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July 13 saw my first sighting of this intrepid anachronism, here juxtaposed with a 21st century realm of Logi.
She was then probing the inland seas, seeing how far she could voyage, possibly looking for a passage to the Mississippi and the Gulf via Lake Michigan. OK, indulge me on that speculation.
Our paths next crossed on September 1, as she made her way through the Erie Canal,
with all the modifications that entailed and the use of sunstones to
avoid getting lost in the meandering rivers.
And late last week, Bjoern Kils of the New York Media Boat got this fabulous shot of her scoping out the sixth boro before
she slipped into a Manhattan cove for a spell.
I missed the display in the Winter Garden and hope I can get there again before the boat moves on.
Many thanks to Bjoern for use of that photo. For more of Bjoern’s photos, click here. All others by Will Van Dorp. And following up on some info from Conrad Milster, here’s a video on a Viking ship that traveled to Chicago in 1893. Yes, 1893!! And the crossing from Bergen NO to New Haven CT with Captain Magnus Andersen and 11 crew took 30 days. Then the vessel, dubbed Viking, traveled up the Hudson and through the pre-Barge Canal on its way to Chicago with stops in Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Cleveland. The vessel is still there in Geneva IL. Here’s another video on the ship.
To pick up on the NY canals’ connection, as we approach the bicentennial of the start of the Erie Canal, it would be great to seek out and archive any photos–still languishing in local photo troves–of the 1893 passage there of Viking, as well as of any other outstanding vessels that have traversed the Canal throughout its history.
And since my focus these days is on chrononauts, there is this fleet that comes through the sixth boro every few years. I caught up with them in Newburgh in 2012 and Oswego in 2014.
Let’s look at these from a different perspective . . . whether they can escape the inland seas shared by the US and Canada or not. The maximum size the Seaway aka Highway H2O can accommodate is 740′ x 78. x 30.’
So Kaye E. Barker . . . 767′ x 70′ x 36′ . . . Nope. But when she first came off the ways in Toledo in 1951, her loa was 647′ and she had no self-unloader, so back then she could have,
although there was no St. Lawrence Seaway then either. So Nope again. But she was not lengthened until 1976, so Yes. Her tonnage capacity is 25,900.
Mississagi comes in at 620′ x 60′ x 35,’ so if she’s carrying a partial load . . . maybe. She came out of the River Rouge in 1943. Her capacity . . . 15,800 tons.
In photo #2 above and the one below, notice the RenCen of Detroit.
American Mariner came out of Buffalo in 1979 at 730′ x 78′ x 45.’
So with a light load, yes.
Her capacity is 37,200 tons.
I don’t know if she ever leaves the Upper Lakes.
Chemtrans Elbe is a saltie, so obviously she’s a global traveler. She was built in Korea in 2009 and measures 423′ x 75.’
Edzard Schulte was built in China in 2011, 475′ x ’75.’
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
* here means . . . in freshwater. Actually there’ve been 50 posts under this title, but this is different. And note the color of the water, brown in the case of Isolda below because it’s steaming out of the muddy, clay-suspended Maumee.
In the blue waters of the St. Clair River with Sarnia on the far side, it’s Lee A. Tregurtha.
Headed unbound not far from the same location, it’s Victoriaborg.
Down in an ocean port along the Indiana coast and shot from a speeding Amtrak, it’s James R. Barker.
Over in East China–East China Michigan, that is–it’s Lubie making her way to the ocean, well over a week away.
Upbound out of Detroit, it’s Hon James L. Oberstar,
a downbound Algonova,
and to close it out today . . Philip R. Clarke.
Clarke (Ohio) was launched 1951; Algonova (Turkey) in 2007; Oberstar (Ohio) , 1958; Lubie (China) 2011; Victoriaborg (Netherlands), 2001; Lee A. Tregutha (Maryland), 1942, as USS Chiwawa–and you need to click here to see her initial configuration!!; and finally Isolda (Japan) in 1999.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
On the river Rouge, SS Ste Claire languishes, a slightly younger sister of SS Columbia, both designed by Frank Kirby. I’m reminded in saying this that I have some updated photos of Columbia, but plan to devote an entire post to her.
