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Many thanks to Trucker Tim Powell for sending along these photos taken in Superior WI back in May 2008. She was launched in 1944 as ST 7067, later transferred to the USACE. Given the timing, Forney had already changed owners and would soon be painted in Heritage Marine’s gold livery, and renamed Edward H.
She looked quite good in USACE livery.
She’s still ST 707 gray inside.
I believe Forney, now Edward H, has been repowered, so this Enterprise DMG-38 engine is likely no longer in the boat. Does anyone know what she currently has for power, and what became of the Enterprise engine?
It turns out I saw Edward H from the air back in June 2017, although I was unable to identify her (I believe from bottom to top here we have Edward, Helen, and Nels.)
Here’s a similar shot from the other direction. More of this flight I posted here. The pilot had all the skills.
From Ingrid Staats . . . the most famous tugboat, Theodore Two, at least the most famous tugboat that isn’t really a tug boat. Bowsprite caught this famous non-tug here in the sixth boro, a decade ago. Ingrid took these photos in Toronto very recently.
Theodore Two has made quite a few meet-greet stops along its month-long journey from Halifax to Hamilton, salt to fresh water. Notice the bark canoe as tender?
Photos I saw from various Canadian stops (The pandemic prevented her from calling at US stops along the way.) show as many folks coming to meet-greet as used to appear whenever Urger stopped at towns along the Erie Canal.
From eastriver, enter the The Black Belt along the lower Mississippi.
And finally . . . a research question from Eric Wiberg: where is 1945 Bushey tug Chaplain? See text below for more info. Eric has even more info.
Many thanks to Tim, Ingrid, eastriver, and Eric for these photos.
From Eric: “This tug was at the last U-boat attack ever and is believed afloat in US or Bahamas. In May of 1945 a tug named CHAPLAIN crewed by Louis Alfred Coley, Jr. and others was used by U-853 under Oberleutnant zur See Helmut Frömsdorf of Germany as a disguise to hide under and sink the US merchant ship BLACK POINT, off Point Judith, RI, with the loss of 12 US sailors and naval gunners. Because the tug crew carried on towards New York with a light scow, history missed her, until 2018 and Capt. Colley described the events days before his death. Now, a Bahamian / US maritime historian is seeking anyone has any information on this tugboat, completed in Brooklyn NY in early 1945 by Ira S. Bushey & Sons, steam-powered with a Fairbanks-Morse engine of 1,000 horsepower.
Owned by Red Star Companies and Spentonbush Fuel Transport Service; Bushey affiliates. Sold to Farrell Ocean Services, then McKie Marine Co., and Russell Tripp (Bay State Towing Co.), retaining name CHAPLAIN in all three sales. Russell Tripp sold her to Constellation Tug Co. of Beverly and Boston, MA, who renamed her CARINA. She was sold to a company in the Bahamas in 2005 as CARINA. Names: CARINA believed to be in Bahamas 2009-present, owned by Kermitt Waters, Liberty Oil & Gas exploration, Las Vegas, NV and West Palm Beach, FL, aggregate trades Arawak Cay Nassau. Ex-OCEAN KING, Jeffries Point East Boston, Jan. 1951 to July 2004, ex-MARGARET SHERIDAN (New York), Jan. 1946 to Jan. 1951, ex-CHAPLAIN (New York) early 1945- Jan. 1946. Specs: IMO: 5260382, GRT: 179, LOA: 95’ X beam of 25.25’. The author is from Bahamas and has been scouring the waterfronts there since c.2015 to no avail and have contacted Liberty Oil & aggregate traders there to no avail. It is possible she has changed names again. Believed to still be US-flagged, she is probably in northern Bahamas or Caribbean, east Florida or US Gulf.”
She may have been renamed.
Click here for the previous 85 posts with this title. Lead photos today come from former owner of this push boat in West Burlington, Iowa.
The vessel, then known as Izona, has since traveled the Interstates and two-lanes to Highlands, NJ, towed by the much-loved Peterbilt of John Zook, of Lewisburg, PA.
Maybe you saw them on the roads, or since then, at a marina in Highlands NJ?
“Mister __” is a common name for tugboats. Here, from a secret salt is Mister C.
