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Alaska has the Iditarod, Quebec City has the ice canoe races, Honobia OK has the Bigfoot 5K and there’s still time to make plans to get there. And sometimes, the sixth boro (and lots of other waterway cities) has tugboat races.
Enjoy this smattering of photos from Sept 2, 2012.
As often is the case, the weather was fabulous and a large number of organizations turned out with one or more boats for the race, the pushing, the line toss, the spinach eating, the grudge match maybe, and the beauty contest.
Boats get decked out with almost every flag available.
There’s old school and new school padding . . or fendering.
Some traveled in formation for the line up.
The Bronx came all the way from . . . da Bronx’ Westchester Creek.
Preliminary heats resulted in finalists to take on the fearsome, the feral, the never forgotten
In the wake of the class 1 boats, the Hudson had developed some chop for classes 2 and 3.
Note the gent tossing the line has his entire coaching staff and his closest advisors on hand to help him guide the eye over the bollard.
All photos, September 2, 2012, WVD, who hopes NYC’s sixth boro sees a tugboat race in 2023. If not by power boats, maybe it could be a rowing race in Whitehalls and dories. . . . Here are the boats in the race back in 1952. Here are some other tugboats racing in NYC in the 1950s.
Ten years and two days ago, I heard Urger had arrived in town and had rafted up to Pegasus, so
I had to come down in the late afternoon and shoot this, setting sun just post-Mahattanhenge notwithstanding. While there, I was asked to take close-up photos two days later of Urger at the Statue. “Sure,” I said, “as long as you provide a boat I could do that from.”
Upon a decade’s reflection, I regret we could not have arranged to get photos of Urger with more vessels in the sixth boro, especially with the larger tugboats of NYC 2012, to show difference of scale. You know what they say about hindsight . . . .
When I showed up at Pier 25 on July 14 at 0800, City of Water Day, the light was much more favorable.
Captain Wendy was cleaning up the wheelhouse, and
bosun “mean Mike” was atop the wheelhouse polishing the brass. Happy b’day, Mike!
Once the Atlas Imperial was warmed up and lines cast off, we headed over to the Statue, where
we figured out our position relative to the 111-year-old NYS Canal tugboat, and many photos were taken.
Then the intrepid crew and boat made their way over to Governors Island, where several thousand City of Water Day visitors
toured Urger, a sign I thought that the tug would go on forever, making history tangible, bidding downstaters to come upstate to that waterway that was Urger‘s home turf surf. It was a pleasant thought, and Urger did go on for the next five years. Now . . . she ‘s in Onondaga County hamlet of Lysander, waiting. My most recent (May 2022) Urger photos can be seen here.
All photos, WVD, who posted this montage together the next day.
Stay tuned . . . more July 2012 posts coming up soon.
The 2022 City of Water Day–July 16– website can be found here.
Happy independence day. While taking your coffee break, give this document signed by fallible but brave men 246 years ago a read….
I took these photos a decade ago on
a memorable night
in the sixth boro.
Later I posted my first “illuminations” post, reprising language from one of the 56 signers of that document, who put aside their petty disagreements to unite on what they considered common ground despite their differences.
Like I said, from one fallible person to all the rest of you fallible folks, happy independence day.
All photos, WVD.
The year is in its last hours, and these vessels saw their last hours in this year as well. Of course, this is a subjective list, made up of mostly photos I’ve taken over the years of sixth boro and Great Lakes vessels. This list is not definitive. If you know of others, you might add them in the comments section.
Many photos of Helen McAllister have appeared here over the years, but time caught up with the 1900 Helen, who began and ended her life on Staten Island. I caught her doing her last dance –a tango or a waltz– here.
More than 10 years of silence passed between the photo above at the McAllister NY yard and the one below in Tottenville. Eagle-eyed Tony A. caught her stripped of her identification and ready for the scrapping jaws last month.
The 1907 Pegasus saw her end this year as well. I spent many hours on Pegasus, and regretfully, sometimes the scrappers’ jaws are the most humane end for boats.
The 1970 Joanne Reinauer III also saw its end. I learned a lot about the modifications made to tugboat from her and from photos of her tranformations supplied by readers. My photo below is from 2009.
The 1972 Viking also saw a series of modifications. You might think a powerful machine like this . . . like these . . . would never wear out, but like you and me, they do. I believe it was 2021 that she was scrapped, but it may have been earlier. The photo below is from the September 5, 2010 tugboat race.
The Great Lakes shed some vessels also. Mississagi began work in 1943. I took the photo in Lake St. Clair in August 2016. She was towed to a Sault Ste. Marie scrapyard in October 2021.
