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It’s June, and I’m starting my 176th month doing tugster. Wow! how many hours might I have put into this now?
June 2011 saw some interesting sailboats and boats. This post mentions only a few and covers the first half of the month.
The Dyna-rigged Maltese Falcon was in town, sailing at 20 kts across the harbor and then dousing all sails almost instantly at the push of a button. She’s currently in Messina, IT.
Blue Marlin was in town and spent three weeks loading US tugs and barges sold to Nigerian interests. Most of these names–Dean Reinauer, Curtis Reinauer, Janice Ann Reinauer, and John Reinauer–have been re-used on quite different tugboats. “Three weeks to load a Float on-float off . . .?” you might be wondering.
Well, there were some setbacks with ill-fitting cradles.
Eventually, everything found its place and stayed there.
I recall taking photos from Fort Wadsworth and overhearing some folks concerned “the big orange ship” was sinking.
Sixth boro haze that June made for some dull photos. If you want to relive the ordeal of loading, click here for the tugster six-part “groundhog day” series.
Reefer Albemarle Island got assistance into the Red Hook terminals from Brendan Turecamo and Margaret Moran. Currently, the reefer is running between Martinique and Panama.
EPA Bold came into town; the 1989 USNS Vigorous has changed hands several times and is now operated as Bold Explorer, an EGS survey vessel.
The 2007 Barbara C became Arabian Sea and is currently Saint Emilion.
The 5100 teu Cosco New York gets an assist from Miriam Moran. Currently, she’s running south along the western Mexico coast.
We began with a luxury sailing vessel; Black Seal made one run into the sixth boro with a cargo on cacao from Dominican Republic. The three-masted schooner is currently at a mooring in Pocasset MA.
Let’s lleave it here for now, with all photos, WVD.
I’m away from the sixth boro, so here’s another from the vault, archived May 2011.
Twin Tube back then still had her lighter stick. Lichtenstein now sails as Mr Tigris.
Sand Master, the sand miner, had not yet gone to South America.
A company called K-Sea still existed, and Norwegian Sea still sailed.
The 1976 tug now sails as Miss Rui for Smith Maritime Ocean Towing and Salvage. She’s currently in Amelia LA.
Colleen McAllister was still in salt water; she’s now on Lake Michigan but not in service.
Stena Poseidon is now Espada Desgagnes, sailing the Saint Lawrence, where I saw her less than two years ago.
In late May, the first attempts were made to load a half dozen tugboats onto Blue Marlin, the heavy lift ship, but I talk more about that when I open the vault next month. Blue Marlin still sails the seas with unusual cargoes, currently between the Philippines and Shantou, in SE China.
And this boat, the 1951 Dorothy Elizabeth, begging to be captured on a painting, imho, was still intact.
All photos, WVD.
May Day! It’s a busy day without access to my archives. May 2011 . . . Urger in Lyons NY, waiting for the dry dock to flood.
Back in the sixth boro, it’s Elk River and Siberian Sea…eastbound at Con Hook, and
near the same location, it’s Lincoln Sea and Eastern Dawn, both westbound.
Greenland Sea . . . also westbound.
Barbara McAllister has long gone from the boro, as have some of the vessels above and below.
Others, like Eagle Service, have been renamed.
This Ken’s Marine Service boat I saw once, and I’d still love to know the story and current disposition. Anyone?
Shelby Rose is still in the boro, but when I last saw her at a dock, her vivid livery was greatly faded.
Gazela is still in Philly. She arrived here in May 2011 to dock at Atlantic Salt, I believe, in a driving rain.
And in late May, the orange Blue Marlin arrived in town for the longer-than-expected loading process of some boats sold to Nigerian interests. If I recall correctly, that Trumpy (?) yacht is still in the boro.
Happy May Day . . . smell the flowers, work in the garden, or even dance around the pole today if you are so inclined. Or, you might choose to adopt the May Day tradition of University of St. Andrews students in Scotland . . .
All photos from the archives . . . WVD.
aka Blue Marlin‘s Vigorous cargo, with all photos and most text by Seth Tane, whose painting site has long been linked to this blog AND who took the photos of the sixth boro during the 1970s and ’80s that he and I collaborated on last year in the 10-post series I called “sixth boro fifth dimension.” By the way, the dry dock will be the largest in the US, built by ZPMC. Do you recall hearing of them here and in other posts like here and here?
On the stern is Shaver’s Sommer S. That’s the city of Portland upper left.
Ahead is the BNSF drawspan. They’re going to crane lift a few bits and pieces at the Vigor Swan Island shipyard (Click here for photos I took there last year.) and then transit back under the bridges to a deep hole off terminal 4 to float off the dock where they have the required 50′ draft.
Here’s the side view. Recall that it was Blue Marlin that returned a damaged USS Cole from Yemeni waters.
