Retro Sixth Boro 60

A decade ago, the split-hulled trailing suction hopper dredger Atchafalaya was in the sixth boro.  These days in 2023 the 1980 vessel in the St. Johns River of the Alligator and Sunshine State.  I don’t believe it actually worked in the sixth boro.

The west side walkway made for a lot of photography on my part in spring 2013, like Asian King here making the turn at Bergen Point with assist from Gramma Lee T Moran. The 1998 RORO today goes by Liberty King and is located between Hokkaido and Honshu.  Gramma Lee is working in san Juan these days.

Evening Tide is currently in chrysalis state in Brooklyn. 

Pretty World had to be “dead-ship assisted” into port 10 years ago.  The assist tugs (l to r) are Margaret Moran (I think), Marion Moran, and Gramma Lee.  The 2007 tanker now goes by a much more prosaic Central and is in port off Ivory Coast. Marion Moran is now Dann Marine’s Topaz Coast. 

Click here for the latest in the French frigate Aquitaine.

No comment needed on this tale of two cities.

Maersk Ohio is currently in Norfolk. 

The US-flagged Maersk ship is assigned on the northern Europe run. 

Superior Service is now Genesis Vision, currently in Lake Charles LA.

The 1971 Fred Johannsen, usually mostly up the Hudson, came down in April 2013 to do-si-do back upriver with Taurus, now Hay’s Joker. 

Ellen McAllister is still Ellen McAllister.  But from this angle, a proto-drone view from the Bayonne Bridge, she appears more rotund than I usually imagine. 

Marion Moran focuses on giving the 1996 HanJin San Francisco an extra amount of shove to round Bergen Point. I believe 4024 teu container ship has been scrapped. 

And finally, North Sea is now Sause’s Kokua, now working around Maui.

All photos, any errors, WVD, who loves these opportunities to look back at all the changes that have transpired. 

Non-Random Tugs 16

Twins today, but as with any twins, one will be deemed older. Do you know which?

Genesis Vigilant used to be called Michigan Service.  Launched in 1981, she’s 99′ x 34′ and propelled by 3000 hp.  The barge GM8001 is 348′ x 75′.

Years ago, i errorneously assumed she was an ATB.

This barge is slightly shorter, narrower and about a decade newer. 

GM 6506 is being towed by Genesis Victory, 

same dimensions as Vigilant and slightly newer, although still from 1981.  Genesis Victory used to be Huron Service. 

All photos, WVD. 

Exotics 30

aka “thanks to Tony A 34” is the best title for this, and I’m sure you’ll agree. 

If you’ve lost track, “exotic” is my term for unusual vessels calling in the sixth boro.  Although the series started with a workboat repurposed as a live aboard, in the past few years the term has evolved to categorize mostly vessels coming here in conjunction with special projects, many of which recently have been related to offshore wind farms.

I’m not sure why this boat is in town, and I believe the location is the CME Co. terminal (excuse me if I’m mistaken), but it truly fits the exotic category.

She’s a 300 class member of the Hornbeck Offshore (HOS) Mexico fleet, and not a new boat. A member the the 250 class was in the boro just over a half year ago here. 

I’m not sure how the naming convention for HOS works, but say hello to HOS Browning.

Many thanks to Tony A who sent this along by the robotic system some since 1990 have called the World Wide Web. 

Thanks to the robots in tugster tower who reconfigured the queue of scheduled posts.  WVD is sweating away in the land of alligators, shrimp, sugar, and beaucoup de plus.  Tony A is likely sweating away in the sixth boro; thanks to him for this reminder that in the boro which never really stops running, flooding , and ebbing, there truly are a million stories we never notice.  And let’s hear it for the robots who  . . . I don’t even know if they have sweat glands, or glands of any sort.   

Retro Sixth Boro 46 A

It’s time for a February installment of “retro sixth boro,” a glance back at some of the boats working in New York harbor exactly a decade ago.  Cheyenne was still here, pushing a scow out the east end of the KVK.

I’m not sure the 61′ x 22′  1970 Salvage Master is still in the harbor.  Even back a decade ago, I only saw it once or twice.

The 1962 Kristy Ann Reinauer was scrapped in 2015.  The 2000 Tokyo Express is still around;  in fact, I believe I saw it just recently. 

The 1980 Independence was pushing 1982 tank barge OSG 243.  Independence was scrapped in 2020, and the barge laid up.

The 1981 Huron Service is now Genesis Victory.  The 1976 Atlantic Salvor has carried that name since 1998.

Na’hoku (Na Hoku) is a 1981 tugboat that spent a short time in the boro a decade ago;  later in 2012, Na’hoku (meaning stars, as used for navigation in Hawaiian) was sold to a South Carolina company that kept the name.  As of this writing, she’s in Fernandina Beach FL.  As for DBL 85, a tank barge by that name was built in 2009 and is likely still in use.

The 1976 Barents Sea switched over to Kirby and then in 2016, re-emerged as Donjon’s Atlantic Enterprise.  Along the left side of the photo, Casablanca is a 1987 barge.

