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I suppose if you are bidding, you might not like this post. As of this posting and with one week left for the auction, the high bid on 1912 74′ x 19′ x 12′ draft Grouper is $145. Period. That’s not $145k; it’s as much money as you might be carrying in your wallet right now.
These two photos by Jason LaDue and Troy Wilke date from 1989, a long time ago in boat years. Also, I realize that whoever has the winning bid next week either cuts it up and sells steel when it’s high, or begins a process that’ll cost more than $145k several times to move it out of the Canal and then restore it.
High bid right now for the Bushey 1938 76′ x 21′ Chancellor is $310. I took the photo below in September 2010. Since then, it sank briefly once in September 2017. If you want to see Chancellor pushing other boats around back in September 2010, click here; all the footage is great, but Chancellor comes in at 1:40.
High bid for the 1942 Quarters Barge, aka “houseboat sans propulsion” is $210; the one for sale is 63′ x 21′, has six bunk rooms, and a huge kitchen that can serve 20.
A good friend asked if I was bidding in hopes of creating a “tugster clubhouse . . .” Well, it’s an idea and with the bicentennial of the canal approaching, it would be a great way to see the waterways of upstate NY. You could experiment towing it with 1000 kayaks, or get a tugboat, maybe one of those for sale to move it around the state. As much as I like the idea, nope . . . it won’t be me. I don’t think the photo of a Quarters Barge #14 below is the same vessel. I took this photo in Little Falls NY in 2017.
The highest bid for the 1972 Higgins USACE Bridge Erection boat is $800; the one auctioned off is 27′ x 8′ and is twin screw. The vessel below is a smaller version and dates from 1952.
May the highest bidder win and . . live happily ever after.
All photos, WVD.
The 2010 post had a photo from 2009, so let me start this one with one from 2010. This photo made the cover of a NYS Restoration publication devoted to boats, but I lent my copy to someone and it’s never returned. If you know the publication, please let me know.
OK, let’s see one more from 2010, taken from the same bridge, but closer to the bank and less zoomed. Lots of folks come to these Roundups, but the number of working boats that can get there is decreasing because of increasing air draft and the inflexible 112th Street bridge, which also wiped out the viability of Matton shipyard.
The Roundup always begins with a parade, and that used to be always (in my times there) led by Urger.
Cornell and spawn named Augie waited on the wall in Troy.
Buffalo is now in Buffalo, and in less good condition. Here‘s more info on her. She’s 53′ x 16’ and worked for the Barge Canal from 1916 until 1973. Originally steam, she was repowered after WW2. See her engine, a Cooper Bessemer, running here back in 2007.
Wendy B was the show stealer in 2010. She looked good and no one I spoke with knew where she’d come from. She’s a 1940-build by Russel Brothers of Owen Sound ON, originally a steam tug called Lynn B. More info is here but you have to scroll.
8th Sea is a staple of the Roundup, probably has been since the beginning. She was built in 1953 at ST 2050 by American Electric Welding. That makes her a sister to ST 2062, now in the sixth boro as Robbins Reef, seen here if you scroll. Here‘s a tug44 description of tug and captain.
Small can still be salty, especially with this innovative propulsion . . . . Little Toot.
As I said, one of the traditions of the Roundup is that Urger leads the way. Here, above the federal lock, the boats muster. And traditions are important.
The active commercial boats line up at the wall nearest the Hudson River, but when a job needs doing, they head out.
Since the Roundup happens just below lock E-2 of the Erie Canal, the thoroughfare for the Great Loop, it’s not uncommon to see some long distance boats pass by. All I know about Merluza is that it’s the Spanish word for hake.
What happened to 2011 you may ask? Irene happened and the Roundup was cancelled. We’re indebted to tug44 for documenting the damage of that hurricane in the Mohawk Valley.
All photos, unless otherwise attributed, WVD.
Here was a Chancellor post I did in 2013, and here’s a photo I took of her on September 15, 2017, and
alas, here are some photos taken September 24, 2017–yesterday morning– by a responder to whom I’m grateful and used here with permission. And yes, that’s Urger in the upper righthand corner.
Boats float, until they don’t . . .
but inattention catches up with all boats. If Ben Franklin had been interested in boats, he’d have said the three certainties were taxes, death, gravity.
I’m not sure who currently owns Chancellor, but this is a sad sight. Click here to see her Bushey lineage.
Here’s a video I did of her and other tugboats at the 2010 Waterford Tugboat roundup. Chancellor first appears 1:40 in… and is the star at the end.
GWA is “going west again,” and here we start at about 130′ above sea level. We’ve just passed the road sign included in a post here in 2006. Ahead of us is lock E-2, the beginning of the flight of five, located in the town of Waterford.
