Retro Sixth Boro 59 B

Since I’m currently riding the long rails, including this one, I’ve queued up a few posts.  More on the rails soon.

But let’s go back a decade and a month in this case, and see some happenings in the sixth boro in 2013.  Diane B was already around, and here she was taking advantage of the high tide to make her way with a light John Blanche downstream from the head of navigation on the Hutchinson River to the East River tidal strait.

Americas Spirit came in with assistance from Barbara McAllister and McAllister Sisters.  Barbara is now Patsy K, and sisters is still Sisters.  Spirit is still Spirit.

Marquette’s Miss Emily made a run through the KVK, likely in connection with some dredge work.

Vernon G was already Mary Gellatly then.  Now she’s a very busy Mackenzie Rose.

Catherine Turecamo retrieves a docking pilot.  Catherine is now on the Lakes as John Marshall.

Harry McNeal moves Clyde along by the hip.  Work was just months away from the old version of the Bayonne bridge.  Both boats I believe are still in the boro.

Lincoln Sea was the biggest regular in the boro, and still occasionally comes through.

Gramma Lee T. Moran still worked here, and I’d not yet met her namesake. 

You know it, of course, this photo is about the Mini Cooper, not the RORO that delivered it here.

Mixed traffic worked here, as it still true.

A very rusty Horizon Trader-  a 1973 cargo ship now long scrapped-–passed through the port with its 2325 teu capacity.

Back then an occasional tanker with this type of Cyrillic writing could be seen. 

And around this time I started to use the tag “collaboration.”  This photo comes from Capt. Fred Kosnac on an “excessively windy” day.

All photos here, as attributed.  Thanks to Fred for the photo above. 

Retro Sixth Boro 48

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.

 

Retro Sixth Boro Ships 2012

The phrase “supply chain issues” appears to have eclipsed “pandemic” in my thoroughly unscientific and entirely anecdotal and mental survey. The PANYNJ website does provide some “facts and figures” you can mine and crunch to compare 2021 container movement here to that in 2012.  An easy conclusion is that the container ships are generally larger, so throughput in and out is going to be greater.  Can you guess how much greater?

Let’s look at a sample of container ships I saw in January 2012.  I’ve no idea what the largest container ship serving P of NYNJ was in 2012, but CMA CGM Jules Verne, a 2013 vessel, is 1300′ x 176′ and carries 16,000+ teu.

Evergreen back then was operating Ever Devote. The 1998 Panamax ship is still around.  Numbers are 964′ length x 105′ width and 4211 teu.  That means it fit through the original Panama Canal, just barely;  anything over 105′ wide does not.

2005 Cosco Tianjin is also still working.  She’s 915′ x 131′ and 5752 teu.

 

Cosco Osaka, 2008, 849′ x 105′ and 4578 teu.  She’s still working.

MOL Endurance, 2003, 964′ x 125′ and 4578 teu.  She’s been scrapped.

APL Chile, 2000, 656′ x 89′ and 4038 teu.  She’s also scrapped.

OOCL Norfolk, 2009, 852′ x 105′  and 4506 teu.

By the PANYNJ numbers, I see that in 2021, a total of teu lifts (loaded and empties) is around 9 million, not quite double the 2012 figure of about 5.5 million.  Bigger ships calling, like CMA CGM Jules Verne, slows things down obviously;  one of those carries almost the same number of containers as FOUR times APL Chile.

All 2012 photos here are credited to WVD, and any errors in calculations get blamed to the same guy.

Keep in mind that besides container traffic, the port moves a significant amount of other cargo, including dry bulk materials, petroleum, other wet bulk cargoes [like orange juice], vehicles, and passengers. If I’ve left anything out, I’m sure you’ll tell me.

Retro Sixth Boro 42 B

The bridge photo at the end of part A was of Kristin Poling, right after she’d been taken out of service.  In her long life from 1934 until 2011, she carried the nameplates of Poughkeepsie Socony, Mobil New York, and Captain Sam, before taking on her last name. 

Here’s a shot from the bow, and

here from near the stern looking forward along the catwalk.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos.  I wonder where this Coastie is today.

A decade ago, Maurania III worked in the harbor, here alongside the venerable Chemical Pioneer and

here muscling Suez Canal Bridge around Bergen Point.

APL Coral was scrapped in 2017, I believe.  Anyone know what those bolts of green fabric are?  By their location, I’d guess an anti-piracy measure.  Nicole Leigh continues to work.

DEP’s Newtown Creek was in her last days;  currently she’s a dive destination in Pompano Beach, FL known as Lady Luck.

Lygra (1979) went to Alang in 2018, after carrying that name as well as Centro America, Nornews Service, and Transfjord. 

Does anyone know where Captain Zeke has gone to?  I don’t.   If I ever did, I’ve forgotten.

