Random Tugs 228

By the numbers today, Daisy Mae,  launched in late 2017 and generating 3200 hp.

Joyce D. Brown, built 2002 and 2600 hp.

Matthew Tibbetts, 1969 and 2000.

James E. Brown, 2015 and 1000.

Dean Reinauer, 2013 and 4260.

Andrea, 1999 and 3000.

Elizabeth McAllister, 1967 and 4000.

Ellen McAllister, also 1967 and 4000.

Kimberley Turecamo, 1980 and 3000.

Joan Turecamo, 1980 and 4300.

Joan Moran, 1975 and 4300.

Miss Ila, 1962 and 2400.

All photos by Will Van Dorp; all numbers from tugboat information.

 

USA, USA, USA

I’ll explain this photo and the title at the end of this post.

The big move began yesterday on schedule, timed with the tides, I was told, to fit the cargo under some of the Hudson River bridges . . .

The cargo was gussied up with sponsors much like you’d see on a NASCAR racer.

 

Three tugs accompany the Mormac 400 barge.

On the stern were Daisy Mae and Mister Jim.

Underneath the entire cargo were tires;  I counted about 32 “axles,” each with with duals, and I’m not sure how many sets of duals across there are.  Maybe someone has the correct number.

 

After getting photos in New Baltimore, I crossed the river and got the rest of these in Hudson NY.

On the bow, CMT Pike (1979) guides the load.

Mister Jim (1982) and Daisy Mae (2017) power the tow from the stern.

Here, unfortunately backlit, the tow passes the Hudson-Athens Light.  

Hudson has quite the interesting history, and a spectator I talked with said the port missed becoming the state capital by three votes.  The architecture of the town is visit-worthy.

So you might still be wondering about the title and the top photo.  Here’s the story:  as I focused on taking the photos in Hudson, on the shore with a dozen other folks, I heard a chant.  “USA USA USA” from a group of kids who were in the park enjoying the beautiful spring weather.  I can’t say how the chanting started, but they were certainly looking at this large cargo and noticing the “union made in the USA” sign, and pumping their arms, dancing, and chanting loud enough to get a reaction from some folks on the tugs.  My guess is that it was spontaneous.  As a friend of mine would say:  “Neat!!”

And the cargo, here’s an informative article from Workboat.  It’s a heat-recovery steam generator bound for Bridgeport CT;  as of this writing (0515 Tuesday), the tow is approaching Newburgh.  The schedule has it at the GW at 1700 this afternoon and anchored at the Statue by 2000 (8 pm), departing for the East River at 0300 Wednesday.

The photo below offers a view from the stern of Mister Jim, thanks to Ashley Hutto.

For some previous interesting cargoes moved by CMT tugs, click here (for beer) and here (for a previous HRSG).

From the Line Locker 24

Let’s start with two photos thanks to Ashley Hutto, first one from last year.  Remember the HRSG aka “the cyclops” that came down the Hudson?  Tomorrow, another is scheduled to start a journey, then heads for Bridgeport.

Mister Jim above and below as platform, as well as Daisy Mae in the distance, will be involved in the transfer.  By Tuesday late afternoon, the HRSC is scheduled to be at the GW Bridge, and will overnight near the Statue of Liberty before entering the East River and into the Sound.  I’ll miss most of it, since I’ll be in Albany all next week.

No . . . I’m not entering politics.

Another unusual visitor was captured here by Tim Hetrick;  Megan Beyel passes Storm King here, towing a barge upriver.  The photo effectively shows the scale of Storm King.

OSVs like Megan Beyel are quite rare in the Hudson Valley, but they do appear. Four years ago Michael Lawrence spent some time in and out of the sixth boro working on a pipeline project.

Of course, there is a sixth boro quasi-resident OSV . . .  Rana Miller.

 

Rana‘s frequent mission is transporting Yokohamas, used to fender tankers transferring product offshore.

 

And from rubber to rubber, here’s a small USN tug moving rendering barrier around.  This photo comes from George Schneider, who writes, “Your photo (scroll) represents the smallest of them, the 19-footers, [like this one] one towing fender-style booms  (barriers?), but they also work as gate boats for the anti-swimmer booms  (barriers?) mentioned.  As you can see this one is officially designated 19BB0212, but has the local designation BB4.  They adopt some of the jargon from their origins as log broncs  (and scroll to Skillful) and call them “Beaver Boats” to differentiate them from the other boats designed to transport or place the light oil pollution booms.   This one was built by Chuck’s Boat and Drive Company (“C-Bad”) of Longview, WA, who also built 25-foot version for the Navy.  I imagine you’d find them at just about any station where the Navy ties up their ships.  At least 12 of the 19-footers and at least 22 of the 25-footers have been built for the Navy, as well as other designs that begin to look more like conventional pushboats as they grow in size. ”  Thanks much, George.

Finally, thanks to Steve Munoz, another one of these small tugs, this one spotted near the USS Constitution in Charlestown MA.

Many thanks to Ashley, Tim, George, and Steve for the photos and info.  The photos of Rana Miller by Will Van Dorp.

Other Peoples Photos 64

I appreciate it when folks send in photos they’ve taken.  Sharing photos is one of the joys of the Internet.

Here from Ashley Hutto, Mister Jim pushing five barges, upbound through the Highlands.  If you could swivel the camera to the right, you’d be looking at West Point.  I love the reality-defying lens.

