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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.
Now that my towboat v. tugboat terminology is corrected, I will post more Mississippi River photos in the next days.
The barges looked somewhat unusual.
Fortunately I caught it exiting lock 19 in Keokuk IA.
The two barges are Kirby 21853 and 21854.
The warning placard identified the cargo as anhydrous ammonia, which means pure ammonia. Maybe someone out there has information on uses of this product besides fertilizer. I also have questions about the temperature and pressure conditions for this product.
For some numbers on this 2016 Kirby boat, click here for the “Birk files.
The livery on Kirby’s inland fleet and offshore fleet is the same; boat design, however, is mostly different.
More towboats from the Upper Mississippi soon.
All photos, any errors, WVD.
Since I’m currently riding the long rails, including this one, I’ve queued up a few posts. More on the rails soon.
But let’s go back a decade and a month in this case, and see some happenings in the sixth boro in 2013. Diane B was already around, and here she was taking advantage of the high tide to make her way with a light John Blanche downstream from the head of navigation on the Hutchinson River to the East River tidal strait.
Americas Spirit came in with assistance from Barbara McAllister and McAllister Sisters. Barbara is now Patsy K, and sisters is still Sisters. Spirit is still Spirit.
Marquette’s Miss Emily made a run through the KVK, likely in connection with some dredge work.
Vernon G was already Mary Gellatly then. Now she’s a very busy Mackenzie Rose.
Catherine Turecamo retrieves a docking pilot. Catherine is now on the Lakes as John Marshall.
Harry McNeal moves Clyde along by the hip. Work was just months away from the old version of the Bayonne bridge. Both boats I believe are still in the boro.
Lincoln Sea was the biggest regular in the boro, and still occasionally comes through.
Gramma Lee T. Moran still worked here, and I’d not yet met her namesake.
You know it, of course, this photo is about the Mini Cooper, not the RORO that delivered it here.
Mixed traffic worked here, as it still true.
A very rusty Horizon Trader- a 1973 cargo ship now long scrapped-–passed through the port with its 2325 teu capacity.
Back then an occasional tanker with this type of Cyrillic writing could be seen.
And around this time I started to use the tag “collaboration.” This photo comes from Capt. Fred Kosnac on an “excessively windy” day.
All photos here, as attributed. Thanks to Fred for the photo above.
For some reason I thought Kirby had only three of these 105′ x 36′ and 5000 hp boats: Cape Canaveral, Henry, and Lookout. So when I saw this one yesterday at Bayonne Dry Dock, I wondered which it was. From my first photos, I could not read the sign boards, and I eliminated the three Capes I knew using AIS, so I was stumped. Since this one has apparently been on the hard for a bit, its AIS transponder was turned off.
Note the crane truck raising its boom between the Christopher Edward lift and the tug.
I came back past a couple hours later, and noticed the boom was raised. The light was better too, which led me to conclude the tugboat was Cape Hatteras.
So after nearly four years after she was launched, I have a photo of Cape Hatteras. Now I need to catch up with Cape Ann, the last of five Kirby had built at Master Boat Builders. Cape Ann, which I may have to travel to the west coast to see . . . , and Hatteras, where’ve you been?
All photos, WVD.
Kirby also has the Heath Wood 5000 hp boat (s?) and the Tina Pyne 10,000 hp boat (s?) I’ve never seen Heath Wood in the sixth boro, I don’t believe.
If you’ve never read this thumbnail history of Kirby on Tugboatinformation.com, it’s worth a read. Is there a US company with more tugboats than Kirby? The Great Lakes Towing Company claims to be the largest here, but is that true?
Googling “largest tugboat” brought me to the stories of Belcher-Port Everglades and Belcher-Tampa . . . and their short lives. Find that story here.
Enough tangents, interesting though they be . . . I’m off to my other projects.
That stretch of waterway can be pretty busy, though not nearly as busy as the automotive traffic arteries of the five boros. Count them below . . . seven tugboats contained in a single photo frame!! You can try to name them. Let me know if you need help.
One by one, though, they are more interesting to look at. Can you arrange these by size, power, and age?
Barney Turecamo.
Allie B.
Mount St Elias.
Discovery Coast.
Mary Emma.
All photos, WVD.
Largest is Barney Turecamo at 116′ x 36′. Shortest by a foot Mount St Elias at 95′ x 34′, and Discovery Coast is 96′; least beamy is Mary Emma at 31′.
Most horsepower is Barney Turecamo at 5100. Least is a tie between Discovery Coast and Allie B. at 3000 each.
Newest launch is Discovery Coast at 2012. Oldest by two years is Mary Emma at 1975, and Allie B. at 1977 1976. I only recently learned Allie B used to do the sugar run into Dominos on the East River.
Cape Canaveral passed me the other day, and it seemed something had changed . . .
Had I previously seen this green/blue symbol, like a flame or a drop? I suspect it may refer to dual fuel capability or aspiration. Is this a single boat symbol or the unveiling of a new part of the Kirby logo?
It was not there on this photo of this boat in 2021.
And recently when a fleetmate transited the KVK, it was not on that boat . . .
on either side.
Something to keep track of, I guess.
All photos, WVD, who has the luxury of not playing in the sea smoke out there today.
