Conch Republic 1

In case you think life has slowed me down in Key West, you’re somewhat right, but it’s been only 97 here, cooler than some places in the US and as cool as it is for my brothers in the snow belt of upstate New York.

A guide here kept referring to this vessel as a “chug” although I thought he said “tug.”  Guess the story?  See end of post.

Chickens roam everywhere and constant need to cross roads here in the Conch Republic, a micronation with its own passport, coin, and more.  For a list of numerous other “micronations,” created as vehicles for agenda self-promotion, click here.    As the so-called mayor of the “sixth boro,”  I find the idea of declaring micronation status for the waters around NYC very exciting.  Feedback?

Foto of Nav/Air 38 for Rod of Narragansett Bay Shipping . . .   here in her usual setting.

Greetings to the crew of Yankee, built 1982 in Atlantic City.  More Key West schooners . . . soon.

Fotos I missed:   sailing on this dreamlike expanse of Gulf of Mexico, we saw scores of flying fish and ballyhoo . . . but nary a one consented to being on a tugster shot.  Imagine that!

Behold Fort Jefferson, 70 miles west of Key West, 900 … east of Brownsville TX, 200 south of Tampa, and less than 100 north of Havana.

Here’s one way to  get there at just under 30 mph.  The Yankee name caught my attention… not because I live in NYC but because I used to live north of Cape Ann, MA, where a whale watching vessel refers to itself as part of the “Yankee fleet.”  Well, same company has operated in both Key West and Gloucester.  Furthermore, this vessel was built by Gladding Hearn of Somerset, MA, and the captain grew up in Hampton Beach, NH . . . where I lived back in the late 80s!!  Gladding Hearn has built numerous ferries, pilot boats, and other vessels for the sixth boro.

Foto for Bonnie of frogma:  you never told me Sebago had boats here!!

And for the unfrazzling bowsprite . . . herself galivanting where time gets forgotten, a foto of  WPG-78 aka USS Mohawk, resplendent in gray and gray and gray, whose story reaffirms the point I tried to make the other day in reference to vessels in Mayport.

So . . . if you are artistically inclined . . . should an eventual “sixth boro” micronation have its own flag?

OK . . . back to the “chug.”   The National Park rangers have decided to house this vessel, which was instrumental in getting Cuban refugees “dry-footed” onto US soil, at Fort Jefferson.  “Chug” derives from the noise the automobile engine makes while the vessel is underway.  chug-chug-chug . . .  Too bad they didn’t keep this 1951 Chevy truckboat.  Maybe Mel Fisher‘s crew will seek it out one of these days.

How’s about this for a once- and future-newspaper ad?  How many years before this service gets re-established?  Here’s a business idea:  trips across the Florida Strait on replicas of Hemingway’s Pilar . . . on converted 1951 Chvy trucks and vintage Buicks?  I bet it’ll happen.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  More from the Conch Republic soon.

Oh, also, I hereby claim rights to any and all sixth-boro micronationalistic paraphernalia.

Positively Posterior 2

Seeing the Moran boats on the upper left side of this foto reminds me that I owe you an answer to Relief Crew 9‘s question, which herinafter, shall be dubbed the “tugsterteaser,” term coined by Jed.  Tugster teases maybe but always delivers.  Answer comes thanks to Harold Tartell:

“The year of that photo would be early 1962.  The M. MORAN (brand new but  doesn’t look it) has returned to New York from Pusan, Korea after towing a floating generating plant for the U.S. Navy.  She left her builders (Gulfport Shipbuilding in Texas) in Oct. 1961 and made the tow from there directly to Pusan.  The MARIE S. MORAN built in 1961 (now TERESA McALLISTER) and sister MARGARET MORAN (now BRIAN A. McALLISTER) were both built in 1961 by Dravo Corp., Wilmington Del.  They were on charter to Moran with an option to buy.  McAllister took them over with the same agreement later that year, and ended up buying them.  They were the first two tugs in McAllister’s fleet single screw with Kort Nozzles.”  Thanks Jed and Harold!

So back to more posteriors.  After reading the bottom paragraph of this post, decide whether to some the expression should be “negatively posterior”?

L. W. Caddell is a 1990 built 16′ breadth tug working around the Caddell yard.

Christian Reinauer, 2001, 40′ breadth.

Pati R Moran, 2007, 36′

Zachery Reinauer and Thomas J. Brown, 1971 and 28′ and  1962 . . . 19′.

Rosemary McAllister, 2008, 36′.

And while we’re looking at sterns, here’s an unexpected detail on Peacemaker, a boathouse behind the fold-down stern.  Bowsprite sends along this foto.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except the last one.

And some discoveries lead me to reiterate my creative commons licensing.  Fair is fair.  More on this later.  But please comment on this:  what should I do if unauthorized use of my work turns up?  What would you do?