All photos, WVD, from February 2012.

Exotics 28 Follow-up

Not quite a month ago, I caught HOS Mystique‘s arrival in the boro here. The other morning I caught the 250 class MPSV from a closer vantage point.  

The H in HOS is Hornbeck.  Back when I started this blog in November 2006, Hornbeck had a fleet of tugs and barges, many of which are still a familiar sight passing through the boro as Genesis Energy, since about 2013. Find more on the Hornbeck family and series of companies here.

But to get back to HOS Mystique, she represents the smallest multi-purpose supply vessel at HOS at this time.

She came off the ways in December 2008 at Leevac Industries in Jennings LA, making her a Jones Act vessel.

 

 

So maybe someone can tell me why she carries no information about port of registry on her stern . . . .

All photos and any errors, WVD.

Something Different 57

Here’s a mystery, a 1919 UK-built tug named G. W. Rogers that sank in Rensselaer in December 1987.  Click on the photo itself to get more info. The mystery is this:  which floating crane raised it and what became of it later?

Next mystery:  what became of the wooden floating drydock that used to be at Caddell’s?  I took this photo of Stephen Scott high and dry before 2009.

Same dry dock, same time frame, different tugboat, Franklin Reinauer. 

Ditto . . . this time Miss New Jersey. 

Again . . .  John B. Caddell

And again . . . the old Kristin Poling, the same wooden floating dry dock.

Hiow about a different dry dock, as seen from shore, but still in a dry dock at Caddell’s.  Question:  which tugboat under rehab might that be?  Answer follows.

And to end this, it’s Mariner III at Caddell’s getting a haul out last summer. 

As of this writing, the 1926 Mariner III is near Palm Beach.

All photos except the top one by WVD.  Top photo by Robert Taylor. 

And the mystery tug is Marjorie B. McAllister.

Question about G. W. Rogers, thanks to tugboathunter.

 

Retro Sixth Boro 34 a

It’s January 31 or -1 February.  since it’s a short month, it needs another day.   The temperatures where I’ve been have been colder than -1 centigrade.  So let’s do it . . . photos from a decade ago, February 2010.  See the crewman in the netting dangling over the side of tanker Blue Sapphire?  He appears to be touching up paint on the plimsoll marking.  I wonder why I didn’t add this to a “people on the boro” series,  which started in July 2007 with this.  Today, the tanker is northbound along the west coast of Malaysia, and sailing as Marmara Sea.  Oh well, stuff changes.

Here’s a fair amount of dense traffic:  Norwegian Sea is eastbound, Conrad S westbound, and an Odfjell tanker is tied up at IMTT.   Looking at my archives, I have a “dense traffic” series and a “congestion” series that probably should be collapsed into one series.  May I’ll do that on a snowy or a rainy day.  Dense Traffic goes back to February 2012 here, and Congestion series started in March 2011 here.  Norwegian Sea has been renamed Miss Rui and sails for Smith Maritime Ocean Towing and Salvage Company.  Conrad S is now Iris Paoay, leaving Davao in southern Philippines.

Cape Bird is getting lightered (or bunkered??) by Elk River and barge DS 32.

This was a congested scene as well;  note beyond Cape Bird  APL Sardonyx and Eagle Service with Energy 13502.  Eagle Service is now Genesis Eagle (which on the radio sounds like Genesis Sea Gull).  The 1995 APL Sardonyx is now just Sardonyx and is tied up in Taiwan.  Maybe at a scrap yard?  The 2003 Cape Bird is now Tornado and tied up in Lagos.

Crow is no more . . . having been turned into scrap like that loaded on the scow she’s pushing here.

Ever Dynamic is inbound under the original Bayonne Bridge, with Laura K assisting on the Bergen Point turn.

Gateway’s Navigator was a regular towing submarine sections between Rhode Island and Virginia. 

Here’s Navigator towing Sea Shuttle, which may or may not have something under the shelter on the barge.  Navigator is now Protector, out of New Bedford.

Arctic Sunrise was in the sixth boro for a Greenpeace “show the flag” event.  Since then, she spent time detained in the Russian Arctic . . . the Pechora Sea.  Later released, Dutch authorities took the detention to the World Court, and Russia was fined 5.4 million Euros over the detention.

All photos were taken by WVD back in February 2010.

Retro Sixth Boro (and beyond) 33

2011 began in Charleston, a great place to welcome a new year.  Strolling around, I encounter the 1962 75′ buoy tender Anvil, 75301, here made up to CGB68013.  In the background, that’s cutter Cormorant or Chinook.

Heading farther north a day or two later, it’s Hoss, sister of Patricia, and now habitat for fish and other sea life.  Click here to see her sink if you do FB.

Still farther north, I see this T-boat, a 1952 Higgins named for a high point in Ireland.

Lucinda Smith, then based in Maine, is currently based on Cape Cod.

