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Gene Chaser appears to be a sister of Ad-Vantage, which appeared here a year and a half ago. Click on the link at the beginning of the first sentence and you’ll see some interior shots of this 55-meter yacht support vessel. At some point, yacht support vessel Ad-Vantage was available for charter for a mere 67,500 Euro per week.
The script below the name Gene Chaser puzzles me, especially since I see signs for multiplication and addition. Maybe someone can translate?
Shooting into the sun from a low-on-the-river angle provides this unsatisfactory image.
Shooting down from Brooklyn Heights, as Claude Scales did for this shot, gets this image. Is that a submarine near the stern of Gene Chaser? In case you were wondering about the name, it makes sense when you consider the vessel below is the annex to Dr. Jonathan Rothberg‘s Gene Machine, currently off Connecticut. Rothberg is an American chemical engineer, biologist, inventor and entrepreneur. His business involves developing a high-speed “next-gen” DNA sequencing process. I think these vessels make him a polymath on the seas, an early 21st century version of Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo.
On the west side of Manhattan North Cove the other day, I walked past this eye catcher . . .
The cockpit of this “center console” Alen Yacht 45 is quite narrow and not enclosed,
but don’t underestimate this
Turkish beauty.
And to go to the other end of the tech and financial spectrum, what’s the story with the heavily loaded red 16′ Old Town Penobscot Royalex canoe? The paddler is not yet IN the sixth boro, but heading this way.
It’s Neal Moore, heading 7000+ miles from Astoria OR, city of the fisher-poets, TO the sixth boro, with an ETA of . . . whenever he gets here, but likely in December or January, depending on the assistance of “river angels” and relying on his own fortitude. As of this posting, he’s paddling the Erie Canal somewhere east of Lyons and west of Oneida . . . . That trip is longer than and tougher than the Great Loop. Technically, the Erie Canal is closing soon, but it’ll be open for him. Wave if you see him.
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Check out his website for lots of photos and articles like those excerpted below.
Many thanks to Claude and to the webmaster at 22Rivers for their photos; all others, WVD.
For GHP&W 10, let’s gallivant over to the West Coast and look at some photos there by Glen, who moved to the Columbia watershed after a long career working on sixth boro waterways.
Let’s start out with Shaver’s Washington. Notice anything unusual about this photo? Answer at the end of the post.
And some more starting with Kirby’s Sirius,
Shaver’s Umatilla and Foss’ Howard Olsen,
Shaver’s Deschutes,
Portland,
Vancouver,
P. J. Brix, and
and Bernert’s Diane B.
And in that first photo, Washington travels on the river any way forward she pleases.
Many thanks to Glen for these photos.
I’ve been fortunate to see the Columbia and do posts like this and this. But equally fortunate is the fact Seth Tane lives there and periodically passes along photos like the ones below, Fennica, along with sister Nordica, in Portland about a month ago. Fennica appeared here once six years ago in photos from Sea Bart, showing the Finnish icebreaker at work in the North Sea oil patch.
Fennica, as Seth noticed, was carrying a “capping stack,” the yellow object hanging from the red frame on Fennica‘s stern. Fr the difference between a capping stack and a blow-out preventer, click here.
Also, notice the shape of the hull in the photo below, especially the widening flair about midships. In the weeks since Seth took these photos, the icebreakers headed out to Dutch Harbor, AK, and toward the Chukchi Sea, where in the past few days a hull fracture has been found. To be followed.
Below is oceanographic research vessel Kilo Moana (T-AGOR-26), also in Portland.
Also this spring . . . Global Sentinel was on the Columbia, although she’s currently off the Oregon coast.
Many thanks to Seth Tane for these photos.
I believe I took this in summer 2005, my first view of Lincoln Sea from W. O. Decker. Lincoln Sea is now making its way northward probably along Baja California, if not already along alta California.
A few days ago and from the crew of Maraki–aka my sister and brother-in-law–it’s Salvatore in Santa Marta, Colombia.
And in the same port . . . Atlantico assisting Mosel Ace into the dock.
