Retro Sixth Boro 40 A

Happy August 2021.  And “Wow!”  That is almost always my reaction when I jump back a decade into the archives.  This riveted tug  was 83 years old when I took this photo, and I looked at that deep rounded icebreaker hull and imagined it would go on working forever.  Now it’s 93 years old, and mortality is nipping at the heels of this Canal tug and all the Canal tugs.  It and they may not be around 10 years from now.  Of course, neither might I.  She was built by Buffalo Marine Shipbuilding in 1927-28, and originally equipped with a John W. Sullivan steam engine.  Her stack was hinged so that it could be lowered for bridges. She’s 77′ by 19.5′.  If I read the archives right, Governor Cleveland is three feet shorter;  I’d always assumed they were twins.

The 1958 Blount-built green tug in the foreground has changed hands several times in the past decade;  it may be Bay Star of Port Washington now, but I’ve not seen it in more than half a decade.

The 1998 container ship was last recorded as in Aliaga Turkey in 2017, which leads me to suppose this 3802 teu has been scrapped. 

I’ve seen these East River based float planes several times recently, but I’ve not been back to their “field” in the East River in a while.   It is pricey but no doubt memorable . . . fun to travel somewhere in one of these. Anyone report having done it?  I don’t know which company then flew the red planes.

NYK Constellation, a 2007 4900 teu vessel, is currently at anchor off Vancouver, but has been renamed Tell T (Erase some of the letters of “constellation”).  That “erasure renaming” suggests it’s bound for the scrappers.

Here’s Chandra B‘s predecessor, doing then what Chandra B does now.  It even has the same crew.

I’ve heard that Ace was being converted into something . . . . what it a floating cocktail dispenser?  Seriously . . . I have some such recollection due to a query I got a few years back.  Well . . . there are orange juice tankers, so why not a floating frozen margarita or daiquiri truck boat? Can anyone provide an update on this project?  What paint scheme/name would immediately scream out “slushy float”.

 

I’ve not seen Iron Wolf out in the harbor, although I might have seen it tied up over at Claremont.

Pegasus then had no upper wheelhouse, and here it was pushing the elusive Michael Cosgrove, a 1960 Blount vessel that Charon drives for some on a one-way trip to a Potter’s Field.  

The 2000 4500 hp Vernon C has recently gotten new life as Mackenzie Rose. 

And finally . . . 2011 saw this combo do quite the tour . . . the 1907 Pegasus with the 1914 Lehigh Valley 79 alongside.  If you’ve never visited the 79, make an effort to get to it and be prepared for a treat.  Pegasus met the scrapper this past spring.

All photos, first half of August 2011, WVD.

I hope you enjoy these monthly journeys to the past as much as I do.   And to satisfy my own curiosity, I looked up the first post in the Retro Sixth Boro series. . . .

Retro Sixth Boro 38 A

It’s June, and I’m starting my 176th month doing tugster.  Wow!  how many hours might I have put into this now? 

June 2011 saw some interesting sailboats and boats.  This post mentions only a few and covers the first half of the month.

The Dyna-rigged Maltese Falcon was in town, sailing at 20 kts across the harbor and then dousing all sails almost instantly at the push of a button. She’s currently in Messina, IT.

Blue Marlin was in town and spent three weeks loading US tugs and barges sold to Nigerian interests.  Most of these names–Dean Reinauer, Curtis Reinauer, Janice Ann Reinauer, and John Reinauer–have been re-used on quite different tugboats.  “Three weeks to load a Float on-float off . . .?” you might be wondering.

Well, there were some setbacks with ill-fitting cradles.

Eventually, everything found its place and stayed there. 

I recall taking photos from Fort Wadsworth and overhearing some folks concerned “the big orange ship” was sinking.

Sixth boro haze that June made for some dull photos.  If you want to relive the ordeal of loading, click here for the tugster six-part “groundhog day” series.

Reefer Albemarle Island got assistance into the Red Hook terminals from Brendan Turecamo and Margaret Moran. Currently, the reefer is running between Martinique and Panama.

EPA Bold came into town;  the 1989 USNS Vigorous has changed hands several times and is now operated as Bold Explorer, an EGS survey vessel.

The 2007 Barbara C became Arabian Sea and is currently Saint Emilion.

