Jay Bee V’s Epic Begins

Two days ago, the compact 1969 Jay Bee V (38′ x 12′ x 5′) set out on a journey that’ll be followed on this blog.

Hint:  It’s even a bit smaller than, for example,  1930 W. O. Decker (50′ x 15′ x 6′), which has some enclosed living space, compared with Jay Bee V‘s lack thereof.

Arguably, Jay Bee V and W. O. Decker have occupied the same niche in harbor work, although at different eras.

I’ve seen Jay Bee V working at Caddell’s back in 2016 here  and in 2015 here.

That looks like a bundle of new line for towing or tackle to me.

As I said, Jay Bee V is setting out on what may be its greatest ever journey.

She’ll exit the Kills and turn for the North River.

And if you’re wondering where she’s headed . . . she’ll spend some time on the New York State Canals, where I hope to see her next week.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Through the Drydock

Jonathan C Moran has appeared here plenty of times afloat, and once in dry dock as seen from her stern.

The size and depth of her hull can be better appreciated, I believe, when seeing her from the bow, with workers showing scale.

Then I was especially fortunate to have her siblings–maybe James D. here–pass by in the KVK, several hundred feet beyond the dry dock.

Then seconds later, another sibling–Kirby–passes as she

keeps pressure on the stern of MSC Chicago.

This is my first view of the amount and configuration of submarine fendering on this tug.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Non-Orange Ferries 2

Here was the first in this series, which at the time I didn’t know would become a series.

This photos of Delaware was taken in the KVK back in November last year.

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Here she was still at Caddell’s in midApril this year.

And in earlymid May, she returned

to the Cape May-Lewes run.  It appears that she’s one of triplets from here around 1974-75.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Click here to see one of the sister vessels breaking ice at Cape May.

Barges 2

Barges “1” was years ago.  And here are previous posts that in some way focus on some sort of barge.  But the two photos below, which I took in May, prompt this post.  I can’t identify this Bouchard barge, but look at the size of the yard worker in comparison.

It’s quite likely this is not one of their largest barges, but it is indeed sizable.

The B. No. 260 is 350′ loa and slightly different design although a similar deep notch.

The B. No. 220 is 404′ –here along with Normandy and Bouchard Boys–and

B. No. 280 is 399′.  I’m not sure which tug is driving it.

Frederick Bouchard here is powering B. No. 264–350′–

Evening Tide with B. No. 262--350′– and

the 317′ loa B. No. 250, pushed by Evening Star.  My point was how large and capacious these barges are . . . ,

and that is measured in barrels of capacity, not feet.  For these barges then, here’s that info:

B. No. 250                    = 59,000 brls

B. No. 260, 262, 264  =  60,000

B. No. 280                    =  80,000

B. No. 220                     = 110,000 brl

 

In many situations, fuel is measured in metric tons, as covered here.

And this tangent started out with photos taken by Will Van Dorp.

Wavertree at Caddell Dry Dock 5

As a review, here and here were the posts I did on Wavertree going TO Caddell 11 months ago, and here is the series 1 through 4 focusing on Wavertree AT Caddell’s.

Below was she on March 10.  While I was away, she was refloated.

Below is March 19.  To my surprise, the masts had been unstepped.

And below was yesterday, April 17, the day when Executive Director of South Street Seaport Museum, Jonathan Boulware,  conducted a tour of the work in progress.  Any errors in this reportage are due to my having forgotten my pen and pad.

Since the masts–at up to 20 tons each, if I heard that right–were unstepped, their cleanup and refurbishment has begun.

A house has been built over the whaleback stern to protect the interior spaces.  There is some beautiful birdseye maple panelling in there.

 

 

The underside of the whaleback shows the details of work already completed.

 

This is the interior of the upper stern, looking to starboard.

Access to the cargo areas during the tour was forward.

I’m eager to see what work gets done to the bowsprit. Check out this post (and scroll) from many years ago when Frank Hanavan and I put fresh paint on that bowsprit.

This is a new deck . . . the tweendeck.  If you’ve ever eaten on Moshulu in Philadelphia, the restaurant is in this space.

Wavertree had a tweendeck back in 1895, when she called briefly in the sixth boro, which you can read about here (scroll).  In the photo below, you are looking through a hatch in the tweendeck down into the main cargo hold.

