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As the solstice approaches, the sixth boro is darker, the latest sunrises and earliest sunsets of the year;  not surprisingly it’s a time when holidays involve lights

Bright colors are most welcome, and nothing was brighter yesterday at sunrise than this orange tug

towing a deck barge

on its way south, with the rising sunrise on its nose.

Bridgeport is no new vessel,having come off the ways in Alabama in 1982.  It even worked in the sixth boro under the name Dragon Lady, its namesake said to have earned that name from “chastising her employees over the marine radio.”  If you read only one link in this post, read that one on the operator of Dragon Lady.

All that is past.  Almost 30 years ago, the tug was renamed for the big complicated city on the Sound. 

On this dark, cold morning, with her relatively new livery, Bridgeport was a sight for sore eyes as

she headed south with Mohawk 860-20.

 

All photos, WVD, who’s looking forward to lengthening days and returned heat.

2023 is just two weeks away.  Got your calendar yet?  Order here

Many thanks to my friend Lew who sent along the next two photos of MNI (Mohawk Northeast Inc.) boats. Michael is a 2004 Bayou La Batre build, 71′ x 28′ and bringing 2100 hp to the job.  Previously, I’d seen MNI tug Swift, with its unique yellow livery, in the sixth boro. 

Lew also got this photo of Judy M (57′ x 22′ and 1200 hp) and Bridgeport (82′ x 28′ and 2400 hp).  Tug Bridgeport used to be a regular in the boro as a Gateway boat, but this is the only the second time I see her in MNI yellow. Before the Bridgeport moniker, she was known as Dragon Lady.

I saw Copper Mountain in Tampa Bay this summer, and got photos, but they must be among ones OBE (overcome by events) and I’ve not posted them yet;  Tony A caught her light.  Note she’s a triple engined boat and large:  116′ x 38′ and 6000 hp.

Tony also sends this next batch along.  Name the tug below?

Here’s context . . .  lots more boats:  Vulcan III (I think), Iron Salvor, HJ Reinauer, Caspian Dawn, and Shelby Rose to the right. 

Here, with Diane B in the background, is a better profile of Caspian Dawn, which with her 73′ x 26′ dimensions and 2380 hp spent most of her life on the west coast.  To me, her lines say west coast, not unlike Lynx.

Many thanks to Lew and Tony for sending along these photos.  Any errors, WVD.

 

I could call this “from the Astorian cliffs high above the East River near Hell Gate” . . . photos by Pete Ludlow.

Remember this post from January . . . ?

Here are shots from the starboard side, and with all those tanks, I’d say this confirms that that is a hyperbaric chamber getting moved by Osprey

How about this one . . . do you recognize the lines of Bridgeport, the Gateway tug?  Or maybe Dragon Lady?

She’s now a Mohawk Northeast Inc boat although still called Bridgeport. The fleet livery you may recall from Swift in these classic Bernie Ente photos from far too long ago . . . .  You are missed, Bernie. 

This boat I’ve not seen before, although this photo is from about a month ago.  Know the buff and green colors?

It’s Stasinos Marine’s Capt. Joseph E. Pearce, the 150′ offshore supply ship, here westbound on the East (River) Strait.

Many thanks to Pete for use of these photos, showing a new angle on the sixth boro, along with fabulous perspective on the cliffs of Manhattan…

Quick post today . . .

Bert,

Bridgeport,

Helen

Rhea, Mist, and Tide.  I’m eager to see the new Breeze.

And closing the post out, it’s Ava with raked spuds!

All photos by Will Van dorp, who has irons in the fire today.

 

Here’s a Hudson down bound set of three posts I did five years ago, in a different season.

This trip starts at Scarano’s just south of Albany, where a crew picked up excursion boat Kingston for delivery to Manhattan.   Last fall after delivery up bound, I posted these landmarks.

Spirit of Albany (1966), operated by the Albany Port District Commission, is a regular for the Waterford Tugboat Roundup parade.

High above Castleton, name going back to Henry Hudson, is that Sacred Heart Church?

Two bridges cross just north of Coeymans are the Berkshire Spur of the NY Thruway and the Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge, the furthest south operational rail bridge over the Hudson.

Katherine Walker performs spring buoy planting south of Coxsackie.

