Exotics 11

This is yet again a nautic scene in the Narrows, so I’ll bet you’re wondering why this title.

It doesn’t appear all that exotic either, compared with other posts of this title.   But I’m thinking someone might be reaching way back to an epic if pungent voyage in 1987 and figuring this out.

 

Hang in here with me.  Check out the name.  Break of Dawn came through the Narrows Saturday morning in the rain, quite a few hours beyond the break of dawn.   Recall Mobro Marine?

Remember the Mobro 4000, and the garbage barge hauling Long Island trash for two months, causing states’ conflicts and several near international incidents . . .?  It’s been memorialized in a kids’ book, if you want to help your kids or grandkids familiarize themselves with sixth boro (and beyond)  lore . . ..  I was living in NE Massachusetts in 1987, and I followed this story closely.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who got rained on while getting these photos, standing off to a water side while hundreds of runners pounded the esplanade between Owls Head and the VZ Bridge rest area.

 

Random Tugs 237

Kirby Moran and James D Moran wait, like a team of horses, actually a team of 12,000 horses.

Here’s a different perspective on Kirby as she returns from a job.

CMT Otter and a salt barge lies alongside Nord Summit while along the other side, the venerable Twin Tube reprovisions from stern starboard.

Atlantic Salvor (or Enterprise??)  . . . I’ll never catch up as she heads for one of the many skylines of Brooklyn.  By the way, has anyone caught a photo of Hunter D in the sixth boro?

With Shooters Island and beyond that the cranes of Howland Hook in the background, it’s Discovery Coast, these days somewhat rare in the sixth boro.

Mister Jim is looking sharp these days, much better than her earlier livery.

Kodi is quite far away here, but she is a mere 42.6 footer.

Bering Dawn . . . she’s been on the East Coast some time now,

but all told, she’s spent more time on the West Coast.

The elusive Thomas stopped by the salt pile the other morning to retrieve a crane.

Margaret Moran . . . as always assisting ships into and out of the sixth boro.  More Margaret soon.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 235

I take a lot of photos.  A few are extraordinary, IMHO.  The photo below ranks among that select set.

Above and below, it’s Jonathan C Moran.  Sharon Sea heads for sea above.

Atlantic Salvor takes yet another scow filled with dredge spoils out to the dumping grounds.

Atlantic Dawn heads out.

Emily Ann tows Chesapeake 1000 down toward Norfolk.

St Andrews moves a petro barge.

Frances has a headline to a barge in the anchorage.

Two Vane boats wait in Gowanus Bay.

And James D. has a line onto ONE Stork.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Tugs 135

First time photo of this tugboat underway . . . Stephen B pushing James Joseph.  AND first time photo on this blog by Glen Dauphin, whose work I have admired on FB.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the same tug–previous name–and sans upper wheelhouse.  I took the photo on New Years Day.

Haggerty Girls and  RTC 107, with an assist from Matthews Tibbetts . . . getting underway.

Franklin Reinauer pushing past . . .

Kimberly Poling with Edwin A. Poling, no doubt headed up to where the ice is thicker.

Eric McAllister precedes her.

And finally Pacific Dawn . . .

. . . coming in from Gravesend Bay, where . .

can anyone explain what part of the gas project–if any–they’ve been working on just off Coney Island’s western tip?

Thanks much to Glen for the first photo above.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Existing LNYBL Addition

LNYBL?  Gulf of Mexico?  North Sea?  Persian Gulf?  No . . . it’s Lower NY Bay, and these days it’s populated with unusual equipment.

That’s a spudded jackup barge holding Weeks 751, and off to the right, it’s an exotic

called Michael Lawrence.  And I’m betting the working is happening in the same place DSV Joseph Bisso was operating about a half year ago.

 

Two other tugs tending the work barge Bisso D/B Boaz are Pacific Dawn 1974 (ex-Pelican Magic) –above and below–and

Smith Invader (2006).

And what’s going on is the LNYB Rockaway Lateral Project, a  three-mile connection between Brooklyn and the existing offshore pipeline.  A closer-up map can be found here.  Anyone know how long ago the existing Transco pipeline went in?

More details of the deal here.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s off the Canal for at least another day and a half.

Really Random Tugs 20

Here’s a range of photos from the present to the unknowable past.  Gage Paul Thornton . . . 1944 equipment working well in adverse 2014 conditions.   Photo by Bjoern Kils of New York Media Boat.

In 2007, McAllister Responder (1967) moved Peking (1911) across the sixth boro for hull inspection.  Photo by Elizabeth Wood.  That’s me standing on port side Peking adjacent to Responder house.

1953 Hobo races in Greenport Harbor in 2007.

A glazed over Gulf Dawn (1966)  inbound from sea passes BlueFin (2010).

Deborah Quinn (1957) awaits in Oyster Bay in 2010.

HP-Otter and HR-Beaver . . .  said to be in C-6 Lock in Fort Edward yesterday.  Photo by tug44 Fred.   New equipment chokes on ancient foe but no doubt will be dried off to run again.  Compare this photo with the fourth one here.

Unidentified tug on Newburgh land’s edge back in 2009.  I’ve been told it’s no longer there.

Unidentified wooden tug possibly succumbing to time in August  2011.

Ditto.  Wish there was a connection with a past here.

Thanks to Bjoern, Elizabeth, and Fred for their photos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Ice 3

Here was a post I did four years ago.  Scroll through and the second image from last is an icebreaking run I did with Cornell in the Kingston NY area.  Here were my posts Ice 2 and the first Ice.

