Brinn Courtney and RS815

All day long, one ferry or another crosses the harbor, and one tug or another

travels light from point A to

point B and

makes up to another vessel

to move it to where it’s needed.

I was fortunate to see this vignette

of one part of someone’s day play out.

All photos, WVD.

Crushed stone is a commodity indispensable for construction.  Previous commodity posts can be seen here from 2010, here 2011, here 2013, here 2017, and many other instances not identified as such, like this one.

Random Sixth Boro 13

Here was the post I’d planned for yesterday, put together in a moment when I thought a single focus was too elusive, random scenes, like a container ship anchored off Stapleton, elusive detail in a set all diverging from usual patterns. 

Or seeing a Mein Schiff vessel in town after a hiatus… with Wye River passing along her stern?

Or this bayou boat discovering it offers solutions all over the boro and beyond, here passing a lifting machine?

How about this speedboat chasing a tugboat, or appearing to, with lots of hulls in the distance?

Or a single terrapin crawling out of the surf in a non-bulkheaded margin of the wet boro?

Two pink ONEs at Global terminal?

A ketch named Libra or Libre heading south with a scrap ship at Claremont?

Two commercial vessels out at Bayonne?

Two Ellens?

And finally two elongated RIBs with

camouflage-clad Coasties aboard?

All photos, seen as slight deviants from existing patterns, WVD.

 

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 15

Here’s the newest, following directly from 12 for Sandy Ground and 10 for SSG Michael H. Ollis.  Or how about a redux for both. 

Now unless ferry and tug travel on a maglev frictionless cushion of air when offshore and distant, this is just the fata morgana effect when the vessels are seen a ways off, in this case, about six miles.   In the photo below, there’s a hint that Sarah Dann is riding on a foil board, 

and that the ferry has a dreadnought shaped hull.

Well . . . I’m just messin’.  These were photos of yesterday’s arrival of the third of three new ferries.  Note New York Media Boat out to snap their first welcome photos. Photos of the christening down in Florida happened months ago here.

Here the tow enters the Narrows, and the ocean called the Upper Bay, where Dorothy Day will transport hundreds of thousands and even millions of passengers in the next decades.

Ellen McAllister moves in close, not to provide the assist but rather to convey photographers needing to confirm that the vessel is in fact a ferry for the City of New York.  confirmation provided andn documented.

 

All photos, WVD, who’s ridden aboard MHO but not yet Sandy Ground. 

For reportage on all three newest ferries, check out this report from New York Media Boat here.

 

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 10 and 12 Redux

Less than a year ago, MHO came into town . .   MHO?  It appears to be the accepted abridged nomenclature for the ferry SSG Michael H. Ollis. I had wondered how that long name would evolve in common parlance.

MHO looks like this . . . key in on the rescue boats and the double doors midships.  But since I was riding MHO, I wondered what I’d missed in my time away, so somewhart belatedly, i snapped this photo.

Later I caught that “other” new ferry at St George . . . .  See the name?

There we have it . . . it’s taken about half a year for Sandy Ground [aka SG?]  to get from first arrival to being in service.

All photos yesterday, WVD.

Happy Lady and the Green Giants

I’ve posted a lot of unusual ship names here over the years. 

If you don’t read Greek, as I don’t, the one above and below are the same ship, just from different angles.

Triton is a 14k+ teu vessel, making it quite the giant. 

Whether it’s jolly or not, i can’t tell.  It is truly jam-packed.

Over on the far side of Triton, yup, that’s Happy Lady.

 

Justine, Ava, and Ellen all played a role in getting Triton safely into if not out of the sixth boro.

 

Taipei Triumph is a bit newer and has roughly the same teu-capacity. Notice how small the ferry Barberi, which is closer, looks in comparion.

Gregg McAllister is working the starboard bow, 

with an untethered JRT Moran following, and Bruce A. ready when needed.

Bow and stern on the two green giants are slightly different.

Other than the sixth boro setting, the escort tugs, my framing in the post, and the fact that all the photos were taken by me, WVD, they are unrelated.

