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For folks who’ve been watching sixth boro traffic much longer than I have, Lyman must conjure up a sense of ressursction that I don’t have whenever I see the profile. Then called Crusader, she was tripped by her barge and sank just over 30 years ago. I’ve almost always seen her with
barge Sea Shuttle, towing sections of subs. For a spectacular view of this tow in the East River seven years ago click here.
Rockefeller University’s River Campus makes an unusual backdrop here for Foxy 3. See the support structure for the campus being lifted from the River here.
Treasure Coast . . . offhand, do you know the build date?
Carolina Coast,
with sugar barge Jonathan, which you’ve seen some years ago here as Falcon.
Pearl Coast with a cement barge off the Narrows remaking the tow to enter the Upper Bay.
In the rain, it’s Genesis Victory and Scott Turecamo, and their respective barges.
Franklin Reinauer heads out with RTC 28, and heading in it’s
Kimberly Poling with Noelle Cutler.
And let’s stop here with JRT assisting Cosco Faith.
All photos recently by Will Van Dorp, who’s been inland for a week now and sees Shelia Bordelon on AIS at the Stapleton pier this morning. Anyone get photos?
Stephen B heads light westbound about to pass under the Bayonne Bridge, as
Mary H, especially busy during the cold times of the year, pushes some petroleum product in the opposite direction. Soon leaves will decorate Shooters out beyond her. There’s a pool hall in Queens by the name Shooters, so to clarify, here are some Shooters history posts from way back.
Mr Jim moves some aggregates, also eastbound out of Newark Bay.
James D. nudges Dublin Express as needed into Howland Hook.
Eric and Capt. Brian A. assist a CMA CGM box ship.
Evelyn Cutler moves some petroleum along the supply chain.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s burning high octane himself these days.
Related: Let me reiterate Lee Rust’s question of a day or so ago: What is the current working estimate of operating tugs in NY’s sixth boro? For starters, I think it’s hard to count because of the dynamic, transient nature of traffic. Just ballparking it without breaking it down by company and enumerating, I’d say 75 at least. For consistency, let’s say we can count a tugboat as present if it shows up on AIS/VHF/traffic control at least once a month. I’d love to hear you estimates.
Well, maybe your subscription to something has expired, but reading tugster requires no subscription, and no lucre flows into tugster tower from your –I hope–daily habit of checking in here.
It is April first, and I quite like the day. Here was what I did April 1, 2010, and here . . . . the day in 2009. I don’t always mark it, although once I shifted focus of the blog entirely to trucks, the first time. That generated a bit of hate mail . . . which led to a whole new division of tugster, i.e., trickster. which autocorrect always wants to spell incorrectly. Truckster it is.
Since you’re here, let me share some miscellaneous photos. Sea Hunter has recently turned up near the McAllister yard. I posted my photos of Sea Hunter as she appeared in Boston three years ago here. Anyone know what fate she’s hunting for in the sixth boro? Also, on the photo below, there’s the Atlantic Trader barge. That’s the short-sea shipping hull I last saw in 2015 here.
Here’s a dense shot: near to far, the far tugs are Crystal Cutler, Jacksonville, Navigator, and another unidentified Vane tugboat.
So while I’m at it, let me share some mail.
From Phil Gilson, an article about fast US Navy vessels converted into shallow draft speedy banana boats, and that’s no April Fools joke. See it here.
And finally here’s an oldie-but-goodie from Steve Munoz. Jane McAllister (1968) and Margaret M McAllister (1928, converted from steam to diesel in 1957) assist a Sealand ship in Port Elizabeth back in 1986. Note the Old Bay Draw is still bissecting Newark Bay in that shot.
Thanks to Phil for the story/link and Steve for the photo.
The other photos by Will Van Dorp, and inscribed in tugster tower by invisible watermarks.
Here’s a different perspective on the sixth boro, different from my more usual ones. And in this morning light, Sarah Ann looks like a beauty as she heads somewhere past Robbins Reef Light and
well . . . along that island.
Let’s continue trying to get some different POVs. Patricia has some fine lines here accentuated by the low light of dawn.
Elk River and Hunting Creek pass, with missions in opposite directions.
Evelyn Cutler moves product for somewhere up the North River.
Paula Atwell moves garbage containers past an incoming green new shipment, and
Julie Anne, a new one for me in the sixth boro although I have posted a “down south” photo of her here, moves a scow up toward the Passaic River. Notice that until I got to the Norfolk tugs, there were no tugs with even a drip of red paint on them in this post?
And finally, Brian Nicholas is neither a huge nor a small tug, 72′ loa, but as she passes the stern of CMA CGM Nabucco, she
looks almost like a toy. My first reaction was excitement . .. erroneously thinking I’d see either the elusive Susan E. or Elizabeth Anna. But don’t get me wrong, greetings to Brian Nicholas!
All photos and sentiments here the product of and/or the opinion of Will Van Dorp.
March 2009 . . . Stephen Scott here passes Port Ivory, near my old job, pushing RTC 70. I’m still looking for Stephen Scott photo is her new profile, sans upper wheelhouse. Port Ivory was an intriguing place name for me when I first moved here; once a North Shore Branch of the SIRR even had a station there.
Kimberly Poling already had the color scheme, but adding a few more teal stripes to her current appearance is a big improvement.
