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That’s what I’m doing, preferably feeling the water but inside the ship today. Below, W. O. Decker handles the whitewater created by boats in a recent race with at least 10 times Decker‘s horsepower.
As seen from the Bayonne Bridge walkway, Quenames displaces a fair amount of water, surrounding itself with froth.
Fireboat water in the sky and spray over the bow of these boats racing to the finish line.
But today, I hope to be propelled by the wind, maybe with the rail not buried, but heeled over enough that water will be flowing into and then out of the scuppers.
Happy Labor Day. All photos, WVD.
Let’s jump back to May 2012. Over along the Manhattan side of the East River then, I caught this scene. Since then, there’s been some movement: Peking to Germany, Marion M to the Chesapeake, Helen McAllister to . . . rebirth as new steel.
Cheyenne has migrated to the Lake Michigan for now.
Twin Tube is still around but sans the boom.
Ellen McAllister is also still hard at work in the sixth boro, but I don’t see her doing much indirect towing as here.
Mark Moran was just passing through from the shipyard to Charleston.
Swan, built in 1981 and showing as her last movement three and a half years ago in China, has likely gone to rebirth as new steel.
But a decade ago in May 2012, she was here to move some used tugboats over to West Africa. Here she’s already down and BFT No. 38 with a crew boat strapped on has already been loaded, while
McAllister Sisters and McAllister Girls wait with three Crowley tugs,
Cavalier, Pioneer, and Mars.
After they are floated aboard, the tide turns the anchored Swan.
Socrates and Heron also float aboard, and
overnight, Swan gets deballasted and raises the hull, so that we can see their five-bladed wheels. More of the story here.
Also in the boro those days was Picton Castle, showing the flag and more, maybe recruiting some hands
before sailing away. Does anyone have news about her? Has she really stayed in Lunenburg since late 2020?
All photos, WVD, exactly 120 months ago.
Unrelated to any of this, read this May 2004 article by the late great Don Sutherland and reflect on how much change has occurred.
It’s time for a February installment of “retro sixth boro,” a glance back at some of the boats working in New York harbor exactly a decade ago. Cheyenne was still here, pushing a scow out the east end of the KVK.
I’m not sure the 61′ x 22′ 1970 Salvage Master is still in the harbor. Even back a decade ago, I only saw it once or twice.
The 1962 Kristy Ann Reinauer was scrapped in 2015. The 2000 Tokyo Express is still around; in fact, I believe I saw it just recently.
The 1980 Independence was pushing 1982 tank barge OSG 243. Independence was scrapped in 2020, and the barge laid up.
The 1981 Huron Service is now Genesis Victory. The 1976 Atlantic Salvor has carried that name since 1998.
Na’hoku (Na Hoku) is a 1981 tugboat that spent a short time in the boro a decade ago; later in 2012, Na’hoku (meaning stars, as used for navigation in Hawaiian) was sold to a South Carolina company that kept the name. As of this writing, she’s in Fernandina Beach FL. As for DBL 85, a tank barge by that name was built in 2009 and is likely still in use.
The 1976 Barents Sea switched over to Kirby and then in 2016, re-emerged as Donjon’s Atlantic Enterprise. Along the left side of the photo, Casablanca is a 1987 barge.
All photos, WVD, from February 2012.
Let’s have another look at photos in the sixth boro during the first month of 2012. It was a snowy day that I caught Cheyenne
and Franklin Reinauer. Cheyenne is now in Wisconsin, for sale, and Franklin is still in this boro.
Thomas Dann had a crane barge over alongside New Century. Thomas Dann had a serious fire off Florida and was scrapped in 2015. New Century is now Lucky Century, NE bound near Mauritius and Reunion.
Bohemia assisted Quantico Creek with a bunker barge. Bohemia is on the Delaware River, and Quantico Creek . . . in Tampa.
This scene was so busy I might come back to it in another post. What I can identify here (l to r) is this: Maersk Murotsu, Quantico Creek, of course Greenland Sea, Dubai Express, and a Reinauer barge. Dubai Express is currently on its way from the Med to the sixth boro.
