Random Tugs 350

Here’s a sampling of boats working I saw in the sixth boro the past week; the variety of boats, though, is greater than these would suggest.

Frances . . . was launched on Long Island in 1957.  Scroll through here and see photos of Frances I took in 2010 when she still had the Turecamo wood-grain paint.

Emily Ann was built in Louisiana in 1964.  She’s been a DonJon boat for eight years;  to see her in K-Sea colors, scroll here. I’ve no photos of her in previous liveries.

Potomac, 2007 in Louisiana, and Fort McHenry, 2016 and Maryland.  They were built as Vane equipment.

Paula Lee is not a tugboat, nor is

Trojan, the anchor tender, but this equipment is currently in the sixth boro, but owned by a company based in California.  I don’t know the history of any of these pieces of Dutra equipment.

Ellen McAllister, Wisconsin in 1967.  Ellen may very well be the most frequently-appearing boat on this blog.  Here she is passing the southern tip of Manhattan just entering the East River.

Meagan Ann, Washington state in 1975.  See Birk’s encyclopedia-like site for photos of Meagan Ann as a Foss boat.  I have more photos of her wrestling in this DonJon crane.

And Joker, 1979, Louisiana.  Eight years ago, I caught these photos of the boat when she was called Taurus, a Kirby boat, and looking rough. Here, from 2007, is Taurus in K-Sea colors.

All photos, WVD.

Friday I hit the road going pretty far west, and maybe even finding a vessel called Far West.

From the Line Locker 34

This title means odds and ends . . . so this is a post that represents my clearing my decks, or rather desk or electronic folders.

Compare the two screen grabs below, first recreational boats filling the Sound but heading for safe haven in advance of Henri last weekend.

Monday morning . . . the same view.  Of course, pre-AIS, small craft would do the same thing, just there’d be no trace of it.

Occasionally while looking at AIS, you might see a sub.

Might there be a portal in that location between Montauk and Block Island?  If you see subs one day and Viking Starship another day, there may be cause for wonder . . ., and yes, I’m joking.

Any idea what these tracks are?

Above and below are tracks left by the same vessel, Ferdinand R. Hassler, a NOAA vessel used for hydrographic charting, among other tasks.  Thanks to  Hassler for reliable charts. I’ve yet to catch a photo of her.

Below is a photo from the 2014 Hudson River tugboat race, an event that will again not happen this year.  The big gray tug is Anthony Wayne.  A sister tug sold last week at auction for, as I recall just under $1.5 million.  Anyone know who the winning bidder was?

And finally, excuse the backlit photos, down along the BAT side of the Upper Bay, this assemblage has been anchored.  The tugboat is Ocean Tower, and she’s alongside

what looks to be a scow, a crane barge, and a crew boat.  The barge with the landing platform

is Dutra’s Paula Lee.  Anyone know where they’ll be working?

And while we’re doing all kinds of stories here, do you know “Bring Your Dreams,” aka BYD Motors?  Well, they have a connection with a NYC port here and here.  BYD . . .  you know that’s just begging for parody, like the one about F. O. R. D.  . . .

All photos, and odds and ends, chosen, WVD.

 

Thanks to George Schneider 3

George sends me lots of photos of ports I’ve not yet visited, and they’re convincing me to expand my horizons and see some new places. More on that later.

Let’s start in San Diego with Bernardine C, aka Bernie, a unique push boat that Curtin Marine built at their own facility in Long Beach, and her certificates show her as “Hull #1”.  She was completed in 2015.  Note her winch protected under her wheelhouse.  She’s registered at 45′ x 22′ x 5′, and powered by two John Deere Tier-3 engines, rated at 1000 HP.  Full information on her and other Curtin vessels can be found here.

Next tug along is Contender, belonging to Pacific Tug Boat.  She’s a 62′ x 28′ x 8′, built in 1964 (or 69 ?) at some yard in Long Beach, possibly Jones Tug & Barge, and is rated at 1200 HP.  George writes:  “In her previous life, as Rebel II, she and a similar boat, Tuffy II (now Tommy?), took deck barges to resupply Catalina Island on a twice-daily basis. I never knew them to miss a trip due to rough weather.  When another operator took over that franchise in 2016, both tugs were picked up by Pacific Tug Boat.”

Now for some boats George reported on from the Bay area, let’s start with Raccoon, a USACE debris collector that shows a slight resemblance to her origins as a Navy Seaplane Wrecking Derrick.  George:  “Where there were zones for seaplanes to take off and land, there was a need to get the wreckage of one out of the way quickly if one crashed, so those in the air could land before they ran out of fuel. These vessels, called YSDs, or “Mary Anne’s”,  were self-propelled crane vessels to fulfill that need.  To see an example of a YSD with an aircraft on its foredeck, click here.”

Of interest, Raccoon has an updated crane and burns a quite innovative fuel made of soybeans.

Here an image of YSD-64 in the Caroline Islands taken on 5 March 1945.  On her deck is an Avenger.  Click here for another Avenger.

Let’s end with Phyllis T, one of three 50-foot steel push boats built by Inland Boat Co. of Orange Texas in 2001 commissioned by Tudor-Saliba Construction Company for the retrofitting of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.  She is operated by Dutra Dredging and still in use.

Many thanks to George for use of these photos from California.

 

Other People’s Photos 54

Secret salts sometimes send along photos, and I appreciate that, since many waterways I’ll never see . . .  and that means boats I’d never encounter, like Reliance, 1979, 127′ x 40;’

Grand Canyon II, an offshore construction/ROV/IRM vessel, shown in this link getting towed from Romania to Norway for completion; and more.

Here’s an unidentified Marquette Offshore boat with an unidentified Weeks crane barge,

Paraclete . . .  look that word up here  and then see the rest of the names in her fleet,

Gulf Faith, 

USCGC Cobia, 

Gulf Glory and an unidentified Algoma self-unloader,

and finally a WW2-era tank-landing ship turned dredger and named Columbia, ex-LST-987.

 

All interesting stuff from Mobile, Alabama.   Hat’s off to the secret salt.