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I’ll return to the Erie Canal tomorrow, but for now . . . the clock is ticking louder.
In exactly 24 hours, Grouper will thaw out; a new owner, the person with the highest bid, will be acclaimed. I’ve been following the fate of this boat in Wayne County for so many years that I can’t look away as we get to this milestone. So have a lot of people who live nearby, or live farther away and have been intrigued about it since it arrived. Many others know it from its various places of work in the Upper Great Lakes, having some family connection going back many decades.
The big question is . . . Will it be scrapped or reimagined as a vessel of some sort. Reimagining has been a theme of NYS canal efforts in recent years, right?
Here’s one of my first photos of the boat, literally frozen in place, a great metaphor for its years of being frozen in time, showing remarkable resilience to the ravages of rust. In all this time of neglect and in the absence of bilge pumps, it has not sunk, has not gone down to a muddy grave where the catfish and gobies lurk.
Friends have devoted countless hours reimagining Grouper.
Lee Rust sent along these diagrams highlighting the hull similarities, the 1912 tugboat and
a late 19th century sail/steam half model.
Lee writes: “Maybe we’ve been misunderstanding the possibilities of Grouper by getting [ourselves] stuck on the old tug story. Here’s what she really is. Subtract Kahlenberg, add ballast, masts & sails. Maybe an auxiliary electric motor to turn the propeller. Voila! Clean and green and good for another 100 years. Piece of cake! Only [a day] left to decide to take that plunge. Here’s [an aerial] view of the hull model revealing the significant difference in beam [and bow design] from Grouper, but the profiles are almost identical. This even shows where the masts would go.
A simpler approach might be to remove 15 tons of Kahlenberg and replace with 7 tons of batteries and an electric propulsion system. This might be enough to decrease draft by the 3 feet needed to maneuver in the current Canal. Compare the waterline on the model to that of Grouper. Image below shows ship model by my friend Rob Napier.
Looking back at this hypothetical lift diagram I made [above], aside from the difference in beam, the antique hull model could be that of any ‘City’ class Great Lakes tug. (You can pick out the ‘City’ class tugs here.] The ‘lifted’ waterline on Grouper is awfully close to that of the model. I suppose this hull form was pretty normal back at the end of the 19th century and the tugboat designers of the time just went with what they knew and hoped the vessels wouldn’t sink when they threw in all that coal and machinery.
OK, I know… daydreaming again. Must be time for my nap.”
Thanks, Lee. As I said before, lots of people have been looking at these “excessed canal vessels” for a long time now, and tomorrow, in the heat of summer, Grouper will thaw out. May the highest bidder win and show exuberance in reimagining canal technology.
Related: This NYTimes article from this past week which examines sail designs on cargo vessels is worth a look.
Summer haze and location compromise these photos, but in the interest of documenting specialty vessels that enter the sixth boro, I present to you . . .
Geoquip Saentis, a recently overhauled 2005 geotechnical drill vessel. She was in the boro last year as well here.
She’s been working in a tight clutch with her fleet mate Geoquip Seehorn and Dina Polaris in one of the wind farm parcels.
I believe Geoquip is a Swiss company; no surprise then that this vessel is named Saentis, an 8200′ peak in northeastern Switzerland. Seehorn is a peak in the Alps of similar height.
All photos, such as they are, WVD.
Have you read or heard references to a “trackless sea” or “trackless deep”? Last night I was looking a “whole ocean” views of traffic. Notice the magenta stream? Recall that the magenta arrowheads show recreational vessels. The green (cargo ships) and red (tanker) arrowheads seem much more random, but the magenta . . . pink . . . ones, they are totally following a track.
Ditto here; notice the magenta stream showing the “coconut milk run” on the tradewinds to the west to the Marquesas, French Polynesia, and beyond from Panama.
If we look at the Indian Ocean, the red icons heading east out of the Persian/Arab Gulf and the green ones heading both ways around southern Africa . . . does rush hour on highways around any major metropolitan center come to mind? It does for me.
Given all the sea shanties dating from the 19th century and references to Cape Horn, how about a shanty or two about the Cape of Good Hope?
Tracks in the southern Atlantic form an X. Try it out yourself. Without AIS, we’d still talk of “trackless seas.”
A “little sister” Statue of Liberty will be displayed on a sixth boro island later this month and next. Note the photo credit; I wonder if the half-ton statue will arrive by CMA CGM water cargo or air cargo.
And finally . . . thanks to a Great Lakes mariner for this page from the Detroit Marine Historian Newsletter. Grouper was a name yet to be when that publication hit the stands. The auction info is here.
