You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘USNS’ category.
Ten years ago, the WTC was incomplete, no supertalls/superskinnies were up, and Taurus was not yet Joker.
Miriam and the archway at Sailors Snug Harbor are all the same, although that dock is gone from there.
The 1969 Barbara McAllister is now Patsy K, operating out of the Gulf coast of Florida.
The 2003 Jane is now Anna Rose, and I’ve seen her in the boro a few times.
Amy Moran is now John Joseph.
Crow was in her last days here, and has been scrapped more than a half decade already.
Charles D. McAllister has now been five and a half decades in service and still working in the sixth boro.
Gage Paul was lost in transit after being sold overseas. Note the seaplane on the East River.
Last I knew, Buchanan 10 was laid up upriver.
In June 2012, I had the opportunity to tour USNS Apache near Norfolk. A few years later, Apache was the vessel credited with locating the black box of El Faro, after its tragic sinking.
Sharing the dock with Apache that day was USNS Grapple.
All photos, ten years ago, WVD, who is currently traveling again, out of tugster tower for an indefinite period of time, getting more indefinite every day. I have re-activated the robots, but we’ll see how reliable they are this time.
March 25, 2011 was a busy day. L to r, Maurania III, USNS Yano, Resolute, McAllister Responder, McAllister Girls, Amy Moran . . . with a K-Sea barge at the mooring, and some iconic structures. None of these vessels in currently in the sixth boro. Amy Moran is now John Joseph.
Let’s follow the USNS vessel first, as it’s assisted into the graving dock. Yano is in Newport News at this time, 2021.
Yano is an example of a US-flagged non-Jones Act vessel.
A bit later, more to the west, Davis Sea stands by to assist Taurus
and DBL 25 into a dock. Taurus recently came to the boro from Philly as Joker. Davis Sea is now Defender.
The following day, Maurania III and
McAllister Girls sail British Serenity off the dock. Maurania III is now in Wilmington, and British Serenity is now Champion Timur and is in the Black Sea on a voyage that began in Indonesia. Girls is laid up.
An hour later, Jennifer Turecamo assisted the big OSG 350 moved by
OSG Vision westbound. Jennifer is in Tampa, and Vision runs in and out of Delaware Bay.
All photos and any errors, WVD, who notices the old Bayonne Bridge profile above.
For an update on Ever Given, click here.
And the answer to yesterday’s what and where: Jay Michael off Bridgeport, CT….
Bobbie Ann departs the sixth boro with some GLDD equipment.
Little did I know at the time that Bobbie Ann had left the sixth boro a decade ago, then as Vera K.
Ernest Campbell wrestles along a double hull bunker barge. I wonder why the Centerline Logistics lion has not yet been added to her stack.
When tugs like Mary Turecamo assist a deeply laden tanker, the perspective from the upper wheelhouse is so much different than when assisting a ULCV, with their much higher freeboard.
Sometimes the 46′ x 15′ Rae is just the right size. Recall Rae‘s role in getting Wavertree back into her berth after the big renovation?
One of the newest tugboats in the boro, Cape Canaveral, 105′ x 36′ and generating 5000 hp, has the most evocative name.
She has two siblings, Cape Henry and Cape Lookout.
Again, is it me? I don’t believe I’ve seen Justine in a long while. She’s also 105′ x 35′ and 4000 hp. She has an elevating wheelhouse, which you can see here, scroll.
This is crowded: (l to r) Diane B, Saint Emilion, Meredith C. Reinauer, Lois Ann L. Moran, and Pathfinder.
Escorting from a distance astern, it’s Kimberly.
And finally, a photo from some time back, Vane’s New York, now working on the Great Lakes, Vane’s only freshwater unit . . . that I know of.
All photos, WVD.
Installment 1 was a long time ago. But the hazy days of summer bring the inspiration back. Any idea what this is? Answers follow below.
Or this? I took all the photos in this post a few days ago–Sunday–afternoon from near the VZ Bridge.
Here’s an easier one maybe.
This one is a bit weird.
This one’s truly unusual.
Below . . . in the foreground that’s the same vessel as seen directly above in profile.
I liked this shot in the camera, but when I put it on the computer, I noticed that bow and stern are bookended by recreational boats. Have you identified the hazy profiles above?
