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“irrespective of operating conditions, all vessels must be clear of the Montreal-Lake Ontario section [of the St. Lawrence Seaway] at 12:00 hours on December 31st, [2017].” quoted from Seaway Notice No. 26–2017
Above and below, Leonard M and Ocean A. Simard struggling to extricate Federal Biscay, as seen from Robinson Bay, on January 6, in temperatures double digits below zero, Fahrenheit.
Yet, here we are as of earlier this morning in the areas east and west of the Snell Lock [between groups 3 and 4]. Green AIS symbols are ships, all down bound, and aqua are tugs, assisting in that effort. Key follows. Check this news update from Massena NY on boatyard.com for January 8.
1 Pacific Huron. It had grounded farther upstream in late December.
2 Performance and Robinson Bay
3 Federal Biscay and Ocean A. Simard. Federal Biscay precipitated this delay, when it got stuck in Snell Lock last week. It was freed Saturday.
4 Billeborg, Beatrix, and Mitiq
5 Ocean Tundra and Martha L. Black
This should make for interesting story to follow on AIS or on FB group St. Lawrence River Ship Watchers.
Leo Ryan’s Maritime Magazine comments on the gold-headed cane ceremony each January in Montreal honoring the first ship into port of Montreal each year. There should be a similar “recognition” of the last ship out of the Seaway. Name suggestions, anyone? Definitely there should be recognition of the efforts of the tug and ice breakers crews ensuring that the last ship gets out. For some reason, I recall a kid’s book . . . The Story About Ping.
Many thanks to Nathan Jarvis for the top two photos and assistance with information. The photo below I’m not sure who to credit to, but it shows Robinson Bay‘s efforts to extricate Federal Biscay last week.
And as of 10:54 today…
Federal Biscay and Pacific Huron are competing to be Ping; the others are downstream following Black and Tundra.
A 4300 hp product of a Collingwood ON shipyard no longer there . . . it’s Océan Basques.
Here’s a better profile, taken a second earlier. Basques provides ship assists in the port of Trois-Rivieres, QC.
Docked nearby in the same port, it’s Océan Bravo, slightly older and larger though less horsepower, a product of Quebec’s Davie Shipbuilding.
After Bravo, you’d expect and Charlie . . . and there’s most of the other names of the military alphabet up to Lima in the Ocean fleet. Charlie here is roughly a twin in size and power–though not styling–to Bravo.
Duga is based in the port of Sorel-Tracy, and is a 1977 product of the Trondheim Fjord of Norway.
Staying with the Océan fleet in the quite busy out of Sorel-Tracy, here’s Pilote 2000 stemming between
Leopard Moon and
Jebsens’ Sharpnes.
Downstream to Quebec City, here’s Océan Guide returning from a pilot run to Helena G and
exchanging pilots on Dara Desgagnes.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who was not surprised to find that Canada has more miles of coastline than any other country on the planet.
And here’s an unrelated research question sent along by frequent contributor here, Jan van der Doe, and referring to the photo below taken in rotterdam in 1954. Question is: What identification might be provided by the white numbers “3793” visible in the lower right on the dark hull of the vessel just forward of the burning Tanga? Note the Dutch flag on the stern of the vessel so marked.
I shouldn’t be surprised to find pricey boats in a city like NYC, but I still am. I took the first two photos here in Chelsea Piers, and I imagined their understated elegant lines meant they were affordable. Well, maybe they are easily affordable by the incoming executive branch standards, but for most folks, not so much. Look them up . . . Van Dutch boats.
I also shouldn’t be surprised how fast some boats travel on the Hudson, but this one flew past at
least 35 knots, and it wasn’t small. I’ve no idea who the manufacturer is.
Traveling in the canal makes for a slower pace, with people going for the distance, like
Pioche. They must know about some new navigation canal infrastructure plans I’m not privy to. And I wonder who they hope to meet in Pioche.
If I bought another cruising boat, I’d want something like this . . .
here upbound the St Lawrence. I’m not positive it’s a pleasure boat, but PCF does not mean patrol craft, fast. It could be Provincial C___ for Fisheries?
I’m not sure what this is, besides a boat. Anyone know the story? She was up north of the Scarano barns in Albany.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Here was “springtime.” All the following photos taken by Jake Van Reenen this past summer show the variety of cargoes moved.
Many thanks to Jake for use of these photos.
The light was present for LCM-8010 and Sarah Desgagnes, but . . . my white whale . . . Everlast . . . passed at 0300, which made for a not very interesting photo.
Ah . . . failure breeds persistence.
The newly named Patrice McAllister, sixth boro bound, experienced a fire near Kingston, Ontario. For the story, see boatnerd here. The Shipwatcher has the story here. Bowditch, ex-Hot Dog and here the rescue tug, was featured on tugster here back in 2010; see second foto from the end.
Several thousand miles south, Harding is an older tug still in use in the Panama Canal named for Chester Harding, not Warren G.
Foto taken almost 25 years ago from aboard sugar bulker Sugar Island, northbound in the Panama Canal. Being a sugar-dedicated bulk carrier would make this one sweet vessel.
Top foto from USCG via boatnerd; next two thanks to Allen Baker.
I’ve now also added Ship Watcher to my blogroll.
Also, check out photosbytomandpolly, who shoot from not far away along the western end of the St Lawrence Seaway.
All fotos today come from Isaac Pennock at various Canadian shorelines along the eastern Great Lakes. And an interesting set of vessels this is. Take James A. Hannah, foto shot in Hamilton. Look at her lines. You’ve seen a sibling of this vessel here before. Recall Bloxom here and in the graveyard here. More on James A. Hannah and siblings at the end of this post.
