ρυμουλκά των συρών

. . . which sounds like rymoulká ton syrón, which translates as tugboats of Syros.  Syros is an island in the Cyclades, the archipelago SW of Athens. In fact, it’s THE island group that originally gave us the word archipelago.

I’ve never visited the Cyclades, but now I really want to.  Previously I have traveled from Athens west, then north all the way to Norway.

I’m not positive how to pronounce rymoulká, but the transliteration looks a like like remorqueur or remolcador, the words for tugboat in French and Spanish, respectively.

These tugs have classical names–Orpheus and Kerveros–and both operate for the shipyard, a division of Neorion, an old Greek heavy industry company.

 

 

 

Many thanks to Ben Hall for contacting me with these photos.  For more of Ben’s photography, click here.

For more photos of Syros, click here. And more Greek tugs, here.  For more tugs from the Mediterranean, click here.

Canal Zones 2

I’m moving eastward from yesterday’s post with my very subjective dividing of the NYS Canal system into zones.  Very subjective, we then move into New York State’s third largest city–Rochester, which also happens to be what I learned about as “the city” as a boy.  If someone worked “in the city,” that meant Rochester.  In the photo below, technically in Greece, you can see the junction lock, the gates leading to a lock on the original and possibly the enlarged canal.  Those iterations of the Erie Canal went straight here, the Barge Canal (the early 20th century iteration) forked off to the right, bypassing the city of Rochester.

I hadn’t considered what “bypassing Rochester” would look like, and my zones 1 and 2 were portions of the canal I’d never seen from the water.  What it looks like is lots of bridges, with signs to places I knew but otherwise no traces, no familiar skyline.

Approach lighting system for the airport I took my first flight from,

but otherwise bridges, some beautiful . . .

some footbridges . . .

and others very serviceable vehicle and waterway structure . . .

with some people in view

as well as some current commercial buildings

and bridges some complete . . .

and trafficked

Certainly there are vestiges of industrial marine usage

not used in decades.

The creation of a kayak park and boat house is one of many transformations that make recreation the current Erie Canal’s industry.

Another transformation . . . silos into new uses.  The tour boat in the foreground is Sam Patch, named for Sam Patch, of course.

I have a personal connection with the Pittsford canal front:  as a boy, I harvested pickles  for a neighbor, and one Saturday night I got to ride the farm truck to the piccalilli plant, right near the Schoen complex.   If only time travel were possible and I could take that truck ride to the pickle factory again . . .

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Whatzit 19

I know some folks refuse to spend time with Facebook.  I entered there in 2008 after figuring out it was the only way to communicate and exchange photos with some people.  Now I’ve joined 14 groups there . .  and checking in has become similar to dropping by the breakroom at a job.

Saturday night I saw this photo.  Actually it’s only a detail of a bigger photo.   Any ideas what it is?

Here’s the entire shot, an assemblage of mostly tugboats attached to a circular base where a crane is mounted.  Two landing craft travel from left to right and what looks like a few miles distant there’s a beach with mountains not far behind.

The photo was put up on Saturday afternoon.   Notice the initial comment by Kees (pronounced “case” ) van der Ende.  Of course, I needed to respond as I did.  What amazed me was the thread that followed in less than an hour!

Less than 24 hours later, the tugs as well as the project had been identified through a textbook case of “group sourcing.” I love it.  Click here for more on Aegean Pelagos.  Click here for some Zouros tugs.   Click here for Arctic Kalvik, although I wonder why such an icebreaker would be in the Med.

Once Kees had expressed interest in being the CEO, another 20+ posts followed on the topic of logos and such.

Click here for a photo of the completed bridge as well as points along the way to completion.

By the way . .  .  pay a moment or two tribute to Mardi Gras today, even if NYC and the sixth boro is as cold as  . . .  .   You decide how to finish it in some original way . . . not borrowed from J. D. Salinger.    Here was my first mardi gras post from five years ago!

Really Random Tugs 6

Beat the heat . ..  by imagining change:  well, eastriver suggested the sixth boro annex the Conch Republic.  Hmmm.  Since the sixth boro is an archipelago like the Keys, maybe we could confederate the American archipelagos (besides the two already mentioned, we’d join with the Thimble Islands, the Thousand Islands, the Channel Islands, the Salish Islands, and maybe establish diplomatic relations with all archipelagos smaller than . . . Long Island, giving us many of the Antilles, a smattering of Pacific nations,  the Aeolian Islands and Greek Islands.   I know I’ve left many out, but it’s already sounding like good company in my heat-addled brain.

