Random Tugs 126

The sixth boro has pyramids?

It does have fortifications, here patrolled by Gelberman.

And lots of interesting names, making for great juxtapositions.

And every now and then some seldom seen boats pass like this one, always out there but rarely –it seems–coming in close.

Kendall J. Hebert for a closeup!

I regret I didn’t get a close-up of the stack.

Ron G rotates through the sixth boro now and then.

So . . . back to those pyramids, there’re over by South Amboy, at Amboy Aggregates.  Sand Master is involved, of course.

Thanks to Ashley Hutto for the pyramids and Sand Master photos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Other Peoples Fotos 29

All these photos come from bowsprite, who is known to scale the cliffs and trees of lower Manhattan to photograph and sketch the ships go by.  From auspicious time to time, she shares her photos with me, as she did recently.

Northbound . . . Stad Amsterdam in formation with a sludge tanker.

This past Sunday she caught Topaz.  Some years back, I caught Skat, a yacht built by the same yard.

Here and here were photos of Stad Amsterdam I’ve taken in recent years.

The Intermarine vessel (Industrial Echo taken on April 6) is evidence of expansion of wind power generation upriver.  Thanks to David Silver for identifying the ship.

In the foreground Gateway tug Bridgeport (Thanks for the help!)  and in the distance the all-knowing, never shrinking from difficult work Michele Jeanne.

As we move through these photos, bowsprite must have descended the trees or cliffs, because here she’s incorporated early spring arboreal detail into her compositions . . . Gran Couva (with “lower” Jersey City) and

Afrodite and Stad Amsterdam and

Voge Freeway.

For the current tip of bowsprite’s opus, click here.  For the most recent tugster post showing her work, click here.  Her photos clearly show the variety of large vessel traffic northbound between Manhattan and Jersey City/Hoboken.

I am grateful to bowsprite for her permission to use these photos.  To see and buy her work online, click here.

Graves of Arthur Kill: the World Premiere

Here just over a year ago was the release information about the documentary.

And here’s the BIG announcement:  the world premiere of the documentary will happen Wednesday, May 7 at 7 pm at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema and tickets for that evening’s fare . . . including ours are now on sale.  Click here for directions to Brooklyn Heights Cinema on Henry Street.   If you haven’t seen the documentary, we DO turn back the clock on some of the skeletons in the yard.

Just over a week ago, I stopped to look at the yard from outside, from the muddy margins.  Some photos are below.  In 2011, Gary Kane and I had permission to film inside the yard from a leaky rowboat, and the footage of “beautiful ruins” comes to you directly from the leaky rowboat.  By the way, I had a hand-powered bilge pump that kept our equipment dry.

Fragments with a wading bird,

disintegration with graffiti,

commingled wreckage,

terminally rusted disrepair,

debris still morphing but identifiable,

ravaged whole machines juxtaposed with live ones.

Here was the 2010 end of the “graveyard” series . . . all photos shot in the ship graveyard.  Use the search window to see  segments 1 through 3.  And here is the end of the “ghost puzzles” series, all photos I shot while we were filming the scrapyard portion of the documentary.

I hope to see you at the May 7 showing at the Brooklyn Heights Cinema; here again is the link for details.  Also, if you do Facebook, please go to the Graves of Arthur Kill page and click like.

Unrelated to some degree, click here for my latest photos in Professional Mariner magazine.

 

Galveston

Do you recognize this ship?

Well, actually, Petroleum Producer is a barge, not a ship.  And Galveston is a 12,000 hp tug.

And in port she needs assistance . . . here Freddy K Miller (I think . . . on starboard) and Pegasus.

This generation of ATB units replaces ITBs that were still in the sixth boro when tugster started to pay attention back in 2006.  Back then, there was a fleet of ITBs, now waiting the scrapyard.  Click here and here for closeups I did of one of them, ITB Philadelphia, last known to be laid up in Great Bitter Lake in Egypt.  Anyone have followup news?

The last time I caught closeups of Petroleum Producer and Galveston it was here (scroll through) in the Cape Fear River over two years ago.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  Check out this 450′+ mutation here.

Random Ships 31

Saturday morning . . . sunrise . . . Gran Couva.

Same time . . . MTM Hamburg.

An hour later, Stolt Bobcat heads for sea.  Can you make out her original name in raised metal letters?

Golden Legend.   That’s Firefighter II overtaking to port and a boom boat to starboard.

MTM Hamburg inbound the Kills leased by Gramma Lee T Moran.

Voge Paul  in Gravesend Bay with Twin Tube and

Gran Couva Trinidad bound and

not a half hour later Afrodite in the offing bound

for Albany, where as of this writing, she’s not yet arrived.

All photos yesterday morning by Will Van Dorp.

 

Government Boats 31

Today’s post relates directly to the very first one in this series.  NYPD’s newest vessel is a Gladding-Hearn gem.  Any guesses on her speed?

As I watched this morning, she was doing a consistent 40.1 knots . . . heading here in the direction of Jamaica Bay!  For the specifics on her 3200 hp propulsion system, click here.   In the distance, that’s Twin Tube delivering supplies to Voge Paul, a Philippines-built bulker bound for Albany.

I’m not willing to enumerate all the Gladding-Hearn boats that have appeared on this blog over the years, but many tugs, pilot boats, fast ferries, and government boats are among the +400 vessels turned out by the shipyard in over a half century, but if you wish, scroll through here and see which ones you recognize.    Recently, six of their pilot boats were delivered to the Colombian Navy.

The new NYPD vessel is called 628 Dillon Stewart.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Tale of Two Bows

North River entered service in 1974.

Hunts Point entered the sixth boro sludge trade in February 2014.  My my my . . . how the design has evolved!

Photos by Will Van Dorp.

Here and here are previous sludge tanker posts.  Here are pics from five years ago when sludge tanker Red Hook began service.

Day 1 Slater

Call this  hull up for action.  Slater is back in the sixth boro for the first time in 17 years.  Anyone have photos of her in New York waters from 1994 until 1997?

Here’s the platform where a vessel who served two nations will get “hull work” for the next nine weeks or so.

Compare this stern shot of Slater with this one of Kidd.

And so the work starts . . . with no time lost from day 1.

All photos byWill Van Dorp.

 

Transitioning 2

Here was the first in this series.  And from this morning, what spring cleaning and repainting is this

being done with such high spirits?

Here’s the former Roger Williams getting a springtime makeover.

To me . .  it looks like an Edward Hopper green  . . .

Click here for the transitioning tugboat now Eric R. Thornton in ruby light a few weeks ago.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Tugs 125

Eastbound and from left, it’s Sunny Williams, Sarah Ann, and Ellen McAllister.

Around the same time, it’s a light Patrice McAllister eastbound.  Compare the April 2014 shot below with these April 2012 ones of her first arriving in the sixth boro after the tragic fire on Lake Ontario.

After all the ice work Kimberly Poling has done the past few months, Sunday was a welcome sunny day, I’ll assume.

It wasn’t until this tow turned away from head-one that I understood what I was looking at . . ..

but closer in  . . . it was clearly Stephen Dann (I think this is her first appearance on this blog) towing

crane barge Strong Island.

Off Owl’s Head, it’s Pacific Reliance and Discovery Coast (I think) off to the west.

Pacific Reliance appeared here about six weeks ago.

Catherine Turecamo stands by near Gulf Pearl.

Parting shot . . . following up on the opening shot of this post.

All photos the past few days by Will Van Dorp.