United Heavy Lift 2

Here was 1.  Background on the UHL “F” fleet can be found there. 

I’d thought to call this “non-random ships 001” because choosing to post images of her was my deliberate choice, even though I grant that her passage through the KVK randomly happened while I was there, like her, in the fog.  Anything moving was sounding the required prolonged blast at intervals of not more than two minutes; it was like call and response between UHL Faith and another vessel in Newark Bay.

See the Bayonne Bridge?  Name the more distant tug?

I don’t either.  I could have done this as a “fog” post.

 

Her two cranes have a combined lift capacity of 900 tons, or tonnes. 

Where do you imagine she was built?  I know that symbol is a stylized hook, but it reminds me of the Star Wars “rebel alliance” symbol.

Here’s the answer to an earlier question.

Patrice saw UHL Faith out to the anchorage.  On a clear day, the WTC would be visible in the background.

Madeira seems to be gaining as a ship registry location.  Could you locate it on a map?

 

All photos, WVD.

The UHL F-series vessels were all built by CSSC in either Huangpu Wrenching or Hudong.

Madeira is an archipelago off Morocco.

 

Second Lives 34

A year ago I posted some photos of Charles Burton in the last days before being painted anew.  She still had the Vane Brothers livery although the blue V on the stack had been removed.

This past weekend I caught the same boat, now called Helen, in the distance but from roughly the same angle.   This Helen might be a replacement for Helen Laraway, another CMT tugboat that Ive not seen in a while. 

She had CMT Y Not 5 on a wire and was heading for Salem NJ, where she currently finds herself.  

I’d wager that means she’s loading a half dozen thousand tons of sand.

Helen is a slightly larger boat than Daisy Mae, another CMT boat that has made that sand run as described here. 

All photos on a foggy Monday, WVD.

From the Line Locker 39

Lewis Cobb Jr. sent along these shots of Charles T. Jones passing through Cincinnati some time back.  Jones, formerly called Leonard L. Whittington, is currently upbound on the Ohio.  In the past month, I’ve been binge-watching inland line haul boats as interpreted by marktwained, a fantastic site on YouTube.  After some hours of watching random installments from the good captain, it might feel you’ve almost become marktwained yourself.

Take a close look at the bridge above.  What might it remind you of?  More info follows.  Cincinnati is a fun town to visit from an inland waters commerce perspective.  Too long ago I followed the Ohio, not enough of it and not long enough though.

About that bridge, well the metal coating color is called Roebling blue, if that’s enough of a hint.  More follows.

CMT Pike is a regular these days in the sixth boro all the way to Troy and beyond, and I mentioned her the other day.  More angles better lit can be seen here.

Between 2004 and 2011 CMT Pike was known as Delta Bengal.  Later she was HR Pike, running the beer tanks through the Erie Canal and other tasks while still in GE cleanup colors.

George Schneider  sent along this image of Delta Bengal, and I think you can in general terms see what modifications were made.  Naval architects and metal workers can make dramatic transformations.  Here and here are photos of CMT Pike doing what its retractable pilothouse allows it to do.

Many thanks to Lewis and George for sending along these images.  Sometimes it takes me a while to figure out a way to dovetail your photos into posts.

About that bridge, which I’m not selling, the one in Roebling blue is considered to be a draft of what Roebling soon thereafter constructed over the East River replacing the Fulton ferry.

 

Random Tugs 389

Call this the push knee set.  And let’s do it this way . . . given all the features that could be discussed, focus of these for oldest/newest, smallest/largest, and least/most horsepower.

CMT Pike.  An aside about CMT Pike is that she was not built with a retractable wheelhouse.  When launched, she had a fixed wheelhouse, the “stalk” of which can be seen directly behind where the raised wheelhouse is now.  I’ve not been able to find a photo of her in that original configuration. 

Shiloh Amon aka Jillian Irene

 

Lightning

Discovery Coast

Miss Madeline

And finally, a photo from January 2013 and showing one that has been sold out of the sixth boro . . . Herbert P. Brake. 

Have you written down your final decisions?

All photos, WVD.  All info here thanks to Birk Thomas’ invaluable tugboatinformation

Ready?  No cheating.

Just guesses.

Oldest is Miss Madeline, and newest is Shiloh aka Jillian Irene. 1976 and 2022.

Smallest considering both length and beam is Herbert P. Brake, and longest is Discovery Coast although both Discovery and Jillian tie at 34′ for beam. Lengths are 60′ and 96′.

Least horses is Brake, and most is Discovery.  They range from 375 hp to 3000 hp.

Random Tugs 387

Daisy Mae . . . time flies and this 82′ x 30′ and 3200 hp boat has been around since 2017 already.

Crystal Cutler, 67′ x 26′ and 1500 hp, I remember when she first arrived in the boro.  I mist be getting old here. 

Evelyn Cutler, 117′ x 32′ and 3900 . . .  I recall when she was Melvin E. Lemmerhirt.

Discovery Coast, 96′ x 34′ and 3000 hp . . .  she’s been around by that name since leaving the shipyard a decade ago. 

Capt. Brian A. McAllister, 100′ x 40′ and 6770 hp . . . half a decade here. 

Brian Nicholas, 72′ x 23′ and 1700 hp, I never saw her as Banda Sea, although I saw many other Seas.

Charles James, 77′ x 26 and 2400 hp . . . I recall her as Megan McAllister. 

Navigator, 64′ x 24′ and 1200hp**,  arrived here as that.  Saint Emilion . . .105′ x 38′ and 4800hp, I’ve known her as Arabian Sea and Barbara C before that, and this blog has been doing this since before she was launched. 

