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Houma, Long Island Jakobson-built for Texaco, lasted from 1970 until 2017.
This Frederick E. Bouchard (1975) is now Mary Emma, currently working in the Gulf of Mexico.
This Shannon McAllister, currently in Narragansett Bay, came off the ways in 1991 as Alice Winslow.
James Turecamo was launched in the Hudson River in Cohoes in 1969, not far from where she still works. Stolt Aquamarine, launched 1986, was scrapped at Alang in 2016.
Escort came out of the Jakobson yard in 1983; the past few years she’s been Northstar Innovator, which I’ve never seen.
Hunt Girls is another 1983 model; after a long time on the hard in Tottenville, she recently came out as Henry Girls, which I’ve yet to see as well.
As a supporter of “long shot” cases, I long thought the 1887 NY Central #13 would make its way back into the water. Unfortunately she was scrapped in 2017.
And finally, from a decade ago, the still Alice Oldendorff came into town laden with Nova Scotia rock, assisted by Robert E. McAllister, ex-YTB-803, as USCG 25659 cruises past. Alice is now Algoma Verity, a veritable hard-working aggregate hauler now sailing near the Bahamas.
All photos from November 2013, any errors, WVD.
The multi-colored lines here show the marathon between Pensacola and Crystal River, a shoreline that seemed endless and relatively featureless . . . . Each of the colored lines represents a day of travel. I learned this part of Florida is called the “forgotten coast” or the “big bend of Florida.” There may be other names, but the relative absence of settlement intrigues me. On the other hand, with place names like Sumatra and Tate’s Hell Forest and Swamp, it may be inhospitable. There’s even a song about Cebe Tate chasing a panther into that wilderness.
After a late departure from Pensacola, we were off the long Santa Rosa Island and its sugarwhite sand by nightfall.
Soon after we departed from Santa Rosa, we had the first heavy rain of the trip, but the storms
traveled fast and soon
we left them behind.
Remember in yesterday’s post I alluded to a contrast between LA-MS-AL (LAMSAL, a new acronym?) and FL waters? What’s different?
Only everything: no oil/gas infrastructure and very few boats of any type. There was one boat, a sport fish, traveling at least three times the speed of Legs III and on a collision course until two sets of five blasts of our battery of air horns caused that boat to drop off plane and then sheepishly [I hope] take our stern. I suspect the sport fish had all eyes on their lures and none on the wheel. No, I won’t post their photo and name here.
Our next overnight was off Saint Andrew’s Park, Panama City. Notice the pads 11 feet down in that super clear water.
Beyond Panama City, inland fires suggest agriculture-related burns, but I’ve never traveled by road in that part of Florida. Yet.
We gave Cape San Blas wide berth because of irregular shallows. The Cape was the site of Civil War activity and a whole series of lighthouses.
The chart said we had plenty of water, but the bands of lighter water suggested maybe we didn’t. Ultimately, the chart proved itself correct.
AIS said the tug towing tandems was Lady Terea, a name that meant nothing to me until I searched a bit more and found that from 2014 until 2018, she worked in the sixth boro and North River as . . .
Mr. Russell. Then she carried the livery of Tappan Zee Constructors.
That evening we spent jacked up off a remote area of St. George Island, the barrier beach that defines Apalachicola Bay. More on the Apalachicola River here.
Seriously, we saw no other boats with the exception of the two I’ve mentioned. I saw this mast in the distance, and an hour or so when we passed it, it was as minimal as the waters of Florida’s forgotten coast were untrafficked.
Then later, Lady Edwina passed us with a tandem tow; the captain hailed us to ask where we were headed with Legs III. He also said he’d started his career out working on liftboats.
A bit north of the mouth of the Crystal River, I brought the drone as close to the wave tops as I dared to get this shot, hoping for a blinding glimpse of setting sun under the hull, but this is the result . . . no blinding sun.
Morning showed a Dann Ocean boat and a large Express Marine barge.
Ocean Tower! it was.
Tending another Express Marine barge was Consort, which I’d not seen for over a decade!
All photos, any errors, WVD.
I hope you enjoy looking back 10 years as much as I do, although some might say I live in the past a little too much. Here’s some dense traffic, l to r, Twisted Sisters, Lucinda Smith, Maurania III, and Petrozavosk.
Up in Lyons NY at the drydock, Governor Roosevelt shows her deep 8′ 6″ belly. Rosie will turn 100 in summer 2027.
Greenland Sea . . . one of my favorites is likely on her terminal lay up.