City of Algonac is one of two ferries that traverse the St. Clair River between Algonac and Walpole.
Here’s the other, the Walpole Islander. For some info on Walpole Island, click here.
Now cruising the river between Detroit and Windsor, Macassa Bay used to run out of Bull Arm Newfoundland to an oil platform.
Pearl Mist is a fairly large cruise ship on the Great Lakes.
Friendship operates out of Wyandot, as
do the Diamond Jack River Boats.
And here was a surprise … a Maumee River excursion boat Sandpiper.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
And somewhat last-minute but important announcement, Dr. Richard Zuczek, Deputy Department Chair and Resident Historian United States Coast Guard Academy, will speak THIS Thursday–August 4 at 6 pm, aboard Nantucket Lightship, docked at the northern edge of Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 6 (BBP Pier 6). FREE. It’s one of many many events down at BBP.
Here are the previous posts.
The 1980 Innisfree works the Chicago River, but it has New England roots.
The rest of the boats in this post work in the waters around Mackinac Island. Anna May is Wisconsin-built, 1947.
Felicity is a Shepler’s Ferry boats. For a history of the business, click here.
Straits of Mackinac II is a 1969 Blount product. The Arnold family has been in the ferry business here since 1878.
LaSalle dates from 1983.
Huron is Erie PA built, 1955, and the oldest vessel working for the Arnold fleet.
Joliet dates from 1993. For many more Michigan ferries, click here.
And to close out today, we’re back at Innisfree, maybe named for the W. B. Yeats poem. Here Innisfree passes the footprint-gone-wild for the now-dead Spire project.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp.
Let’s pick it up in Toledo, OH and the century-old GL tug Mississippi.
“Dieselized” 41 years after its launch, it still steers with a brass tiller in the wheelhouse, as demonstrated here by Captain Stabler.
Keep good paint and in repair, and a 1929 tug like Nebraska still has lots of life left. Compare that boat to its terrestrial counterpart, a 1929 Mack truck.
Mighty John III is a 1962 tugboat. The bands in the water distinguish sunlight from shadow in the Maumee silt water.
Sea Eagle II is Louisiana built but now flagged Edmonton, AB.
Pioneerland dates from 1943.
Titan, here in the River Rouge, dates from 1940.
Sheila Kaye is 65′ loa built in 1943. Was it originally a government boat?
Here in the St. Clair River is a small unit about which I know nothing. That’s Canada on the far bank.
Karen Andrie dates from 1965.
And finally, from my sister in Frankfort MI, it’s the 1956 Kurt R. Luedtke.
The last photo comes from my sister; all others by Will Van Dorp.
I’m reprising this from Troy, and it’s Lisa Ann. I believe she’s 2012 built.
Governor Roosevelt is almost a century older, and wears 1928 on her name board now. This is Marcy NY, an Oneida County town between Utica and Rome.
Also at Lock E20, here’s a clutch of boats and floats including BB152, an unidentified and in the process of being repainted tender, a dredge barge, and BB 142.
Tug Erie is there too. Anyone know when tug Erie was built?
Farther along is 1932 tug Seneca, formerly of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Inside the H. Lee White Maritime Museum in Oswego, here’s a model of a Catherine Moran.
Here’s what the label said, but according to birk’s site, she’s still alive and well under the assumed name of Sherry D. Anyone have photos of Sherry D out in the SF Bay area?
On the freshwater sea called Lake Ontario, it’s another tugboat from 1928, Karl E. Luedtke.
Tucked away in Silo City of Buffalo, it’s Daniel Joncaire II, about a year old.
