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Evening twilight rarely finds me at the KVK. I should go there more often.

That’s the 1960 Pelham, originally launched as Esso Pelham.

For a 60 year old machine, she still looks good.

Back before the Esso name was phased out in 1972, she must have been a formidable tugboat.


All photos, WVD.
Some harbors are more varied than others. I’m happy to call the sixth boro home for now.

I’d never expect to see Emma Miller come in from “sea” or even in through the Narrows.

The weather is quite variable as well. In a singularly unpleasant day, MSC Alicante,

Ziyou ( a Tayana 37??), and

a Kadey-Krogen Evening Light (not the tugboat) all head out to sea.

A day or two later, warm morning light bathes Dorothy J

as she brings Weeks 536 into the boro.

It’s not winter yet, but there’s a lot of fishing going on with all manner of goals.

Shearwater is running a lot of line, but of course her quarry is

not the finny type. Rather, she’s generating bathymetric images. I guess I’m not privvy to them, not being the client. You can see her track lines on AIS. Sharp, another research vessel, is running the same lines from Sandy Hook south. Has anyone gotten a photo of her?

This I’d wager is a fleet angling for bluefish or stripers or more. Tanker Maya pushes the finny ones in their direction as she makes for sea.


Osprey herd the finny ones from just above the VZ.

Fugro Explorer comes in from sea for supplies, fuel, and who knows what more.



