Random Nola Tugs 4

Despite the distance and the fog covering the escutcheon,  I could immediately identify this tug–once a regular on the Hudson and in the sixth boro– on the Mississippi.

Let me end out this series with tugboats and other vessels:  Sydney Ann

and Brandi,

Mary Parker and

Port Ship Service Little Ray, 

David J. Cooper and

Bulk Guatemala with selfie-shooting watch stander,

Sonny Ivey and

Connie Z,

Moose, 

Jena Marie C, 

Capt CJ, and

fireboat Gen. Roy S. Kelley,

Jo Provel with the 9th steamboat named Natchez.

Now all of this has nothing to do with the photo below, which nevertheless deserves recognition . . . interactive art which really seems to have caught on.  Thanks, Candy Chang.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s even now in the cold NYC air plotting a return to

 

Nola.

Random Nola Tugs 3

I wonder . . . if I move here, will I tire of watching the traffic pass?   Sometimes there are familiar vessels . . . like Buster Bouchard, but otherwise . . .

commerce rafts in vessels never before seen . . . like Fu Kang (almost a racy name?) foreground and Caribe Pearl protruding from around the bend, with  Angus R. Cooper, Bollinger, and Algiers Point in between.

Leopard Sea and Miss Sylvia keep the excitement going, with

handoffs to Karen Koby,

Cindy R and Zante,

C. Mack Zito, 

Jesus Saves,

Presager,

J. K. McLean, 

Alice I. Hooker, 

Merrick Jones, 

Louisiana and Angus R. Cooper meeting Qingdao Tower.

The Mississippi never stops, but I will of now, with a note of familiarity, not Dolphin per se–she’s never been pictured on the is blog, I think–but rather the Kirby livery.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Back to Jesus Saves, is there any truth to the story that somewhere along the Mississippi a nun is master of a tug?

Random Nola Tugs 2

You might conclude that in this city I do nothing except sit on the riverbank, but the better conclusion is that Nola river traffic volume is phenomenal.  So here’s a sampling of another–say–two hours total traffic, beginning with a vessel that would look entirely at home in NYC’s sixth boro . . . it’s J. George Betz.

Next something you’ll not see except in the inland big river, O. H. Ingram, 185′ loa x 54′ 9200 hp and triple screw,  pushing

at least eight barges heading into a turn with at least two oncoming tows:

Joe B. Wyatt, 170′ loa x 45′ 6120 hp twin screw,  pushing 18 barges and Mr. Pete with a single, but they all squeeze around the turn.

The range of vessels is interesting, considering the likes of Lil Susan S

and Josephine Anne of Bisso Offshore, with Wise One in the distance.

Natalie S . . . and

Blessed Trinity .  .  . and

and Natures Way Commander . . .

Moose . .  and

CSS Savannah . . . and less than two hours have elapsed and I haven’t included all the traffic!

and let me conclude with a photo taken the previous afternoon, another that would NOT look out of place in NYC’s waters, Greg Turecamo.

More soon.  All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Nola Tugs 1

I’ll start with the greatest looking tug of all I saw.  It has a name, but I cropped it out and will reveal it as this post goes on.  But isn’t this a beaut?!!  It also has an evocative previous name.  Can you guess her vintage?

I’m in the mood for puzzling today, so what’s this?  I know there’s no tug in this photo, but . . .

now there is.  Check out the scale of those gift boxes!  Here’s the story of the Algiers Christmas bonfires. Scroll through here to photos 4 and 5 for last year’s Algier’s bonfire fuel.

So here’s a closer up of the tug Bunker King passing the tanker Bow Trajectory, heading for Plaquemine.

See the Algiers “gift boxes” over the stern of Cecilia B. Slatten?  See where she fits in her fleet here.   Can anyone explain what if any connections there are between Bisso Towing and Bisso Marine, who recently have had a project in NYC’s sixth boro?

Freedom . . . there’s nothing in the sixth boro with these colors and artwork.

M/V Magnolia . . . as night falls.

Night falls on James Dale Robin and Kimberly Hidalgo.  Less than an hour earlier, prayers had been offered and champagne spilled over these two vessels and another, Dale Artigue.

And nightfall means I should return to the beaut in the first photo . . . here it is with name restored, formerly called Havana Zephyr.  Check out this fabulous line drawing of her by Barry Griffin.

Here’s the whole vessel as I saw it last week.  Such lines!  I’d really love to see a bowsprite rendering of those curves!

