVD, who is happy days will soon be getting longer.

 

More Cargoes 27

Tugboats move quite the variety of materials around the boro on barges.  The brand spanking new J. Arnold Witte here moves Delaware Bay, a bucket dredge. 

Doris Moran moves containers around the boro much quicker than trucks can.

I had to throw this in  . . . a late 1950s Chevy pickup was moving a motorcycle southbound on the BQE. 

Sea Fox transported a scow with its own clamshell (I think) in the upper bay.

Helen Laraway had some rich light on her as

she came west in the East River, passing Lower Manhattan, with

some cubed metal.

The seldom seen Liberty II was bringing maintenance equipment to the Statue island, when I noticed an interesting detail.  See the blue Thrustmaster engine covers?

A closer up of that part of Liberty II shows she’s twin engine and her starboard engine is not in use. 

 

Closing it out, Durham is moving a mini scow into the Kills.

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 345

If you’ve never hung out at any of the public places on the KVK and you’re interested in tugboats or shipping in general, you are missing something.

The Upper Bay is a busy place also.

M

Faber Park is a great place when it’s open.

You get views of the Bayonne Bridge and the east side of city of Elizabeth from Faber Park.

Shooters Island, once a major shipbuilding site, shows up like a jungle now.   Pres. Theo Roosevelt went there to shake hands with a foreign monarch who had a yacht built on Shooters.

 

Beyond Shooters, major port facilities can be seen.

For the past 22 years, Schuykill has been a Vane Brothers boat.  When I saw the name on AIS, I assumed it was a new Vane boat.

 

 

Welcome to the sixth boro.

All photos in the past week, WVD.

Random Tugs 344

There’s lots of lifting capacity here, but no towing or pushing capacity.

Philadelphia passes the Manhattan skyline solo.

From the west, Justine and Jonathan head for a job.

 

Magothy passes Helen Laraway, Cape Lookout, and Lois Ann L. Moran. 

There’s a progression here . . .  more tugboats in this photo than in the previous . . .

See the three guys . . .

here?  I wonder who they are.

Yesterday a hearing had been scheduled in US Bankruptcy Court, and I suppose some report on that is forthcoming . . .

All photos, WVD.

 

 

 

People on the Boro 30

Spring, for a few more weeks, means it’s no longer winter.  Warmer temperatures bring mariners out, to clean glass,

to plan the docking procedure,

to flake out the lines,

to retireve the boom . . . although these boom guys have to be out all year round, as do all the crew above.

Spring temperatures just make it more pleasant to stay out,

on the way to work,

catching fresh air,

or just contemplating all the oceans this cargo vessel has already transited and will still transit in future months.

All photos recently, WVD.

 

Gravesend Spring

It’s the best season, as long as you stay on the water or near it . . . not in it.

Sailors come out of hibernation to catch some breezes.

Container ships head south to shuffle containers elsewhere.

Aggregate work goes on as it does all year round.

Shearwater continues to plumb the bottom terrain.

 

They all meet up somewhere…

 

 

but a better lens than mine catches it.

All photos, WVD, who loves springtime, when all the fish eggs are about to burst.