The 5100 teu Cosco New York gets an assist from Miriam Moran.  Currently, she’s running south along the western Mexico coast.

We began with a luxury sailing vessel;  Black Seal made one run into the sixth boro with a cargo on cacao from Dominican Republic.  The three-masted schooner is currently at a mooring in Pocasset MA.

Let’s lleave it here for now, with all photos, WVD.

 

Retro Sixth Boro 5

Since W. O. Decker may soon be seen albeit briefly in the sixth boro, let’s start with this photo from July 2008, as she chugs past the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge, thanks to an Icelandic-Danish artist named Olafur Eliasson.

Reinauer had some of the same names as now assigned to different boats here a decade ago but now no more on this side of the Atlantic, like Dean.

Some names have not (yet) been reassigned like John.

Now for some that are still here, though some have different paint and names:  Juliet is now Big Jake.  Matthew Tibbetts is still all the same, externally at least.

Stena Poseidon–a great name– is now Espada Desgagnes, and Donald C may still be laid up as Mediterranean Sea.

The long-lived, many-named Dorothy Elizabeth has been scrapped.

Rowan M. McAllister is still around, but the Jones Act tanker S/R Wilmington has succumbed to scrappers’ tools in Brownsville TX.

Falcon has left the sixth boro for Philly and Vane, and Grand Orion, as of today, is headed for Belgium.

And finally . . . June K here assisting with Bouchard B. No. 295 . . .    she’s still around and hard  at work as Sarah Ann.

All photos by Will Van Dorp in July 2008.

 

Small Tankships 2

I should rename this post “Time Warp.”  I started it in May 2008 and this morning–in response to some Facebook exchanges–resurrected it.  Maybe I will begin a series called “Time Warp,” though, and any photos no more than 20 years old–to pick an arbitrary boundary and to keep the series from becoming ancient time warp which could be its own thing– . . . any photos you wish to contribute no more than two decades old would be welcome.   Maybe I gave up on this post six years back because I had too many unanswered questions.

Anyhow, to plunge back in . . . Robert Silva and Harold Tartell provided foto of Manhasset from way back, when it sported a flying horse on its stack . . . .  I assumed this vessel was long ago scrapped.  I’m also assuming the location of this shot can be pegged by the two LNG tanks in the background.

 

Here’s another shot of the vessel (1958) (or 1952) in transition, I presume, sent along by Robert Silva.

Here’s a photo I took in 2008:  a different small tankship Mostank (1950) maneuvers close to a tanker.  I don’t know if Galahad is still in service, and

Here in Arthur Kill to resupply, I suppose,  Mostank . . . M O S being Marine Oil Service.  Mostank shows up as registered until at least a year ago.  Emma Miller now serves the sixth boro.

Here’s where the time warp impinges on this post.  Great Gull was around still six or seven or eight years ago.  Time flies.  The Gull has flown south.

Back then, John B. Caddell was still working.  Is she still intact?

Nathan E. Stewart was still in town and here moving Mary A. Whalen to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

The unique Odin still worked here, and

Weddell Sea was still known as Scott C.

 

All photos here by will Van Dorp unless otherwise attributed.

 

 

Transformations

Kirbyfication, which looks

like this on Norwegian Sea, is only one transformation, although if you asked me to personify and interpret, I’d say Norwegian looks positively

mortified in these fotos.  “OMG!!  I can’t bear bare   . . .

myself, can’t bear to see this,” she seems to say.

Here’s the changes from Barbara C (October 2010) to

Arabian Sea sand stack decorations (March 2012) to

this past weekend.

Others, like Miss Yvette take things much more in stride from  here (third foto down) to June 2011

to yesterday.

Heron transforms from this March 2011 foto to

this one last week.  And a year from now, as she plys waters off Equatorial Guinea . . . what will that look like?

Sun Road was clearly not always known that way, although

one of my sources was of no value.

For a thrilling transformation story, check out The Skipper & the Eagle, which relates how Horst Wessel became Eagle back in 1946.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

If you like to hear Jefferson Airplane, click here:  their lyric based on a John Wyndham sci-fi novel goes “Life is change.  How it differs from the rocks . . .”