Many thanks to Seth Tane for these photos. Click here for another look at his painting.
Entering Guanabara Bay, it’s Wilson Sons PSV Tagaz.
Inside the Bay west of the Rio-Niteroi Bridge and with the Christ statue atop the peak in the distance, it’s Olin Conqueror.
Lined up here are C-Enforcer, Olin Conqueror, and Wyatt Candies.
Identifying fotos of this densely- parked anchored gets complicated, but this is clearly Skando Mogster, Blue Marlin, and . . . I think . . . Sudaksha.
Here looking toward Niteroi is DSV Wyatt Candies.
All fotos yesterday by Will Van Dorp, who has a lot to learn about these vessels. Any errors are entirely my own.
Here are my posts from June 2 and 3 last year. It was the day Maltese Falcon stooped across the bay with all sail set, sending the orange boat in the foreground to flee in panic, as if prey.
Crew on the barge pushed by the McAllister tug to the left clock it at nearly 20 knots before
she douses her sails, at the push of a button and cruises past a Blue Marlin in Day 12 of a prolonger loading.
It took ten more days to have the load secure for departure. A day-by-day report of that loading process is in the “Tale of Two Marlins” link to the left. Since that trip last June, two more Dockwise vessels have taken US equipment over to West Africa. Today, Blue Marlin is anchored off Malta, Maltese Falcon at the dock in Genoa, the former Reinauer tugs work off Nigeria. So far I’ve gotten no response to requests for fotos from Nigeria.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Remember, doubleclick enlarges. Any ideas what you’re looking at? Notice parallel “vertebrae” center left and right; right side is submerged below the “barrel,” and left side four white tips emerge from sunken “structure.” Just in case your life doesn’t have enough puzzles, I’m injecting this one.
I love easy puzzles as respite from the daily complications of life. So . . this is easy with “bayou plaquemine” on the port side bow of a wreck. Here’s what Matt (?) wrote six years ago on Opacity:
” This ship was originally built by DeFoe Shipbuilding, Bay City, MI in 1921 for the U.S. Army and comissioned as the steel-hulled Junior Mine Planter (JMP) MAJOR ALBERT G. JENKINS. The vessel and crew were assigned to the Fourth Serivce Command during World War II and homeported at Fort Barrancas, Pensacola, FL . She was decomissioned in 1951 and sold to the Oil Transport Company, New Orleans, LA. Renamed BAYOU PLAQUEMINE [Coast Guard registery 261281], she was rebuilt as a tug. In September 1966 she was sold to the Nickerson Marine Towing Company of Tampa, FL, retaining her name. McAllister Brothers, Inc. of New York, NY purchased the vessel in June 1968, renaming her COURIER. She was scrapped in 1972.”
Puzzle solved . . . . well here comes the fun: why mine planter and not mine layer . . . who was Major Albert G. Jenkins . . . are there any fotos of COURIER in her McAllister colors between 1968 and 1972 . . . and does anyone know anyone who crewed her?
Text . . . almost as illegible as hieroglyphics . . . frustrates, but this is
“Michigan.” Here’s a quote from a tugster post last year: “Jeff identified it as “canal tanker Michigan. Built by McDougal Duluth S B in 1921 as Interwaterways Line Incorporated 105, shortened to ILI-105 in 1935 before becoming Michigan. She carried caustic soda, vegetable oil , liquid sugar and such on the Erie and Welland canals. Twin screw.” For the record, Day-Peckinpaugh was ILI-101–the prototype–built in the same year. Thanks much, Jeff. See an image of ILI-105 in her prime here.” For now, Michigan carries a load of living trees, scale, and memories; I’m guessing she went out of service before I was born . . uh . . . 1952. Seriously, anyone know when she retired? I’d say Michigan –by design and intention– slightly senior relative of Kristin Poling . . . 1934.
I hope this isn’t cheating to copy and paste, but I am reiterating info from last year and the questions it generated: ” YOG-64 was delivered to the US Navy in May 1945, arrived in the Pacific just after the end of the “9th inning,” served in various capacities at Bikini Atoll during Operation Sandstone, judged decontaminated and decommissioned, spent two decades hauling fuel as M/T Francis Reinauer, and has rested here since the mid-1980′s. Anyone know of a foto of Francis Reinauer?”
For me, this is new territory. Can you make out the text?
It’s PC-1217, one of two WW2 submarine chasers in slow-motion decay within the waters that make up the sixth boro. PC-1217 was built in Stamford, CT and first deployed out of Tompkinsville, Staten Island. Can anyone identify the tug to the right?
In PC-1217‘s five-year career with the Navy, it underwent one major rebuild in Jacksonville, FL after taking a beating in a “great hurricane.” Before 1953, it seems hurricanes were just referred to as great. So to get back to the “vertebrae” in the topmost foto, they are the tops of the twin HOR engines that once moved this vessel at 19 or so knots through Atlantic seas.
