You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Fox Marine’ category.

Happy please-go-vote day.  If you know anyone at all who is eligible to vote but won’t, have a chat with that person.  As a New Yorker, I voted over a week ago . . . early voting on a Saturday afternoon.

Some photos . . .  and your part is to 1) rank these boats by highest to lowest horsepower, and 2) identify which if any were built north of central sixth boro.  I’ve provided dates of initial construction, but tugboats are required to be well-maintained, sometimes repowered and extensively rebuilt.

The 1979 Miriam Moran looked this way in her October markings.  Cancer is a scourge, and I know this remembrance each October means a lot to folks who’ve seen the disease from nearby.

HMS Liberty has worked in the boro for over a decade now.

Laura K. Moran came off the ways in 2008, spent some years here, some away, but now she’s back in the boro.

Mister T, 2001, has carried that moniker ever since. 

Andrea, 1999, has been in the boro a half dozen years.  Here‘s how she looked back in 2016. 

Shannon Dann was built in 1971.

Dace Reinauer dates from 1968 but has been considerably rebuilt from the first time she appeared on this blog here.  See pre-2010 photos of her here and here.

Brian Nicholas, 1966, has been in the boro about as long as I’ve been doing this blog.  I did post a photo of her with Banda Sea name clearly on her bow here 12 years ago.

Foxy 3 was built in 1974 and first appeared on this blog as Barker Boys, a name she carried until 2009, when she was renamed Buchanan 16.  I don’t believe I ever saw her in the Balico livery as BF Jersey although I did see her with BF Jersey nameboards here. Note the folded back upper wheelhouse.

All photos, WVD.

Answers? 

Laura K 5100 horsepower, Dace 3400, Andrea and Miriam at 3000, HMS Liberty and Mister T and Shannon D all at 2400, Brian Nicholas 1700, Foxy 3  1600.

Built north of the sixth boro:  Laura K in Maine and Mister T in Rhode Island;  all others were built in Louisiana.

 

We alternate back to Albert Gayer (1897-1976) tomorrow, but to maintain connection with the contemporary sixth boro, especially in the cold, crisp January light, enjoy these five varied boats from this past week.  Name the one below?

Pelham, of course.  The mighty Pelham was launched in 1960, loa is 80.4′, and has 3000 hp.

Who was rotating Marjorie K?

On the bow was Miriam Moran, 1979, 99′ loa, and also 3000 hp.

Name that boat?

Harry Mcneal is a busy boat launched in 1965, 53.3 loa, and 800 hp.

Which boat is this crewman on the bow of?

It’s the robust Rae, launched 1952, 46′ loa, and packing 450 hp.

And this one?

It’s the unmistakable Charles James, which started as a GLDD tug in 1985, 77′ loa, and 2400 hp.

All photos and any errors, WVD;  numbers from tugboatinformation.com

More Albert Gayer tomorrow.

January is named for Janus, the one who looked forward and backward . .  . transitions, this Roman.  The connection is this . . .   one day i post photos from 2022 and the next or two I post photos from the 1950s, supplied by Albert Gayer.

Charles James, framed here by the big green Tokyo Triumph and an Apex barge, pushes a bow wave in front of her.

Here’s the 13, 600 teu Tampa Triumph class ULCV that followed Charles James.  You also notice Maersk Vilnius following the ULCV. 

I know that names are just for convenient, but I wonder why this class of five Costamare ships carry the names Tampa, Tokyo, Toledo, Taipei, and Texas Triumph.  Surely there are larger cities starting with T. In fact, Tampa and Toledo don’t even make the top 50 by population.  And if Texas,  then why not Tennessee?  Taipei is fine because it’s home to Evergreen, the operator.

She’s deep, although I’ve seen deeper.

From the time she starting moving from her berth to the time she departs through the Narrows takes avbout an hour. 

The fact that all those containers can leave safely makes an hour a short time.

She meets Oleander coming in for her usual Thursday appointment, and this meeting shows relative scale of these two cargo ships.

I mentioned Maersk Vilnius earlier in this post;  I don’t recall ever seeing one container ship overtake another as they race out toward the Narrows.

All photos, WVD.

