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Every day is Thanksgiving, but we dedicate one day to talk about it. One undeniable detail of the US popular T’giving narrative involves a transAtlantic vessel, Mayflower. Some of this info about the Mayflower might be new. Less than a decade after arriving in North America, it may have been dismantled and used in a barn building project. Reference to Mayflower, original and replica, can be found in these previous blog posts.
Of course, instances of earlier thanksgiving in the US exist, like this one from 1607 and involved a vessel named Virginia, in Maine. My point is . . . it’s a story of migration by ship.
That’s the connection: this blog features ships, and this post is a sampling of vessels that’ve called in the sixth boro in recent weeks and months, like The Amigo, a 2012 Croatia-built asphalt/bitumen tanker. Cargo in the tanks needs to be kept well above the boiling point to maintain liquidity.
MSC Shirley is a 2000-built Polish-built container ship with a capacity of 2024 teu.
Seaways Redwood is a 2013 South Korea-built crude tanker. South Korea currently builds the highest percentage of global shipping, although other Pacific Asian countries are in second and third places, as you’ll see in this sampling.
Grande Texas is a PCTC built 2021 in China, off Ningbo. She has the capacity of 7,600 ceu (car equivalent units).
Ardmore Dauntless and Ardmore Enterprise, both built South Korea but in 2015 and 2013, respectively. Enterprise has slightly larger capacity.
Aruna Berk is a drybulk carrier launched in China in 2011.
Thor Maximus is a 2005 Japan-built drybulk carrier.
ONE Wren is a 2018 Japan-built 14000 teu container ship.
Atlantic Spirit is a McKeil tanker, launched in 2011 from a shipyard in China.
McKeil is a Canadian company. McKeil tugboats work mostly the Great Lakes; one company tug visited the sixth boro a few years back here.
Thundercat is a 2008 crude carrier built in China.
Given a 1980s cartoon series, I had to chuckle at this name.
Key Ohana is a 2010 Japan built bulk carrier.
MSC Agadir is a Korea-built 8886 teu container ship dating from 2012.
Note the scrubbing add-on for emissions. MSC Shirley, above, also has an exhaust-filtering system.
Northern Jaguar is a 2009 8400-teu container ship built in South Korea. Small size as it is relative to the ship, the rudder and prop spray size relative to a single container is gigantic; think of following that down the highway as you would a trailer-mounted container.
Jag Leela is a 1999 South Korea built crude tanker. She appeared on this blog back in 2010 here.
Poorly-lit but I include this photo anyhow because it shows Ever Forward, the newest and likely the best-known ship in this post, due to her not moving forward earlier this year. She’s currently heading south in the Red Sea, getting chased by a friend named Mike.
All photos and any errors, WVD, who offers this as an assortment of commercial vessels in and out of the sixth boro. Post 98 in the series appeared here way back in April.
None of these vessels will ever maintain the lasting hold Mayflower has on the US psyche, but the fact is that much of what folks will list as what they are thankful for involves conveyance of vessels like these in and out of the sixth boro. That’s part of why I do posts like this one.
Happy thanksgiving today.
If my post-entitling were consistent, this would be the twelfth post with pics from Mike. Of course, if it were differently consistent, this would be Lois M 4. Yes, 4 because of this post which would be Thanks to Jake . . . and a number. OK, I’ll stop with all the meta-commentary.
Nevertheless, Lois M is still in town, hibernating . . . you might say, waiting not so much for spring as for completion of the work on her barge.
To highlight her size . . . she ‘s 108′ x 35′ x 18’ and propelled by 4800 hp.
To quote the GLtugs site, she’s a “z-drive tug was built in 1991 by Matsuura Tekko Zosen of Higashino, Japan as the Lambert for Cleveland Cliffs-Robe River Iron in Australia.”
Note the WTC 1 beyond the stern deck and
the Empire State Building and Williamsburg Bridge beyond her here.
Many thanks, Mike.
Guess the vessel cut off to the right?
The tug is Lois M, on hold in Brooklyn for about a month already.
It turns out she came to GMD with barge Tobias for a haircut and a shave, and maybe some new paint.
After the shipyard work, Lois M and Tobias might be headed across the pond ….
Given the size of the graving dock, Tobias is a huge barge.
Many thanks to Mike Abegg for these photos.
And that bowsprit . . . it belongs to Clipper City.
An unusual profile sailed into the Narrows recently, and what I read says she’s powered by Niigata engines. Anyone know much about these engines? The company also builds railroad equipment.
I assumed she’d be in under cover of darkness, but towing a 400′ x 100′ deck barge, she made slow time along the south side of Long Island.
I’m not sure I understand the impact of cold on my camera, but I got these photos from more than half a mile off.
After towing barge Tobias in on the wire, she rounded up in Stapleton and made up alongside. Eventually, she got assistance and brought the barge into the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
For more info on Lois M, check here out here and here.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Still in Cleveland, a recalcitrant fisherman keeps anchor and hooks wet until Huron Spirit threatens to immerse the fisherman as well.
Smarter heads prevail and the fishermen move out of the immediate danger.
Sarah Andrie and her A-390 have discharged in Tonowanda and are
upbound for Lake Michigan.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Here are previous installments in the series. Summer sail can take the form of foil-raised GP racing as will happen in the sixth boro this weekend; it can also happen on longer courses and require stamina and endurance as happens in some races ending in Mackinac.
All the photos in this post come from Jeff Gritsavage, as he was delivering a yacht from Florida to Lake Michigan. Some of you will recognize that this shot was taken in an Erie Canal lock. A few of you will name the lock. Answer at the end of this post.