Hobo has appeared here before, but never with this outstanding fendering created here. Hobo is a 1953 product of Caddell Dry Dock. She’s now living the good life, in the hands of Donna and Charlie Costa.
Emery Zidell is a Centerline tugboat, currently in the sixth boro. She’s the older twin of Barry Silverton, a more frequent visitor to the boro. Photo comes from Capt. Anon E. Mous. Zidell is married to Dr. Robert J. Beall.
And finally, currently underway in the western center of Lake Erie, it’s Sarah Dann, pushing this huge crane on a barge from Manitowoc WI to Kittery ME, almost 3000 nm.
Get ready to see Sarah Dann and “Big Blue” in the Welland Canal and Saint Lawrence. You might see them passing Strait of Canso too.
Below, Jeremy Whitman caught a fabulous photo of the unit passing the 10th Street lift bridge in Manitowoc WI. Thanks much, Jeremy.
Here’s part of the story from John Buellesbach and MKE Marine Reports in “Around Wisconsin” “Konecranes of Finland partnered with Illinois-based Broadwind to build several large cranes for the U.S. Navy at the Broadwind Heavy Fabrications yard in Manitowoc, former site of Manitowoc Shipbuilding. The first, a portal jib crane for the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, was completed in early May. It weighs 2.7 million pounds, has a lifting capacity of 140 tons, and stands about 160 feet tall. This custom designed crane incorporates unique features that allow it to be operated on the multiple rail section sizes, straight or curved, located at the naval base.”
ETA in New Hampshire is around the 18th. Track them on AIS.
Thanks to Jeremy, John, the Powells and the Costas, Great Lakes mariner, and other nameless contributors.
By the way, does anyone have photos to share here of CMA CGM Marco Polo and from the same day, Kurt J. Crosby?
First, some context, and yes, today is that day. I celebrate it without claiming to adhere to anything beginning with ashes. This may be grasping at long shots, but I have not visited a location that celebrates this spring event in a long time. I know . . . shame on me. More on that later.
Anyone know the author here? It’s a fat tome I’ve taken it from . . . over 1600 pages, all from the king of fat tomes and rich language himself.
“We are off!” It has not nearly the hook of a “Call me Ishmael.” The short second paragraph, though, is a line that needs remembering. As to location, Ravavai is contextualized with reference to Pitcairn, at place today with a grand total population of 50. I’m not sure what the population was 150+ years ago when this was written.
Still in the first short chapter . . . now that’s prescient . . in the second paragraph here, describing the skipper!
By now, I hope you’ve concluded the author here has to be Melville, one of the top five authors of the sea and gallivants thereupon. Anyone want to fill in the names of the other four? I have my ideas. Mardi is one of those fat books very few folks read. I started last night, and hope to complete it. You can start it here.
But in the spirit of mardi gras, here’s another story you may have missed . . . the houseboat Shameless, piloted down the Mississippi by a dying man, Kelly Phillips. His first mate was Sapphire, recently honored among the float sponsored by the Mystic Krewe of Barkus.
Here’s more on the voyage of Shameless from Wisconsin to Venice LA, and all the great folks along the river who lent a hand.
And if you need some language yourself, click here for a fat Tuesday glossary.
Let’s take a step back now and look at the rest of the L & D at Dubuque, aka the General Zebulon Pike Lock & Dam No. 11.
I gather this red unit on the end can raise and lower the tainter gates, named for the inventor.
Posted at the lock is this set of statistics on the infrastructure.
Tied up at the lock is USACE tug Bettendorf. Just over two years ago and thanks to Barrel, I posted photos of many USACE tugs and other equipment here.
Across the way in Illinois was what appeared to be a house barge.
Caretakers or friends of (or both) L & D No. 11 have made the best bird houses!!
Public service signage was impressive also.
The mosey was not leisurely, but it whetted my appetite to get back for a trip along the Mississippi. All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who will soon go into planning mode.
This is the last Chicago-bound post . . . after all, I’ve arrived and even seen the city in the rearview mirror. A large part of Chicago’s port, per se, is here in the Calumet River.
Kimberly Selvick shows her versatility by gliding beneath the 95th Street bridge, stopping no traffic. Not far away, I’m told, is Calumet Fisheries.
AEP on the barge makes me think the cargo here is coal.
Who’d have thought that jungle on the bank grows in Chicago!?!
