Something Different 37 Followup

SD 37 was quite some time ago, but what flummoxes me is that I thought I’d done this post, a profile of another Mister Darby model I saw at the September 2022 Tugboat Roundup.  It seems, to my embarrassment that I never posted these.  

To the models we go.  Some model builders from Quebec had come down to Waterford to display their craft.  That’s one of the models westbound in the Erie Canal below. 

The real tug whose bow we look across above is Joncaire;  the model is marked as a Smit tug called Moniqua, but I can find no information about the namesake.

Edgar Bonnet was the most powerful tugboat in the world when IHC launched it in 1953 for the Suez Canal.  The tugboat was sunk in the Suez Canal in 1956-57 during what some call the Second Arab-israeli War. When it was raised in March 1957, the Canal was reopened. For someone who can read Polish, here’s the story, and google can translate.  Some specs, the original Smit tug was 152′ x 39′.  The raising got lots of media attention;  even UN SG Dag Hammarskjold was present.  In 1958, it was renamed Antar.

All these models were 2′ to 3′ in length.

 

 

Mister Darby interested me the most, because it’s none other than the current Atlantic Salvor. 

Many thanks to modeler Carl Durocher

and friends for showing off their boats at Waterford.  And my apologies for not having posted his photos until now. 

 

Refurbishing Patty Nolan model

Ages ago it seems Patty the tug got a refurbishment, as chronicled here.

Recently the esteemed captain and owner of Patty Nolan  received a model of his boat that had been made decades, more than a half century, earlier.  Since Patty received its own livery, the model needed to be patched up and the new livery represented.  Who better to do that than Bob Mattsson.  Check out his YouTube channel here.

For now, enjoy this beautifully refurbished model.

I hope soon to see her in sixth boro waters and beyond.

Thx to Captain David Williams for sharing photos of  this model nicely reburbished by Bob Mattsson.

February Sail

February sail will mean vastly different things to different folks.  For some, it’ll mean curling up with an inspiring sailing story like this one from Small Boats Magazine written by a retired USN sailor and partner rowing and sailing the 17′ dory he built down the Mississippi, camping on sand bars along the way.  

For others, February sail means celebrating the completion of a 8.75″ model of a 12′ 6″ cat boat, approximately 1/22 scale.  Steve Turi writes as follows:

“Finally done!   In the early 1990s Lynn and I visited a Beetle Cat boat shop in SE MA.  We smelled the cedar sawn for the planks. We saw them steaming oak to bend into ribs.  I tried lifting a used boat onto the car roof with no success. I had to settle for promotional literature and plan sketches.

When we got home I used the sketches and cut out a boat-shaped block of balsa on the band saw.  I meant to use the block as a form to shape individual ribs and then planks to shape the hull.   Far too ambitious I realized and put the project aside……for thirty years.”

Note:  Steve’s models have appeared on this blog previously here.

“In 2019 I took that balsa block out and began tinkering. Here I am, finished tinkering. At last!   I didn’t intentionally “weather” the model but in the course of building it got beat up enough to make it look like it was sailed long and hard.”

I think it’s a beauty, a work of love.

And an aptly named one also.

 

 

 

 

Then again, February sail might mean basking in a location where February is warm, like the Bahamas.  Don M wrote recently as follows:  “I am anchored in Mayaguana as we get pummelled by 20 knots of wind in an anchorage that is open but for a reef keeping most of the sea at bay. I looked up this beautiful boat I saw here and found your posts about the schooner.  She is a beautiful boat.  Interestingly she has three masts now.  Haven’t seen sails up so don’t know if the third mast is functional or just pretty. “

Thanks to Steve and Don for sending along these photos and stories, and to David for the story about his Mississippi adventure.

For everything and more you ever hoped to know about Beetle cats–named for the Beetle family–click here.

For model ships in bottles, click here. For RC models of tugboats click here and .. oops!  looks like ..  I’ll have to complete that one soon, like for tomorrow. 

 

Something Different 37

The other night in a diner 300 miles from the sixth boro, Jim–holding the remote below and to the left–mentioned his boat models.  His favorite, he said, was Mister Darby.  My interest was piqued, but he went on, describing it as about five feet long and having an automobile battery as a power source.   In fact, he said, one time he sank the model as a result of taking an abrupt turn to port;  the battery wasn’t adequately secured, flipped on its side, dooming the tug.

I met Jim last year in connection with an old boat up on the Saint Lawrence.  I had coffee with him the other day in connection with another boat, one that’s been featured on this blog many times.

Anyhow, when he was finished, I asked if he had a photo of Mister Darby;  sure enough he did.  When I asked what else he knew about Mister Darby, he said it was last in Indonesia.  JMC on the stack expands to Jackson Marine Corporation, a Halliburton company.

So for Jim and everyone else, here’s Mister Darby –now Atlantic Salvor–as she appeared in the September 5, 2010 Great North River Tugboat Race.

 

 

And in late November this year, below she heads west under the Bayonne Bridge.

These days, Atlantic Salvor has a “twin” in the boro also, Atlantic Enterprise, ex-Mister Pete.

The first two come from Jim;  the others by Will Van Dorp, whose favorite Salvor photos were posted here.

By the way, here’s the Mister Darby kit.

Something Different 35

What is the possible identity of the Moran tug below?  We really don’t know.

The source is Xtian Herrou, a regular tugster reader and commenter.  He writes:  “Seen yesterday during a local model expo at Crozon  in Brittany, France.  The tug is very small (scale 1/400) and there is not really a name, just white tag.  For details about the SS Brasil (1957),  you can read the panel on picture 6326

Personally, I’m thrilled that a model maker in France does a Moran tug.

And a question from a reader, Mike Hatami, who did not take the photo.  Mike provided follow-up on the repurposing of NYC DEP vessel Newtown Creek two years ago here.

What is this vessel?  Is it a USN vessel?

 

A possible answer is found  here.   “We use these specifically in San Diego. I don’t know where this picture was taken, but we have a least a couple of these things tied to the pier right across from all the submarines. This exact type of tug. I don’t know how you guys do it in Norfolk, and hopefully I’ll never find out.”  And

“It’s a security tug. Those protective barriers surrounding the water portion of the navy base don’t move themselves. It’s the equivalent of opening the gate for cattle to go in and out. Unlock it, unlatch it, swing it open, and close it when the ship has passed.    Source: Submariner.”

Is this true?  Is this really a USN commissioned vessel?

Thanks for reading and contributing, Xtian and Mike.