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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.
Navigator looks great in the yellow trim. For some quantifiable info, she dates from 1981 and reports 1200 hp.
Ellen always strikes me as a brawler, more so than identical YTBs. Maybe it’s the ships’ hull paint she’s rubbed off with the bow rendering. For numbers and facts, she dates from 1967, built in Marinette WI, and currently has z-drives putting out 4000 hp. Click here for photos I took in Marinette this past summer.
Dory looks great, having added an upper wheelhouse. Click here and scroll for photos of Dory over the years, pre-upper wheelhouse. Who operates her now?
Amy Moran and Atlantic Salvor meet under the bridge. As an indication of winds, notice the bridge “curtains” movement. Numbers: AM 1973 and 3000 hp. AS 1976 and 6480. For previous Atlantic Salvor posts, click here.
If Buchanan 5 looks like she has new paint, she does. It used to work around here as Taft Beach. Numbers: 1983 and 2600 hp.
Normandy benefits from a simple and classical paint scheme. 2007 and about 1900 but with triple screw. As I understand it, she used to work in Colombia. Anyone have info on her propulsion plant?
Kimberly Poling got a makeover almost 10 years ago and she is just a beauty. 1994 and 3000 hp.
I’ve long heard Thomas D. Witte once worked the Erie Canal as Valoil, but I’ve never seen photos of her superstructure from that time. Anyone help? 1961 and 1500 hp.
And finally, Matthew Tibbetts once won the most attractive tug at a North River Tugboat Race, and she truly looks good. 1969 and 2000.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
One satisfying thing to me about these retro posts is noticing how much the local fleet has changed. All these photos I took in November 2008. Coral Queen was scrapped at least eight or nine years ago. Maersk Donegal has had two name changes since 2008, now know as Santa Priscila, and no longer calls in the sixth boro.
SPT Guardian, still under the same name, is currently operating out of Lome, Togo. Note the NJ State Police boat alongside. I don’t know if they are still using that boat.
ITB Groton is gone as well.
The huge K-Sea fleet in the boro has dispersed. Solomon Sea is now Emily Ann,
Falcon, I believe, is still Falcon but wears Vane livery,
Davis Sea still has the same name but Kirby colors and operates in the Gulf,
and Aegean Sea carries the same name but works for Burnham Associates in my old stomping grounds north of Boston. NYK Diana has moved to the Pacific to the US West Coast.
This Rosemary McAllister has been replaced by another Rosemary McAllister, and has spent only part of one day in the sixth boro.
Stapleton Service takes the prize for the greatest number of name changes, three since 2008. She’s now Michael Miller.
Buchanan 15 has become Dory, although I’ve not seen her in a while.
Coral Queen‘s smaller fleet mate was John B. Caddell, which became a hurricane Sandy victim: grounded, sheriff auctioned, and scrapped.
I made a jaunt upriver aboard the only and only Half Moon–now sold abroad– in November 2008, and saw
Champion Polar but she’s now
–ice bow and all- dead and likely scrapped, as well as
a more intact Bannerman’s Castle.
All photos by Will Van Dorp in November 2008.
Seeing a tugboat on a mooring in the sixth boro is unusual, in my experience, and I took many shots. This is my favorite.
Neptune the other morning headed for sea along the sylvan banks of Staten Island.
James E. Brown moves a scow, likely to be filled with scrap metals.
Brian Nicholas travels to a job . . . that’s New Jersey off her starboard.
JRT Moran crosses the Upper Bay enroute to an assist.
Genesis Eagle travels along Brooklyn’s Owl’s Head.
One almost has the illusion here that Emily Ann is on assist with that tanker. Almost.
Mister Jim lighters salt
from SBI Phoebe.
Sea Lion heads out of her base to grab . . . a recycling barge perhaps.
And Atlantic Salvor continues shuttling dredge spoils from somewhere off the bottom of the North River.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Still between Newburgh and Beacon, I see the shadows lengthening and light adding rich tints of every color. Can you already identify the tug-barge unit rounding the corner tower of Bannerman’s Castle seawall. I’ve heard a story of a long-distance canoeist who slept inside that low tower, but I digress.
Here’s a clue to the name of that tug: a few years ago, it had a different name. From the north and bathed in deep color, it’s a southbound ship. That generating station is at the intriguingly named Danskammer Point. Those Dutch really had such wild imaginations they seemed driven by superstition or at least an acquaintance with the supernatural.
Also southbound with a spotlight that caught my imagination . . .
it’s Evelyn Cutler meeting
Kristin Poling,
but the Da Ming Shan will proceed as Evelyn holds back.
The color may not be in the leaves yet, but at this hour the color is on them.
The tug-barge units pass after
the asphalt tanker has gone on ahead into the Highlands.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has again missed all the wonderful activities raising funds for restoration or stabilization of the Bannerman’s ruins.
On this day, the area where the Hudson enters the highlands looked every bit the fjord that it technically is.
I took these photos and was remembering ones sent by Richard Hudson of southern Chile, here.
It’s Breakneck Ridge on the left and Storm King Mountain on the right, with West Point academy buildings in between. Check out those links for all the other names these places have had in the past 400 years. And who knows what names have existed before then.
By now some of you have identified the two tugs . . .
Brooklyn and Evening Mist.
I was surprised to learn that Poling-Cutler Marine Transportation now operates Brooklyn.
Here Evening Mist moves her barge into the terminal in Newburgh.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
All photos today I took in May and early June of 2008. Odin, configured this was in 1982, is now known as Jutte Cenac, after considerable reconfiguration. You’d no longer look twice at her now, as you would back then.
Scotty Sky, the Blount-built tanker launched in 1960, was rendered obsolete on January 1, 2015 by OPA 90, and now calls the Caribbean home.
When I took this photo along the South Brooklyn docks, I had no idea that it was to become the Brookfield Place ferry terminal.
I had no idea until looking this up that Joan McAllister is the current Nathan G.
Juliet Reinauer now works as Big Jake.
For Lettie G Howard, another decade is somewhat insignificant, given that it’s been afloat since 1893. Currently she’s sailing up the St. Lawrence bound for Lake Erie. The NJ shoreline there has changed quite a bit, beginning with the removal of the Hess tanks there around 2014.
Crow was scrapped in 2015. I caught her last ride powered by Emily Ann here (and scroll) in May 2014.
And finally, back in 2008, this living fossil was still hard at work,
gainfully plying the Hudson. This Kristin was scrapped sometime in 2012.
All photos taken in late spring 2008 by Will Van Dorp.
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