Does Duty still do duty on the Delaware?
Maria J is now Nicholas Vinik.
Charles D. is still working hard in the boro, as she was here helping Zim Virginia around Bergen Point. I do miss the walkway on the WEST side of the Bayonne Bridge.
This Peter is now Long Island . . . or Long Peter if you like.
Resolute assists Maersk Kentucky around that same point.
Amberjack is now Kirby Dann Ocean white and blue, and some of the Bouchard boats are now this Penn Maritime gray.
Giulio Verne was in town for some submarine cabling, and I’ve heard tell there was a fabulous Italian chef on board. She’s now docked in Naples IT.
I went to Detroit for Thanksgiving, and made a stop at Mariner’s Church, alluded to in “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” [In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed. In the maritime sailors’ cathedral. The church bell chimed ’til it rang twenty-nine time…] . I’m told the pastor at the church objected to the word musty and now Lightfoot sings it as “In a rustic old hall in Detroit …” In fact, you can confirm that here.
And let me throw two more in. I took this photo seven years ago from Rhinecliff as I headed south the day I completed my season on tugboat Urger. This was my way of reconnecting with the sixth boro. Maryland is now Liz Vinik.
And finally, a photo from Jason LaDue . . . it’s Grouper as she looked in 2000. A week ago her second auction concluded with a winning bid of $4850, but I don’t know who tendered that bid. According to my source, no movement has happened since the auction concluded.
Happy November. All photos except Jason’s by WVD.
April 1, 2011 … and this was not a joke. More on this distressed vessel at the end of this post.
McCormack Boys and
Turecamo Girls with Barney Turecamo. All three are still working in the same liveries, I believe.
Long Island-built Escort was phased out as a certain coal-fired power plant shut down. She’s taken on new life as Northstar Innovator, based on NJ’s
Maurice River, although I’ve yet to see her.
Stad Amsterdam is not currently in Amsterdam; she’s not far away though in Scheveningen. If you want to pronounce this shibboleth as a Dutch speaker would, have a listen.
Spring sunrises . . . Coming into port is the 2017-scrapped Atlantic Cartier
escorted by Ellen McAllister and
passing Bow Clipper and Maria J. That tug is now Nicholas Vinik. Bow Clipper is now in Santos Brasil.
The venerable Chemical Pioneer was ushered in by Ellen McAllister and McAllister Responder. I say “venerable” because she was built using the stern of Sea Witch, after a massive conflagration in the port, told here by the Fire Fighter site. .
Two small USMMA boats made their way through the fog. I’m not sure the name of the vessel to the left, but the one to the right was Growler and she’s back (though hidden away) in the sixth boro.
Of course, I post a photo of Kristin Poling, which had only a few months of service left at this point. She started service in 1934 as Poughkeepsie Socony.
Marion M . . . I’ve been told she was sold to parties in the Chesapeake who planned to restore her and put her up for sale in 2018. Does anyone have an update on that?
And finally, we return to Le Papillon . . . the 48′ steel schooner was dragged off the beach but I lost track of her after that. I believe she was cut up.
It all seems like stuff from long ago . . all photos, WVD.
August can be hazy, and it appears that some August days in 2010 were, as below when Colleen McAllister towed dredge spoils scow GL 501 out and Brendan Turecamo (?) moved Bouchard barge B.No. 260 westbound in the Kills. Colleen has now traveled from sun to ice out to the Great Lakes, where the 1967 4300 hp tug is currently laid up. Brendan is alive and well and working in the sixth boro.
Kimberly Poling, then in a slightly different livery than now, pushed Noelle Cutler in the same direction. Both still work the waters in and out of the sixth boro.
These days I just don’t spend much time near the sixth boro at dusk, but here Aegean Sea pushes a barge northbound in the Upper Bay. Aegean now works the Massachusetts coast, and I recall she’s made at least one trip back to the Hudson since 2013.
On a jaunt on the lower Delaware, I caught Madeline easing the bow of Delta Ocean into a dock. The 2008 4200 hp Gladding Hearn tug is still working in the Wilmington DE area. Delta Ocean, a 2010 crude carrier at 157444 dwt, almost qualifies as a VLCC. She’s currently in Singapore.
Madeline is assisted here by Lindsey, the 60′ 1989 Gladding Hearn z-drive boat rated at 2760 hp.
Duty towed a barge downstream near Wilmington.