Above E-3, my former vessel waits, along with Chancellor. Those two boats alone have a combined total life of 196 years between them. In the foreground is the business end of a cutter suction dredge.
Recreation boats come from everywhere.
Beyond the guard gate atop E-6 is Grand Erie, who also came from away, the Ohio River in her case.
Locals know how to enjoy the 200-year-old waterway.
Below E-11, we get a green light in the early morning drizzle.
Squeezing a 183′ x 39′ vessel through the locks involves a skilled crew and vigilant lock master.
Drivers on the Thruway at this point are 42 miles from Albany, 190 from NYC.
At E-15, still in the drizzle, a Florida boat —Sharon Ann–waits as we lock through.
Above E-16, the 90-year-old Governor Cleveland attends dredge pipes, maintenance dredging being ongoing. Yes, the canal needs maintenance, and so does the Thruway, any street, RR tracks and infrastructure, my car, my body . . . .
A boxer takes its human for a run . . .
More guard gates–width is 55′–to squeeze through.
Lords of the air watch all along the waterway.
At E-17 we share a lock with Tender #5.
Since we tie off above E-18, Lil Diamond II has to maneuver around.
An SPS lands a crew on the bank for preventative maintenance … keeping dead trees from falling into the water and jamming lock gates.
More recreational boats from far-off ports.
More maintenance above E-19, this time with dragon dredge and the electric tender . . . #4.
Reinforcement of the canal walls is a canal priority this year.
I always imagine the mythical Utica lies beyond the berm marked by the open tower. Central NY was once included in the “military tract,” land distributed to Revolutionary War veterans.
Above lock E-20, we are at the high point of this portion of the Erie Canal,
and Rome was the original high point/ portage in the Mohawk portion of the waterways that pre-date Europeans settlement of North america.
We are now 456′ above sea level, where we’ll pick up the journey tomorrow.
All photos by and any errors attributable to Will Van Dorp.
Unlike the sixth boro waters, freshwater New York changes state. As illustration, here is a color photo I took yesterday, and
below is roughly the same view (looking down from E-5 in the Flight) taken in late September 2016, almost five months ago. What’s departing lock 4 was reported here.
But I digress. Here’s what tenders look like in February.
And the long-suffering Chancellor, after the pool level has been lowered.
Floating and working, it’s the art deco tug Syracuse. She has been working since December 1933!
And can you identify the vessel in the foreground?
Indeed, it’s the 1912-launched Grouper sustaining yet another season in Niflheim.
All photos taken by Will Van Dorp this week except the first one.
From George Conk . . . it’s Ahoskie, taken in Rockland, Maine.
from Jonathan Steinman, it’s Franklin Reinauer at sunrise on the East River, passing under–I guess-the Manhattan Bridge.
From Allen Baker, earlier this week, it’s Eagle, once again in the sixth boro.
From Bjoern Kils . . . it’s Kalmar Nyckle . . . taken by his mom in Lewes, DE.
From Zwaan Casasnuevas, it’s Half Moon in her current berth in Hoorn, NL, one stormy day last week.
From eBay and identified only by date, a view from 1946 featuring Chancellor and an unknown tug, probably NYC. Anyone help with identification?
And finally from the same ethereal realms, it’s an unidentified Dalzell tug,
Thanks to George, Jonathan, Allen, Zwaan, Bjoern, and the webworldlings .. .
Chancellor . . . built pre-World War 2 in Brooklyn. This post is timed to satisfy a request from Bob Price . . . as follows: “as part of a group working to restore the tug boat Chancellor, I am trying to find any extant engineering documentation regarding her construction details. Built by Bushey & Sons in 1938, it is currently in the keeping of the Waterford Maritime Historical Society and my group of volunteers recently arranged to have it moved into dry dock at Lock 3 of the Erie Canal where we laboriously winterized it, pumped its bilges dry and a making plans to create a very thorough hit list of things to do. If you would be so kind as to point me in the direction of any person or entity that might have access to drawings or any engineering related stuff pertaining to the Chancellor I would be most appreciative. Thanks for your time. Bob Price Knox, NY 518.895.8954 The first three fotos below come from Bob.
The next three I took in 2010. Here she’s cruises north on the Hudson headed for Troy.
Here’s she’s downbound following W. O. Decker into the Federal Lock.
Housedown, she prepares to depart the bulkhead in Waterford.
And in my foto from either 2006 or 2007 she goes nose-to-nose with Gowanus Bay.
If anyone knows the whereabouts of construction drawings or other plans for Chancellor, you can also email me and I’ll pass the info on to Bob and his group. Click here to see Fred tug44’s video of Chancellor being pushed upstream by the tagteam of Ben Elliot and National.
Unrelated to stacks: as of this moment–8 am local time sixth boro–Flinterborg is off Sandy Hook inbound for Albany to load the Dutch barges for return. Through Narrows by 9 at this rate?