Catherine Turecamo assists SN Azzurra away from a dock. The tanker seems still to be working as Augusta;  she’s also carried the names Blue Dolphin and Stena Commander.  In 2014, Catherine T. went to fresh water and, the last I knew,  became a Chicago area based John Marshall.

If you click on no links in this post except this one, you will be pleased;  it’s the legendary 1937 commuter yacht Aphrodite.  HERE is the link.  Those all-caps are intentional.

Note the raked forward portion of Maersk Murotsu, getting an assist from Kimberly Turecamo. The tanker is currently known as Ardmore Seafarer, which I have seen but not photographed in the boro.  It’s impossible to keep up . . .  hang on to that thought until the end of the post.

And let’s close out  with some busy photos, here Barbara McAllister moves a barge, East Coast follows light, and Gramma Lee T Moran assists a tanker.  Barbara is now Patsy K.

And finally, the waters here are churned up by James Turecamo, Resolute, and Laura K Moran, as well as a few tankers off to the left.

All photos, WVD, who’s astonished how much changes if not daily or monthly but surely by decade.

And about that thought I asked you hang onto:  I’m considering taking a break, a sabbatical, or as Chapter 17 of Moby Dick explains . . .  a ramadan, a term used with respect. I say this as a solicitation of advice.

 

Retro Sixth Boro 2

A few days ago I stumbled into a rabbit hole and enjoyed it down there.  I won’t stay in 2008 for too long, but evolution I found in the ship department intrigued me, change change change. It also made concrete the reality of the scrapyards in  the less-touristed ocean-margins of the globe. Take Orange Star;  she’s scrapped now and another Orange Star delivers our juice.  But what a beauty this juice tanker is,

with lines that would look sweet on a yacht. Laura K has been reassigned to another port.  This  Orange Star was cut up in Alang in October 2010.

Ditto Saudi Tabuk.  She went for scrap in November 2013.  The tug on her bow is Catherine Turecamo, now operating on the Great Lakes as John Marshall.

Sea Venture was scrapped in January 2011.

Hammurabi sold for scrap in spring 2012.   She arrived in Alang as Hummura in the first week of summer 2012.

Some D-class Evergreen vessels have been scrapped, but Ever Diamond is still at work.  Comparing the two classes,  the Ls are 135′ longer and 46′ wider.

Stena Poseidon is now Canadian flagged as the much-drabber Espada Desgagnes, which I spotted on  the St. Lawrence last fall.   Donald C, lightening here, became Mediterranean Sea and is currently laid up.

And let’s end this retrospect with a tug, then Hornbeck’s Brooklyn Service and now just plain Brooklyn.  She’s been around the block a bit, and I’ll put in a link here if you want a circuitous tour. I caught her in Baltimore last spring in her current livery.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wonders what the waterscape will look like in 2028, if I’m around to see it.

Seats of Power 4

My trickster truckster hopper is filling and will dump one of these days soon, but this photo fits better in the “seats” category.

But to put this back on the water, here’s the power seat on ex-Catherine Turecamo now John Marshall.  I’d love to see this vessel in her current colors and working in her current environment . . . the tri-state ports along southern Lake Michigan.  I wonder if this is the original 1972 seat.  For the photo, thanks to Mike Fiedler, who also sent along this photo of the helm seat for Lake Express here (scroll).

Here she was in the East River in 2008.

To take on a Peacemaker with a 50-horse Boston Whaler look-alike, your seat must provide a sense of power.

Now this is a well-appointed seat of power, currently a training seat for other seats of power.  It’s Pentagoet (1980), platform for tug and barge skills acquisition at Maine Maritime.

Can you identify this seat of power?  The exterior colors could be a giveaway.

The “sticks” move the rudders on Grand Erie, flagship of the Canal Corp, former Mississippi River system Corps of Engineers pusher tug.

Any ideas of this?  I’ll call it the mystery seat until the end of this post.

Here’s a clue:  those are my shoes and below the seat is a glass floor.

Here is the locus of power award Fournier Tractor (1984), which currently works mostly in Penobscot Bay.  I took these other photos of the Maine boats here almost five years ago.

And the last seat of power comes from George Schneider.  Orange is the color of Edison Chouest.  George writes:  “It was 2011, and I was sent out on the ROV support ship MAX CHOUEST while they did an ROV survey of the wreckage of the DEEPWATER HORIZON.  The MAX, of course, is dynamically positioned, and so the operator needs to have all the DP displays nearby, plus controls to tell the system how to maneuver the vessel.  But being a workboat, it needs to be able to operate forward (in transit) or aft (when doing industrial work).  So the controls move with the operator, and the “Cyber Chair” slides fore and aft within the bridge as well as swiveling.  The whole concept was completely overwhelming to me.”

Thanks to Mike and George.  All other photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s planning at least one more “seats of power” post, so if you have photos of a bridge/helm/wheelhouse seat, please send it along.