Anyone catch the vessel in this post that I did not acknowledge in any way?

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 12

How about a new day, a new month, a new year, and a new hull in the sixth boro!  Can you recognize the profiles sans color?

As it passes Norton Point inbound, you begin to make out the color.

Once well inside Gravesend Bay–that’s the west end of Coney Island in the background–the colors increase in their vividness.

Here is the moment when the new ferry,

Sandy Ground, actually enters the Upper Bay portion of the boro, where she will work, if ferry JFK is her model, until the year 2078!!  That’s 56 years from now, and I’ve no clue what the sixth boro will look like–or what vessels will traffic it– 56 years from now.  Here‘s more context on Sandy Ground, Staten Island.

Once she was inside the VZ Bridge, I ran from South Beach, where I got the photos above, to Fort Wadsworth, and caught Margaret Moran sidling up to Sarah Dann.

I first thought the final portion of the tow would be Margaret‘s, but I was wrong; 

while Susan Miller provided a close-up platform, Margaret then delivered

crew to the new ferry, and

lines came across from Doris Moran, the tailboat for the last several miles to Caddell‘s , where the protective gear will be removed and the ferry prepped for service. 

 

By this hour, the fog had cleared just enough that the iconic skyline of Brooklyn and Manhattan was blotted out, giving the illusion that the tow is still at sea. 

All photos December 31 morning by WVD, who likes illusions and unreality sometimes.

Healthy, harmonious, hard-working, hearty 2022 from all of us at tugster tower.

And if you’re not going on a First Hike today, check out Trevor’s Seapixonline from New Zealand and beyond.  Tell him tugster suggested it.

For some other high profile tows done by Sarah Dann recently, click here.

 

Orange Government Boats

Look at the Staten Island ferries at St George.  “They all look the same,” I once asserted to bowsprite.  She set me straight.   Right now the second Ollis-class, soon to be newest hull in the boro, is making its way up the Jersey coastline at the end of a towline, its bow and windows boarded up for protection from waves.

So on this New Year’s Eve eve, let’s do an out-with-the-old . . . .  John F. Kennedy, currently the oldest–in service since 1965!!–will be the first out.  In fact, a fly on someone’s wall says

she’s already out of service. By the way, who were you in 1965, or what were you listening to?  Or, what were you driving or drooling over?  Watching?

Barberi [1981] will be next out, along

with Newhouse. 

 

And in the with new . . .  seen here next to the 1986 Alice Austen.

SSG Michael H. Ollis has been the training vessel for all three ferries of the newest class. She arrived in August here.  Whether at the dock being prepped or

running the harbor and practicing arrivals and departures, Ollis and her crew have been busy.

All photos, recently, WVD, who can’t wait to ride the new ferries and who hopes to get photos of the newest, newest hull in the boro tomorrow.

See my story on Ollis on page 18 here.

Multifarious Traffic Nola

Call this grand finale, third of three on Nola traffic . . .  but of course, that’s contrived; there is no finale except to my reporting.  Powered traffic has operated here since Roosevelt, the great grand uncle and aunt of TR,  Nicholas Roosevelt and Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt, their second arrival there in 1811!  I’d love to time travel back to join them on their first trip by flatboat and their second by steamer New Orleans.

I’d put money on a bet that Federal Crimson is going to load grain for export. The grain comes down river in barges pushed by the likes of Penny Eckstein.  Penny is part of the huge Marquette Transportation fleet, and at 4600+ hp, she’s one of the least powerful. 

 

The 2015 Crimson is part of the Montreal-based, foreign-flagged dry bulk fleet called FedNav.

Only recently have the old Algiers ferries—Armiger and Porteriere–been replaced by the sleek catamarans, including RTA  2.  In the link for RTA 2, there’s an unexpected SUNY Maritime connection.

Blanco is part of the huge Kirby inland fleet, approximately 250 tugs and over 1000 barges.

The 2012 Pan Unity, loaded along the big Muddy is on her way to the Mediterranean, and who knows where beyond that.