Bayonne Tower

So  . . . the bright sunshine and 45+ degree temperature coaxed me out to take some fotos, and soon I’m having a conversation with a gentleman whose first thought was wind power device was deck-mounted equipment on the reddish tanker.  Clearly here . . .  t-o-w-e-r   rhymes with power and not lawn mower.  I’m guessing it to be the tallest structure in Bayonne.    Any idea what Manhattan’s first skyscraper was and where?  It lasted only three years (1853–6) before it burnt down.

It’s definitely land-based.  But I thought I could have some fun creating

some alternative-powered shipping, like a wind turbine barge  DoubleSkin 303.

How about a Jane A. Bouchard with a huge air prop, or

this on an extra-tall Quantico Creek?

Ditto Greenland Sea?

Or a turbine atop the tower of the newly-minted Mediterranean Sea?

Closer up, this is what the hub looks like.

Some of the parts are US-made;  others come from Austria.  Here are some introductory  technical details.  If I read Leitwind’s homepage correctly, this is their first turbine delivered to the US.  Here are even more technical details, again from a New Jersey publication.

Northern New York state has a surprisingly large number of such turbines, as documented in tugster here, and “salties” have been delivering components into the upper Midwest through the St. Lawrence and into the Great Lakes, as Marlene Green, shown here . . . although I caught her running empty.  The five states that currently have the highest percentage of their electric power generated by turbine are:  Iowa, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Kansas.  Atlantic City has five turbines.  Are there others in NJ?  And Staten Island . . . the idea of wind turbines atop Fresh Kills has certainly been discussed.

As of this writing, I’ve not seen any NY papers mention the Bayonne tower.  Hmm.

Oh, the first “skyscraper”  was Latting Observatory, standing 315 feet.  To learn more, click here.   This bit of erudition comes compliments of Tom Flagg, who is also responsible for this great but maybe slow-loading document of the bygone era of marine rail on the west side of Manhattan.  Thanks, Tom.

Absent, Not Forgotten

Some folks do spring cleaning;  I do winter culling.  And have been doing a lot of it, including in my foto library.  Considering the library as a whole, it’s constantly in flux . . . stuff out; better stuff-I hope–in.  Many quotes say this;  my favorite version is “you cannot step into the same river twice.”

Same is true of a harbor; what vessels inhabited it when I first paid attention are no longer here, at least not in the same way.  Take Odin, about which I’ve heard a lot of chatter this week.  Great name.  Perfect candidate for an award for eccentricity, but I smiled every time I saw Odin.   I never saw the closest vessel to her in DNA, the ill-fated Red Wing.  You can tell this is the older Odin because the house rests on a hydraulic ram.

 Here her house has front legs.

Here’s Odin, house down, bunkering a Princess vessel.

Dean Reinauer has also left the sixth boro; she traveled out on the back of Blue Marlin last summer.  Where she is today, I’m SURE she’ll see no snowfall like this, taken a few years back over by Howland Hook.

Ditto Great Gull . . . down in Venezuela . . . no snow.  I recall fondly how excited I was when I first saw Great Gull, turns out built by the same folks who built barges for Europe as part of the Marshall Plan.

And the ORANGE June K.  I know she’s still around as Sarah Ann.  But that original color was almost institutional, almost spring time.

And then there’s Rosemary McAllister, now working on lease down south without her last name and with an all-white stack.    Her christening was a seminal bowsprite/tugster collaboration.

She worked in the harbor for too short a spell, from my POV, before migrating to Houston, but what do I know about the economics.

Scott C is now Weddell Sea.  Dorothy Elizabeth (star  . . . well, an extra . . .  of Carlito’s Way) has now been scrapped.

Finally, there’s Kristin . . . , once with a telescoping house like Odin, now scrapped.

I have others, but it’s amazing how much changes in five years of  observing the harbor.  All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Given my vintage, the sound that personifies change for me is this song by Jefferson Airplane.  

Random Tugs 75

New York’s sixth boro has its variety of marine traffic and its icons, but this time of year in western Netherlands, a harvest flotilla delights the eyes . . . and wears out Fred Trooster’s camera-shutter finger.  Check out Fred’s fotos here.

Dorothy J. (1982) slings  Jill A. Caddell (2011), a new floating drydock extension from Senesco Marine and  through the harbor on Friday . . .  I can’t make out the assist tug.  This foto thanks to John Watson.