I’ve heard a story behind the “parked” marine equipment in Athens NY, but need a refresher.  Anyone explain how this came to be frozen in time here?  The view is only possible if your draft allows you to navigate the channel on the west side of Middle Ground Flats.

Hudson-Athens Light is one of the lighthouses saved from demolition at a point when all lights were being automated.  Back when I did more hiking, I looked down on the Hudson and some of these landmarks from the heights, in “what Rip saw,” as in the long sleeper.

South of Catskill Creek, you can see snow still covering the slopes of the Catskills.

Marion Moran pushes Bridgeport upbound.  That’s the east shore of the Hudson beyond her.

By the time we get to Saugerties, snow seems to be creating whiteout conditions on the Catskill escarpement.

We head south, here meeting Fells Point pushing Doubleskin 302.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  For more on the lighthouses, click here. In the next in the series, we head farther south.

And for what it’s worth, I’m still in the market for some “seats” photos.

 

If you think the sixth boro has a wide variety of tugboats, you’ll agree it’s also surrounded by a variety of land–boro–scapes.

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l to r:  Thomas J. Brown, 1962 and Joyce D. Brown, 2002

from obscure to iconic.

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Eastern Dawn, 1978.  Previously Delta Mule and Grand Eagle

Here’s the Brooklyn passenger terminal and

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Evening Star, 2012

the anchorage in mid-Upper Bay,

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Nanticoke, 2007

Brooklyn Navy Yard,

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Bridgeport, 1982.  Previously, Dragon Lady and others

Williamsburg,

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Miss Gill, 1970.  Previously Mister Mike, Samson, and other.

Bayonne,

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Eric R. Thornton, 1960.  Previously Roger Williams

east end of Wall Street,

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Pelham, 1960.  Previously Little Joe, Tucana, and other

entrance to the Kills showing the Bayonne Bridge and obvious modifications to the bases,

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Eastern Dawn again

and finally the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

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the Browns again

All photos this week by Will Van Dorp.

 

All these photos come from bowsprite, who is known to scale the cliffs and trees of lower Manhattan to photograph and sketch the ships go by.  From auspicious time to time, she shares her photos with me, as she did recently.

Northbound . . . Stad Amsterdam in formation with a sludge tanker.

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This past Sunday she caught Topaz.  Some years back, I caught Skat, a yacht built by the same yard.

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Here and here were photos of Stad Amsterdam I’ve taken in recent years.

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The Intermarine vessel (Industrial Echo taken on April 6) is evidence of expansion of wind power generation upriver.  Thanks to David Silver for identifying the ship.

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In the foreground Gateway tug Bridgeport (Thanks for the help!)  and in the distance the all-knowing, never shrinking from difficult work Michele Jeanne.

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As we move through these photos, bowsprite must have descended the trees or cliffs, because here she’s incorporated early spring arboreal detail into her compositions . . . Gran Couva (with “lower” Jersey City) and

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Afrodite and Stad Amsterdam and

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Voge Freeway.

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For the current tip of bowsprite’s opus, click here.  For the most recent tugster post showing her work, click here.  Her photos clearly show the variety of large vessel traffic northbound between Manhattan and Jersey City/Hoboken.

I am grateful to bowsprite for her permission to use these photos.  To see and buy her work online, click here.

Little more than  fotos and names today:  Joan Moran Turecamo with Bridgeport on a short wire (?) in the Buttermilk.  (Sorry about that!  Thanks for the catch, anonymous.)  Joan Turecamo last appeared here.

Elizabeth headed into KVK.

Brendan Turecamo over near Brooklyn Army Terminal.

Thomas D. Witte just north of Howland Hook.

Christine M. McAllister crossing the Upper Bay with bulk carrier Antwerpen in the distance.

Paul Andrew tailed through the Arthur Kill by  No 242 pushed by Morton Bouchard IV.

Sassafras heading for the Stapleton anchorage.

Gulf Dawn standing by at the Manhattan passenger terminal.

Gramma Lee T. Moran approaching Mariner’s Harbor.

Parting shot:  primer on Lee T.‘s stack?

All taken in the past 10 days or so by Will Van Dorp.

And for a shot of the new tug Independence easing into Gloucester harbor as filmed by the inimitable Capt. Joey of Good Morning Gloucester, click here.

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