Because the name and focus of this blog is tugster, you’d expect to see a lot of tugboats, both within the confines of New York harbor, aka the REAL sixth boro, and I hope you are satisfied that you find a plethora of tugboats in installments of this blog.  So here’s Random Tugs #337, post 4877, and the tugboat is Foxy 3 moving an aggregate scow.

In the foreground, it’s Crystal Cutler;  off in the distance it’s Normandy.

Diane B here heads east with a cargo in John Blanche.  I did an article on this unit some years back.

Joyce D. Brown pushes an empty scow east.  Notice anything on the scow that identifies it?  See the end of this post.

James E. Brown passed sister Joyce D. that morning in the Kills.

Franklin Reinauer that morning may or may not have been under control of the author of a tugboat captain who shared his tales a few years back.  I will stay mum. Off to the left, that’s Capt. Brian A. McAllister.

HMS Liberty muscled a barge full of bunkers to deliver to a thirsty ship over in New Jersey.

Centerline operates both Liberty above and HMS Justice below.

Susan Miller moves some material and equipment over to the project just west of the St. George ferry terminal.

Brendan Turecamo heads over to the next and the next and the next job.

Bruce A. McAllister assists a container ship into port.

Bergen Point came off the ways at Blount Shipbuilding way back in 1958.

So that scow Joyce was pushing above is called Maria and

this logo says it was once in the Disch fleet, now sold off in many directions.

All photos, WVD.

Saving fuel . .  . Foxy3 has Rae alongside and they’re passing a wall of a hull, or is that a hull of a wall….

Coral Coast is usually on a cement barge, but not now . . . .

Can you name that tugboat?

Let’s do regression, with Foxy3 and Rae approaching that tanker hull.

Double Skin 36 is what Coral Coast is pushing.

Name the tugboat pushing DBL 82?

Notice Foxy3 and Rae and SKS Mersey they’ve just passed?  Progression going on here with Mount St. Elias and

Coral Coast, whereas

the Fox boats are regressing.

 

All photos, WVD.

Unrelated, and a bit late, but do you remember the “green boat” below, AQS Tor?  It  was deck cargo lost off a yacht carrier Eemslift Hendrika abandoned off Norway earlier this month.  Click on the image to see the disposition.  More AQS here.

 

Rae was on AIS such a long time I suspected it was a ghost signal.  But sure enough, she came eventually into view, her 450 horses moving at a snail’s 3 kts.

She was pushing some sectional barges with spuds as cargo.

She was making progress however.

Go, Rae!

 

All photos, WVD.

 

 

I’m always on the lookout for “first-timers” in the harbor, but I’m equally thrilled to see the “seldom-seen.”  I realize that some people might see these boats everyday. The “seldom-seen” relates to me.

This is true of Pelham.  The 1960 built is on her sixth name, if I count right.  She started out as Esso Pelham.  You’ll have to scroll, but here are a number of times I’ve posted photos of her, in and out of the water.

Evelyn Cutler, a 1973 build,  is a frequenter on this site.  When I first saw her, she was a Great Lakes Dock and Dredge boat called Melvin E. Lemmerhirt.

In the few months that this boat has been know as Mackenzie Rose, she appears to stay quite busy.  That’s a good thing.

Rae also fits into the rarely seen list, although maybe she was laid up and is now busy again.  Meeting her here is Normandy. Rae and Normandy were built in 1952  and 2007, respectively.

Philadelphia and

Jacksonville are both recent 4200 hp Vane boats.  Jacksonville, 2018, is one year newer than Philadelphia.

I first saw the 1981 Genesis Victory as Huron Service.  Periodically, some of the Genesis boats do make their way into Lake Huron and beyond.

As i said earlier, Mackenzie Rose is quite busy.  Does anyone know her namesake?  I don’t.

Frederick E. Bouchard is the second boat to carry that name.  She was built in 2016 and operates with 6140 hp, but

these days she looks quite light and her exposed waterline somewhat rusty.

Barney Turecamo, the fourth (?) boat to carry that name, brings 5100 hp to the job.  When she was built in 1995, she had a different upper wheelhouse.

All photos, WVD, and taken in the past month.

 

Enjoy the photos.  Can you guess which of these tugboats is oldest?

Greetings Rae and hello to the crewman at the railing. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen Rae.  The first time I saw her I was with Bonnie and the tug was then called Miss Bonnie.

