Inaugurations

January, once every four years, involves a formality that we mark today.  Inaugurate has a strange derivation, you figure it out.  With this post, I’m in no way intending to divine futures.  Really it’s just sets of photos taken four years apart. 

Ice and lightship yacht Nantucket floated in the harbor in mid January 2009. Do you remember what else was literally in the harbor?

Weeks tugs stood by ready to move a barge underneath the airplane when Weeks 533 lifted the Airbus 320 from harbor waters that had cushioned its fall . . . twelve years ago. 

Next inauguration day, 2013, I watched fishermen drag clams from the bottom of Gravesend Bay.

Rebel, destined not to run much longer, pushed a barge across the Upper Bay with an incomplete WTC beyond.  Many more details had not yet sprouted on the Manhattan skyline.

Mid January 2017 . . . CMA CGM Nerval headed for the port with Thomas J. Brown off its starboard.  Here‘s what I wrote about this photo and others exactly four years ago.

Nerval still needed to make its way under the yet-to-be completed raising of the Bayonne Bridge, assisted by JRT Moran.  This view was quite different in mid January 2017.   As of today, this container ship in on the Mediterranean on a voyage between Turkey and Morocco.

All photos, WVD, taken in mid January at four-year intervals.  Nothing should be read into the choice of photos.  Sorry I have no photos from January 20, 2005, because back then I didn’t take as many photos, and four years before that, I was still using a film camera, took fewer photos in a year than now I do on certain days, and that skyline above was very different.

My inaugural event . . .  cleaning my desk, my office, and my kitchen.   If you’re looking for an activity, something might need cleaning. Laundry?   Yup, work after work.  All inaugurations call for clean ups.

And if you want to buy that lightship yacht above, here‘s the info.

 

Dense Traffic 5

Megalopolis roadways see dense traffic, and so do waterways in these areas.  I hope these photos convey a sense of that.  All but two of the seven vessels are underway.  Underway vessels, l to r, are Frederick E. Bouchard, MSC Athens, Jonathan C. Moran, C. F. Campbell, and Fort McHenry.

Dense means tight quarters, Brian Nicholas looking barely larger than the bulbous bow.

Here everything is in motion.

Again, everything here is in motion.  I’m not sure what the Reinauer units there are.

All are moving here too . .   Frederick E., Pegasus, Meaghan Marie, one of the Moran 6000s, Mister T, a bit of the bow of Mary Turecamo, and CMA CGM Nabucco.

 

Sometimes a confluence of schedules make the KVK resemble rush hour.  Photos, WVD.

Cosco Shipping Cherry Blossom

It was my first time to see her.  She arrived this morning after a monthlong voyage from Busan, which she departed on December 17.  With her containers all squared away, I’d gather she has delivered a full load.

CSCL operates eight of these vessels, valued at $117 million each.

The sight of these giants gives pause.  China’s  first container ship, Ping Xiang Cheng, launched in 1978 for a route between Shanghai and ports of eastern Australia carried 162 containers!  Their first service to US ports came in 1981.

Who then could have imagined these.

Mariner gear in 2021 . . . it’s not what I’d expect.

With the two crew above and these four, this must be half or more of the deck crew. 

 

For an afternoon’s reading, click here for an analysis of the shipyard which builds these behemoths and many other types of ships.

All photos this morning, WVD.

ULCVs 8

Find a great diagram here, as well as this quote:  “container carrying capacity has increased 1200% since 1968.”  This increased size drives developments in escort tugs.

As of 2021, the sixth boro has accommodated vessels no larger than 15,000 teu, like CMA CGM Argentina.  These can be called mother ships, since they can call in only a limited number of ports in the US for reasons of draft, air draft, and crane size. Vying for position as the largest, Liebherr appears to have a 25-row crane design, while ZPMC has a 26-row product.

Count them, it looks like Argentina has 20 rows across.  Imagine each of these row, each of these containers, as towed by a truck on the highway lane beside you.

YM Wellhead, an odd name in my opinion, is one of 20 W-class 14,000 teu ships.   World was the first of this class that I caught. 

 

She departed the sixth boro yesterday, sans the container that crossed the VZ as she made her way out.

Back in spring 2017, Cosco Development was the largest container ship to transit the new locks in Panama.  Her capacity is just over 13,000 teu.

 

At least half dozen Hyundai vessels have called in the sixth boro of late, all around 13000 teu.

I was surprised when the docking pilot boarded up the companionway.

 

Cosco Shipping Camellia is one of more than half dozen Cosco Shipping “flower-class” vessels to call hewre, all around 13,500 teu.

 

Orchid is a sister vessel, and in the next day or so, Sakura will arrive.

The most powerful escort tugboats in the sixth boro shrink in size alongside these behemoths.

All photos and interpretation of info, WVD, who wonders what the next milestone of any sort the sixth boro will see.

Random Tugs 323

Enjoy more late afternoon photos here . . .  like Alexandra, passing in front of a number of cranes, both on the water, near the water, and atop buildings.

Ava transits the Con Hook Range, with three East River bridges in the background.

Miriam heads in the direction of the Bayonne Bridge, with two Arthur Kill bridge and the Linden refinery in the background.

Janet D with a crane barge passes here in front of a lower Manhattan, and a reprise of those cranes.

Brian Nicholas here brings DS159 eastbound for a refill.

Ellen McAllister weaves between KVK vessels on its way to a job.

Gulf Coast transits the KVK in front of Sailors Snug Harbor, with cranes at Caddells defining points in the western sky.

And to close, it’s Calusa Coast with barge Delaware, recently returned from five or so years in the Great Lakes.   Note the Statue, the south end of Ellis Island, and the Jersey City wall of buildings in the distance.

All photos, WVD.