Seaboats had already been scooped up by K-Sea in January 2012, which had itself been scooped up by Kirby. Notice the stacks of the two boats: the red/black initials have been painted over and a K-Sea oval placed but not painted with the K-Sea logo nor had the stack itself been painted K-Sea “yellow.” Mediterranean Sea and
Weddell Sea still carried their mostly-green livery, and when painted, we clearly Kirby boats. Mediterranean Sea has just recently changed hands again and is now Douglas J., a Donjon boat.
Beaufort Sea was still fully K-Sea, as evidenced by the yellow stack and the K-Sea oval. She was scrapped around 2016.
Left to right here, it’s Pearl River I and Morton S. Bouchard Jr. The ship is now Zim Vancouver–just left Norfolk for Spain–and the tug is now Stasinos Boys.
Ellen McAllister passed the 7 buoy.
And finally, Penn Maritime began the year as its own company before been acquired by Kirby, and
Penn No. 6 carried that name forward until 2018 when she began what we now know as Vinik No. 6.
All January 2012 photos, WVD, who hopes you enjoy this photographic account of some of the changes in the sixth boro in the past decade. I have lots of photos of that month, so I could do an installment “C” of that retrospective. Besides, although there are things I want to see in the boro today, I might have to acclimate to the cold first. Yesterday after it was 57 degrees here, and this morning . . . a dramatic 31.
And unrelated, here‘s how the new year was feted in around the world . . .
Also unrelated, this 1953 “tugboat tug” (sic) is still for sale.
It’s hard to believe, but I’ve not been to the Great North River Tugboat Race since 2014, but in normal times, September 5 would see the next race. But we’ve dispensed with the “normal times” concept for the time being.
In selecting the batch for this post, I wanted splash, froth, bubbles, and the effervescence the river can react with when tons of steel and thousands of horsepower push through the ever changing water. The next two photos are from that 2014 race.
It was overcast during the race, but an hour or so later, when pushing contests were happening and
the wakes flattened out and we sized up USAV MGen. Anthony Wayne, patches of blue appeared. I should leave you in suspense about how this push went. Let me put it this way; they left town not long after the push-off.
2013 was an equally overcast day, and again, not to identify every tugboat in that lineup, it appears that W. O. Decker has either jumped the gun or activated its jet drive and will soon rise up out of the Hudson on her hydrofoil assists. I’d guess the latter.
See what I told you . . . Decker has gone so far ahead that it’s already over the horizon.
Second lap maybe for Decker?
It’s starting to appear that in 2012, as in ’13 and ’14, it was overcast.
It was great to see Buchanan 12, usually burdened with a half dozen stone barges, disencumbered and frothing up the river. That’s the 1907 Pegasus back there too.
In 2011, I was able to get a photo of the racing craft along with sky spray by one of the fireboats present, likely 343. What’s remarkable comparing the photo above with the one below is the color of the water; hurricane Irene had dropped a lot of rain upstate and all the tributaries sent that into the Hudson with tribute in the form of silt.
Quantico Creek and Maurania III did an excellent job of stirring up the water.
But again, it was overcast and hazy over silty water.
However, in 2010, we had blue skies that really accentuated the DonJon boats like Cheyenne and
the harbor colossus, Atlantic Salvor.
In 2009, there were wispy clouds, allowing the “queen of the day” to be Ellen McAllister. But look who else showed up!!!!
Urger. Urger would EASILY have won the race, but she was doing what she does best . . . urging all the other boats and crews to be fleeter than she, holding herself back, allowed herself to be that day.
All photos and commentary, WVD. See you at the races in 2022.
Happy 4th of July. Here’s some sixth boro, some heartland, and some Pacific Northwest. Here‘s the series.
But let’s start with Robert IV, a workhorse who last appeared in this blog here.
