Random Tugs 371

Adeline Marie was at anchor off the Coney Island Light.

Douglas J and a dump scow were shuttling to and from HARS.

 

Mary Emma was arriving from sea.

 

Joyce Brown passed a big unstuck green ship,

 

Stuff is always happening, and all photos, WVD.

Bronze 9

To start, let me reiterate what I said over a half year ago here:  “Way back in 2007 I started this series, and I now think I should never have called it “bronze” since it’s more like a golden brown.”

I recently saw Josephine pushing a fuel barge, and

then light, pirouetting in the current, training perhaps.   Josephine dates from 2018, brings 4560 hp of Tier IV power to the job.

She’s 110′ x 33′.

I missed a shot of Dylan Cooper from the sunny side, so here’s a “dark side of the moon” shot.  She’s a 2015 boat, 112′ x 35′, and brings 4720 hp to the job.

The 2013 Curtis looks a lot like Josephine, in fact the two of them have the same dimensions and maybe mostly the same design.  Differences in the two boats built five years apart may relate to the power plant and invisible upgrades.

What I said about Curtis and Josephine might be the case with Dylan Cooper and Reinauer Twins;  the boats are four years apart and have the same dimensions and power rating.  Of course, details matter, and that’s where the upgrades are to be found.

Dace was out and about today;  she’s been around since 1968, 109′ x 30′ and rated at 3400 hp.

Franklin dates from 1984, 2600 hp and 81′ x 28′, and is very much a traditional looking diesel tugboat.

 

Closing out this post, Meredith C.  dates from 2003.  She’s both the largest and the most powerful of the Reinauer tugboats here:  7200 hp and 119′ x 40′

Note in the photo above two very different tugboats, Meredith and James E. Brown.

All photos this month, WVD.

 

Random Tugs 357

Quick photo tribute to the variety of the sixth boro . . . with Kirby and Jonathan C. heading for an assist,

Diane B moving petroleum product to the creek terminals,

James E. pushing a mini scow,

Durham moving a scow named Wheezer,

Curtis returning fro the base to her barge,

Gregg assisting Lady Malou, now heading from the sixth boro to Panama,

B. Franklin returning to her barge,

another shot of Durham pushing Wheezer,

and here, finally my first close-up view of this Osprey.

All photos, last week, WVD, who found this story of a bizarre deal involving the Canadian CG buying a light icebreaker from Turkmenistan!!?

 

Dense Traffic 6

I’m surprised I’ve not used this title in almost a year, since the thought often comes my way that some very busy waterways exist in the sixth boro.  Like below with the four Moran tugs and one tanker.  Since three are headed to the left, you might be wondering why.  Easy . . .  those three–JRT, Kimberly, Margaret— are assisting an incoming ship, the single tug, Jonathan C,  in the foreground heading to the right will soon assist another ship coming in.  Polar Cod–a great name–is transferring petroleum product.

Here’s that incoming ship, exciting the birds as the ship and maybe stirring up the menhaden and their predators below.  We’ll get back to this.

Here’s a closer up of that fish/bird stirring ship, a torrent called Torrente.   Portside the ship is Mary Turecamo, and starboard, it’s the Belford-based Osprey. 

And here’s the most dense photo, eight tugboats from four different companies, two loaded container ships, and one tanker, all in less than two miles of waterway.

Getting back to all those birds and fish in the Con Hook Range . . .  a lot of people in small boats are putting their baited hooks in the water there.

Unrelated:  An unconfirmed report with this photo below says the 1912 Argo sank in Long Island Sound off Wading River NY on November 1.  Can anyone confirm that this happened?  I looked for a report but couldn’t find one anywhere.  To see a photo I took of it underway in the sixth boro just over 10 years ago, click here. And here, taken in June 2011.

The photo below was posted by Steve Adkins and said to be taken by USCG responding to the distress.

All photos except the last one, WVD.

From the Line Locker 33

Remember Solar Sal from yesterday’s post?  A sharp-eyed reader recalled having seen in in a boatyard this past June.  Question:  Where is that boatyard?  Answer follows.

Geoquip Saentis is a “regular exotic” in the sixth boro, although at a certain time that becomes an oxymoron.   But what is that irregular shape along her starboard side?

Here you see more of it on the shore beyond Joyce D. Brown.

Here’s one more shot . . . from a different angle.

Here was the roughly the same area back in July.  It’s the Military Ocean Terminal, a shoreside that’s changing quickly. 

Here from two years ago that now imploded building is to the right below.  Click here for the implosion less than two weeks ago.

Oasis of the Seas has been in town the past few days, the first cruise ship here in about a year and a half.  I’ve never notice this “wave breaker” on previous cruise ships.  It appears to be protection for the tenders.

 

Yesterday Oasis was docked opposite YM Width. 

This head-on shot shows the bulky profile of Oasis.

Getting back to Solar Sal, that photo was sent along yesterday by George Schneider, who took then photo in Berkeley, California!

All other photos, WVD.

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 10

Here are previous iterations, newest hulls that have become less new hulls. 

Look closely just forward of the ferry and you’ll see a ready-made caption that this ferry is NEW.

I’m also pretty sure this is the first post featuring Dann Ocean’s Colonel.

The ferry departed the shipyard in panhandle Florida only eight days before.  For outatowners, the Staten Island ferry is free, over 200 years old, and was partly owned at one point by Cornelius Vanderbilt.  This new ferry cost just over $100 million;  two more of the class will follow.