The next two photos come from Phil Porteus . . .  you’re looking across a scrap barge at a set of barges filled with special Delaware Bay sand heading west in the  KVK and

pushed by the fairly new Daisy Mae.

From Jake van Reenen, this is what a small tug looks like on an Interstate, in this case before heading north mostly on I-95.  Photo taken in Miami.

From Sean McQuilken, it’s commissioning time for

USS Ralph Johnson, its namesake being a 19-year-old Marine who died in Vietnam in March 1968, a half century ago.

And last but not at all least, thanks to Hugo Sluimer via Fred Trooster, it’s the “US pilot boat” Elbe on the hard near Rotterdam.  Post-publication note:  Elbe WAS a pilot boat in the US, but she was way way more.  See here.

Many thanks to Ashley, Phil, Sean, and Fred.

 

Helen Laraway 2

When Helen Laraway first appeared on this blog three years ago, I stated, accurately, that she was likely the only tug based in Coeymans NY.  How that has changed!!  Now there are more than half a dozen, and they stay busy with some high profile jobs like beer tanks and steam generators.

Enjoy some photos of taken of Helen in different locations recently.  Click here for my post Helen Laraway,  the boat as viewed by the stag on Bear Mountain.

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is off on another gallivant.

 

Random Ships 59

Thanks to Ashley Hutto, here’s a salt ship lightering in the Upper Bay.

The ship–Sadlers Wells–has since departed for Houston.  I took the photo below, and all the others, on Monday.   That’s Mister Jim and barge alongside.  I’m curious about the name, given its association with an English theater opened in 1683 by a Richard Sadler.

I didn’t immediately notice that the blue stack logo was made up of four P’s canted so as to look like blades of a propeller.

Panstellar, a fabulous name, was also here discharging salt.  Click here to see the rest of the “pan-” fleet.

Seaenvoy is less than a year old.  I don’t know if the bow design is an upcoming trend.

 

It has since departed for Amsterdam.

Chemical Hunter–an intriguing name—gets around for a smallish chemical tanker.

 

Pacific Jewels arrived here from Venezuela.

Overseas New York, a Jones Act tanker,  was launched in Philadelphia in 2008.

George Washington Bridge, despite a sixth boro sounding name, is a “K” Line vessel. 

Thanks to Ashley for for first photo;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 221

Just to reiterate . . . random in the sixth boro these are.  And the other day, I felt blessed for reasons you’ll understand by the end of this post.  Here Atlantic Enterprise emerges from the Arthur Kill and heads for home in Newark Bay.  That church, “a scaled down copy of the great cathedral at Cologne,” makes this seem quite a European-inflected image.

I took all these photos that weather day last week . . . note how the rain in downtown Elizabeth washes out the Union County Courthouse tower.

A bit later Mister Jim enters the east end of the Kills and then

feigns a ship assist.

The mighty Patricia travels east for a scrap run.

 

as Janet D moves in the direction

of her base.

Why did I feel blessed . . . ?  In the same but of morning, I saw both Atlantic Enterprise and Atlantic Salvor

although not in the same frame, they must have met up in the DonJon yard over in Port Newark.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Fog ‘n Ice

For both photos today, thanks to Ashley Hutto.    When the air is much warmer than the water, Helen Laraway may look like this.

And when it’s just plain cold and clear, Mister Jim in broken and refrozen ice looks like this.  For a look at how Mister Jim looked just a year and a half ago, click here and scroll.

Here’s some Great Lakes icebreaking, and here’s a lot of foggy tugster posts.

And from exactly nine years ago as a plane-fishing Flight 1549 operation was going on, what a miracle that was!

Many thanks again to Ashley for sharing these photos.

Thanks to Paul Strubeck 4

Here are previous posts in this series, and here’s probably the most dramatic set of photos ever from Paul, taken January seven years ago.

Below, that’s the view of the mouth of the Rondout . . . . and the light at the end of the north breakwater, which looks so beautiful here.

Here’s a view along the deck of Cornell, when

Frances was about to pass, headed north on the Hudson,

which looks like the concrete parking lot of an abandoned shopping mall.

 

 

But commerce goes on, Katherine Walker on station

and Haggerty Girls moving heating oil.

Daisy Mae, however, is making her maiden voyage home, up to Coeymans.

Many thanks to Paul Strubeck, who sent me these photos as soon as he thawed out from the trip.

And completely unrelated, I just added a new blog to my blogroll, GirlsAtSea, started this month by a Romanian bridge officer named Diane.  Check it out here or from the blogroll.

 

Random Tugs 217

Genesis Vision has just gone onto the wire from alongside, and

tightens it, moving the barge outbound for Florida.  Click here for a 2013 photo of Genesis Vision as Superior Service.

Stephen Reinauer steams out to the Lower Bay to stand by with a barge just

vacated by Timothy L.

McKinley Sea returns in the direction of its barge out in the Upper Bay.

Hunting Creek provides a needed boost as Pokomoke moves Double Skin 39 out of the dock at IMTT.

In the fog, there’s a negotiation going on between Evening Mist and Evening Star that took me a bit to figure out . . . Ah . . .

Star goes into the notch of B. No. 250, and then Mist assists in the 180 degree turn.  Note the pink ribbon on Mist’s stack?

My father would say, “Dean‘s lit up like a Christmas tree.”

Helen Laraway . . . assisting?

 

The truth about Helen is that she was waiting as Anthem was departing.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.