Or defocus on the scorching temperatures by looking at fotos below?

First one is a “tugster-sighting” just north of the sixth boro snapped by Joel Milton.  Tugster is on the foredeck of Patty Nolan  (1931) sans figurefigure as she tows sailing vessel sans-servingsails Lickity-Split some weeks back, here passing the Englewood Cliffs boat basin, I believe.

Next foto from John Watson . . . Eddie R (1971) towing a mystery barge.  Any guesses its mission?

Answer comes from Les Sonnenmark, longtime friend of the tugster blog:  it’s a cable-laying barge operated by Calwell Marine.  Info on the barge can be found in this pdf . . . starting on the unnumbered page 6ff.    In fact, this barge may be related to the work of Dolphin III in the sixth boro last summer:  click the link to “marine contractor” above the last foto in this post you find here.

Foto by tugster near the Chesapeake City Bridge as 2011-launched Mako ensures Penn No. 81 makes

its way Chesapeake-bound.  More info on the pilotboat in the background soon.

Foto by Jed of Vickie M McAllister (2001) docked at McAllister’s Blount Island yard on the St John’s River .

Foto by G. Justin Zizes Jr. of Kathleen Turecamo (1968)  and

and Matthew Tibbetts (1969) both high and dry at Caddell Shipyard in Staten Island.

Foto from Lou Rosenberg of Aegean Sea (1962) near Rockaway Inlet.  Aegean Sea used to

be called, in order,  Francis E. Roehrig, Jersey Coast, and John C. Barker.

This yard tug in Mayport seems to have a protection  bar, but in spite of the

the numbers on the stern, I’ve found no info on this type.  Fotos by tugster.  Orange bow on the right side of foto belongs to C-Tractor 13.

A final shot of Patty Nolan and Lickety Split headed upriver.

Thanks to Joel, John, Les, Jed, Justin, and Lou.

Only tangentially related:  For info on YTB-832, previously based in Mayport and now possibly in Greece by way of Italy, click here.

And an even less tenuous tangential connection to these fotos of vessels of  La Guardia di Finanza, which sounds like what our government is supposed to do but actually refers to something quite different . . . .  What it is can be found here.

More fotos will be forthcoming from the Conch Republic, a possible future residence.

Really Random Tugs 4

Really random . . . starts with this foto thanks to Maureen Cassidy-Geiger.  More of hers to come, fotos of other waters directly accessible FROM the sixth boro of NY and NJ.  This foto of unidentified cruiser and tug was off Livorno, Italia.   Hmmmm . . . maybe we need a new government agency with initials SBNYNJ . . . another place to get permits from and provide studies for . . . hmmm   NAH!!

Here’s a closer up.  Might it be the tug  seen in this youtube?  Here’s an article about some new Robert Allan designed tugs in that port.

Next two fotos from Bill Whateley showing a tug delivering a crane barge off the island of

Spinalonga east of Iraklion, Crete.  Bill usually blogs about the South Devon coast.

Moving into the waters that ARE the sixth boro . . . Elk River and Peter F Gellatly cater to the needs of Carnival Glory at the Manhattan passenger terminal.

McKinley Sea pushes northbound along the Manhattan from the GW, and

–a foto thanks to Captain Zizes–Ross Sea eastbound towards the disused Manhattan banana piers on the East River aka tidal strait, and in roughly the same location,

Beaufort Sea yesterday headed under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and into the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and

Margaret Moran southbound last week headed southbound after assisting Universal Amsterdam with raw cane crystals for my “unprocessed”  friend “sugar,”  while

a miniscule white ball line (?) tug pushes Islip tug Barbara Ann in the Harlem River recently, and

Atlantic Salvor was tailed by a sailboat when Blue Marlin lingered in pre-load mode.

Thanks to Maureen, Bill, and Justin for some of these fotos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.  If you wish to share what you spot in exotic places–all accessible from the sixth boro because of the miracle of water–I’m happy to post.

Off topic:  last night northbound near Haverstraw Bay, I crossed path with –I believe–southbound steam yacht Cangarda.  Meeting this vessel around midnight in a wide, dark, calm part of the river almost seemed like an encounter in a dream, a pleasant hallucination.   Has anyone spotted her southbound on the Hudson this week?  If so, I’d love to put up your fotos;  grainy fotos I don’t like to use. . . . sorry.  Here’s a TV news report from last week about Cangarda.

