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Does equipment ever change in the sixth boro? Of course.
Thornton Bros, the 1958 Matton Shipyard product, was scrapped in 2014.
The 1971 Maria J is now Nicholas Vinik.
USACE Hudson, the sweetest Corps boat I’ve ever seen, got transformed into a fish house in 2019. Advance Victoria, 2006, is now Kition M, anchored in the Persian/Arabian Gulf.
The 2002 Labrador Sea is now Vane’s Brooklyn.
The 1944 Gage Paul inadvertently became a very deep fish house in 2015.
The 2002 Gramma Lee T is now in Norfolk.
Does the US Navy still have airships? If ever I have the chance to ride in one of these, I’ll take it in a heartbeat!
Bruce A brought in the 1970 Crowley Mars and
Michael J brought in the 1975 Crowley Pioneer; both Crowley’s were shipped off to Africa later in 2012. The 1971 Michael J. was scrapped late in 2021. Christine was working for Reinauer.
The massive 1970 Penn No. 6 is now the massive Vinik No. 6.
The 1972 Catherine Turecamo is now on the Great Lakes as John Marshall.
Do you still want to tell me nothing ever changes in the sixth boro?
All photos taken by WVD during the first SIX days of 2012.
Consider this to be in the spirit of Dawn 2021. I wasn’t there at dawn because the ship I wanted to catch–CMA CGM Von Humboldt–departed in the 0’darks, but I arrived a bit later, cold notwithstanding.
The first tugboat I photographed in 2022 was Zeus! Truth be told, her profile against the Raritan highlands was unmistakeable, but I was a half hour too late for a better shot; I hadn’t expected a traffic tie-up. She’s headed for Hampton Roads and beyond.
The second and third are Bruce A. McAllister and
Ava M, going to the Narrows to see someone about a ship
Next it was Brendan Turecamo assisting a Liberian-flagged tanker, Horizon Thetis. If you want some interesting origin stories, check a mythology text about the relationship between Zeus and Thetis.
Chemical Petrochemical Trader with Brownsville as the prime mover was next.
A while later Bruce A and
and Ava M came in with their catch, Ever Far. I’ll put up more photos of this new Ever F-class vessel later.
And finally, it’s my first view ever of Centerline’s Rubia, ex-Denise A. Bouchard. If you look closely, you can see Centerline’s lion on the stack. And the name Rubia . . . that’s Spanish for “blonde”… hmmm; it looks more platinum to me.
All photos, January 4, 2022, WVD, who finds it interesting what cold, clear winter temperatures do to photos.
That vessel in yesterday’s post was the 1983 Curaçao-flagged Mighty Servant 1, a semisubmersible heavy lift ship that hung around the sixth boro for much of December 2011. As of this posting, Mighty Servant 1 is traveling between Shanghai and Singapore.
“Semisubmersible” in this case means she can ballast herself so that large and heavy objects can float into place above her “flat bed” deck. When she deballasts, she lifts those objects out of the water. To deliver these same objects, the sequence is reversed and whatever heavy floating object floats off. I recall that while watching this process, which is very slow, uninformed folks near me watching it thought the USCG should be informed of a sinking ship in the boro.
Notice the clear deck area above and then below, large barges–sold to foreign buyers–being loaded over cradles.
Besides barges, two large tugboats were also floated onto the deck.
Centurion was an Invader-class Crowley tug from 1976 until this sale to Nigerian interests in 2011. Hercules was YTB-766 from 1961 until 2001, when it was sold to Boston Towing and renamed Hercules, a name it carried over to Nigeria. Charles A. and Gabby still work in the boro.
Once loaded, the deballasting begins and the underside of the vessels become visible and dry
How tall are you? That’s an 11′ diameter prop you’re looking at.
Once loaded correctly, a few days went by to snug all the cargo for the crossing. For some scale, the barge nearest us, RTC 90, is about 364′ loa. Also in the photo below, bottom right of the Empire State Building, that’s QM2.
All photos, WVD, who at this point headed south, so I’m not sure which day they departed for Nigeria.
For recent photos of another cargo on Mighty Servant 1, this one for SpaceX, click here. And a USN job, click here.
To highlight the variety, this post will focus on size, horsepower, and age.
Matthew Tibbetts, 1969, 92′ x 27′, 2000 hp. All numbers rounded up if .5 or more.
Brendan Turecamo, 1975, 107′ x 32′, 3900.
Crystal Cutler, 2010, 67′ x 26′, 1500.
Bruce A. McAllister, 1974, 112′ x 30′, 4000.
C.F. Campbell, 1975, 100′ x 31′, 3400.
Ava M. McAllister, 2018, 100′ x 40′, 6770.
Saint Emilion, 2007, 105′ x 38′, 4800.
Christian Reinauer, 2001, 119′ x 40′, 7200.
Magothy, 2008, 100′ x 34′, 4200.
All photos, WVD.
Two blog-related issues: Sarah Dann and the big blue crane are now below Quebec City. And, bidding has begun on Grouper and Chancellor.
Spring, for a few more weeks, means it’s no longer winter. Warmer temperatures bring mariners out, to clean glass,
to plan the docking procedure,
to flake out the lines,
to retireve the boom . . . although these boom guys have to be out all year round, as do all the crew above.