Recently she has sold to South Puerto Rico Towing and Boat Services, where the 3000 hp tug is now called Nydia P. I’d love to see her in SPRT mustard and red colors.
I traveled from the sixth boro to Philadelphia as crew on 1901 three-masted barkentine Gazela. In upper Delaware Bay, we were overtaken by US EPA Bold and Brandywine pushing barge Double Skin 141. Gazela, like other mostly volunteer-maintained vessels, is quiet now due to covid, but check out their FB page at Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild. US EPA Bold, now flying the flag of Vanuatu and called Bold Explorer, is southwest of Victoria BC on the Salish Sea. She was built in 1989 as USNS Bold. Brandywine, a 2006 6000 hp product of Marinette WI, has today just departed Savanna GA.
Getting this photo of the barkentine, and myself if you enlarge it, was a feat of coincidence and almost-instant networking, the story I’ll not tell here.
On a trip inland, I caught Tender #1 pushing an ancient barge through lock E-28B. I believe Tender #1 is still in service.
From a beach in Coney Island one morning, I caught Edith Thornton towing a barge into Jamaica Bay on very short gatelines. Edith is a 104′ x 26 1951-built Reading RR tug that passed through many hands. currently it’s Chassidy, working out of Trinidad and Tobago.
Here’s another version I shot that morning. For even more, click here.
The mighty Brangus assisted dredge Florida. Back in those days, the channels of the sixth boro were being deepened to allow today’s ULCVs–like CMA CGM T.Jefferson— to serve the sixth boro. If I’m not mistaken, Brangus has been a GLDD tug since it was built in 1965. Currently she’s in the Elizabeth River in VA.
Here she tends the shear leg portion of a GLDD dredging job. See the cutterhead to the left of the helmeted crew?
On another hazy day, a light Heron heads for the Kills. The 1968-built 106′ x 30′ tug rated at 3200 hp was sold to Nigerian interests in 2012. I’d love to see her in her current livery and context.
Java Sea resurfaced in Seattle as part of the Boyer fleet and now called Kinani H, seen here on tugster just a month ago. The 110′ x 32′ tug was launched in 1981 as Patriot.
And finally . . . probably the only time I saw her, crewboat Alert. She appears to be a Reinauer vessel.
All photos, WVD, from August 2010. If you want to see an unusual tugster post from that month, click here.
For some unusual August 2010 posts, click here.
Nothing says the Delaware River up around Philadelphia and Camden more distinctly than a group of Hays tugs, here Big Daddy, High Roller, and Purple Hays. That’s the stern of Grape Ape to the left. No company, I gather, has had more fun naming their boats than the Hays Tug and Launch folks. I hope Ed Roth got photos of these boats.
And I’ve never had so much fun on the Delaware River area than I did the day my friend John Curdy took me on a tour there.
Timothy McAllister was docked nearby. She’s almost a twin of the sixth boro’s Ellen McAllister.
Amberjack (1981) was still in gray. She’s now the latest Thomas Dann, but I’ve not seen her yet.
Jack Holland was pushing a scow. Today’s Jack‘s in Norfolk.
I’m not sure where the 1967 Jakobson-built Grace Moran is,
but Helen D is now Sarah D, and is regularly seen on the Hudson.
Active, a 1956 Blount product, has been sold south and is now Chandler B, operating out of Virginia.
Soon after I took this photo, Coral Sea was sold to a Nigerian company and, at last report, was operating off Nigeria as Uganwaafor 2. I suspect she’s currently inactive.
Texan here is mostly out of the notch of Ponciana. She’s currently near Beaumont TX on the Neches River.
And finally, it’s USS Arthur W. Radford (DD 968) getting prepped for reefing. About a year later that reefing happened about 30 miles offshore, which appears to be out of range for most fishermen.
All photos, June 2010, by WVD, who will be in and on the Delaware River later this week, way in in the wild part of the river in NYS, trying to commune with the wild. Don’t be concerned if no new posts appear for a spell after Wednesday.
Ten years ago . . . it seems like a lifetime sometimes. Minerva Joanna is still afloat, albeit at anchor along with dozens of other tankers off Lomie, Togo. Laura K Moran, currently working in Savannah.
Mel E. Lemmerhirt is now Evelyn Cutler, currently anchored off the Palisades.
Cosco Panama is now called Minerva and working among the islands of Indonesia. She was a 2005 Blohm & Voss build, with capacity of 2702 teu. She’s NOT to be confused with Cosco Shipping Panama, at 9443 teu.