In May 2019, I caught one of the Kirby Capes arrive for the very first time, passing the original Cape at the east end of the KVK here. My first view of the third Cape, sans that green/blue flame or drop symbol was here in March 2020.
Unrelated: Half a decade ago i spent this weekend in Quebec City to see the sporting event of the year . . . ice canoe racing. It was a mere -8, v. a -30 today. See my posts from the Saint Lawrence here.
All these photos were taken in the second half of January 2013. This 1973 livestock carrier Falconia was in the Brooklyn Navy Yard getting some work done. I’d love to see a cargo layout for the vessel. Also, just back from the foremast, those are large bales of either hay or straw for the livestock. What would you guess her disposition in second half of January 2023? Answer follows at the end of this post.
The tanker here is today in the Gulf of Guinea on a run between Gabon and Netherlands. Kristy Ann Reinauer was scrapped in 2015.
The green tug Mary Gellatly was transformed into the very busy CMT Mackenzie Rose.
The behemoth Rebel has become Ken Vinik, awaiting a makeover in the Arthur Kill.
The name of the hull–we’d spell it “Sovkomflot“–is one you will not see in the sixth boro these days, and it seems the icebreaking tanker is currently
anchored where it has been for at least the past six months in Murmansk.
The Penn Maritime Coho has become the Kirby Coho, currently in Savannah.
Note the ice and snow on the boats above and below; January a decade ago was frosty! Barbara McAllister has become Patsy K, which I’ve never seen. She’s in Panama City FL right now.
It’s clamming time in the boro, and many of these clam/fish boats come out of this creek in NJ. More Dutch Girl tomorrow.
Grey Shark may be a dead ship or even a scrapped one by now, last recorded in the DR.
And finally, Megan McAllister is alive and well, busy as Charles James.
All photos from January 2013, WVD.
And the answer to the question about the current disposition of Falconia: she’s renamed Dragon and in Midia, Romania on the Black Sea, flying the Togolese flag, and still working, having just arrived in from Libya. For a tour of a much newer and sophisticated purpose-built livestock carrier, click here. More on this category of vessel here, and Dragon specifically on page 49.
For a disturbing report–if you choose to followup here–google Queen Hind livestock carrier, which capsized in Midia in 2019 and resulted in the “lost cargo,” i.e., death 14,000 sheep.
Here was installment 1. Right over beyond Race Rock Light, that’s the entrance to
New London, where Rowan M. McAllister lighters a salt ship named Feng Ze Hai.
A Reinauer unit heads for the sixth boro, and not taking refraction into account,
I figured I could just read the name here. Can you make it out? My guess is Ruth E. but there are others similar to her.
Cape Canaveral passed Bridgeport bathed in morning light.
Later, Sapphire Coast
with Cement Transporter 1802
overtook William F. Fallon Jr. and her barge at
As the early winter’s night approached, Reinauer Twins
and RTC 104 passed close enough to read her name, refraction notwithstanding.
All photos, WVD, who has many more and closer up lighthouse photos from the Sound.
I haven’t always noticed all the right details,
and you might be wondering if this title sounds a bit like one of those professional firms . . .
but possibly by the time you get to the photo below you’ve figured out the title.
Certainly while shooting these photos, it occurred to me that this tug/barge combination is somewhat unusual . . . Chesapeake Coast pushing liquid tank barge Chesapeake. Maybe it’s not unusual. Sister tug Discovery Coast has been in the boro a fair amount but it’s been a while since I recall seeing Chesapeake Coast here.
Anyhow, I thought it was unusual.
Can you recall seeing this barge in the boro? Going back in my archives, it’s been a few years that I’ve posted photos of Chesapeake Coast, other than it “retro” posts. Good to see you.
All photos, any lapses of memory and inattention, WVD.
I like reader-submitted photos, especially when they show something I’ve not seen before, like this black low-profile unit, which may or may not have the name Elizabeth II, in front of this Kirby inland barge. Photo was taken somewhere west of Atchafalaya Bay by eastriver.
See the unit at the bow of that barge?
Prime mover here is Louisa Frances. So what is that forward unit?
It’s a “bow boat,” as in here. Scroll through and you’ll see a version called Chuck Norris and a Steermaster here.
Next topic . . . after a reference and comments here, Jan vander Doe sent along this photo of an opduwer on a Dutch waterway below. Literally the Dutch “opduwer” translates as “up pusher,” once again proving that tow boats can push, and push boats can tow . . . as long as they have the right deck fittings.
Third . . . the mobile boat lift that’s been at Bayonne Dry dock for a year and a half now was christened yesterday as Christopher Edward. Read this story here.
I’m happy to read this, although I’ve not heard of a travel lift or mobile boat hauler bearing a name. On the other hand, the floating dry docks at Caddells have numbers and names.
Finally, I caught an “exotic” heading out of the sixth boro the other day. She’s been in and out before, but…. like I said… I finally got a photo of
Miss Emma McCall. A fleetmate–Brooks McCall –has been operating in the LI Sound and Narragansett Bay, but I’m not up there much. To digress, would anyone up on Sound and N Bay send me photos of unusual vessels now and again? I know the wind farm work is bringing in lots of exotics to southern New England ports.
More on TDI Brooks and this vessel can be found by clicking on those links.
Thanks to eastriver and Jan for their photos; all others and any errors . . . WVD.
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