From Seth Tane . . . Alaska Mariner in Portland on the Columbia . . . river, that is.
And the next few from Fred Trooster and Jan Oosterboer and taken in Amazonehaven section of the port of Rotterdam less than a week ago . . . the giant Thalassa Elpida assisted into the dock by FairPlay 21. The two smaller boats are the line handlers.
Click here for a post I did four years ago showing FairPlay 21 nearly capsizing.
Tailing the giant is Smit Ebro.
Rounding today out . . . it’s W. O. Decker, Viking, and Cheyenne . . . before the tugboat race in September 2010.
Thanks to Fred, Seth, and Maraki for these photos.
. . . comes from the same source as Relief Crew 17, Seth Tane, whose most recent work is called Sea Train. Back in the summer of 2014, Blue Marlin brought in a dry dock named Vigorous–the largest in the US. It came on the back of Blue Marlin from ZPMC. That dry dock is now working, and below you see its current load, USNS T-AH-19 Mercy. Yes, mercy!! Here are some previous iterations of Mercy.
Photo by Seth Tane, although I tinkered with it a bit.
More Mercy here.
Click here (and scroll) to see sister hospital vessel Comfort in a post I did five years ago.
This NYPD officer of the peace got tugged right into a recent parade. When that happens, you know all things could get downright disorderly.
This last June post is a melange of Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79 in a setting rays irritating my camera,
Patuxent in the Philly dawn,
Sea Hawk approaching the St. John’s Bridge,
Patuxent redux,
Natoma docked in the Columbia,
Caspian Sea in the Delaware,
Surrie Moran in the same waters,
Aries in Portland,
Madeline,
Black Hawk,
more Black Hawk,
Cape Henry,
again Madeline,
and finally Lewiston.
Rounding things out, it’s Siberian Sea in palm trees country aka the sixth boro, taken about a year ago. I will resume the blog as soon as I can in a land with more palm trees
Thanks for reading the blog and sending comments either here or via email. Sorry if I haven’t acknowledged everyone who’s sent along a tidbit or nice word.
If you’ve never taken a Working Harbor tour in NYC’s sixth boro, here’s info. If you know the sixth boro pretty well–especially the contemporary commercial aspects of it, you might even propose to them to narrate a tour. That’s just me suggesting that, but there are folks who want to better understand the role of shipping and its interaction between the sixth boro and the five terrestrial ones.
Thanks to Seth Tane for the fotos of Aries, Black Hawk, Lewiston, Nahoma, and Sea Hawk. All others by Will Van Dorp who hopes to next post from the obscure January River.
Guess this tug? This and alternate fotos here are taken by Seth Tane. Answer follows.
Joan Turecamo (1980 and one of the last tugs built at Matton in Cohoes)in the foreground. Guess the one in the distance?
Natoma . . 1976.
Vessel in the distance earlier was Susan Miller, 1981. I’m guessing the barge is loaded with riprap for shoreline protection somewhere in Raritan Bay. I wonder about the origin of those rockaceous chunks.
Craig Foss was launched in June 1945 as LT-648 by Tampa Marine, one of over 700 tugs operated by the US Army at the end of WW II. For a foto of a Tampa hull, click here.
Peering over crane barge Delaware Bay, it’s Caitlin Ann, 1961.
It’s Shaver’s 1981-built Portland. For a foto of a 1947 ship-assist tug Portland, click here.
And finally . . a tug with a tent passing a clock with no hands, it’s Miriam Moran (1979).
Top foto is Amnav’s Revolution at the Rainier Foss shipyard in 2006.
Captain Charles . . 1953. Know the location? The bridge in the background is a clue. Answer can be found at the end of this post.
James Turecamo, like me class of 1969, foto taken just before yesterday’s planned building implosion. By that early hour, James had already earned a fair amount of “keep.” To see James in Turecamo livery, click here.
Hunter is something different! She’s just towed in a dead fishing boat. How much would a RIB like this cost new?
Catherine and Kimberly, both Turecamo, escorted Tonna up the Arthur Kill, past the scrapyard where Gary Kane and I filmed the documentary.