Here’s the same Capt.Brian A. McAllister following a ship in and the deckhand on the bow prepares to capture the messenger line and tie it to the big line lead from the forward winch.
Answers: 1) Ram VII 2) USNS Supply (T-AOE-6) departing Naval Weapons Station Earle 3) Ellen McAllister bow first 4) two large container ships passing in Ambrose Channel, a Maersk ULCV and a Hyundai one 5 and 6) USNS Mendonca (T-AKR-303) with dredger RN Weeks bound for sea in 6)
All photos, WVD, who’s making the best of hazy summer light and air conditions. Snow-reduced visibility can be seen here, fog here and rain does the same here.
Many thanks to Phil Little, who took these from his socially-distanced perch high atop the Weehawken cliff . . . I had thought to go out, but I didn’t want to get swarmed by “social-approachers.” An alternative title here could be “Comfort Departs.” I like the blue/white sign on the building off the starboard side of the ship: “Thank you essential and health-care workers . . . .”
If I see accurately, it’s Ava, Capt. Brian, and Marjorie that see her out. As Phil writes, “Conditions: slack tide, wind 10-15 ESE, temp 53 deg.F. Looked like they had to nudge her around a bit into the wind, before she got underway!”
And so she got underway, exactly a month after arriving.
The closest I could find to an accounting is here from Mike Schuler at gCaptain: “While in New York, medical personnel treated 182 patients of which 70% were COVID-19 positive. More than 110 surgical procedures, 540 x-rays and CT-scans, and 1,300 intravenous and oral medications were performed, according the U.S. Navy. ”
Many thanks, Phil. Many thanks to crew of USNS Comfort.
And tomorrow, we begin our virtual canal tour of the western portion the NYS Canal system. And thanks to a friend who pointed this out on a NYS blog a short time ago, a fascinating and profusely illustrated article about the impact of the 1872 horse epidemic on the economy and the Erie Canal.
At 0900 and a few minutes, USNS Comfort arrived at the Narrows. Ava M was one of six McAllister units meeting her there to assist.
USACE, NYPD, and other agencies saw her in as well.
, 
She passed the USCG station and
and the old hospital complex.
Another USNS vessel in the port was Watkins.
From this point off Bayonne, we’ll pick up the story tomorrow.
All photos, WVD.
Note: Tomorrow I may slip my post time a little; you’ll understand, I hope, tomorrow. Mentioning hope, check out this link to learn about, among other things, an iron cow!! Hope, SS Hope, was born of USS Consolation, AH-15.
Anyone know the US first hospital ship? When did USNS Comfort last call in the sixth boro? Answers follow below.
I used the photo below just over five years ago in a post about Red Cross ships; tanker SS Rose City became USNS Comfort in 1985. Study the photo and compare it to the current iteration.
I’m thrilled Mercy has been activated in the west and Comfort will arrrive here, but only a very short time ago there was serious consideration to mothball and maybe scrap at least one of these vessels. Also, as positive as they are, what they are not is panaceas. Mechanical, electrical, and other bugs need to be sorted out on the ships. Crews need to resolve dynamics; after all, even two months ago all those crews were happily working elsewhere, and as USNS ships, they have hybrid civilian/military crews.
And the US first hospital ship, establishing a “makeover” tradition, began life in Cape Girardeau, MO in 1859 as a Mississippi River steamer. The Confederacy transformed it into a barracks, the US army captured it, and she was made into a hospital ship. I believe she carried the name Red Rover throughout all three lives. Nursing staff on USS Red Rover were members of the Sisters of the Holy Cross.
Click here for a ketch used to evacuate wounded going back to 1803. What were we involved with 217 years ago?
USNS Comfort made her last call in NYC was in September 2001, and I honestly didn’t recall that. Does anyone have photos to share from that deployment?
Finally, I’ve mentioned it before, but back in 1980 SS Rose City had a young crewman named John Moynihan, who wrote a noteworthy account of his hitch aboard the vessel. It’s a great book in itself; his father was a senator from New York.