Oh, the mystery seat . . . was in a dockside gantry crane operator cabin.

 

Retro Sixth Boro 1

This morning I was looking for something, I thought happened in spring 2008.  Alas, I had the date wrong, but this research led me to these photos, some of which I may have posted before, all taken between April 10 and 17 2008, i.e., a decade ago exactly.  Back then I’d go into work an hour or so early, and because I had not yet plugged into AIS on my phone–I had a flipper–it was catch as catch could. Revisiting these photos stunned me with how much specific equipment has changed.

Baltic Sea and Coral Sea have gone over to West Africa.  Maybe a gallivant there is in order.  I last left West Africa forty years ago!!.

Maryland is still in the area;  I caught a glimpse of her in Jamaica Bay last week as Liz Vinik, but not close enough for a photo showing anything but a speck.  Check out Birk’s site’s info on Vinik Marine Services.

Nathan E. Stewart came to an ignoble end.

Both K-Sea and Allied have been purchased by Kirby.  Petrel has gone to Philadelphia, where she’s working as Northstar Integrity. Below, she was pushing Sugar Express, up to the plant in Yonkers.

Crude oil tanker Wilana (now Kamari) arriving at dawn on a very calm slack water Arthur Kill was the high point of that week, especially because it was the first tanker I’d watched coming into Linden.  I’ll not forget how silent the process was.

On the starboard bow was Catherine Turecamo, now working in freshwater near the Great Lakes as John Marshall.

On her stern was Laura K Moran, now moved to another Moran base.  And, notice the Bayonne Bridge now longer has the geometry as shown below.

Any time I feel that stuff never changes, guess I should look through my archives.

All photos taken in mid-April 2008 by Will Van Dorp, who wonders if anyone out there read Future Shock by Alvin Toffler.  It was published almost a half century ago but I think he was on to something.

 

Transitioning 5

Notwithstanding all that . ..    sometimes the thought that a day is the first day in the rest of one’s life is superlatively vivid.    Enjoy my pics and maybe you’ll get this sense also.

Sunday afternoon, Zhen Hua 10 enters the Kills. Does anyone know if “Zhen Hua” means anything?  Note Manhattan and the tip of Bayonne to the left, and tug Brooklyn, Robbins Reef Light, and the boro of Brooklyn to the right.

The new cranes arriving and the bridge their squeezing underneath are integrally related parts of the same story, as . . .

… are the cranes and the dredging equipment in the background.  Note tug Specialist in the background

Margaret Moran tends the port bow.

Gramma Lee T Moran supplies the brakes and rudder.

The ship completes its journey of thousands of miles.  Is it true that Zhen Hua 10 arrived here via Cape of Good Hope?

On the same theme . .  here’s a handsome team of tugs, good paint all around.  Working on a tandem assignment?

My thought when I read the name on the nearer tug was . . . this is historic . . . Crow‘s last ride;  the Bushey tug might also be in the last mile of its thousands and thousands in a half century of work.

She’s being escorted in by Emily Ann . . .

Crow and her sister Cheyenne DO have classic lines!

Machines on shore were already staged . . . .

while not far away a last spring seal lollygags on some warm rusty metal, once also a brand new machine.

And on the other side of Staten Island rubble of a light indispensable a century ago adapts to a new life as a rookery.

Many thanks to NYMedia Boat.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who will be transiting himself soon.  Thursday I leave on a grand gallivant, and in early June–if all goes well– I start a new chapter working on Urger, that handsome young centenarian tug you see upper left at the top of the page.

Zhen Hua 10 Again 2

It’s late Sunday evening, and Monday morning will come very early, so as a sneak preview to tomorrow’s post, a few photos of the transit of Zhen Hua 10 to Port Newark.  Moveable platform courtesy of NYMedia Boat, which gets a photographer in the right places.

More tomorrow after work.  All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Tugs 125

Eastbound and from left, it’s Sunny Williams, Sarah Ann, and Ellen McAllister.

Around the same time, it’s a light Patrice McAllister eastbound.  Compare the April 2014 shot below with these April 2012 ones of her first arriving in the sixth boro after the tragic fire on Lake Ontario.

After all the ice work Kimberly Poling has done the past few months, Sunday was a welcome sunny day, I’ll assume.

It wasn’t until this tow turned away from head-one that I understood what I was looking at . . ..

but closer in  . . . it was clearly Stephen Dann (I think this is her first appearance on this blog) towing

crane barge Strong Island.

Off Owl’s Head, it’s Pacific Reliance and Discovery Coast (I think) off to the west.

Pacific Reliance appeared here about six weeks ago.

Catherine Turecamo stands by near Gulf Pearl.

Parting shot . . . following up on the opening shot of this post.

All photos the past few days by Will Van Dorp.