In the Outer Harbor of Cleveland, it’s 1954 Duluth and fleet mate
1956 William C. Gaynor.
And here approaching the south end of the Detroit river, it’s 1982 tug Michigan pushing barge Great Lakes.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Tugster has been a work in progress, evolving organically, without a foreseen plan. So I just noticed that although I’ve done many posts on autumn sail, I’ve not used the summer sail title. Until now.
What better place to start than with SSV Oliver Hazard Perry. GCaptain calls it a 21st century ship mindful of its historic roots. It heads to Boston this weekend to pick up its first crew! I caught the photo here back on June 27, but the prescient bowsprite caught it passing through the sixth boro here over seven years ago.
Also, in late June near 79th Street, I caught schooner Columbia, another 21st century sailing vessel with vintage lines a la Burgess.
Sloop Woodie Guthrie is currently undergoing a makeover in Kingston. You can donate to help here.
I believe this is OMF Ontario, on the hard over in Lysander, NY. In the background that’s an unidentified tender 1937 tender Dana II (Thx, JD) and Reliable, the sad (engineless) twin of Syracuse. See more of Reliable and Syracuse here.
Anyone know why OMF Ontario is still on the hard? Launched in 1994 at the site of the former Goble yard in Oswego, It purports to be the first Oswego-built schooner since 1879! I’d love to learn more.
Here’s OMF Ontario rigged and at the dock in August 2013.
Here’s Steelwinds, a wind turbine cluster built on part of a former Bethlehem Steel plant south of Buffalo and designed to take advantage of the fetch created by the prevailing SWerlies.
Here’s 1992 built Spirit of Buffalo. Does anyone have photos of her transiting through the sixth boro, the Hudson, and Erie Canal back in May 2009?
Here’s another 21st century sailing ship, also with vintage roots that go back way further than the 19th century, and a close up
of her figure head. Click here for a good starting point of this vessel’s construction.
And finally, here’s Inland Seas, anchored near the Straits of Mackinac. For more on the ship project and its late founder, click here.
All photos taken by Will Van Dorp, who is back in the sixth boro but unpacking from the Go West trip and planning a Go North trip .
Let’s start with one that I can’t identify, other than by its name . . . Charlie E, I believe. I took this photo in Port Colborne.
I was wrong when I thought McKeil’s Sharon M I was an ex-Candies tug like Na Hoku or Greenland Sea. It turns out she was built in Japan.
I can’t ever remember seeing a heaping load of coal like this . . .
Petite Forte was docked also along the Welland Canal with barge St. Mary’s Cement.
I’ll put up a pilot boat post soon. Meanwhile, can you identify this pilot boat?
Jaclyn is a 41′ tug built in 1967.
Joncaire, it turns out, is an important name in Niagara history.
Eagle is a 57′ tugboat built in 1943 and operating out of Cleveland. Here she heads for the outer harbor.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is unpacking as quickly as possible, and preparing to repack soon.
Click here for previous posts in this series. I add these now in response to a reader who says . . .”but we have ship assist and harbor tugs in the Great Lakes as well.” And the most iconic of those are the GL tugs, an old fleet that has been not only maintained but also updated.
Here are ones I’ve photographed this month. Vermont dates from 1914 and Washington from 1925, and they are still on the duty roster.
These first two photos were taken in Buffalo, said to once have been the 3rd busiest port in the world.
In the port of Cleveland, much remediated from when the river burned most conspicuously,
Iowa, dating from 1915, towed Sea Eagle II up river.
Nebraska, 1929, was coming through a very busy railroad bridge here on the Maumee in Toledo.
Mississippi dates from 1916.
Idaho, 1931 and the last of this series to be built, was behind this fence in Detroit on the Rouge River.
In previous years, I’ve posted many times about a GL tug stranded in the Erie Canal.
Not all the GL tugs have this profile. For example there are some converted YTBs like Erie and Huron. And recently, tugs that were previously only in saltwater have made their ways to the Inland Seas.
All photos here by Will Van Dorp.
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