Here are more facts about the SI Ferry.

The ferry’s namesake is a Staten Island native who died in Afghanistan almost exactly eight years ago;  for the story of SSG. Michael H. Ollis, click here.

 

The ferry was eased into the docks at Caddell Dry Dock yesterday by Colonel, James E. Brown, and Ruby M.  At Caddell’s, the plywood will be removed from lower windows and the SSG Michael H. Ollis will be prepared for service.

All photos, WVD, who hopes to hop a ride some day soon.

 

From the Line Locker 31

See the note at the end of this post.

Traffic in the harbor of NYC, aka the sixth boro, has a lot of unpredictability.  I tend to do a fair amount of categorizing in this blog. 

For example, this was a surprise.  Usually this vessel–Admiral Richard E. Bennis–shuttles the river between Haverstraw and Ossining,

but here it must have had business in the Upper NY Bay. Bennis had a distinguished but tragically short USCG career.

A more typical sixth boro scene is this:  Jonathan C assisting an 8200 teu Maersk ship out to sea.

The only markings on this ferry is the name, Schuyler Meyer.  Its namesake had a storied life, but my favorite stories relate to his 1991 saving and reimagining tugboat Urger.  That story is mentioned in this article from a few years ago.  It’s expanded upon in Riverhorse by William Least-Heat Moon.

In the warm months, lots of small boats take fisherfolk out to hook what’s schooling.

More containers come into the port escorted by James D., a Moran 6000.

Joyce  D. moves a small deck barge to a shoreside project somewhere.

Andrea takes bunker fuel to a recently arrived ship.

Explorer-class CMA CGM Amerigo Vespucci comes in at dawn . . . hazy dawn, with at least four tugboats getting it around Bergen Point.

A warm morning brings an NYPD launch out about

the same time as this small dragger (?) explores the outside of the channel as CSCL Brisbane comes in.

All photos, WVD, of this place that always has a rich variety of traffic…

Now if you have a few free hours, go sit somewhere near the bay, dangle your toes in the water if you like.  Or, read tugster.  Or, a new option has presented itself:  watch this new high-res harbor cam sited near Lehigh Valley Barge 79 aka the Waterfront Museum.  Or  . . . do all three at times you can.  Waterfront Museum does their cam through “stream time live”, where you can also pay attention to shipping at points in the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, and Alaska.

And if you can and if you feel like, send some $$ in the direction of the Waterfront Museum.

I’m preparing a “road fotos” post from last week’s gallivant, but along the way, I walked along a portion of the Lehigh Canal.

 

Random Tugs 346

I’m on a short gallivant, but I have no shortage of sixth boro photos, mostly of tugboats engaged in commerce.  Sometimes I look for meetings, and interesting (how ever that’s defined)  ones are best.   Like here…. Kristin and Kimberly,

B. Franklin and Dylan Cooper,

Mary H and Joyce,

Reinauer Twins and Pokomoke,

R/V Ocean Researcher (a multirole survey vessel [aka an exotic] for the offshore energy sector) and Emery Zidell,

 

and Fort McHenry and Philadelphia.

 Then sometimes there are more than two at a time that can be framed in a shot, like here, Elk River, Paula Atwell, Chem Bulldog, Kirby, and B. Franklin . . .

More Bulldog soon.  All photos yesterday, WVD.

Random Tugs 337

Because the name and focus of this blog is tugster, you’d expect to see a lot of tugboats, both within the confines of New York harbor, aka the REAL sixth boro, and I hope you are satisfied that you find a plethora of tugboats in installments of this blog.  So here’s Random Tugs #337, post 4877, and the tugboat is Foxy 3 moving an aggregate scow.

In the foreground, it’s Crystal Cutler;  off in the distance it’s Normandy.

Diane B here heads east with a cargo in John Blanche.  I did an article on this unit some years back.

Joyce D. Brown pushes an empty scow east.  Notice anything on the scow that identifies it?  See the end of this post.

James E. Brown passed sister Joyce D. that morning in the Kills.

Franklin Reinauer that morning may or may not have been under control of the author of a tugboat captain who shared his tales a few years back.  I will stay mum. Off to the left, that’s Capt. Brian A. McAllister.

HMS Liberty muscled a barge full of bunkers to deliver to a thirsty ship over in New Jersey.

Centerline operates both Liberty above and HMS Justice below.

Susan Miller moves some material and equipment over to the project just west of the St. George ferry terminal.

Brendan Turecamo heads over to the next and the next and the next job.

Bruce A. McAllister assists a container ship into port.

Bergen Point came off the ways at Blount Shipbuilding way back in 1958.

So that scow Joyce was pushing above is called Maria and

this logo says it was once in the Disch fleet, now sold off in many directions.

All photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 329

Sea Fox as a cold front moves across the Upper Bay.

Mary Turecamo off to the next job.

Dorothy J returns from an assist.  I’ve lots more photos of the assist to post soon.

Joyce and James eastbound in the KVK to start the work day.

Dean Reinauer heads over to fuel up.

Kings Point going over to Gowanus Bay.

Brooklyn going to pick up her barge.

Fells Point returning from a job.

The very busy Patrice waiting for a ship as Dobrin heads over to her daily projects.

The always moving Brendan making money, as all these boats and crews are. 

And finally Sea Lion outbound in the Lower Bay.

All photos, WVD.