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’d like to head into the system south and west but that’s for later, after I figure out how to do it. Thanks for following along on the Chicago-bound (CB) posts. It’s time for a new series.
With 2017 looming, it’s time to imagine some possible goals for the near future, assuming we have time. “Big River” mentions a lot of places I’ve yet to see from the water. Johnny Cash’s 1962 version isn’t my favorite, I link to it here because he looks so young. This style boat named Natchez–for one of those places–has worked on the big river in many many capacities for a long time. Anyone now who is credited for introducing steam to the Mississippi River system? Answer follows.
By the way this Natchez was launched in 1975, but
the steam plant that drives it
has been around since 1925, albeit in a different vessel.
New Orleans is over a hundred miles from the Gulf and the number of sea-going vessels that pass is phenomenal.
And since they have such wanderlust-feeding names, I’ll let them speak for themselves . . . the one directly below is SeaKay Spirit.
Here’s a version of “Big River” closer to what I usually listen to, and it was recorded in long-gone Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City.
And speaking of Roosevelts, that’s who teamed up with Robert Fulton to introduce steam boating to the Mississipi River.
So why are there no contemporary and catchy songs about the Hudson watershed? Oh, I’m no songwriter and play no instruments.
Now if only I can get a job sailing from St. Paul MN to the Gulf. I’m working on it.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Crescent has fleets in at least three southern cities, and I’ve featured some of them previously here.
Providence, built 1953, has quite some history in the Northeast, including the sixth boro. Port Allen was built in NYC at Consolidated in 1945, and Angus R. Cooper dates from 1965.
I’d never thought of this before, but from this angle, it appears that W. O. Decker is painted in Crescent Towing livery.
Margaret F. Cooper, similarly, worked for a time in NYC’s sixth boro.
As did Miriam Walmsley Cooper! But southern living seems to agree with these boats, from what I could see as I passed.
Have another look at Providence. I’m sure some of you have photos of some of these boats back when they worked in the Northeast.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Here’s the series.
And there, look at that name. No, not that one. ..
this one. And the paint job–or time elapsed since the most recent one–lends authenticity to the name.
She looks to have been “rode hard and put away wet,” but that expression may just apply to horses and this bulk
carrier may just be happy dashing between the Mississippi and Veracruz. And those streaks of red and yellow . . . they are just like the orange juice and grenadine you mix with the mescal.
I wonder, though, if the rest of the fleet has names like
Tequila Sunset, El Diablo, Margarita . .. or maybe like Hotel California, Lyin’ Eyes, or Peaceful Easy Feeling. Then there could be Tequila Hangover, or Why the Dude Got Thrown out of the Cab. Of course, if you really want to know the fleet mate names, check here.
All photos and speculation by Will Van Dorp.
Kirby pushboat Niceville, named for a Florida town that used to be Boggy, rounds
the bend at Algiers Point.
Marquette’s St. Peter heads
downbound.
Classic 1956 George W. Lenzie . ..
was built at the Calumet Ship Yard & Dry Dock in Chicago, where Daryl Hannah was also built in 1956, launched three months after George W. Lenzie.
Gregory David heads downstream under the spans of the Business 90 Bridge.
The water tower in the background is on Guadalcanal Street in Federal City.
Affirmed is a 2009 boat, here headed downstream.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, but if you want a great database for inland river tugs, check out Dick’s Towboat gallery. Here are the previous posts in this series.
OK, it’s time to reprise this, and admit that once again I’ve learned something . . . by means of my error, my willingness to overgeneralize maybe.
A tolerant reader wrote this in reference to my Flanking, downstream post:
“Not trying to burst your bubble, but those photos indicate the Mike Schmaeng was steering the point, not backing or flanking! Also, the river is very low at this time, and there wouldn’t be any reason to flank Algiers Point.”
So let’s just call this River Addyson heading upstream at the Point. So from this angle, what would you guess about this towboat? 
From the view head-on, I’d never have guess there was over 180′ of boat behind those push knees.
Here are the particulars on this vessel from 1958.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, and keep the corrections coming.
Unrelated: Does anyone know what Seastreak New York is doing in Florida? I was looking for something else and noticed here . . .
There were “all fast” on Marco Island by 2100 yesterday, but this morning are underway, heading for . . Tampa?
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