Manistee dates from the same year and has the same dimensions–620′ x 60′– as Mississagi. This photo I took in Toledo, where she had been laid up for some time. More on Manistee here.
Ojibway, a 1952 bulker, is currently underway in the Saint Lawrence River, bound for Port Cartier with a load of grain. After that, she’ll lay up awaiting an uncertain future. For what it’s worth, she came off the ways the year I was born.
And on a sad note, the 1975 St. Clair was relatively new for a Great Lakes bulk carrier, but a devastating fire during winter layup in February 2019 condemned her; she arrived at the scrapyard in Port Colborne just a few weeks ago. Photo here is credited to Corey Hammond.
Thanks to Tony and Corey for their photos; all others, WVD, who wishes you all a healthy and happy 2022 and the fulfillment of all your goals.
And unrelated to this post but entirely germane to this day of reflection/new goal setting before a new year, check out Ellen Magellan’s expeditions. That’s not her real name but it’s so clever I wish I’d come up with it.
The photo below I took on January 19, 2017. What does it possibly have to do with July 4, 2021?
Do you recall the questions at the end of this post from not quite a month ago?
I quote from the Moran FB page: “Lady Liberty’s ‘Little Sister’ departed France on June 23rd, taking the same route that the original statue once took. The nine-foot replica was carried onboard the French vessel CMA CGM Nerval, and arrived in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey, where she was met by CMA CGM’s North America President, Ed Aldridge, the French Ambassador, Philippe Etienne, and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. She will be displayed on Ellis Island for Independence Day, and then she will head down to Washington, DC for Bastille Day, which is on July 14th.”
So I’m guessing the “Little Sister’ will travel down to DC by truck, return here by truck, and then be loaded aboard another container ship. I hope they announce which vessel carries this cargo.
The photo below from July 4, 2012 is especially bittersweet since Pegasus is no longer. Here are my illuminations aka skyrockets posts, and no, I won’t be among the throngs around the East River tonight . . . . too many people.
All photos, WVD.
First, see these three photos from 2009 with updates. I passed by this spot in Seaford DE this past week . . . on a mission, and the former Flagship Nanticoke Queen restaurant is no more. Only a graded lot remains where the USS McKeever Brothers (SP-683) WW1 patrol and minesweeper vessel and fishing boat both before that and after the war once was. Route 13 has a bit less character. The wooden hull was likely buried in a landfill.
From 2009, this is the 1958 Jakobson-built Dalzelleagle and then McAllister Brothers. And yesterday, she was was towed away to be scrapped. At temperatures between 2500 and 2750°F, that steel will puddle and take new shapes. Tomorrow I’ll post more photos of this 1958 beauty.
Another photo from 2009 of the 1907 Pegasus . . . now also history and headed for the same high temperatures and red hot puddles.
A photo from 2012 . . . Siberian Sea, still afloat, and currently called Mike Azzolino.
Also still extant, in fact, David Silver took this photo less than a week ago, the May 1921 launched Day Peckinpaugh. Yes, that is the Erie Canal between Locks E2 and E3. The canal water level is drawn down in the winter/spring for maintenance.
May 21, 1921 precisely was the day Interwaterways 101 came off the ways at the McDougall-Duluth Company shipyard. Shouldn’t we hold a socially distanced party for the freight ship?
Here was the neat and active Eriemax freighter in 1961.
Thanks to David and Craig for use of their Day Peckinpaugh photos; the others from 2009 and 2012, WVD.
As to the tragedy of 231′ x 71′ Seacor Power, Seacor Supporter, 131′ x 66′ , came to do some work in the sixth boro here a few years ago. Brazos is 145′ x 100′.
Here were the first two installments of this series. And what prompts this post is the news yesterday about a $200 million structure in the assembly stages just four years ago. Click on the image below to see the post I did just four years ago.
It will be scrapped as announced yesterday here. The physical disassembled parts will be sold as will portions of it non-fungible tokens (NFTs), whatever they are; I can’t quite understand them even after reading this. Doesn’t that sound like eating your cake and still having it?
You can’t save everything . . . as the next two photos from Tony A show . . . relative to the 1907 Pegasus. For comparison, check out Paul Strubeck’s thorough cataloging of the many lives of Pegasus through the many years.
Here’s the engine that powered Pegasus for many years, originally from Landing Ship Tank, LST 121 , which itself lived only three years before being scrapped and the engine transplanted into Pegasus.
The next two photos come thanks to Steve Munoz. The 1945 USS Sanctuary (AH-17) looked shabby here in Baltimore harbor in 1997; it last until 2011, when it was scrapped in Brownsville, TX, then ESCO and now SteelCoast.