Jennie B, 1955, in the mighty Columbia.
Captain Bob, August 1945 Marietta Manufacturing Point Pleasant WV hull #538, is a one year younger sibling LT of Bloxom (June 1944 and hull # 519)! Also, in this run was Mary E. Hannah and James A. Hannah, posted here on tugster in 2012. To get a sense what Captain Bob (ex-Sea Commander) looks like high and dry–and by extension what Bloxom of Graves of Arthur Kill once did–click here. On the vessel below, I love the green “door.”
Scroll through here and here for more LT Army fotos.
HMS Liberty 1978 here sidles up to schooner Virginia.
Linda L. Miller, eastbound of the East River. Linda L. and Gabby Miller assisted in loading Mighty Servant a year and a half ago.
Coastline Bay Star, once known as Coney Island, dates from 1958.
Longsplice (originally Shrike, 1959) recently high and dry near the Arthur Kill.
Pilot, 1941 out of a yard in Sturgeon Bay WI, is a sibling of Spooky!
And this vessel, on the left bank of the Willamette, I’ve no idea. Anyone help?
Getting back to that first foto, the bridge in the background is the Bronx-Whitestone. Foto then is taken from the north end of that unique part of the Bronx called City Island.
All fotos taken in the past month by Will Van Dorp.
Very related: I’m looking for someone (or some group of people) to take over guest editor position of this blog for about a month this summer. Compensation is a fortune of sixth boro shellbacks as well as fame; you could become a paladin of the port. You really can be geographically any watery place. And you have to adhere to a disciplined foto-driven/sparse verbiage mix of workboats, history, eccentricity, and apolitical wit. Of course, you can add to that a smattering of your own favorite sprinklings.
Hmmm . . . does that describe tugster? Feel free to add to a characterization of the blog. But seriously, I need to step away for a while this summer . . . to gallivant, of course. Get in touch for details. Learning the blogging template is not difficult.
The blog will resume gallivanting in fifth dimension time travel soon, but for now, another set of contemporary Columbia River fotos.
A train travels the center of Main Street of aptly-named Rainier, Oregon, extending west and
back east.
I’ve never seen this line–BC Rail–out east. They move slowly enough that anyone could jump aboard, although the trip would be only a mile or so from here because this cargo is nearly at the dock, where
it gets loaded into bulk carriers like this, Ken Mei. Click here for info on fleetmates of Ken Mei.
Astern of her is a conventional bulker . . . Cleantec, maybe loading wood chips?
Further astern is Ocean Hope, log racks up.
Here Kathryn B passes on the Oregon side of what appears to be a sawing or chipping operation.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
I’m not confusing the Columbia with Colombia, but here’s what I found when I mistyped, on purpose. Colombia seems to be getting some new vessels.
But on the Columbia, Sommer S seems to be the most powerful vessel of the Shaver fleet.
Here’s the land office with Willamette and Columbia at the dock, as well
as Vancouver and Lassen.
On the far side of Sommer S are Deschutes and Tidewater’s Betty Lou (1950). Closeup, it’s Mary B.
Kathryn B is Bernert Barge Line’s sister to Mary B.
Click here for Bernert Barge Line’s plea to save the dams that make the Columbia navigable for as far as it is.
Foss recently announced it was withdrawing from the Columbia. A few days ago, Betsy L, Pacific Escort, and PJ Brix were parked at the dock on the Willamette.
Betsy L
Lindy Marie (1952) has unusual house lines. Note in the background the bow of the black mystery tug to the left and USACE’s Redlinger, maybe the fastest survey vessel on the seven seas.
This is an escort tug built in 1947 with obsolete technology just because it was effective.
When Portland II was service, it was operated by Shaver. Click here for a narrative of its operation and transformation to museum vessel. Click here for a foto of the vessel Shaver replaced the steam vessel with in 1981.
Yup, I gotta see the movie.
Parting shot, it’s part of the Brusco fleet. Nearer vessel is Sharon Brusco.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
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