Merlin Banta, which my defective eyes first read as ‘merlin santa,” came out of the St. Louis Boats yard in 1946, not long after the yard delivered a fleet of icebreaking tugs to the US Navy and then to the USSR!  If you click on no other links in this post, you have to see these icebreakers . . . last photo in a post I did a year ago here.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Along Bayou Lafourche Again 2

Thanks much for the encouragement;  here’s another set of photos.  Actually, if you follow the Bayou nearly to the end, you’ll be here in Port Fourchon at the entrance to one of the southernmost roads in Louisiana.  This post will be mostly a photo album.

As you’ll notice in the following photos, certain colors dominate here.  Here’s  C-Legacy and

beyond Delta Power  . . . more orange and yellow in the background including

Timbalier Island, C-Clipper, and unidentified.  Many Edison Chouest vessels are listed here, and for Timbalier Island, launched less than a year ago, click here.

Finn Falgout and another view of Timbalier Island.

For the many other Edison Chouest vessels I’ve previously posted, click here.

Crosby Enterprise and Kurt J. Crosby.  For lots of Crosby tugs including these, click here.

Joshua Chouest

Miss Aimee and John G. McCall

C-Pacer and Fast Track

Harvey Champion and Harvey Supporter and some I can’t identify.   Here’s the Harvey fleet including

Harvey Falcon, Harvey Racer, and Harvey Hero.

Betty Pfankuch

AMC Ambassador, Seacor Conquest, and Bob Jr

Norbert Bouziga

HOS Mystique and HOS Sandstorm

HOS Crockett

Russell Adams

Mainport Pine and some unidentified vessels

Connor Bordelon, a ProMariner ship-of-the-year this year, and Blue Dolphin and what looks like an identical BakerHughes vessel.  I saw other Baker Hughes vessels in Brazil last year.

And finally .  . the MSRC vessel everyone hopes never to have to deploy . . . Deep Blue Responder, she with a sibling in the sixth boro and many other places.

Thanks for asking for more of these.  Tomorrow I’ll start unpacking the Nola photos.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, but if you want to follow work on vessels like these, check out Crewboat Chronicles and New England Waterman.

 

Merrily Merry

My sincere Merry Christmas/Happy 2014 wishes to all of you.  Actually, I hit the road Monday morning for the now-annual road trip to see family in greater Atlanta.

Consider this my Christmas card.  Any ideas what this is?  These three fotos come courtesy of Nancy Donskoj.

It’s the tugboat Gowanus Bay delivering Sinterklaas and his entourage up the rondout to Kingston, NY’s annual Sinterklaas festival.   Sinterklaas is the red-clad legend I was first made aware of, and he would supposedly arrive on December 5.   Click here for more pics.    Kingston was the third oldest settlement in New Netherland.

Believe it or not, Sinterklaas stories are clouded in some controversy because of the guy standing to his left.  Actually not this guy per se at all.  In the Dutch tradition, this man is Zwarte Piet . .  or Black Pete.  The Americanization in the foto below is interesting.

As the Dutch say, prettige kerstfest.

The next two pics come thanks to Jen Muma currently of New Orleans, and it’s fuel for the

Christmas bonfire.

Here are two East Coast traditions, but I’m thinking the sixth boro really doesn’t have much PUBLIC Christmas tradition spectacle related to the water at all.  Four years ago, I floated an idea about a harbor tree inspired by what folks do in New England, but I’ve moved on.  For myself, I like the idea below, the nautical clutter tree in my friend Ed Fanuzzi’s backyard.

Have a festive day with your loved ones.  I will repost again in a few days.

Thanks again to Nancy and Jen for use of their photos.

Government Boats 25

The last post in this series–24–was quite obscure.    And this one . . . could be called ex-government boats.

The foto below comes thanks to Scott Craven, who caught the vessel upbound on the Hudson near the Bear Mountain Bridge.  At first I thought it was a re-purposed 65′ WYTL.  With a bit of research, however, I learned it’s the retired Massport Marine 1, Howard W. Fitzpatrick (scroll through to the 8th foto).  Note the traces of removed signage along her port side.  She’s now replaced by American United.   Again, scroll though, and you’ll see the folks on Windermere posted a foto of American United high and dry at the Canadian shipyard here.  Click here for more info on Massport.   Fitzpatrick launched in 1971 from a now inactive shipyard in southern Illinois, just north of St. Louis.   So does anyone know where Fitzpatrick is headed?  Great Lakes?  the Mississippi system?  Maybe a reader upriver can report?