Lettie passed by once while I scheduled my lunch break. As of today’s posting, Lettie G is in Mobile AL!! If she continues, she could end up back in Lake Erie by way of the great loop. Is that what’s happening? A few months I caught her at the top end of the Welland Canal here.
More Port Ivory area, Specialist was around, then called Specialist II.
So was the huge K-Sea fleet, which included Falcon.
This post should be called “sixth boro and beyond,” since I took this photo of Justine with RTC 120 up near Saugerties. Back then,
was that a red canoe along her portside rail?
Side by side in the Rondout 10 years ago were Hackensack, the 1953 colorful one, and Petersburg, 1954 vintage and still in the general area. Last I knew, Hackensack was in Guyana pushing molasses barges.
And going farther out, it’s Allie B pulling Goliath on a cargo barge Brooklyn Bridge out of Quincy MA, with assistance from Vincent D. Tibbetts Jr and Justice.
Here’s a closer up of Liberty. For the entire reportage on that journey to Mangalia, Romania (!!), click here. Damen operates the crane in their shipyard there, the largest shipyard in the Damen collection.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes you enjoy these looks back as much as I do.
Kristin Poling 2006
5000 hp.
Severn 2008
4200 hp
CMT Otter 1980
1200 hp
Gulf Coast 1982
2400 hp
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has more to say . . . just not today.
Margaret shines “brightly” over by Fort Wadsworth.
Scott Turecamo transfers commodity over at the east end of Bayonne.
I think it is Miss Julia, but I still know nothing about her.
Of the Seaboats fleet absorbed into Kirby, Weddell Sea is the only one I see these days, and here she
gets assistance to the dock from Normandy.
Gracie M. was the newest Reinauer boat at least three boats ago.
With the ongoing renewal in the Reinauer fleet, Morgan must be among the oldest boats they operate.
And I’ll never forget an tempestuous morning when first I heard Evelyn‘s sound, when she was working as Melvin E. Lemmerhirt.
And that returns us to Margaret.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
In only ten years, a lot of changes have happened in the sixth boro. I wish I’d started this blog 30 years ago to document even more, but 1988 predated blogs, the internet, and digital photography. Wow . . . how did people relate back then?
Joking aside, let’s see some that have moved on. On January 11, 2009 Kristin Poling, the 1934 tanker, still operated.
January 12. Sun Right, built 1993 and already dead, moved westbound in the KVK escorted by Eileen McAllister. What’s remarkable to me is how large the tug looks in compared to the ship in contrast to tugs today looking miniature on the stern of a ULCV.
Five minutes later . . . Odin. Indeed I was smitten by this unusual vessel, which has since moved to the South and lost her ability to rise up as if on hind legs. I’ve no sense of what it was like to work on her.
January 15. Never did I imagine then that this Dean Reinauer would be replaced by this Dean.
January 18 The boro’s big story of January 2009, of course, was the plane crash in the Hudson. Here the efforts to lift the USAir Flight 1549 out of the water have just begun. Thomas stands by Weeks 533.
January 29 NYC DEP’s Red Hook had just arrived in the harbor, and it seemed she was escorted everywhere by James Turecamo. Sine then, NYC DEP has added a whole new generation of sludge tankers aka honey boats.
January 31 Taurus has become Joker, another intriguingly named tugboat operated not in NYC but Philadelphia area by Hays Tug and Launch, with fleet mate names like Purple Hays, High Roller, Grape Ape, and more.
Let’s leave it there. Happy new year’s greetings still ring in my ears, leaving me with an ongoing inexplicable smile and desire to treat all with respect. Go out of your way to smile at someone today.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, whose smile gets hidden by a respirator whenever he goes into the archives on Tugster Tower.
I sometimes refer to a golden hour, but recently I heard someone talk about the “blue” hour, when the sun is still or already below the horizon. The light is dramatic in both, or through that whole continuum, as seen here.
Fort McHenry heads east . . .
as does Amy Moran, who technically is moving later than the blue to gold but still enjoys the subdued light.
RTC 80 is pushed westbound by
Dace Reinauer.
Treasure Coast waits with its barge amidst the industrial landscape of IMTT.
Viking (sometimes pronounced “vikin“) moves toward the AK with DBL 134.
Buchanan 12 heads for the fuel dock.
Ruth M. Reinauer takes her barge to the AK as well.
Evelyn Cutler moves her barge to the west, and
fleet mate Kimberly Poling crosses the strait to tie up at Caddells.
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Sheesh . . . someone forgot to sweep all the leftover letters from the garage floor after work.
All photos and lack of sweeping by Will Van Dorp.
When the cold makes it less pleasant outside, it’s heating season in the sixth boro and region far and wide. I’m not sure all these units are moving heating oil, but they are all moving fuel of one sort or another.
Can it be that Crystal Cutler has been working here for almost 8 years now?!! Here was my first time seeing her back in 2010.
Here’s a larger unit for a different niche than Crystal.
When I was first paying attention, the tug here was called Huron Service.
She’s been Genesis Victory for about five years now.
Diane B does some creek work once she leaves the main channels. Here’s an article I did on Diane B and John Blanche some years back already.
All photos and any errors here by Will Van Dorp, who wishes anyone out there to be safe.
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