Several people have said Matthew Tibbetts is the best looking tug in the harbor.  Who am I to argue with them about that?

Pathfinder cuts a sharp image as it leans into its empty trash containers . . . . and the barge CVA-601.

Some mornings the dawn light enhances everything.  Because I was a NASA fan a long time ago, a tug named Cape Canaveral will always get my attention.  I’m guessing she may be the newest boat among these.

Above, along the left side of the photo, see the barge with GL 54 on it?  Ocean Tower was moving it along,as below.

This light perfectly complements Sarah D‘s lines and colors.

The sun is already rising well after 0600;  I took this photo of Ruby M before 0600.

A very light Frederick E. Bouchard passed me by the other day.

Normandy has the throatiest sound of the boats I know best.

And finally,  well before 0600, Emily Ann was moving a scrap (?) barge westbound.  I believe she was last on this blog back in June.

All photos, WVD.

Oh . . . the oldest?  That would be Rae, launched 1952, same as me.

Blessings of summer heat, if you don’t have to work out in it, are best relished right after dawn, or from the shade.  I chose the first option here as Barney Turecamo, made up to Georgia,

gets an assist in rotating from Turecamo Girls.

Once pointed, a burst of power from its 5100hp EMDs commits the ATB to its course.

Foxy3, with its bright trim ribbons gleaming in the dawn, is off to the job.

Doubleskin 57 arrives from somewhere in the Kills and Elk River

waits to assist Wye River

 

in placing it alongside the dock gently.

Marjorie B is off to some work, followed by and Poling & Cutler and Vane units.

The P & C unit was Kristin Poling pushing Eva Leigh Cutler.

On another day, Mister T was arriving from outside the Narrows

just as the sun cleared Bay Ridge.

And yet another day and different place, Curtis Reinauer waited alongside RTC 82 during cargo transfer.

 

All photos, WVD.

I hope you all enjoy looking at these retro posts as much as I do putting them together.  I’m seeing that 2010 was the year I started to gallivant extensively, so the division for July 2010 retrospective is part a is for local, and part b will be for away.

Count the boats in the photo below!  Greenland Sea is prominent, but in the distance, find a Staten Island ferry, QM2, Susan (?) Miller, a dredge operation where I see Rae, and a Reinauer tug (Ruth?) beyond that!  Greenland Sea is now on the hard in Houma LA, the SI ferries run regularly but with fewer passengers due to the covid catastophes, QM2 is in Southampton, the Miller boats are still busy, Rae is kept in reserve for special projects designed for a 46′ tug, navigation dredging is over for now, and the Reinauer tugs have proliferated and keep busy.

Navigation dredging has created deeper channels, and the Bayonne Bridge has been raised.  Miss Gill is now in Jacksonville FL, and GL 55, the dumper scow, is wherever work may require her.

The formerly-yellow submarine is located at the entrance to Coney Island Creek, a place I’ve not been to in almost a decade.

I never did identify the wrecks at the mouth of said Creek, which seemed then to have an abundance of blue-clawed crabs.

Jane A. Bouchard languishes along with the rest of the fleet, and Cape Cod, with one of the intra-port SSS barges here,  has moved to Philly, last I knew.

Barbara McAllister pushes B. No. 262 with an assist from Ron G.  Barbara has not been in the sixth boro in quite a while, the 262 is laid up, and Ron G has been sold south.

Cape Race arrives here in Atlantic Basin, with a much-changed lower Manhattan skyline.  The former fishing trawler/now expedition yacht is currently on the Elbe, south of Hamburg.

Margot still “keeps on pushing,” although I’ve not seen her down in the sixth boro of late.

And here, Patty Nolan passes a wreck–I’ve not yet identified it . . .  maybe you have–inside Sommerville Basin in coastal Queens. Patty Nolan has been on the hard a few years.

And here’s a photo taken exactly a decade ago today . . .  an unnamed houseboat being towed from Peekskill to Queens, not a view you see every day.  It’s Patty Nolan towing with gatelines.  Here and here she tows other houseboats.

All photos, WVD, who wishes everyone health and patience in this difficult time.  Also, these “retro sixth boro” posts take us back only one decade.  It’d be great to locate more photos of identifiable locations going back 50 or so years, the fifth dimension of time photos.

 

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