On a rainy day back in mid-April, Gary Kane caught this display on the East River, just south of Roosevelt Island.

It was the John D. McKean, a retired FDNY fireboat.  McKean was Camden, NJ built about 60 years ago.  Anyone know what her future may be?

All this talk of retired fireboats and mention of Gary Kane give me an opportunity to suggest you buy the documentary produced by Gary Kane and myself called Graves of Arthur Kill.  One of the major voices/story tellers in that documentary is a retired FDNY engineer.

Thanks to Scott Craven and Gary Kane for use of these fotos.

Government Boats 24

Kudos to Joe, Walt, and Starbuck for the answers to the question I posed here a few days ago.  Here’s as much as I know from an exhibit at Vicksburg.

I believe a larger number of folks south of the Mason-Dixon Line know a lot more about the Civil War than most of us up here:  even though it’s the sesquicentennial, we don’t have markers like this to remind us.  Behold the USS Cairo, which only exists today because it had an incomplete journey, lasting only a few years before . . .

boom!  and then getting preserved in Yazoo mud.

If ever you’re in the vicinity of Vickburg, it’s a sight to behold.

From midships below the pilot house, looking forward.

From same position looking over the boilers and through the paddlewheel aft.

From starboard,

from behind the stern looking at the rudders,

And an example of the next generation of ironclads, USS Indianola.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who was born south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Related:  A West Point-trained Confederate officer charged with defending Vicksburg was a General John C. Pemberton, uncle to the person credited with the invention of an obscure drink called Coca-Cola.

Tugboat or Towboat 2

I’d just consider most of the barge-handlers in the Mississippi watershed to be towboats.   Enjoy this smattering beginning with Jerry Deal (1971) .

Ace G (1980) ,

Ronnie Tucker (1976) ,

Shirley Franklin  and Connell Smith  (both 1978) ,

Stephen L. Colby (1967),

American Pillar (1976),

Nellie (1962) and Katherine Berry (2007),

Katherine Berry again and Issaquena (1966),

Stephen Foster (1948) and Captain Val (1965),

Charlie G. (1962),

Spirit, Piasa, (both 1958) and William K. Powell  (??).  Also note White Cloud, a government boat of the St Louis Fire Department in the foreground.

Pioneer  (1981??),

Miss Illinois (1998),

and finally Capt. John H. Lozier, which used to be known as

Southland (1951).      Just take aoff the faux-sidewheels.    Foto below was taken in September 1967 in Louisville, KY.

And I’ll end with a mystery question.  What is anything you can determine about these two vessels?  The smaller one is circled for a reason.

Thanks to DanOwen of Boat Photo Museum for use of the Southland foto.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

Tugboat or Towboat 1

I had a chance to see Orange Blossom depart the sixth boro this morning, but since our current January light is so monochromatic, I thought to take on the tugboat/towboat question.  Having said that, I’ve always considered Buchanan 12 (last one here) and Glen Cove (seventh foto here) as river tugboats or pushboats.   Odin, depicted at the end of this post and possibly still in the Kirby yard in Houston, also has some towboat characteristics.

Olga  G. Stone, big pushknees and little if any sheer . . . .

without a winch or H-bit . . . definitely a towboat.

Barbara E. Bouchard and in the lift Edwin N. Bisso . . .  as definitely tugboats

Admiral Jackson . . . tugboat.

J. W. Herron . . . towboat, and I’d love to see her high and dry hull lines.

Ned Ferry . . . tug.   Here’s Ned Ferry with Sanko Venture, recently somewhat curiously rendered by bowsprite.

This unidentified Florida Marine vessel with tow is a towboat . . . .  Note how the length of the tow

seems quite lengthened when you get a profile.  Also notice the dance as the ferry Louis B. Porterie sashays between the two tows.

John Williams . . .  towboat.

Ditto Alley Cat,  Stone Power, 

and Jerry Aragon.

This one I don’t see enough of to identify.

For nostalgia’s sake . . . a foto of Odin in the KVK . . . circa 2007.

All fotos above by Will Van Dorp.  For some great towboat fotos check Boat Photo Museum and Ohio River Blog, recently added to my blogroll.  Also, an excellent site is Dick’s Towboat Gallery.  For more on the difference between tugs and towboats from TES, click here.