This foto of M. R. Kane was taken in Toronto. Kane appeared in the sixth boro on this blog three years ago in a foto Bowsprite took from her cliff. Finally . . . a closeup.
Wilf Seymour foto was taken Port Colborne. Seymour is Port Arthur, TX-built in 1961 and some of you may remember her as M. Moran! Here are more specs from the McKeil Marine site.
Salvor is Long Island-built former Esther Moran. Salvor, delivered in 1963, was hull # 417. To add some context here, K-Sea’s Maryland was also built at the Jakobson yard in Long Island, hull # 406 and delivered a year before Salvor.
There’s not much to see here, but I believe–Isaac asserts– is the Australian-built, Canadian-flagged K-Sea tug William J. Moore, taken here in St. Catherines. I’ve never heard of this vessel. I quote from Birk and Harold’s site: “at one point she was dubbed the largest and highest-horepower tug in Australia.” Who knew?
I located this image in the photo archives of Marietta Manufacturing. Taken on May 20, 1944, it shows LT-650. Bloxom was launched a month later, same location, as LT-653. Two years later, LT-650 was sold to China, and current disposition . . . I’ve no clue how to trace. Is there an US Army tugs-in-China expert out there? James A. Hannah was launched a year later–July 1945 as LT-820. Fleet siblings of James are David E. Hannah and Mary E. Hannah, respectively LT-815 (April 1945) and LT-821. David E. appears to have been out of service since 2009, somewhere near Chicago. Birk and Harold have her series of names listed here; one of those former names was Kristin Lee Hannah, shown here, although the date of build listed as 1953 is wrong. Click here for a 2009 article on the demise/auctioning off of Hannah Marine. I’d love to see a current foto of David E. or know her approximate whereabouts.
Many thanks to Isaac for these fotos. Also thanks to the Point Pleasant (WV) River Museum pointing me in the direction of the Marietta Manufacturing photo archives.
Detroit . . . it’s international and freshwater, although a number (anyone KNOW that number?) of saltwater vessels pass through for such still-distant “ocean ports” as Chicago and Duluth.
Vessels in the race below are, l to r . . . Sheila Kaye, Josephine, Elmer Dean, J. M. Westcott II, and Sindbad. By the way, J. M. Westcott II could also go by the “floating zip code” of 48222. I’d love to see a floating post office take part in NYC’s 2011 tugboat race . . . you mean the “sixth boro” does not have its own zipcode?? I wonder if the Terreform ONE folks anticipate a zipcode in their visions? Then again, will the USPS even exist in 2050 or 2111? Anyhow, more Westcott pics soon.
Again, Sheila Kaye, Josephine, Elmer Dean, and Marvin O.
Sindbad was the overall winner in the race from the Ambassador Bridge
to the Dieppe Gardens. If the info in this article is correct, Sindbad was built in 1925 in Buffalo, but I haven’t corroborated that. It’s not on the Buffalo DryDock site.
Elmer Dean . . . pretty . . . can anyone confirm that it was built in 1998?
An international race implies vessels from more than one country. You might not have suspected that Josephine began life as Wambrau, 1956, in Den Helder. In 1987 she became Sea Driver II, out of the VOC city of Enkhuizen, and at some point after that, became the Toledo, OH Josephine.
I’d wager Josephine is the only Toledo tug powered by Werkspoor. Here’s an English language site on the company.
Wheel,
galley, and
after portion of the house. The engine room must be light and airy with this many port holes in a hatch over the engine
All fotos come thanks to Jan van der Doe, frequent commenter who watched the race from the Ontario side. Thanks, Jan.
And I’m supposing that some of these tugs may have passed through the sixth boro at some point in their careers.
To see last year’s post from August 30, click here. For info on the race next Sunday, click here. If you scroll through that previous link, way down in the fine print you’ll read that this year’s race is dedicated to the memory of Don Sutherland. Below is a short video I made at a memorial to Don held in June 2010 aboard PortSide NewYork’s Mary Whalen.
This post is dedicated to those folks who . . . on Labor Day . . . can’t make the tug race or even the family BBQ because they will labor in the house,
on the bridge,
on deck,
following the border,
in the service,
pushing oil around, or
trying to clean it up.
Happy Labor Day.
Now . . . that bridge in the background has not been moved to the North Country, has it? And have the folks at Brooklyn Bridge Park –the section south of the Bridge–finally been persuaded to have freighters incorporated into the design? And is this foreground schooner really named John A. Noble? Will the captain and crew please identify themselves?
Answers to the above questions are (in order) no, no, YES, and maybe. The foto below is the same vessel, now named Sara B, and now a denizen of Lake Ontario. Sara B‘s very complete and illustrated log (2004–current . . . hours of pleasure await at this link) can be found here, a story that bears some resemblance to one told by Farley Mowatt. In the background are Lake Ontario’s Chimney Bluffs.
Sara B was built in the 1950s (can be more specific now) near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She then traveled up the St Lawrence and through Champlain Lake and Canal, ultimately to the sixth boro, which explains the lead foto. The log begins with her purchase here and voyage up to Ontario.
Below is the pinky schooner La Revenante (Ghost) (ex-Amanda, Buccaneer)built in Massachusetts in 1969. I spotted her twice: once near Ogdensberg and then here near Alexandria Bay. “La Revenant” belong to charles Baudelaire.
Mentioned in the Sara B log is this vessel (foto from 2008) called Royaliste, technically a gaff-rigged topsail ketch.
I saw Sara B in a barn last week south of Oswego, where she’s undergoing a refit. Check out refit log here.
Anyone tell New York stories about Sara B or John A. Noble . . . I’d love to hear them.
Last two fotos here are mine; the others are attributed in her log.
Sara B‘s log is kept by Susan Peterson Gateley, whose other writing can be found here.
tugster: a waterblog 
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