I’ll help you out here; this was taken on the Oswego Canal, a spur that was developed to connect the Erie Canal and Syracuse to Lake Ontario. Name the town?
Another town on the Oswego Canal. Name it?
This is the same town, and the boats are exiting the same lock as seen above. In fact, about 500′ beyond the opening mitre gates is the location I took this photo of Urger and a State Police cruiser almost exactly 5 years ago.
This is Oswego. White Hawk has arrived on its first Great Lake. The masts await and will be stepped because air draft issues
no longer apply.
Welland Canal is less than 30 miles long, but it’s
the way around Niagara Falls in 8 easy steps.
Coexistence with larger vessels is the rule on the Welland Canal.
Above and below is one of the hardest working tug/barge units on the lakes . . . Wilf Seymour and Alouette Spirit.
And on any lucky passage through the Welland, you’ll see vessels like Fednav‘s Federal Dee,
Polsteam‘s Mamry, and
Canada Steamship Lines‘ CSL Tadoussac.
Before I give the answers to the questions above, here’s another town/Erie Canal location to identify. Click on the photo to find its attribution AND the article that explains what’s happening with White Hawk.
So . . . the answers are lock E-23, Phoenix NY, Fulton NY, and finally above . . . .
that’s Rome. Click here for a previous tugster post on the Rome to Oswego run.
Many thanks to Capt. Jeff for sharing these photos here.
And I’ll be looking for White Hawk on the Lakes this summer.
No, it has nothing to do with dance, but refers to my bird guide which calls “exotic” anything appearing outside of its usual habitat. Here are the previous exotics posts.
These photos were all taken by Mike Abegg in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
It’s Beverly M I, a McKeil tug. I quote from the site linked: “built in 1993 by Imamura Shipbuilding of Japan as the Shek O for Hong Kong Towing and Salvage.” Remember, Canada has no Jones Act-type origin rules.
A tug registered in St. John’s . . . I’d call that exotic. Anyone know the story? Since it delivered a barge that went into the graving dock, I’m guessing it was an emergency repair.
I’ve seen her fleet mate–Sharon M I— several times on the Great Lakes.
Many thanks to Mike for getting these photos. Click here to see his previous catches.
“irrespective of operating conditions, all vessels must be clear of the Montreal-Lake Ontario section [of the St. Lawrence Seaway] at 12:00 hours on December 31st, [2017].” quoted from Seaway Notice No. 26–2017
Above and below, Leonard M and Ocean A. Simard struggling to extricate Federal Biscay, as seen from Robinson Bay, on January 6, in temperatures double digits below zero, Fahrenheit.
Yet, here we are as of earlier this morning in the areas east and west of the Snell Lock [between groups 3 and 4]. Green AIS symbols are ships, all down bound, and aqua are tugs, assisting in that effort. Key follows. Check this news update from Massena NY on boatyard.com for January 8.
1 Pacific Huron. It had grounded farther upstream in late December.
2 Performance and Robinson Bay
3 Federal Biscay and Ocean A. Simard. Federal Biscay precipitated this delay, when it got stuck in Snell Lock last week. It was freed Saturday.
4 Billeborg, Beatrix, and Mitiq
5 Ocean Tundra and Martha L. Black
This should make for interesting story to follow on AIS or on FB group St. Lawrence River Ship Watchers.
Leo Ryan’s Maritime Magazine comments on the gold-headed cane ceremony each January in Montreal honoring the first ship into port of Montreal each year. There should be a similar “recognition” of the last ship out of the Seaway. Name suggestions, anyone? Definitely there should be recognition of the efforts of the tug and ice breakers crews ensuring that the last ship gets out. For some reason, I recall a kid’s book . . . The Story About Ping.
Many thanks to Nathan Jarvis for the top two photos and assistance with information. The photo below I’m not sure who to credit to, but it shows Robinson Bay‘s efforts to extricate Federal Biscay last week.
And as of 10:54 today…
Federal Biscay and Pacific Huron are competing to be Ping; the others are downstream following Black and Tundra.
Port Weller is the north terminus of the Welland Canal, and as such, sees either a pilot boarding or debarking, which was the case here. Mrs C has an equally attractive fleet mate at Port Colbourne, the southern terminus. The vessel in the background left will appear in an upcoming post.
Some 80 miles to the east Kimberly Anne (1965) was docked in Rochester’s Charlotte port.
Walking along the beach there, I saw this historical sign of tug Oneida and schooner H. M. Ballou, at different times both owned by a George W. Ruggles.
Fifty or so miles to the NE we enter the Oswego River to find the busiest (IMHO) unit on the lakes: in the past few years I’ve seen Wilf Seymour and Alouette Spirit at least 6 times between Lake Huron and Quebec City. Here’s more info on Alouette’s aluminum operations, at one time and possibly now the largest aluminum producer in the Americas.
Click here for more info on Novelis, the client here in Oswego.
Anyone tell me the weight of one of these ingots?
Moving from contemporary to retrospective, the Phoenix dock was hosting schooner Lois McClure and tug Churchill as we passed.
For more close-ups, check out tug44’s take.
Click here for a complete history of the replica schooner Lois McClure.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes you all enjoy the last day of summer 2017 today.
Contining here, I am, from Detroit to Cleveland.
Demolen at the USACE dock near the Rouge,
Stormont pushing the ferry barge
in the direction of RenCen,
Victory moving James L. Kuber
past Fighting Island, and
Leonard M remakes the tow
that’s heaped up with coal,
and I get to watch it all.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
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