All photos and any errors, WVD.

**We know about autocorrect.  Here’s a message from Capt. Tugcorrect:  “Re 1200 hp, she’s been repowered and info should reflect that she  ‘boasts two MTU 12V2000s rated at 900hp each for a total of 1800.’ ”  Thx, Tugcorrect.

Random Tugs 386

Discovery Coast has been around for over a decade now.  One of my first times to see her was here. 

Lightning has only recently been joined by Thunder, here.  Might tugs named for other weather phenomena like hail and fog be coming?

Helen was only renamed that earlier this year;  before that, she was  Charles Burton. 

Thomas D. Witte appeared here only once as Kendall P. Brake, and that was a decade and a half ago with Powhatan, class-establisher for Apache. 

Defender last appeared on this blog a year and a half ago here . . .  She was

formerly Davis Sea, my favorite photo of which was here, struggling with solid water upriver.

Pearl Coast is a regular at the cement dock on the KVK, here with Cement Transporter 1802,  one of a fleet of barges dedicated to exactly that. 

And while I was at this location, I caught a convergence of tugboats,  Pegasus eastbound and Stephen Reinauer westbound.   Stephen has been in the sixth boro for nearly 30 years now.

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 381

Marjorie  moves her train cars.

Nathan G goes for fuel.

Crystal Cutler pushes her barge.

Paula Atwell travels light for a change. 

CMT Pike does her harbor rounds. 

Mister Jim here looks brighter than usual in the morning sun; in cloudy weather, that gray livery

obscures details. 

Robert IV assists at the stone anchorage.

Cape Henry leaves her barge to take care of some business. 

Captain Willie Landers makes a pass through the boro. 

And a rare sighting, Sea Crescent transits the boro on her return from Port Hawkesbury NS to Fort Eustis VA.  It’s likely that Sea Crescent originated this voyage from a port on the Saint Lawrence or even the Great Lakes.

All photos, any errors, WVD, whose 380 in this series was posted here.

Other Peoples Photos 104

Divemasters MV Atlantic Surveyor came into Tony A’s lens the other day. 

Click here for some of the diverse projects this boat has been involved with. 

Kapitein Rob caught a few tugboats in the foggy west end of Long Island Sound last week:  Mister T and

Navigator.

Tony A caught this view of Pacific Reliance and this one of

Helen.

Phil little sent this along, a “dramatic shot of the Douglas J in front of the ‘Sail on the Hudson.'”

And finally, how about a formerly saltwater boat now on the inland seas, Caroline McKee, sent along by Great Lakes Mariner. 

Thanks to Tony, Rob, Phil, and GLM for sending along these photos.  Below is a photo I believe I’ve never posted . . . I took it from the Mississippi River in November 2016; Coastal 303 was later to become Southern Dawn and then Caroline McKee, depicted above.  Does anyone know the story of the snapped mast?

Here‘s a freshwater-to-saltwater Coastal 202.

TugBoat Roundup 2022

Another TBR is in the books.  Where else can you see very upclose and personal some much-loved boats. I can and might do a post on each of these boats, but for now, just a survey.

Shoofly . . .  complete name is Shoofly Pie. If you want actual detail, click here and scroll;  you’ll see some profile of each of these boats (and others).  All I’ll say about Shoofly is that she’s a WW2 naval vessel evolved into a rat rod (We need a new term for this category.) vessel.  It has also likely sailed the greatest number of places, freshwater and salt.  I’ve photographed this boat before, but somehow, it’s never made it onto this blog.  Some explanation follows.

I frame this as a comparison of push knees on Edna A and J. Arnold Witte.  

How about this as a frame– l to r, Nathan G, Margot, Benjamin Elliot, and Edna A. — involving two-thirds of the NYS Marine Highway boats participating in the event. Then another set of NYS Marine was not present  . . . working . . . .

CMT Otter . . . represented Coeymans.  I learned some modification history of this boat last weekend.  It was once Delta Ram and looked like this.

This vessel is the fourth in the series of Atlantic Hunter boats.  I had photos of Atlantic Hunter IV (under a different name last year) but those photos like those of Shoofly  . . . disappeared.

My Pal Sal is not the latest government boat purchased by NYS Canals, although you might suspect otherwise.  To stray down a tangent though;  Sal has a song named for her;  we really need a popular ditty about canal tugboats . . . any or all of them. Lobby your favorite songwriter or channel your own inner songwriter muse.

W. O. Decker looked spectacular!  Last time I saw her some details were not the same.

Joncaire is several years into her new livery;  she used to be the red of NYPA Niagara River boom maintenance fleet, as seen here (scroll).

Here’s the view from the 4th Street Bridge, and

here from the 2nd Street Bridge.

All photos yesterday, WVD, who got out there before many people were crowding the bulkhead.

I missed a lot of folks who were there because I stayed in the welcome center most of the time, listening to the talks.

Random Tugs 378

Let’s jump back to the present . . .  and Doris Moran, both light

and moving containers across the harbor to the other container port back fields. If I count right, that’s 160 containers not on chassis pulled by trucks on the BQE, SIE, or other such clogged arteries.

Brinn Courtney is moving a scow, as

is Eastern Dawn.

Mister Jim and all the CMT boats seem to

be getting

a makeover.

Marjorie B. might be going to pick up her daily train cars.

Kimberly Poling basks in the dawn liight.

All photos, recently, in the sixth boro, WVD, who won’t be in the boro for the rumored tugboat race this weekend.  If you’re out there, take photos, especially ones with splash!