Really Random Tugs 3

Guess the location?  Answer comes at the end of the post.

Janice Ann Reinauer, about to leave aboard Blue Marlin for foreign waters via the sixth boro and all the places it leads to, once graced our fine harbor with this lush pudding.  JAR,I will miss you.  Foto below was taken in September 2007, at the Tugboat race.

Notice the blank oval . . . is this the result of summer paint maintenance . . . or something more?

Talking summer maintenance, crew of Margaret Moran was grinding away at rust the other day.

Maintenance keeps these boats going and going . . .

What you see here today, you might see in a port faraway the next.  Here’s Megan McAllister in Port Jefferson.  Foto by Capt. G Justin Zizes, Jr.  Is that really a gangplank leading from the dock to the starboard portion of the bow?

Brendan Turecamo escorts in Houma Belle.  It looks like Lincoln Sea in the distance toward the Brooklyn shore.   Foto thanks to John Watson.

Before I tell the location of this tugboat, here’s a clue . . if you can read it:  Ηράκλειο.  So it the logo and name on the vessel in the background.

And the answer is Iraklion, Crete.  Minotaurus comes thanks to my sister, Cookie Baker.    You’d think with a name like this, the tug owner would take a lesson in accoutrements from the good folk on Brangus.

All other fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Babel in the Harbor

What I would like to know is how widely known is “seaspeak,” or SMCP.  Or, how much have seaspeak principles been morphed–voluntarily or by regulation–into common VHF practice?

Most large ships look alike, allowing for differentiation into groups like container ship, tanker, RORO, pure car truck carrier, and then sub-groups with military vessels. Explanation:  physics,  global standards related safety, and the dictates of efficiency.

But within a tank, any of a range of fluids might live;  within a container, a limitless number of goods might be moved.  So it’s not  surprising–given the diverse points of origin of sixth-boro traffic–that a need exists for a simplified but unambiguous standard language.

As to signs of this diversity in shipping?  Check out Al-Mutanabbi.  That’s not “al” short for “Allen” or “Alberto” either.  More on the “al” at the end of this post.  I’d no idea until I looked it up that

Al-Mutanabbi was an Iraqi poet who died more than 1000 years ago.  In the foto above, vessel in the distance is MSC Dartford.

Elixir suggests magic for me, until

I learn that Yang Ming, a Taiwanese company with a history that dates back to the Qing dynasty (the last dynasty before the “republic”),  has a whole set of  container vessels with “e” names like Efficiency and Eminence.  Give me elixir any day.  By the way, that’s Vane’s Sassafras passing port to port.  By the way, sassafras was once a major ingredient of that great elixir called root beer.

Lian Yun Hu . . . I’ve not much clue about, other than that it’s owned or managed by Cosco, conjuring up thoughts of Cosco Busan and Shen Neng 1, of San Francisco and Great Barrier reef notoriety, respectively.

Most watchers of the boro would be clueless here without

a little help elsewhere on the exterior of the ship.

In Hindi, I’m told, “jag PLUS prerana” means “world”  AND “inspiration.”  Now, I wish they put an asterisk there with a translation painted just above the waterline somewhere.  I’d want to know that!

A large number of ships in the harbor are constructed in Korea.  And their names are straight-forward English although generally hangul writing coexists with English.  Tug is Amy C McAllister.

An interesting fact about hangul is that its invention gets credited to a Korean king named Sejong, a Renaissance man on that peninsula a  half-millennium ago.

All of which I use to illustrate my point:  if I didn’t read or understand English, I’d be helpless.  And I’m really just a shore-watcher.  Without an international language, communication on the sea–as in the air–would be worse than garbled.

Finally, here’s a gratuitous shot of Flintereems, from the land of my mother tongue.  Spelling notwithstanding, I believe the “eems” in this Flinter vessel refers to the river whose estuary forms the border between the Dutch and the Germans.  I set Goldman Sachs atop the Flinter  deck to mimic the last Flinter vessel “borg” appearing on this blog here.

All fotos, Will Van Dorp.

For a perspective on some verbal and non-verbal communication in the harbor, check out bowsprite here.

Oh . . . Al the prefix in Arabic means “the.”   You know it from such English words as “algebra, alchemy, algorithm” and –believe it or not–“elixir.”    Here’s more on that.