CMA CGM 15000 B

Here was the part A.  CMA CGM Argentina, sister toMexico and Brazil, steamed up the coast Sunday evening, making me think I’d miss it.  But it dropped anchor 15 or so miles off Point Pleasant, and stayed there making pattern like this.  Another ULCV was similarly anchored off Jones Beach, and it came into the boro last night.  This raises a question:  are the ULCVs causing a shortage of berth space?

Early afternoon yesterday after three ULCVs–Hyundai Ambition, Cosco Shipping Camellia, Tampa Triumph— left port, Argentina was off like an arrow for Ambrose Channel.

I debated going to see it, given fading light, but … decided I needed a distraction on a Friday afternoon.

I went.  The docking pilots lands from Jonathan C, which then

swings around the stern.

End of the day twilight has its own richness;  here the straight lines of the ship (?!) contrast with the irregular lines of the city.

She’s long, stacked as they were when she left Busan, Korea’s largest port,  on December 9, and nearly dragging her belly through the silt and fluff at the bottom of the channel.

 

And I’ll bet there not more than 30′  clearance with the underside of that bridge down there.

All photos, WVD, whose previous ULCV posts, some of them, can be found here.  And I have other ULCV photos from recently I’ve not posted yet.

Unrelated but followup on the Rotterdam tug Limburgia video that sleepboot posted in a comment yesterday.  The 1942 boat has retired from commercial work and been sold.  You will enjoy looking through the photos on the sale notice.

Btw, “sleepboot” is the Dutch word for “tugboat.”

 

Random Tugs 322

I’m fortunate to live within easy distance of all this activity:  Nathan G, Treasure Coast, B. Franklin Reinauer, an ULCV, Doris Moran, and who knows how much is obscured behind these . . .  And then there’s the crane atop the building to the left and the gull lower right.

Or here . . . Margaret Moran and a tanker off her stern.

Or here, HMS Justice and Mary H  . . . .

Philadelphia outbound with her barge and Ava M. McAllister inbound with an ULCV.

Mister Jim crosses in front of the slower moving Captain D with a Covanta barge.  Note the cranes at Caddells, with the diagonal lines off the left from  Left Coast Lifter.

Jonathan C Moran, Doris Moran, and Kimberly Turecamo . . . follow a ULCV and 

and here head east for the next job.

Tugboats cross.

 

All photos, WVD.

Small Craft 28

So in a recent post, you had a glimpse of this small craft, which I initially thought was a fishing boat.   I know how addictive fishing can be, since I used to ice fish and canoe fish.

But it turned out to be Lynn, a Ken‘s boat, used for line and boom handling. I’d not before noticed that some of these small boats have names.

Another boom and line handling company, ACV Enviro, also has names on their boat.  Meet Miss Urvi, an interesting name in several ways.

Here’s Miss Urvi showing my bow on a foggy day.

An intriguing small craft departed the Narrows yesterday.  Where is it headed I wonder.  It looked to be no more than 35′ and the name might be Sirius.

I’m not sure who operates Grace D, but she’s been in the harbor for the better part of a decade doing launch service.

 

Head on . . . who is this survey boat?  Notice the up fold-down transponder on the bow between the hulls.

It’s USACE.  I believe it’s a Silver Ship boat.

At first, I didn’t know what I was looking at when I saw six knees.  Sure, Gabby I knew and I saw a small boat to starboard,

but

there were two alongside, one on each side.  And on the far side, it’s Mister “B”...   a new one for me.

So it is.  All photos, WVD.

Tanks in Boxes on Ships

More Gowanus soon, but for now, this follows a post from a few years back called “boxes on ships,” but what begs for attention here is the number of less common containers, these by a company called Agmark. 

Maersk Vallvik actually has two centers of liquid bulk containers, Agmark toward the stern and Bertschi farther forward.

Bertschi is a Swiss company that transports, among many other things, cocoa butter, i.e., their self-described “heaven.”

All this brings me to what appears to be the biggest concentration of tanks . . . . Agmark’s.  According to their site, they transport the following:  “Dairy products, concentrated and single strength fruit juices, vegetable oils, spirits, wine, chocolate, alcohol, beverage preparations, essences, hot or cold bulk liquids, food products, chemicals, and fuels.”

So, this could have cold fruit juice, just like these, but in parcels rather than “shipfulls.”  Others carry “rock juice” either by the shipfull or in parcels.

But i digress.  I don’t know what Vallvik carried in those tanks;  my point here is simply that she carried a lot of those tanks.

Back in 2013 this same vessel called attention for another type of container as here.

All photos, WVD.   And that small craft in the photo above, maybe that’s in tomorrow’s post.

Another unusual container type, CATS, was featured here 10 years ago.

Dense Traffic 4

Here are the previous  iterations of this title.  Keep in mind that the long lens foreshortens these scenes.  The scene is this:  MSC Alicante has just entered the KVK heading west.  Note the Vane Potomac hurrying away to the east.

The “N” vessel is Athenian.  JRT is along the port side of MSC Alicante.

 

Note that JRT is along the port bow quarter.

To compare, Athenian has teu capacity of 10000, and MSC Alicante, 5550. The photo below belies the fact that their relative dimensions are 885′ x 131′ v.  1145′ x 149′ respectively.

Brendan Turecamo peels off Athenian. 

When my attention turns back to the west, I notice another container ship by the Bayonne Bridge, Brendan has replaced JRT alongside the MSC, and Jonathan C Moran on a sternline.

See the whitewater wake forward of Jonathan C?  She’s racing the engines astern.

 

Gunhilde Maersk has a 7000 teu within its 1203′ x 140′ dimensions.

 

Dense traffic . . . it’s just another day on the KVK.

All photos, observations by Will Van Dorp.