As for that other puzzle . . . John Watson, frequent contributor to this blog, has traced Blue Marlin to its current location: notice it moored along the great Mississippi downstream a few miles from New Orleans. I’ve no clue what’s loading down there, but if someone wants to arrange a “business gallivant” for me, I’d already packed.
All fotos today by Will Van Dorp, who feels empowered to tackle bigger puzzles after solving these. More soon. Many thanks to Ed, James, and Gary for their help.
Unrelated: Rick “Old Salt” put up a great video on short sea shipping on the Manchester Ship Canal.
On July 25, I gave a presentation to New York Ship Lore and Model Club along with Rick Spilman, Carolina Salguero, Jonathan Atkin, and Ed Fanuzzi. Here is my slide show. Enjoy!
Click the “full screen” button to view a larger format and manually control slide-advance speed.
I previously posted on Blue Marlin in “Like Groundhog Day 1–6.” I plan to leave this post on the left sidebar of the blog for a while. And keep your eyes open: Blue Marlin should return to the sixth boro within a week for Load #2.
aka Bowsprite . . . and kudos for seeing and helping us see with your pen and brush and bamboo sticks, rendering all manner of floating things . . . some that
roar, some that sink and
and rise and sink and rise or open and shut and open and . . . ;
others that swivel and heave and sway.
They’re all treasure maps to me . . . and now KUDOS to you for passing your first 100,000 hits! It’s not about the numbers, but the number do affirm the appreciation.
The harbor . . . the sixth boro has enough nuggets like this on Coursen and Minue (doubleclick enlarges both this “digital ark” image and all my images here) for the next 100,000 and then the next hundred thousand 100,000s of posts after that from your sketchbook.
In the next week or so . . . Macys and Grucchi may be feting your accomplishment . . . .
If you LOVE Bowsprite, drop her a line . . . on second thought . . . belay that–because she might just cleat it. If you LOVE Bowsprite, write her.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Slightly related . . . check out this fabulous new installment of Pat Folan fotos, including one of COW, a “new” tugboat in the harbor.
Unrelated but interesting from today’s NYTimes: road art of Pakistan . . . but this truck decoration custom suffuses many other countries as well.
But first, see this fabulous set of Flickr fotos of Cangarda, which by now must have passed through the sixth boro . . .
and . . from Old Salt Rick, let’s remember today is International Day of the Seafarer.
The waters aka the sixth boro provide the best vantage perpective on many aspects of New York: the bridges, the architecture, the skyline, even shoreline traffic congestion. In this shot, Margaret Moran (1979) steams southbound beyond the GW and its red lighthouse as it approaches the Upper West Side. Dominating the scene for many seafarers, the Empire State Building (ESB), the city’s premiere landmark, señal numero uno, for the better part of a century. Anyone know what a premiere Moran vessel assist tug was in 1931 when the ESB was built? Did you realize the ESB drawings were generated in just two weeks because it had a prototype . . . the Reynolds Building in Winston-Salem, NC? (Doubleclick enlarges.) Some part of the ESB appears in every foto here except the last one, which I didn’t take.
With never-retired Patty Nolan (1931!! same vintage as the ESB) westbound on the East River in the foreground, the background shows the towers of LaGuardia Airport to the left and
ESB immediately to the right of the house. If you’re wondering why this rear view of Patty, well, she has not yet received her new bikini and–in the interest of tugster’s temporary prudishness, I couldn’t possibly reveal her nudity. For bikini donations, please email me.
Adirondack II (1999) scuds along while sails get trimmed.
Miss Yvette (1975)–now fully red–heads eastbound on the East River.
A. J. Meerwald‘s schedule shows them in Bivalve, NJ, two days ago, but I’d identify them as northeast bound entering Long Island Sound, leaving a gray smudge of ESB way behind.
Blue Marlin is 13 days out, as of this posting; her image will stick in my brain until she returns. Here the loading that seemed endless about three weeks back.
Dawn foto taken just south of Miller’s yard captures night lights still blazing on Manhattan.
Leaving Chelsea Piers southbound, it’s replica vessel Manhattan.
Another foto of Dominican cocoa being unloading from Black Seal. For an excellent set of fotos of the entire project, click here for an inimitable Flickr set.
To round this post out, let’s back to Margaret Moran, making her way south along the Upper West Side.
All fotos taken in the past month by Will Van Dorp.
This “foto” is a capture from Carlito’s Way, the 1993 De Palma film. This Kosnac tug passes in the background as the Sean Penn character leaves the prison barge Vernon C. Bain. Can anyone identify the tugboat?
tugster: a waterblog 
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