I use the term “line locker” where some might say “miscellaneous.” That’s the bright red hull of Issuma a decade ago as it encountered a local mammal while transiting the Northwest Passage. You might wonder what became of Richard Hudson and his boat. The good news is that he’s still sailing, and the better news is that he’s creating a rich offering of sailing videos on YouTube. Check them out here.
Screen grabs, WVD.
This overcast day contributed to photos that appear to gray-out all but the range of bronze, red, and orange. But what is this cargo and why is the title here a “redux”?
Here’s a closeup and
an even closer up.
I counted a total of 14 of these Kalmar straddle carriers aka straddlers on deck. The fact that these have cabins says they are not autonomous models. I believe these are electric, not hybrid, or diesel models. Since they’re going to Maher Terminals, these would be “fleet renewal” electric ones alluded to here. Anyone know how many straddlers can be found at the various terminals in the sixth boro?
In November 2018 on a blindingly bright day, the same vessel came to the sixth boro of NYC with the same type of load. See it here. The only differences are that that time it came from Finland and this was from Gydnia, Poland and straddlers were a different model headed for a different terminal in Port Elizabeth.
All photos yesterday, WVD.
Whiler we’re on “reduxes,” this is the 100th anniversary of Day-Peckinpaugh‘s first visit to New York; here’s a redux post on that first trip . . .
The Deep Helder post could have been an exotic post, but I’ll wait to do that until it comes into the sixth boro, which it just may one of these days.
But Hammerfest as port of registry . . . this may very well be the first time I see that registry on a vessel in the port. No, “hammerfest” is not a party for carpenters or dulcimer players.
Here was the frontal view from Owl’s Head at sunrise yesterday morning. Note the horizontal frame extending off the starboard side?
Here’s a closer look. The white lettering on the side spells out REACH SUBSEA. More on this contract here.
I’m guessing that cable runs to sensors/transponders of some sort or maybe an ROV. Maybe a reader knows more about this.
Stril Explorer has been along the Ambrose Channel (not in) and along the shore of Bay Ridge to Sunset Park for over 24 hours now.
Note the “asterisk” icons running back from the bow . . . she has three “thrusters,” unless I need to call them “positioning systems,” providing station holding capacity rated at DP class 2. She’s propelled by 4 x Cat 3516 run through 2 x Schottel drives. All the specs on this 251′ x 53′ 2010-built vessel can be read here.
She’s operated by MMT, a Swedish company founded by Ola Oskarsson.
If you follow her track between the VZ and the Sunset Park piers, you’ll see a half dozen curving but parallel and equidistant lines.
As wind farm construction phrase approaches, we’re likely to see many more “exotic” vessels.
All photos, WVD.
Unrelated: The 16000 teu, biggest ship yet on the East Coast US CMA CGM Marco Polo will arrive in the sixth boro at some time on May 20. However, I won’t be here. I’ll be far inland on higher elevations. If anyone gets good photos and wants the (dubious) fortune and fame of having photos posted on tugster, please get in touch. I’ll have some access to WIFI, so there may also be gaps in my posting, no DP class 2 position holding for me.
Most of you know that dawn is my favorite time. Yesterday dawn–between 0545 and 0645–was quite busy; two of the five vessels that transited the KVK were among the largest–so far–that call in the sixth boro.
Pink sky with gradations, faded purple Brooklyn, huge but silent shapes, and spots of artificial lights.
Birds silhouetted and reflections in the still water make the scene as one point over by central western Brooklyn turns a deeper shade of red.
When the ship blocks the blinding rising sun, its name becomes legible.
Once CS Rose passes my vantage point, all that light illuminates the details. Three tugboats along her starboard, one on stern, and one on the far side, the port side.
Not much later–another smaller container ship has passed–the next hulking shape appears, and the light has already turned gradations of yellow.
When CMA CGM Mexico blocks the rising sun, details become available . . .
By now, 0645, the light suggests the sun has created daylight.
Tugboats on Rose include James D, Mary Turecamo, Kimberly Turecamo, and Kirby. Tugboats on Mexico include Marie J Turecamo, JRT, Kimberly Turecamo, and Miriam.
All photos, WVD.
…you know. . . superlative like newest, biggest, fastest, most powerful, most teu. . . it’s a series I should have started long ago, but tugster is a public work-in-progress. And I’m skeptical of superlatives… since they change regularly.
A quick post today, but this is a story I need to find more out about. See those orange slings hanging from a buff framework? I’d noticed it several times recently but never paid attention until yesterday. It’s not an art installation.