Long ago and faraway, I boarded this hospital ship on a tributary of the Congo River; that it operated there at all is a scintilla of evidence that even a dictator can do good things by his subjected peoples. I’m unable to learn the disposition of this ship, SS Mama Yemo, but a little researching did lead me to understand that it was developed by a US doctor, William Close, whom I’d love to learn more about.
SS Rose City photo thanks to William Lafferty; sentiments and filtering of info by WVD, who thanks you for keeping your distance.
Hats off to the folks dredging USNS Comfort‘s berth even as we read.
And finally, a request . . . if you get photos of her arrival tomorrow, consider sharing them with this blog.
As the sixth boro prepares to receive USNS Comfort,
on the other side of the continent earlier this week, USNS Mercy departed port of San Diego. No specific ETA is reported as yet for either vessel, as . . well . . . preps need to be made.
U.S.N.S. MERCY T-AH 19.
Seen leaving for the Port of Los Angeles to alleviate the burden on local hospitals there dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic by taking non-coronavirus afflicted patients.
► ONLY REPRODUCE WITH CREDIT GIVEN TO W. MICHAEL YOUNG ◄
Launched as SS Worth MA-299 on 1 July 1975 (in San Diego, California) and entered service as a hospital ship on 8 November 1986 (to US Navy).
Homeport in San Diego, California, she measures 894′ x 106.’
She is propelled by two boilers, two GE turbines, one shaft, 24,500hp (18.3MW) and can cruise at 17 knots. Her complement is as follows: 12 civilian and 58 military during Reduced Operating Status, and 61 civilian and 1,214 military during Full Operating Status. Her time to activate is 5 days
Photographed by W. Michael Young at San Diego, California on March 23, 2020.
© 2020 W. Michael Young
4629 Cass Street, PMB 78
San Diego CA 92109-2805
United States of America
► ONLY REPRODUCE WITH CREDIT GIVEN TO W. MICHAEL YOUNG ◄
As it turns out, Mercy went just outside the harbor and anchored, to complete preparations before deployment. There are many closeup photos of the preps at the pier in the link in the previous sentence.
Also, click here to see a 1985 photo of USNS Mercy being created out of SS Worth, a San Clemente-class tanker.
Many thanks to W. Michael Young for the Mercy photos; Comfort photo I took in Baltimore exactly 10 years ago this month. Both vessels were built by NASSCO in the mid-1970s.
And entirely unrelated: Has anyone ever seen El-Mahrousa, the 1865-launched Egyptian training ship?
This weekend the Upper Bay portion of the sixth boro cradled two “fast logistics ships” or “Large, Medium-speed, Roll-on/Roll-off Ships” (aka T-AKR, although I’ve no idea how that alpha indicator relates to those descriptors; LMSR would make more sense.) at the same time, one off Fort Wadsworth, below) and the other
off Owl’s Head fishing pier. The T-AKR above–USNS Sisler T-AKR-311–was preparing for sea trials at the end of her refurb period, and the one below–USNS Watkins T-AKR-315 was preparing to enter the graving dock in Bayonne to begin hers. Sisler was launched in 1998, and Watkins, 2000, both by NASSCO in San Diego.
I also have questions about the relationship between the MSC–to which these vessels belong–and USNS, unless it is that technically all “ships” serving the USN are referred to as USNS.
Framing from memory, I took what were intended as identical photos of each.
I’m not sure when Sisler will return from her sea trials or
when Watkins will exit the graving dock.
I’m wondering if Sisler will be back in for a final coat of gray to cover what appears to be a primer coat.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, whose previous posts of T-AKRs can be found here.
Tinkering with the digital file, I’ve made SSV Corwith Cramer clearer here than she was to the naked eye as she came through the foggy Narrows yesterday morning.
Maintaining this blog over many years and springtimes has taught me how much fog is a spring phenomenon. Here on a clearer day, Corwith Cramer (1987) raced into the Narrows ahead of a near-summer rainstorm.
USNS Pomeroy is always gray, but she’s even grayer in the fogs of spring.
Had the fog not been here, you’d see the cliffs of Manhattan out beyond this car float,
and to my naked, non-corrected, non-digital eyes, Joyce was much less clear than she is here.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s grateful for assistance with photo manipulation tools.
tugster: a waterblog 
Recent Comments