Bering Sea, like a lot of K-Sea boat, has become a Kirby boat;  it is currently in Philadelphia.  According to Birk’s invaluable site, this boat was Stacy Moran for a short time.  I never saw it in Moran red.

Thanks to my friend Paul Strubeck, this Kristin Poling needed an assist from Cornell to get through an ice jam.  This is one of my all-time favorite photos.  It looks to me like a submarine in the very deeps.

McCormack Boys was active in the sixth boro back in 2011, and although she’s still working, I’ve not seen her in years.

I glimpsed Stephen Scott in Boston a few months back, but since this photo was taken, she’s lost the upper wheelhouse.

There’s classic winter light beyond Torm Carina, provisioned here by Twin Tube.  Torm Carina is currently in the Taiwan Strait. 

Later Margaret and Joan Moran assist the tanker westbound in the KVK while Taurus passes.  Taurus has become Joker, wears Hays purple, and I’ve not even seen her yet.  I guess it’s high time I hang out in Philadelphia again.

A wintry photo shows McKinley Sea in the KVK eastbound.  In the distance,

notice the now foreign-based Scotty Patrick Sky.  If you want to see her, gallivant to St. Lucia.  McKinley Sea is currently laid up in Louisiana.

Erie Service, now Genesis Valiant, pushes her barge 6507 westbound. 

And on a personal note, it was in January 2011 that I stumbled into a locality that had been attracting me.  I suppose if ever I created a retreat, I’d have to call it Galivants Hideaway.   Here‘s another Galivants Ferry set of photos.

Thanks to Paul for use of his photo.  All other photos, a decade back, WVD.

 

Dredge Mystery Solved

I’d seen Ocean Tower on AIS earlier and watched it pass along with its tow, but I was focused on something else, so this was my best shot.  I had caught its reddish color, the Great Lakes Dredge and Dock color. 

Phil Little caught this photo from his Weehawken cliff.  I believe the tow had gone up the North River to wait for a favorable time through Hell Gate on the other side of the island.  

Later in the day I got a query from Lew.  This was the closest he could get from his vantage point, and he wondered what that gargantuan crane was.

I concluded I should contact my friend Nelson Brace, whose photos of Cape Cod Canal transits I always found spectacular.  Nelson told me he works with a group called ‘Photogs Я Us’ .  They even have a FB page that’s a “must-see” if you do FB.

And here’s the close-up of the dredge from ‘Photogs Я Us’ …  It’s the dredge New York. I’m not sure where she has more recently been working, but she’s currently heading for Boston, where the harbor channel deepening process is on.

Her bucket can dig down to 83′ down and take up to 25 cubic yds of material.

Many thanks to the fine photographers of ‘Photogs Я Us’ for these closeups.

Also to Phil and Lew for contacting me.

I recall when GLDD’s New York was operating in the sixth boro, deepening the channels here and here.  Also, she was passively involved in an incident some of you may recall as well.  Below are more photos I took of dredge New York working just NW of the Staten Island Ferry terminal in fall 2010.

Captain D is the assist boat.  These photos show the role of the derrick over the Liebherr 996. 

Here’s a crowded dredge zone.

 

Here’s the USACE on the project in Boston.

 

Retro Sixth Boro (and beyond) 27 b

I vividly recall June 2010.  Let’s take June 3.  The two Hornbeck tugs there are Erie Service and Eagle Service, now Genesis Valiant and Genesis Eagle.  Minerva Anna is at one of the easternmost IMTT docks; today she’s eastbound in the Indian Ocean. But in the middle of it all,  GLDD’s Liebherr 966 was getting the channel down to 52′, if I recall correctly. Was that 966 dredge the same as New York?   In the distance the Empire State Building stood alone;  from this perspective today, you’d see WTC1.

Later the same day, and I don’t recall what the occasion was, Conrad Milster brought his big ship’s whistle down to South Street Seaport Museum, and ConEd hooked it up to ConEd steam pressure.  Hear the result here.  To date, this video has received 88,000 plays!!  Here and here are some videos of the legendary Conrad.  A few years later, I went to a marine steam festival in the Netherlands;  I took a river ferry from Rotterdam to get there.  When I stepped off the ferry and walked up the gangway to the dock, there stood Conrad.  Of course he would be there.

June 17 brought the return of Reid Stowe‘s schooner Anne after 1152 days (more than three years) at sea without seeing land!  Here‘s the NYTimes story.

Notice the toll the sea took on the paint.

For more photos of Anne, inside and out, click here.

As serendipity would have it, the day Anne returned, Artemis departed, going on to successfully row across the Atlantic in just under 44 days!  Recently, Reid has displayed art inspired by his voyage, as seen here.

June 26 John Curdy invited me to see a good bit of the Delaware River fronting several miles north and south of Philadelphia.  Overseas Anacortes was not yet launched at that time. As of today’s post, she’s in the Gulf of Mexico off Corpus Christi.

Here is Penn’s Landing and Gazela, which I sailed on later in 2010, but that’s a story already told here.

All photos in June 2010, WVD.