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It’s been a few months since number 265, so let’s catch up.
Kimberly Poling had brought product upriver via Noelle Cutler, and you can tell some time has passed since I took this photo by the foliage.
Edna A was assisting a crane barge working on the power lines near Hudson NY.
Challenger came in through the Narrows yesterday, delivering a crane barge. A few years back she delivered what was initially a mystery cargo here.
Eli stood by as salt was transshipped from scow to large truck.
Mister T was westbound for the Upper Bay with four scow to be filled.
Pokomoke brought petroleum upriver.
Memory Motel, the original exotic, . . . I wondered where she had gone until I saw her high and dry up by Scarano.
Betty D and Mary Kay . . . they were docked just south of Albany.
Mary Turecamo brought container barge New York from Red Hook to Port Elizabeth . . .
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has many more saved up from the summer and early fall.
This is day 3, the Rondout brought a surprising visitor in the form of
Kalmar Nyckel. When I’m back, I’ll do a whole post of this vessel.
These photos are included chronologically, so you’d be correct to conclude that north of the Rondout there are signs of nature. Foreign mariners especially must be surprised by all these critters.
The port of Coeymans always has activity, briefly docked here are Mister Jim
and James Turecamo.
Betty D is southbound just below the Federal Lock at Troy.
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Once in the Canal, we are treated to many boats, including Governor Cleveland,
BB 109,
and Day Peckinpaugh. Farther west, we pass the
Mohawk Harbor, the former Alco plant, dominated by the cube that is Walthousen reactor.
and a self-propelled scow.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Oh the stories this place could tell . . . in years as stable and livery, bar, hotel, photography unit, and residence; it could tell stories of our mutual friend Sam. More on Sam later.
And oh the stories Lucy H could tell about her odyssey from the bayous all the way to Troy . . .
where we two crossed paths on this beautiful autumn day.
As the sun set, Betty D showed up as well, a similar story to tell, no doubt. And I’m wondering what’s the story with the far bank? As I recall,
that was covered in volunteer under- and overgrowth, which seems to have been cut recently.
If I read my map right, the far bank there is Watervliet, birthplace of Leland Stanford and home of an arsenal with a notable iron building.
As night falls, Betty D makes her way northward under the Green Island Bridge.
I didn’t forget: here’s Sam.
All photos and sentiments by Will Van Dorp.
Really random means just that . . . so that’s start with this one, Tutahaco, YTM-524, which has recently been hauled out of the water between Daytona and St Augustine. Michael Schmidt took these photos back last winter.
She worked for a time in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The next two photos come from Allan and Sally Seymour, whose twotugstravelin’ blog was mentioned in yesterday’s post. Kathleen Turecamo (1968) is a staple these days in the Port of Albany.
A bit farther north on the Hudson in Troy is the footprint of NYS Marine Highway Transportation Company. Pictured here from r to l are Margot, Benjamin Elliot, and Betty D; built in 1958, 1960, and 1980, respectively.
The next photo is from Kyle Stubbs, who writes “the original JOVI is still around. The simple answer is yes, and she’s quite a ways from the Sixth Boro, now taking up residence in San Diego in the service of Pacific Tugboat Service as the JAG. I’ve attached an image of her I took this past September.” Kyle sent the photo along in response to a question about Lil Rip I’d posted here some years back.
George Schneider picks up the Lil Rip‘s origins question here and sends along his own photo of Jag, to wit ”
I was very suspicious of the story she was made from part of a Liberty Ship, since hacking up something like that just to make a push boat didn’t make sense. But somewhere along the lines, I realized the LIL RIP was registered at 54 feet long. I found a Liberty Ship was 57 feet wide, so that’s perfect, considering they had to cut away some of the “stern” for the propellers, so the registered length would be a few feet shorter than overall.
That gave me a reason to believe the reputed origins of the boat were true. It makes even more sense, because if you realize the scrap yards generally had no drydocks or slipways, they’d cut a ship like that down to the tank tops while it was afloat, then somehow had to dispose of the double bottoms. Sometimes they just took them out and sank them since it took so much extra effort to clean and cut them up. But in New Jersey, whose coastline is inland, they probably had to cut them apart and lift them ashore, and voile! What a perfect hull to build a pushboat on!
So I’m wondering if anybody has added more to the comments on that day’s page. If anybody has ever seen her “on the hard,” they might have measured her across the deck, and if that measures a perfect 57 feet in length, I’d say that’s pretty close to proof. I looked up the liberty ships sold for scrap 1961-64, and none were scrapped in Elizabeth NJ, nor were any scrapped by her owner.
But several deceptive things are at play here: 1) A ship sold for scrap was not legally reused for anything, so the title to something made out of the pieces couldn’t reflect the original vessel. 2) If the ship wasn’t sold for scrap, was “Sold for Non-Transportation Use’ which was also sometimes authorized, she might not have been included in the list of vessels scrapped, and 3) Vessels were often bought by distant companies, then found the vessel couldn’t practically be towed to their scrapyard, were sold or contracted to other companies for scrapping.
As for the question of the original JOVI (283905), she kept her name long after the JOVI II, working for various East Coast companies, but then made her way out here to San Diego, where she now works. She has worked as TUG JAG, then KODAK, and now simply JAG. I’ve attached, unfortunately, the best and only digital photo I’ve taken of her. You can reproduce this any way you’d like.”
Now I’m wondering about Logan and Mate. Logan shows in the NOAA registry as built in 1974 and formerly called Kodak, Jag, and Guppy. Mate doesn’t show.
Sarah D (1975) worked for White Stack, Turecamo, and Moran (each bought out the previous company) before coming to NYS Marine Highway.
And finally, once again out and about in the sixth boro, it’s W. O. Decker, the 1930 wood-hulled tugboat of South Street Seaport Museum.
Click here for some of the dozens of posts I’ve included Decker in.
The last three photos are by Will Van Dorp; thanks to Michael, Allan, Sally, Kyle, and George for the other photos.
Thanks to Erich Amberger for these photos up near Mechanicville. According to Erich, this could be the first boat on the canal this season.
Lock C-2?
And it’s the mighty Betty D, which I’ve caught here only once.
One of my goals for this summer is to travel the Champlain.
Many thanks to Erich for whetting my appetite.
Margot nears Troy with the Lockwood Bros barge from back in October. Watch the variety of backgrounds in this post, too.
Jay Michael a few days ago passes by Con Hook.
Amy C McAllister rounds the southern tip of Manhattan towing a capacious cargo barge Columbia Baltimore, capable of carrying 690 tees..
Betty D light crosses the Upper Bay. I didn’t say “Betty Delight,” but the possibility for misunderstanding is there.
Brendan Turecamo escorts Tammo inbound from the island of Jamaica.
Fort McHenry waits over by IMTT.
Sarah D pushes in some upstate rock.
Fells Point crosses the Upper Bay bound for the Kills.
And to finish with a photo from September, it’s Rae, standing by for the move of Wavertree.
All photos by will Van Dorp.
tugster: a waterblog 
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