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This is the last Roundup I’ve attended. Here’s another shot from the swim platform, where I’m flat on my belly. That’s Mike Byrnes, last year’s “old man of the sea” at the portside of the wheelhouse.
Downbound in the Federal lock, it’s Waterford, Governor Cleveland, and Tender #3.
On the northbound trip, the two smaller tugs fell in alongside Grand Erie. Grand Erie is a 1951 build that first worked for the USACE in the Mississippi system.
Tug Buffalo heads for its berth beyond Pennsy 399 and Lehigh Valley #79, where
David Sharps bugle greets each vessel as it passes.
Lisa Ann was a newcomer that year, I believe. She was built at Marine Inland Fabricators, where the “new” canal tugs like Port Jackson have also been built.
Another newbie in 2015 was Solar Sal, a solar powered newbuild that actually transported cargo later in the season. Like Ceres the year before, these are prototypes, and like Ceres, Solar Sal transported this cargo.
Ever so salty, it’s Ben Grudinskas, captain and builder of Atlantic Hunter.
Here Atlantic Hunter faces off against the mighty Tender #3. By the way, Tender #3 is 43′ x 10′ and came off the ways in 1926!! 1926 . . . . 94 years ago.
It’s currently powered by a 220 hp Detroit Diesel.
In closing, the land activities include line toss, open to all comers, but won by the pros. I failed at the 15′ mark.
And I’ve not attended the Roundup since 2015, but unless I’m employed and on duty, I hope to make the 2021.
An omen of the future . . . in 2013, Urger was laid up, sans her problematic prop shaft. Here she’s nez-a-nez with Day Peckinpaugh.
Gowanus Bay was looking good.
NYS Marine Highway was well represented,
as always. And following two of the four NYS Marine Highway boats there was Cornell, Frances and Margot‘s senior by the better part of a decade.
If you’ve never attended, trust me when I say the fireworks show is extraordinary! Here from the bulkhead a dozen or so thousand spectators
and a few on solo craft
are captivated by the show.
I can’t tell you much about Iron Chief, except that it has nice brass, a working steam engine, and was for sale in 2012. In that link, you hear it run. Of course, in the distance that’s ex-Atlantic Hunter, now Little Giant.
For me personally, 2013 was my first time to see the Blount Small Ship Adventures vessels head into a lock.
Besides tugboats, you never know what or who you might see.
it’s bowsprite of the blog and the etsy shop on an underwater mission.
Here’s the line up.
All photos, WVD.
The 2010 post had a photo from 2009, so let me start this one with one from 2010. This photo made the cover of a NYS Restoration publication devoted to boats, but I lent my copy to someone and it’s never returned. If you know the publication, please let me know.
OK, let’s see one more from 2010, taken from the same bridge, but closer to the bank and less zoomed. Lots of folks come to these Roundups, but the number of working boats that can get there is decreasing because of increasing air draft and the inflexible 112th Street bridge, which also wiped out the viability of Matton shipyard.
The Roundup always begins with a parade, and that used to be always (in my times there) led by Urger.
Cornell and spawn named Augie waited on the wall in Troy.
Buffalo is now in Buffalo, and in less good condition. Here‘s more info on her. She’s 53′ x 16’ and worked for the Barge Canal from 1916 until 1973. Originally steam, she was repowered after WW2. See her engine, a Cooper Bessemer, running here back in 2007.
Wendy B was the show stealer in 2010. She looked good and no one I spoke with knew where she’d come from. She’s a 1940-build by Russel Brothers of Owen Sound ON, originally a steam tug called Lynn B. More info is here but you have to scroll.
8th Sea is a staple of the Roundup, probably has been since the beginning. She was built in 1953 at ST 2050 by American Electric Welding. That makes her a sister to ST 2062, now in the sixth boro as Robbins Reef, seen here if you scroll. Here‘s a tug44 description of tug and captain.
Small can still be salty, especially with this innovative propulsion . . . . Little Toot.
As I said, one of the traditions of the Roundup is that Urger leads the way. Here, above the federal lock, the boats muster. And traditions are important.
The active commercial boats line up at the wall nearest the Hudson River, but when a job needs doing, they head out.
Since the Roundup happens just below lock E-2 of the Erie Canal, the thoroughfare for the Great Loop, it’s not uncommon to see some long distance boats pass by. All I know about Merluza is that it’s the Spanish word for hake.
What happened to 2011 you may ask? Irene happened and the Roundup was cancelled. We’re indebted to tug44 for documenting the damage of that hurricane in the Mohawk Valley.
All photos, unless otherwise attributed, WVD.
Here’s a photo from a friend who works for a naval architecture firm. Guess the function of the completed vessel below.
Here’s a rendering.
To the gentleman from New Zealand from the William C. Daldy Preservation Society who recently inquired about functioning steam tugboats in the US, I can’t think of any. Can any reader here? Here and here can get you info on steamer Daldy. And all that smoke was photoshopped in, I was told.
Christiaan Brunings was built in 1900 as an icebreaker home-ported in Dordrecht NL, in the Rhine delta. She survived two world wars that happened all around her. I took this photo in Dordrecht in 2014. For more photos of smoky Dutch steam tugs, click here.
If coal was the fuel of the past, then wind will make up a share of an increasingly harnessed renewable sources of energy. Susie S was at the the Damen Den Helder yard back in 2014, same trip.
Even more variety is here, the reason I put this post in the “line locker” group . . . tugs on the highway . . .
and the boat ramp, and
sometimes nearly getting away . . . once they enthusiastically take to water. Well that tug, formerly know as Atlantic Hunter has changed hands and is now Little Giant. Neptune himself was consulted about the deal and he approved. Keep your eyes peeled.
And further rounding out this post . . . On July 14, 2017, Peking was floated out of Caddells by the tagteam of Dorothy J and Robert IV to
be slipped onto the back of Combi-Dock III for transit over the Atlantic. See the full story here. Today, September 7, 2020, it arrives fully restored at its new museum in the port of Hamburg.
After more than three years of work, Peking will be arriving here today. The FB site is shown there. If you don’t do FB, I have permission to copy some pics and paste them in a future blog post. To the Hafenmuseum, where I wanted to be today . . . Herzlichen Glückwunsch zur schönen Restaurierung!
Back to those first two images, that is a state-of-the-art Russian factory trawler called Captain Sokolov, one of six identical vessels being built at the St. Petersburg Northern Shipyard. Here’s more on the design of these vessels with a capsule hull. Dimensions are 268′ x 51′ with a cold storage capacity of 1200 metric tons. Here’s more on Norebo. The design is by Knarr Maritime Consortium of Iceland.
The first two images thanks to Aleks, number 3 is from seapixonline, and the others, WVD. Many thanks to Rembert for reminding me that today is the day Peking in Hamburg goes public.
Finally . . . it’s Labor Day, which I learned is a good day to work. But if you want to stream some good music on a Labor Day theme, try this from Bread and Roses, where I used to go when I lived in the Merrimack Valley of MA.
It’s the weekend after Labor Day in Waterford, time to call a muster.
And stuff starts happening. Atlantic Hunter arrives via the highway.
Tug-of-the-Year Gowanus Bay travels from the south.
Buffalo parades from Waterford back to Waterford.
Grand Erie travels as the dais.
As the parade approaches the Waterford Visitors Center, a water salute awaits Eighth Sea,
Frances, Margot, and Benjamin Elliott . . .
as well as Cornell and Iron Chief.
Parts B and more soon. All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who met great people, missed many others, and heard fabulous stories to be followed up on soon.
Here are parts A B and C from 2012. More links to past roundups tomorrow also.
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