Notice the fine print in blue: Bayonne Drydock and Repair Corp and Cimolai MBH 1280? Well, I read that is the current largest mobile boat hoist (aka travel lift) in the world, capable of lifting up to 1280 tons! That is a big a$$ boat lift! And Cimolai is building a larger one–a 1500-ton lift– in Florida.
Here’s more on Cimolai, with some NYC projects already completed. And one more site about Armando and Albina Cimolai . . . here.
Photos, WVD.
If you’ve never seen one of these lift or splash a boat, here’s a video.
Here were the first two installments of this series. And what prompts this post is the news yesterday about a $200 million structure in the assembly stages just four years ago. Click on the image below to see the post I did just four years ago.
It will be scrapped as announced yesterday here. The physical disassembled parts will be sold as will portions of it non-fungible tokens (NFTs), whatever they are; I can’t quite understand them even after reading this. Doesn’t that sound like eating your cake and still having it?
You can’t save everything . . . as the next two photos from Tony A show . . . relative to the 1907 Pegasus. For comparison, check out Paul Strubeck’s thorough cataloging of the many lives of Pegasus through the many years.
Here’s the engine that powered Pegasus for many years, originally from Landing Ship Tank, LST 121 , which itself lived only three years before being scrapped and the engine transplanted into Pegasus.
The next two photos come thanks to Steve Munoz. The 1945 USS Sanctuary (AH-17) looked shabby here in Baltimore harbor in 1997; it last until 2011, when it was scrapped in Brownsville, TX, then ESCO and now SteelCoast.
Another photo from Steve shows SS Stonewall Jackson, a Waterman LASH vessel in the Upper Bay; note the Staten Island ferries off the stern. Scroll through and see Jackson on the beach in Alang in 2002. Tug Rachel will arrive in Brownsville with Lihue, a very smiliar LASH vessel within a week; she’s currently approashing the strait between Mexico and western Cuba.
Here’s a photo I took of the beautiful NS Savannah; a recent MARAD public comment period on what should be done with her ended less than a month ago; I’m not sure when the results will be publicly commented on.
Sometimes preserved vessels change hands, as is the case with the 1936 Eagle, another photo from Steve Munoz taken in 1992.
More on this tomorrow. Many thanks to Tony and Steve for use of these photos.
Ship preservation is tough and costly. Turning an almost-new metal structure into NFTs . . . just mind boggling.
The erudite readers of tugster know Evergreen doesn’t have a single vessel, the one that caused some anxiety in Suez recently. In fact, the fleet comprises about 200 ships, of different sizes or classes. The L and F classes currently call in the sixth boro. The teu capacity for the F class is just over 12000. In other words, the vessel that departed the sixth boro this morning holds 8000 fewer containers than Ever Given, coming in over 20000 teu. Another way of visualizing it is this: add all the containers of this F class boat AND all from an L class vessel . . . and you’ll have one Ever G class. And consider this, an Evergreen A class is on the drawing board . . . coming in between 22k and 23k containers!
Enough alphabetizing . . . Ever Faith is currently on its way to Baltimore.
All photos, WVD, who had a hard time coming indoors today to download these photos and post.
The Soo is open, the SL Seaway is open, and now after 6 days, 3 hours, and 38 minutes of blockage . . . the Suez is open.
I’d started this post before Ever Given was freed and intend it as a survey of some of the tugs involved, here from largest to smaller. Obviously dimensions do not tell the whole story; in fact, dimensions tell only the story of length and width, but most of these are not harbor tugs. The largest is Alp Guard, 243′ x 69′ and generating just over 24000 hp.
Next are two quite similar Suez Canal Authority tugs, Ezzat Adel (226′ x 52′)
and Baraka 1, same dimensions, built in 1993 one year before Ezzat Adel.
Carlo Magno comes in at 180′ x 49′, still larger than anything in the sixth boro.
Now we’re at the scale of sixth boro tugs, although several in the boro are larger. Basel 2 measures in at 119′ x 38′.
Salam 8 and 9 were there, coming in at 115′ x 36′
Svitzer Port Said 1 and 2 measure 104′ x 43′ and generate 6772, very similar to the largest sixth boro assist tugs. For example Capt. Brian and Ava M. generate 6770 hp.
Mosaed 3 comes in at 98′ x 36′.
Of course, tugs weren’t the only factor. Someone like Resolve or Smit Salvage taking charge is needed to orchestrate the efforts, which include dredging as well. If you’ve not seen this interview with salvage master Nick Sloane, it’s an enlightening listen.
Credit for photos is embedded in the photos; click on each to see it.
Any errors, WVD.
Was this an event just waiting to happen? See here.
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