Iron Wolf (1983) tows

once-used plastic.  If some folks think NYC has provocative statues, they should check out the ads around town for Manhattan Mini-Storage . . . like the one over on the west side of the East River in the background.

Miriam Moran (1979) here waits on Carvival Glory (Italy-built 2003, Panama-flagged) to ready herself for Canada.

Vernon C passes the Statue pulling

oil in a  barge with a complicated name.

Susan E. Witte (2004) assists Meagan Ann (1975).

Crow moves around some scows.

Crewman tests the boarding ramp as

APL Oman (Romania-built 2010, Singapore-flagged) allows Bruce A. McAllister (1974) to move in and

land the pilot to guide vessel into

Newark Bay.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Sixth Boro Close Ups 3

Without even considering the upper house, I suspect the pins and “cheeks” of  Norwegian Sea. . . modify  the appearance of the vessel  christened as Leopardo Grande in 1976.

Morning sun gives glow to hull  of Cape Bird, named for geography in Antarctica, itself named for a crewman aboard a polar exploration vessel named Erebus.

Orange Sun . . . breezes past Fort Wadsworth side of the VZ Bridge and over the horizon in less than an hour, but thanks to SteveW for recalling an incident with the orange juice  tanker just over three years ago here.

Miss Gill, launched 1970 and relaunched 2008, (I’m curious about her namesake) is top horsepower boat for Norfolk Tugs.

Stern portion of the barge (name?) towed through the sixth boro Sunday by Navigator.

Conrad S and Norwegian Sea pass near Snug Harbor.

Serendipitous gull along with unique upper house structures of Paul T. Moran and tanker Butterfly in Gravesend Bay.  I embedded a link to the wrong vessel Butterfly here.

Evening Mist has turned to morning frost!

Jennifer Turecamo with dry bulk barge Adelaide . . .  carrying heavy dry stuff since 1963!

Now I’m stretching the title, but this is the closest up I could zoom as WMEC-615 Reliance passes West Bank Light and approaches the Narrows at this moment, and moments before . .  this

was my first glimpse as Reliance passed between Butterfly and APL Sardonyx.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Yon and Hither

Winston Churchill said:  “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”  I’ll add .  .  . doesn’t matter where you go, just gogogo, hither and yon, yon and hither.

Bowsprite and I did not collaborate on this . . . or even confer in any way.  I’m delighted by our different takes on the same scene.

In less than a mile of navigable water between Vane Brothers’ Elk River and the Staten Island shore in the distance, a lot can go on.  Elk River and DoubleSkin 37 lighter Cape Bird from the portside while Barbara C (not sure the barge) does starboard.  Then Eagle Service–just off Blue Sapphire with barge Energy 13502 heads north and beyond them, APL Sardonyx heads for sea.    Whatever lies or moves west of Sardonyx, I can’t tell.

A short time earlier, GT’s Navigator with barge on the wire . . .  meant only one thing .  . .

more mystery parts bound between Narragansett Bay and the Chesapeake.  This isn’t a part of a Cadillac, but my immediate thought seeing these barges is this song by Johnny Cash.  Michelle Shocked’s version, my favorite, I can’t find.

Sheer beauty and joy came next . . . Orange Sun, headed back to the equator for another load of that ambrosia from Brasil.

Adding to the traffic described earlier . . . way over on the Staten Island side Galahad moves in to drop the hook, while nearer, Energy 13502 slips past Cape Bird and DoubleSkin 37.

A fairly new Desh Mahima lies at anchor while (also fairly new)  Firefighter 2 waits at HomePort.

Doubleclick enlarges ost fotos;  try it here to see a crewman from Blue Sapphire taking a brush to the Plimsoll marks?

Outside the Narows, Paul T Moran lighters off Butterfly.

APL Sardonyx heads for sea (interestingly . . . for Antwerp, just as Bowsprite’s Barrington Island is!!) while Torm Lene gets escorted in the Arthur Kill by Gramma Lee T Moran.

Homeported in Kittery, Maine . . .  WMEC-615 Reliance slips in past Fort Wadsworth.  Can you see over a dozen people on her decks? And what does the EO or ED just below the wheelhouse mean?

Temperatures pushed 40 today, and it was a joy to walk the Bay Ridge Shore.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.