All photos and sentiments, WVD, who asserts that no one can ever be bored along the margins of the sixth boro.
A few of you have written to ask that I again upload photos of larger size so that when you double-click on a photo, they enlarge. Here’s the problem: Facebook won’t allow me to upload at that size if I want a photo on the preview. Since a lot of folks just read on FB, my compromise has been to upload smaller photos.
Here’s a photo from a friend who works for a naval architecture firm. Guess the function of the completed vessel below.
Here’s a rendering.
To the gentleman from New Zealand from the William C. Daldy Preservation Society who recently inquired about functioning steam tugboats in the US, I can’t think of any. Can any reader here? Here and here can get you info on steamer Daldy. And all that smoke was photoshopped in, I was told.
Christiaan Brunings was built in 1900 as an icebreaker home-ported in Dordrecht NL, in the Rhine delta. She survived two world wars that happened all around her. I took this photo in Dordrecht in 2014. For more photos of smoky Dutch steam tugs, click here.
If coal was the fuel of the past, then wind will make up a share of an increasingly harnessed renewable sources of energy. Susie S was at the the Damen Den Helder yard back in 2014, same trip.
Even more variety is here, the reason I put this post in the “line locker” group . . . tugs on the highway . . .
and the boat ramp, and
sometimes nearly getting away . . . once they enthusiastically take to water. Well that tug, formerly know as Atlantic Hunter has changed hands and is now Little Giant. Neptune himself was consulted about the deal and he approved. Keep your eyes peeled.
And further rounding out this post . . . On July 14, 2017, Peking was floated out of Caddells by the tagteam of Dorothy J and Robert IV to
be slipped onto the back of Combi-Dock III for transit over the Atlantic. See the full story here. Today, September 7, 2020, it arrives fully restored at its new museum in the port of Hamburg.
After more than three years of work, Peking will be arriving here today. The FB site is shown there. If you don’t do FB, I have permission to copy some pics and paste them in a future blog post. To the Hafenmuseum, where I wanted to be today . . . Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur schönen Restaurierung!
Back to those first two images, that is a state-of-the-art Russian factory trawler called Captain Sokolov, one of six identical vessels being built at the St. Petersburg Northern Shipyard. Here’s more on the design of these vessels with a capsule hull. Dimensions are 268′ x 51′ with a cold storage capacity of 1200 metric tons. Here’s more on Norebo. The design is by Knarr Maritime Consortium of Iceland.
The first two images thanks to Aleks, number 3 is from seapixonline, and the others, WVD. Many thanks to Rembert for reminding me that today is the day Peking in Hamburg goes public.
Finally . . . it’s Labor Day, which I learned is a good day to work. But if you want to stream some good music on a Labor Day theme, try this from Bread and Roses, where I used to go when I lived in the Merrimack Valley of MA.
Happy 4th of July. Here’s some sixth boro, some heartland, and some Pacific Northwest. Here‘s the series.
But let’s start with Robert IV, a workhorse who last appeared in this blog here.
Hundreds of Cheyenne photos have appeared on this blog, showing her in a range of colors and trims; this photo was taken last week in Manitowoc by a Great Lakes mariner, who, by the way, at one time worked in the sixth boro.
Ellen McAllister has worked in the sixth boro longer than I’ve been taking photos here; as a result, hundreds of photos of her can be found here.
For a red-white-blue tug today, what could be better than a Nicholas Vinik photo.
An outa-towner has come through the sixth boro twice this week with an unusual bargeload; bad decision-making means this is the best photo I got. Sorry, Elizabeth Anne. Did anyone get a better photo? Any idea what the “marshmallow” load on that barge is?
Two of the tugs assisting in a Cosco Shipping ULCV, Brendan Turecamo and JRT Moran, seem small but bring adequate power to the task.
Another view of Cheyenne shows her location on the Manitowoc River, adjacent to Erich.
Thanks to Kyle Stubbs for sending along this photo of a raft of Boyer tugs. L to r, it’s Sea, Billie H, Gretchen H, and Kirsten H. You might have recognized Sea as the former Java Sea, a regular operating out of the sixth boro. Despite what’s on the bow, she’s now called Kinani H. In the back row, that looks like Sonja H.
How about another red-white-blue boat for today? This is from over 11 years ago. It’s the 1951 Dorothy Elizabeth, ex-Gotham, Christine Gellatly, Mobil 11, Socony 11.
To close out the set, Iron Salvor, a Vanuatu-flagged tug, is back in town. Anyone know her story . . . who she works for?
Many thanks to Great Lakes mariner, Kyle, and Tony A for some of these photos; photos not otherwise attributed by WVD.
Now that I’m at installment 291 of this series, I’m rethinking the adjective random. Check out these meanings old and new here. But “random” it is until I come up with a better word. I’d rejected the descriptor “miscellaneous” when I first started. How about one from this list: some, select, chance, serendipitous, entropic, stochastic . . ..
Enjoy this novel juxtaposition, Coney Island Light and Denise A., with her barge. Denise A. is from 2014, a 4000hp tug with dimensions of 112′ x 35′ x 17′.
Marjorie B McAllister waits in the offing. You might not guess that she’s worked since 1974 with her 4000hp and 112′ x 30′ hull.
Franklin Reinauer pirouettes her 81′ x 28′ hull right in front of me, the 1984 tug propelled by 2600 hp.
Capt. Brian A heads out for yet another job.
Meanwhile, Linda Lee Bouchard and two of her sisters, Ellen and Evening Star, bide their time at old Home Port. Linda Lee is from 2006, her 125′ x 38′ hull powered by 6140hp. The sisters are 1982 104′ x 35′ and 3900hp and 2012 112′ x 35′ and 4000hp, respectively.
B. Franklin has been hard at work since 2012, measuring in at 112′ x 33′ and powered by 4000hp.
Robert IV came off the ways in 1975, and sometimes her 56′ x 22′ and 1050hp is just right.
More shots of Linda Lee
and Capt. Brian A.
and Evening Star.
And to conclude, hat tip to Stephen Reinauer, from 1970 and 101′ x 31′ and 3000 hp.
All photos, WVD, who thanks all who watched the Erie Canal presentation yesterday. Here‘s more Erie Canal on Saturday.
See the exciting announcement at the end of this post.
Sunday I got word thanks to Shipshooter–Jonathan Atkin–that the pilot boat-to-be would be moving from Caddell’s back to the Sandy Hook Pilots (SHP) base on Monday morning right around sunrise. Pilot boat-to-be? There’s still much work to do before she enters service. And at 0626, I saw the shift begin, as Dorothy J pulled her away from the floating drydock that has been her home the past few months. I visited her here back in December 2019 after she’d appeared at the SHP base about a year ago. The current SHP No. 1 New York is at sea at the sea buoy end of the Ambrose Channel.
Once clear of the dry docks, the several-mile tow got underway.
Dorothy J kept the bow pointed while Robert IV had the stern.
Just east of the salt pile, the tow was reconfigured so that Robert IV got the Pilot No. 1 on the nose.
Robert IV continued the push toward the Narrows, after Dorothy J had gone ahead.
Just off the pilot station, Dorothy J came back alongside . . .
and Pilot No. 1 slides in opposite side of the dock from Pilot No. 2 New Jersey.
All photos, WVD, who will update the continuing transformation as available.
Here‘s a NY Media Boat report on a day at sea on the current Pilot Boat No. 1.
The big announcement, click on the image below. A week from today you can join me for a different type of virtual canal tour.
A few weeks ago I posted photos erroneously identified as Dorothy J, even though plain as day Robert IV was on the bow. That’s called distraction. But the photo below, plain as day, is Dorothy J. Here was Dorothy J on a foggy morning upriver almost two years ago.
Plain as day again . . . Rebecca Ann in the KVK eastbound, and again
in a photo from Bob Stopper, plain as day way up the Erie Canal just below lock E27 with a barge loaded with reef fodder. Here are previous photos from Bob.
Frances pushes a loaded scow westbound on the KVK, and
Janet D moves a spud barge over to the westside tower of the VZ Bridge, about to duck behind Sider Miami, previously known as Asian Prosperity.
Tug Ireland (renamed Hoppiness) has left the sixth boro for good
and is currently in the fresh waters of the Erie Canal, where I might see her soon.
Closing this post out, it’s an unnamed (to me) tug pushing a deck barge at the intersection of Hell Gate East River and the Harlem River. The bridges there are the Triborough and the Hell Gate.
Thanks to Bob for his photo from Lyons; all other photos by Will Van Dorp, who will be leaving the sixth boro tomorrow for a lot of weeks.
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