Escort was still calling in the sixth boro. Now I understand she’s working in southern NJ, but I’ve not seen her in much at all since 2010.
Sassafras has left the Vane fleet; now she’s George Holland of Norfolk tugs, and again, not around here.
Colleen McAllister . . . she’s in the Great Lakes, although I’m not sure she’s working.
Maurania III is busy, now in Wilmington NC.
I never did learn the name of this boat, not the manufacturer, but it has simple beautiful lines in wood. Is it still around? For sale?
And sailing . . . I don’t think this’ll be happening this month in the sixth boro, given the number of passengers.
We’ll hold it up here.
All photos, WVD, who has begun going out by private transportation. It really is somewhat odd to walk around this way, but it makes sense to me.
I have represented these “retro” posts as a slice of the sixth boro exactly a decade ago, but it more like . . . what in the boro caught my attention. So welcome back to December 2009, as seen from today, December 2019, taking advantage of 20/20 hindsight. And, to digress, I’ll bet the term 20/20 [2020?] hindsight will seen a bit strange in the next thirteen months.
Over at South Street Seaport, a group of vessels then is no longer there: Marion M, Peking, and Helen McAllister. Of those, Peking, though not the oldest, has the longest and most convoluted saga.
Sea Raven is no more, but with those high pipes, she always caught my attention.
Cable Queen seemed to have a future back a decade ago, but naught seems to have come of it, since last time I looked, she was still docked in Port Richmond. For context to this photo of the 1952 vessel, click here.
NY Central No. 13, scrapped in 2017 . . . also seemed to have a future back in 2009, although the owner was not in a rush to complete the job.
In 2009, the sixth boro was in the midst of a several-billion-dollar dredge project, as folks were talking about these ULCVs that would be arriving after the opening of the new Panama Canal locks. GLDD’s dredge New York was part of that effort.
I don’t know if Volunteer is still intact, but I’ve not seen her in years. Here she lighters Prisco Ekatarina while Mark Miller stands by. As of this writing, Prisco Ekatarina is in the Gulf of Finland.
Does anyone know if Horizon Challenger, built 1968 in Chester PA, still floats?
Patriot Service currently works as Genesis Patriot.
I believe Escort is laid up.
And let’s close with these two. Below it’s the now modest looking Ever Divine and Tasman Sea, and assembling photos for this post, for the first time I see the Taz’ devil sign on the stern of Tasman Sea . . . Maybe I’d seen it before and just forgotten. Ever Divine is currently crossing the Indian Ocean.
There it is . . .
All photos taken in December 2009 by Will Van Dorp.
Here are the previous installments. Today’s photos all were taken in August–October2008.
Let’s start with part of the line-up for the 2008 tugboat race. If I’m not mistaken, the only boat left standing, as is, in this photo is St. Andrews, fourth from the left.
Escort, a Jakobson boat, is currently laid up.
Sea Raven, an intriguing “composite” vessel, whose hull was composed of two hulls of 1941 hulls, has been scrapped.
She was called Lone Ranger when she was in the sixth boro in 2008, owned by the CEO of Progressive Insurance. The former oil-platform towing vessel is still on the seas, now as Sea Ranger.
Ah! Cheyenne . . . she been on this blog countless times.
Frances, as she’s called now, . . . back then I feared she was not long for this world…
Baltic Sea . . . I’d love to see her now as she works the Gulf of Guinea.
I’ll repeat this photo . . . as a parting tribute shot, and since St Andrews is the only survivor, let me
show her tangling it up with Edith Thornton, with Dorothy Elizabeth watching.
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What does a 70+ degree temperature day in February in the sixth boro look like? Well . . . see for yourself. Cornell light and likely back from a TOAR training, rafts up to Mary Whalen in Atlantic Basin.
Along the Brooklyn shore, there was Genesis Glory with GM11105.
Brooklyn–ex-Labrador Sea–light was headed for the Kills.
An anchored Crystal Cutler stood by with Patricia E. Poling. Over in the distance is Malik al Ashtar, another 13,000+ teu container ship. See Crystal light, high and dry here.
Over near the foot of Atlantic Avenue, Linda Lee Bouchard stands by alongside B. No. 205.
And finally, along the BQE and Brooklyn Heights, C. Angelo with EMA 1152, the EMA standing for Express Marine, the outfit that used to deliver fuel to the sixth boro’s coal-fired plants. Express Marine tugs Consort and Escort used to be regulars in the port. I believe they are currently “laid up.”
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
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