And here is the main payload space, the cathedral of cargo, looking toward the stern.  On a modern vessel, this would be divided into watertight compartments.

I can’t say this is the manufacturer, but this is the concept–as I understand it–for this ballast.

Mainmast will be restepped here.

Here Jonathan explains the spar work.

 

 

When the project is completed, all these spars will be aloft and potentially functional.

 

This cross section of a spar shows the lamination of the wood.  Some of these products are provided–I believe–by Unalam.

 

Here are some of the finer spars, along

with the directions for re-assembly.

Work going on in the rigging shed included stripping  off the old coatings and recovering the high quality old wire of the standing rigging.

Worming, parcelling, and serving protects the wire and produces such sweet smells of pine tar.

Many thanks to South Street Seaport Museum for offering this work progress tour.   Any errors here are unintentional and mine.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who thinks anyone who hasn’t read A Dream of Tall Ships by the late great Peter Stanford would really enjoy the saga of Wavertree‘s arrival in the sixth boro as told in that book.

Wavertree at Caddell Dry Dock 4

Here are previous posts in this series.  All photos below come compliments of Mike Weiss and were taken on September 24, i.e., about a month after Wavertree rose out of the water on Caddell Dry Dock No. 6.

Rather than a very satisfying sifting through the index above, you can read a short history of Wavertree here.

Many thanks, Mike.

 

Time to renew your South Street Seaport Museum membership?

Pelham

It takes the right light to see things you don’t otherwise see, like raised lettering.

Pelham goes back quite a long time.

It’s good to see her at work.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Caddell’s Own Tugs

Enter right . . .

… it’s L. W. Caddell, which I believe was built at the yard a quarter century ago.

A shipyard needs a small tug (loa 46′ x 16′) for lots of projects . . .

with every job.

And L. W.  . . .

has an even smaller fleet mate, Jay Bee V, 1969

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and loa 38′ x 12.’

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Wavertree at Caddell Dry Dock 3

I got there JUST in time.  A few minutes after I arrived, lines were cast off, and the yard tug moved the bow into the stream.  What’s to comment . . . I’ll just put the times, to the nearest minute.

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Here the yard tug–L W Caddell is moving lines from the dry dock to Wavertree.

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And then it was lunch time.

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Here you see the dry dock “ballasting”  . . . or sinking.

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Note the “wet” portion of the dry dock as it rises, or “deballasts.”

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Note the size of the workers relative to the hull.

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The next step is pressure washing the communities that traveled on the hull from the East River to the KVK.

Here Wavertree will stay through the winter as she goes through a thorough and exciting transformation.  Become a member and send your own “bravo” to all the folks at South Street Seaport for all the strides in the right direction.  See here and here.

Tomorrow I hit the road for New England for a while. I will try to post, but my laptop has become quite uncooperative.

First, notice the Tugboat Roundup logo upper left?  Click on it for the schedule;  I’ll be giving an illustrated talk “1500 Miles on the Erie Canal”  Saturday and Sunday.

Also, if you are in Boston this Sunday, Maine Sail Freight will be at Long Wharf in Boston with pallets of products from farm and sea.  Click here for a link to other sail freight initiatives around the world.  Here’s more on that project;  a change is that schooner Adventure rather than Harvey Gamage will be transporting.

Wavertree at Caddell Dry Dock 2

Here’s a list of previous Wavertree posts.  This post could be called Wavertree down rig, a slow and careful process that is best seen chronologically.

August 2.  The rigging remained this way through the morning of the 14th.

August 14.  Birk Thomas took the next two.

August 20. I got here while the osprey was still on watch . . .

and looking in control of his realm, but

a bit later, the riggers’ watch began and

the osprey left his station to them, who undid his perch

 

 

and on August 23, when I got there, el gran velero aka dirty dog aka Wavertree was stripped down and

a lot closer to being hoisted in dry dock.

I’m guessing triage of spars will happen and what goes back up will be refurbished before going back aloft.

Thanks to Nelson Chin for the photo below, showing a sampling of spars, now all labeled, waiting to go back up next summer.

Thanks to Birk for the August 14 photos and Nelson for the photo directly above;  all others by Will Van Dorp.