Spring temperatures just make it more pleasant to stay out,
on the way to work,
catching fresh air,
or just contemplating all the oceans this cargo vessel has already transited and will still transit in future months.
All photos recently, WVD.
Because the name and focus of this blog is tugster, you’d expect to see a lot of tugboats, both within the confines of New York harbor, aka the REAL sixth boro, and I hope you are satisfied that you find a plethora of tugboats in installments of this blog. So here’s Random Tugs #337, post 4877, and the tugboat is Foxy 3 moving an aggregate scow.
In the foreground, it’s Crystal Cutler; off in the distance it’s Normandy.
Diane B here heads east with a cargo in John Blanche. I did an article on this unit some years back.
Joyce D. Brown pushes an empty scow east. Notice anything on the scow that identifies it? See the end of this post.
James E. Brown passed sister Joyce D. that morning in the Kills.
Franklin Reinauer that morning may or may not have been under control of the author of a tugboat captain who shared his tales a few years back. I will stay mum. Off to the left, that’s Capt. Brian A. McAllister.
HMS Liberty muscled a barge full of bunkers to deliver to a thirsty ship over in New Jersey.
Centerline operates both Liberty above and HMS Justice below.
Susan Miller moves some material and equipment over to the project just west of the St. George ferry terminal.
Brendan Turecamo heads over to the next and the next and the next job.
Bruce A. McAllister assists a container ship into port.
Bergen Point came off the ways at Blount Shipbuilding way back in 1958.
So that scow Joyce was pushing above is called Maria and
this logo says it was once in the Disch fleet, now sold off in many directions.
All photos, WVD.
Where’s there’s a “1”, a “2” must follow, right? Let’s start with Brendan Turecamo on the starboard side of APL Dublin.
Enter a Maersk ship with Bruce tendering the port side.
APL Dublin has Kirby on the stern.
Gerda has Capt. Brian A. on her stern, and
Patrice and
Ava. That makes a total of four tugboats on Gerda Maersk.
Note the rust stains on Maersk Columbus, a US-flagged ship.
Yet, no tugboats work the port side of Columbus,
but on her starboard side, Margaret has been all along, and Kirby has left APL Dublin to assist Columbus as they head for the bridge and Bergen Point.
All photos and interpretation by WVD, who’ll never see this identical concatenation repeated. Hat tip to all the crews who make this happen.
Can anyone explain the story of the rust stains on Maersk Columbus?
Looking back a year, here‘s where April 11, 2020 found us.
Excuse the obscure word; it’s not one I regularly use, but concatenation, i.e., a series of interconnected things or events, random and unlikely ever to recur, came to mind as I put together this set of photos. Follow along. Early one morning recently, Kristin Poling made up to a loaded Eva Leigh Cutler,
and Normandy came to assist.
They eased out of the slip and turned to the west and
passed the moored crude tanker SKS Jersey.
Behind them came Bruce A. McAllister.
From the turn at Bergen Point, there appeared one of the Moran 6000s with Mandalay, a 2345 teu container ship launched in 2019.
Mandalay evokes much… all the way back to here.
She generally makes stops along the coast of North America and South America, hitting a port or two in the Caribbean.
As she passed between my vantage point and SKS Mersey, Morgan Reinauer heads west.
As of this posting, Mandalay, with her evocative name, is in Savannah.
All photos and perception, WVD, who has more concatenations to come.
Mornings on the KVK can be busy.
Above, Sea Fox (1971) follows Barney Turecamo (1995), and below, Kimberly Poling (1994) is followed by Mary H (1981)
Kimberly Turecamo (1980) and Marjorie A. McAllister (1974) head east to escort different incoming ships.
Chesapeake Coast (2012) assists Gulf Coast (1982) moving the cement barge out into the current.
Bruce A. (1974) and Patrice McAllister (1999) hasten out for work.
Thomas A. Witte (1961 when she was called Valoil) returns to Port Newark.
Joyce D. (2002) passes the docked Normandy (2007).
And Cape Canaveral (2019) makes for her yard.
All this and much more during a few hours one bright, mild morning recently by WVD. Any errors, my blame.
FB won’t display a preview photo because I made them full size. Oh well.
Picking up from yesterday, Kimberly released her line on the lower recessed bitt of MSC Bilbao and spun around to head back home. Jonathan C goes to retrieve the docking pilot.
Victoria Highway comes in . . . .
Life saving steel cage?
Lines are prepped for the next job.
Brendan Turecamo is on the stern.
Meanwhile, over in Global, there’s a lot of shifting going on.
See the crane operator’s cabin beneath the rail just to the right of the red/white tip of the rail? An operator sits there the whole shift shuttling backing and forth lifting and lowering containers more than a hundred feet below.
Frances leaves for her next job.
Emily Ann moves a brace scows . . . likely to Claremont.
And Bruce A. comes over to hang on the wall between jobs.
Here ends my spring morning series. On a day like this, I couldn’t be happier. I’ve posted only ten percent of the photos I took, of course, in the interest of creating some narrative. Obviously each of these photos could develop into a narrative in itself. And other photos creating differing narratives remain in my archives . . . for now.
All photos, WVD.
tugster: a waterblog 
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