Stack logo on an independent boat like Shenandoah reminds me of nose art on WW2-era airplanes. I’m surprised nose art– way forward @ waterline — hasn’t emerged as a trend in tugboat painting, given the pivotal (yea . . . pun intended) role of noses in much tug work.
Stack art could proclaim regional pride like Buffalo does,
although the conflict between the Canal’s western terminus city and eastern gateway town needs to be resolved.
Stacks on steamers like Hestia–I’m still working on getting info together on her–eject some many particulates (count them) that anything painted here would soon be . . . coated.
Always iconoclastic Patty Nolan –“mystery tug” shown in the fifth foto down here–borrows an idea from trucks . . . with a stainless steel (?) stack.
Pleasure tugs, of which Trilogy is a paragon of style, might proclaim a family coat-of-arms, faux or genuine.
Mary H carries some sporty lines on her stack.
Empire sports the most squared off stacks I’ve ever seen.
The Chancellor demonstrates classic passenger liner–think SS United States–arrangement: longitudinal.
Last one for now . . . Samantha Miller . . . packs her stacks as widely spaced as possible to free maximal work and supply space astern.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Second in this series, this post attempts to captures quick details on Rondout this weekend,
venue for the latest Working on Water (WOW) festival. Rondout, a creek I’d love to spend much more time on, enters the Hudson about 80 miles north of the sixth boro, strictly delineated. The word may be a corruption of “redoubt,” no doubt a reference to the geography of the high part of town relative to the Creek.
Some vessels there this weekend included Governor Cleveland and Day Peckinpaugh, both having been featured on this blog previously. Much more Day Peckinpaugh soon.
Lehigh Valley Cornell and Barge 79, the peripatetic Waterfront Museum, have also appeared here before.
Bermudan ketch Belle Adventure reflects sunrise.
Bushey-tug The Chancellor was there. Check info and a lovely drawing of The Chancellor here. More The Chancellor later in this post.
Jessica duLong alternated between driving Gowanus Bay (ex-Linda) and talking about her new book My River Chronicles. Listen to a podcast of an 8 September interview with Jessica here.
Canine passenger kayaks inhabited the Creek.
Working tugboat Patty Nolan was there; hull was launched in Superior, WI in 1931, but I’ve been unable to determine if the bikinied figurehead figurefigure was original standard equipment.
For some sights and sound . . . mid-day and duck, watch this. Benjamin Elliott, who arrives at dusk, has appeared on this blog before. Video made from the venerable Pegasus.
All fotos and video by Will Van Dorp. More from WOW later.
My sentiments of more than two years ago amuse me here, and “full frontal” isn’t even really. So in connection with a project I’m considering, here’s really fully frontally. Let’s start with HNLMS Tromp. Now in those twin radomes, I see teddy bear’s ears.
BNS Lobelia is harder to read.
Of all the vessels in the Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 1 (SNMCMG1), the most unusual was HNoMS Rauma. Ever-reliable Jed sends these links here and here on vessel and hull design Although Rauma traversed the Atlantic with the rest of the group, she seems marginally seaworthy. But what do I know? For all the SNMCMG1 vessels, visit Bowsprite.
Peacemaker . . spider be-webbed?
Crow, (1963, Brooklyn, NY!) as seen at the bulkhead in Waterford last Saturday.
Evening Mist, (1976, Houma, LA), big square house.
Gulf Service, 1979, Amelia, LA) taller, hourglass houses.
And this circles us back to Tromp, here following the egg-shaped Onrust, (2009, Rotterdam Junction, NY), featured many times on this blog.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who leaves soon for Kingston for . . .
“Kingston Waterfront on the weekend of September 19-20. From noon to 6 p.m. both days, the WOW (Working on Water) event includes a tugboat bootcamp, trolley rides, lighthouse tours, sea shanty singers and more including “wandering tug geezers” and a “Working Hudson Picture Show.” The event is funded by the Ulster County Quadricentennial Commission, NYS assemblymember Kevin Cahill, the City of Kingston Quadricentennial Committee, and the Historic Kingston Waterfront Revival (Robert Iannucci and Sonia Ewers). For more information, check out the website here [www.workingonwater.org]. Meanwhile, from noon to 7 p.m. on September 19 at Cornell Park, which is located on Wurts Street, there’s a free outdoor drum music festival. Jack Dejohnette, the famed jazz drummer who played with jazz greats such as Miles Davis, and Jerry Marotta, who has played with Peter Gabriel and the Indigo Girls, among others, are scheduled to perform” as quoted from the http://www.ci.kingston.ny.us/
“Working Hudson Picture Show . .. ” OOps! That’s me. Gotta run. I’ll be at the Picture Show collecting ghost stories. If you got one, tell it to my video camera, please?
tugster: a waterblog 
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