Another photo from Steve shows SS Stonewall Jackson, a Waterman LASH vessel in the Upper Bay; note the Staten Island ferries off the stern. Scroll through and see Jackson on the beach in Alang in 2002. Tug Rachel will arrive in Brownsville with Lihue, a very smiliar LASH vessel within a week; she’s currently approashing the strait between Mexico and western Cuba.
Here’s a photo I took of the beautiful NS Savannah; a recent MARAD public comment period on what should be done with her ended less than a month ago; I’m not sure when the results will be publicly commented on.
Sometimes preserved vessels change hands, as is the case with the 1936 Eagle, another photo from Steve Munoz taken in 1992.
More on this tomorrow. Many thanks to Tony and Steve for use of these photos.
Ship preservation is tough and costly. Turning an almost-new metal structure into NFTs . . . just mind boggling.
Posting twice in a day means either good news . . or not so good. Many thanks to Luke Gayson for sending me this shot of the 1907 Pegasus taken in the KVK this morning.
If you do FB, here’s a link to the project.
From the tugster archives, here was a flag of concern from 2015.
Here was a post from 2009.
Right now, I suspect this is bad news but I have no solid details.
From wikipedia, here.
In fall 2010, deepening dredging was happening in the sixth boro to prepare for the ULCVs now so commonplace here, after Panama Canal enlargement and Bayonne Bridge raising. These operations afforded me the chance to see a cutterhead close up. The crewman wielding the hammer was trying to loosen a worn tooth. By the way, those teeth weigh 35 pounds each. Teeth . . . dentist?
Then as now, Layla Renee was in the dredge support trade. Right now she’s in Charleston. She was only two years old at the time of the photo.
It looks that way, but W. O. Decker is NOT a dredge tender in this photo. Here five people on Decker are catching the stare of the one dredge worker in work vest.
The entire K-Sea fleet has disappeared. As of 2020, Falcon has become Carol and I’ve not yet seen her latest livery. Houma was scrapped in 2017 in Baltimore.
Here are two of the McAllister tugs involved in easing MSC’s USNS Sisler (T-AKR 311)into Bayonne drydock as then-John P. Brown manages the door. For many more photos of the event, check out “floating the door,” where you also see Allied’s Sea Raven, unlabelled.
I caught Growler at Mystic Seaport that fall. Rumor has it that Growler has returned to the sixth boro under a new name and sans teeth, but is under wraps.
Also in Mystic at that time, 1885 steam/sail vessel Amazon (has nothing to do with Bezos), the 2000 Amistad, and the 1908 steamer Sabino. Does anyone know the whereabouts of Amazon today?
My reason to be in Mystic that October was to work on Pegasus, seen here with Araminta and Cangarda. What works of beauty all three are!
Deborah Quinn here is docked near where Jakobson Shipyard used to be located. I believe that’s her location as of this writing.
Under the old Bayonne bridge, Maurania III assumes position to ease the 1997 Maersk Kokura around Bergen Point. Maurania III is currently in Wilmington NC.
Back a decade ago, Day Peckinpaugh had some good paint on her, and Frances was like a cocoon in Turecamo livery. There’s scuttlebutt of a new lease on life for Day Peckinpaugh.
Let’s end with dredging, as we began. Terrapin Island was one of the regulars in the navigation dredging effort. Terrapin Island is currently in Norfolk.
All photos, October 2010, by WVD.
Big announcement soon.
Let’s do 2013 and 2014, or redo them, same conditions as I stated yesterday. But first let’s look at the 2013 crowd, packing in like you wouldn’t with covid. Here was the crowd at 1010 and
by 1035 they had grown significantly.
The compulsory muster takes place, irrigated by fireboat John J. Harvey.
Once the race begins, a front-runner like Decker
might soon get left in the wake.
The fire boat slices up from behind and
propels itself between two Miller boats.
Pushoffs happen next, sometimes quite equally matched like here, with 3900 hp countering 4200.
Let’s jump ahead to 2014, with the arrivals on the watery carpet,
the processing to the starting line,
and get straight to racing without all the preening and posturing.
Someone seems a bit oversize in that gray livery.
This is a fairly mis-matched pair: Wayne at 5100 hp, and Ellen at 4000. Maybe a re-match is in order Wayne v. Ava.
Thanks to Jeff Anzevino for this shot, the Media Boat has military background in common with Wayne.
After Wayne has strutted its stuff in the push-offs, some of the boats lined up for the roping the bollard.
Let’s hold it up here. All photos, WVD.
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