Below . . . a foto from Gerard Thornton showing Gary Nelson on Gage Paul Thornton.  Gary seems to be keeping relatively good humor in spite of the cold.

Gulf Dawn returns a dredge scow to the AK.

See the icicles on an anchor which less than a month ago was splashed with tropical water.

Margaret and Laura K. Moran assist Valle Azzurra in from sea.

McAllister Sisters heads upriver with

RTC 60 and –I’m speculating– lots of heating oil for New York state homes.

McAllister Girls –here passing Sassafras–is a boat I haven’t seen in a while.

Thanks to Gerard Thornton for the first foto;  all others by Will Van Dorp, who believes that one reason to put up such cold fotos  is so that we can look back in July and feel delightfully cooled by these images.

Random Tugs 114

Sunrise to the left of Coney Island Light and tug Escort, a Jakobson boat.  Note how calm the water is.

The mighty Resolute passing the lofty Chesapeake Coast, with a loftier tower off in the distance.

James Turecamo–a Matton boat– tailing Stolt Aquamarine

Gulf Dawn with GL 54

Escort six hours after the lead foto . .  notice what 22+ knot wind out of the west does.  That’s Taft Beach disappearing  behind the island.

And Potomac heads eastbound.  I’m thinking to use Robbins Reef light as the terminal punctuation for all posts this week.  Do you remember these signs that used a product name in the same way?  I’m gathering if you are over 55 and a US resident, you’ll know about Burma Shave.  Otherwise, you’ll think I’ve lost it again.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, this morning.

And check out this Staten Island Advance story on Robbins Reef light rehab work, featuring my foto!

Road Fotos 18

Ironically, Road Fotos 17 were taken where this post ends up.  And I had planned NOT to post today, but . . .  time affords posting, and posting makes a drive more like a gallivant.  Given that I drove to Hampton Roads, it’s interesting to reflect on what scenes are absent from this post.  Three hours after locking my house door, I was on New Jersey at the southern tip on NJ, looking

across Delaware Bay, where I narrowly missed a close up

with a Kirbyfied . . .  can you guess? . . . .

Greenland Sea.   Lots of other vessels anchored just outside the channel, here looking roughly toward the northwest.

Entering Lewes, we met a dozen or so dolphins . . . who all managed to evade

my camera, which seems to be more skilled with stationary objects like this pilot boat.

I’m guessing a fish boat, although I’ve not seen this configuration before.   It reminds me of an updated version of a menhaden boat?

The Cape Charles light is a skeleton a quarter mile inland.

The lights at Fort Story in the background, and Trabzon and Red Iris anchored outside Hapmton Roads.

This might be USS Samuel Eliot Morison foreground and USCGC Legare farther away.  And then again, the nearer vessel might be something else.

And finally, any guesses what Atlantic Dawn is towing into the mouth the the Chesapeake?

Cutterhead dredge Illinois!!  If Illinois makes it all the way to the sixth boro, you know who will have more opportunities to perfect her rendition of the toothy snouted machine.

And the reason for this gallivant–other than gallivanting for its own sake– will be clearer tomorrow.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp today.

@#$#!! . . . as I write this, USAV Winfield Scott is passing the precise location Atlantic Dawn was 90 minutes ago.  To see USAV Winfield Scott, check Jed’s most recent post here.

Clues

Here’s a game:    I show part of a foto, and you might try to identify the vessel . . .

an answer of Marion C. Bouchard would have been correct.  Doubleclick enlarges most.

Let’s start here.  Although I didn’t take this foto, I did refer to it recently on this blog.  Note the logo.  Any guesses?

Unusual exhaust location . . .

“training wheels”

those can’t be superhigh steamer stacks, can they?

angular hull profile

tiny tires as fenders, or  …

Terrapin Island has a stack forward of the house.

Ellen McAllister, of course.

The unique Odin tailed by Ross Sea over by the Goethals Bridge.  Ross Sea seems to sprout a massive starboard stack here.  Anyone know whose stacks those really  are?

Lois Ann L. Moran

Huge tires, actually, on the gargantuan Atlantic Salvor.

And here’s the final one.  It’s Break of Dawn.  When I read that the tug that had the misfortunate to take the job of towing Mobro 4000, I assumed it was a local independent tug, not a fleet sibling of Dawn Services.    This blog has run fotos of Baltic Dawn and Atlantic Dawn.

For a fuller story of the motivations behind the “garbage job,” read this, starting from p. 243.

For the artistic story behind the children’s book, see this link for the series of decisions and sketches involved in creating the story.  As a disclaimer … I haven’t read the book and realize some controversy surrounds it, but check out the Amazon page video about the author’s process in creating the artwork.  To me, one important story here is an honest ambitious  crew doing a job that captures them, transforming them into pawns of a diverse, far-flung, and powerful interest groups.

The Break of Dawn fotos come thanks to Harold Tartell.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  I just added a blogroll link to Lars Johnson’s site on Swedish tugs and other vessels.    Thanks much to  Björn Wallde for sending these along.  Check out his comment for fotos!

And talking about being pawns . . .  my account of my time as a hostage in Iraq exactly 20 years ago is reaching its climax on the Babylonian Captivity site.  If you’ve not been reading it, my detention lasted from August until December 1990;  to read the account in chronological order, see the note upper right on the homepage.