The 2012 Capt Niles Shoemaker comes from a shipyard in Bayou LaBatre.

Ensemble here was headed for Altamira MX, and has already departed there back to the US port of Houston.

Capes Kennedy and Knox have been at the ready here since 1996 and served post-Katrina.

I love the grand stairs here, and find I’m not the only person who frequents them as a platform.

The 1992 Capt. Bud Bisso has operated in these waters under that name since her launch.

Salvation, 2009, is another tugboat out of Bayou LaBatre.  Salvation is also a Marquette Transportation boat.

Creole Queen stays busy.

War Emblem has carried many liveries since 1982, including Kirby colors, but her current name is rather unusual. Her operator, Turn Services, operates over three dozen vessels.

I took photos of a sister of the 2017 tanker Stena Imprimis in the sixth boro, and I’ve yet to post them.  I AM remiss!

Mark Dougherty operates for ACBL has over 3500 barges and almost 200 towboats on the Mississippi. 

 

 

The 1981 Joseph Merrick Jones has been part of the Canal Barge Co. fleet almost since its launch.

All photos, WVD, who refuses to call this a finale of any sort since the river flows on, the boats traffic 365/24, and I hope to return soon. And although this blog may seem obsessive, I try to keep my own personal levees in place to confine that energy to recording vessel traffic on this blog.

Three 2022 calendars remain in the market stall at tugster tower, $20 each.  After they’re gone, I close the merch division for another 11 months.   If interested, email me your USPS address.

Government Boats 57

I have to go back over 14 years to find the previous appearance of Tybee on this blog.  Is she still based in Woods Hole?  Has she been here and I just missed it?  I can’t say.  I would say she rolls . . .

The groupbrain internet says she’s still based in Woods Hole, all except earlier this week. 

 

SSG Michael H. Ollis continues her training runs in the Upper Bay.  I’m eager to catch my first ride aboard her.

At least when her sisters show up, crews will be trained, having done their orientations aka Familiarization 101 aboard Ollis. Anyone know ETA of next of the class?

And finally, I was thrilled to catch Susan Miller and Gabby escorting retired FDNY Alfred E. Smith to another berth.  I forgot to follow up, so I don’t know where Smith is currently located.  Anyone help?

I was fortunate to catch her with backgrounds Pier A and

the Colgate Clock. 

All photos, WVD.

Unrelated:  I’m planning a post on the 1946 Matton-built tugboat that carried the following names:  Margaret Matton, Fort Lauderdale, Evening Light, Hudson, and Chyanne Rose.  As Hudson, she worked for Reinauer/BTT from 1978 until 2005.  She came up recently in a conversation about running oil up the Passaic as far as Wallington, and I’d love to collect stories.  Please help out with stories and photos if you can.

 

Random Sixth Boro 10

The sixth boro, i.e., the watery part that holds the other boros together, is the one that never sleeps, with current, tides, mechanical denizens and their operators, their flora and fauna,  . . .  I’ll leave the list there for now.

You can read the season changing in the fact that Eastern Welder has reappeared for sixth boro clams.

Morning Claire is a regular in the boro, but last time I saw her was several thousand miles to the south.

Stolt Larix is one of the world’s largest parcel tanker fleets, but

what really caught my attention was its PBA backboard, where crew might play watch against watch. I’m always checking for hoops on ships that pass.  I wonder how good the crew teams are.

Gregg is off to assist a tanker in.

Names intrigue me, and I find bulk carriers have the best of the best, like Mega Maggie here.

Century Royal headed into the North River, prompting me to double check her provenance, and her voyage from Progresso MX to Yonkers USA tells me she’s loaded deep with raw Mexican sugar, not road salt as I’d originally assumed.

Here’s an obvious clue to season.

And finally, I’ve not yet seen the newest ferry carry any passengers, but she is training for the shuttle.  For one of my most recent articles, click here for my review of SSG Michael H. Ollis.

All photos, WVD, who’s out to see what and who he might next see.