Hundreds of Cheyenne photos have appeared on this blog, showing her in a range of colors and trims; this photo was taken last week in Manitowoc by a Great Lakes mariner, who, by the way, at one time worked in the sixth boro.
Ellen McAllister has worked in the sixth boro longer than I’ve been taking photos here; as a result, hundreds of photos of her can be found here.
For a red-white-blue tug today, what could be better than a Nicholas Vinik photo.
An outa-towner has come through the sixth boro twice this week with an unusual bargeload; bad decision-making means this is the best photo I got. Sorry, Elizabeth Anne. Did anyone get a better photo? Any idea what the “marshmallow” load on that barge is?
Two of the tugs assisting in a Cosco Shipping ULCV, Brendan Turecamo and JRT Moran, seem small but bring adequate power to the task.
Another view of Cheyenne shows her location on the Manitowoc River, adjacent to Erich.
Thanks to Kyle Stubbs for sending along this photo of a raft of Boyer tugs. L to r, it’s Sea, Billie H, Gretchen H, and Kirsten H. You might have recognized Sea as the former Java Sea, a regular operating out of the sixth boro. Despite what’s on the bow, she’s now called Kinani H. In the back row, that looks like Sonja H.
How about another red-white-blue boat for today? This is from over 11 years ago. It’s the 1951 Dorothy Elizabeth, ex-Gotham, Christine Gellatly, Mobil 11, Socony 11.
To close out the set, Iron Salvor, a Vanuatu-flagged tug, is back in town. Anyone know her story . . . who she works for?
Many thanks to Great Lakes mariner, Kyle, and Tony A for some of these photos; photos not otherwise attributed by WVD.
After a number of “misfires” this past week, I’ve made some changes.
To inaugurate these new protocols, I’m pleased to share photos you’ve sent in.
First, from Great Lakes Mariner, a few photos of Cheyenne in her new Lake Michigan waters. These photos were taken in Manitowoc, which some of you will recognize from the context. Here is a post I did on the Manitowoc River. Here‘s one of many from Sturgeon Bay. William C Gaynor (1956) has spent her entire life on the Great Lakes.
See the patina red tug to the left is Erich. You have seen that before here.
Next, from John Huntington back in March, Jaguar escorts the 1942 oyster schooner Sherman Zwicker to a berth in Gowanus Bay. Notice Loujiane Loujaine in the distance to the left, and I believe Highlander Sea foreground left. Previously you’ve seen Jaguar here, here, and here.
And is that John D McKean to the far left?
Seeing parts of “US naval vessels to be” transiting the East River has long been common, but extralime recently caught Patrice McAllister doing the tow, now that Gateway Towing has disbanded. One of the Gateway tugs that used to do this run is now called Meredith Ashton and is currently in Lake Michigan.
And finally, from tug Hobo, here is a much improved wheel from the one you saw in one of my posts from yesterday.
Many thanks to GL Mariner, John Huntington, xlime, and Donna at Hobo for these photos.
The Oswego River is the second largest river flowing into Lake Ontario, but it feels in places like a stream. I don’t have to tell you what the largest river into Ontario is, I hope.
If you study the east bank, lots of traces of the original 1828 Oswego Canal, a verdant mudbank and even stonework like this for a former lock.
A detail to look for on the west side of the river just north of Minetto is the beer cave, where Brosemer Brewery used to cool their products in the age before refrigeration.
I’ve never been inside, but here’s a photo of the interior.
As evidence of the commercial traffic still plying the system, here’s a New Jersey-based tugboat on its way to Lake Erie.
In Oswego there’s a flight of three locks in just over a mile that will lower us 46′. The canal runs along the left side of this photo; notice the passenger vessel about to exit the top end of the lock O-7, climbing toward Minetto. Along the right side of the photo, i.e., the west side of the river, water has to tumble that same distance, a fact that allows hydropower generation and a thriving sport fishing industry, both in the river, out on Lake Ontario, and elsewhere in the locality.
In summer, Oswego enjoys its connection to the big lake. What’s a recreation area today was an industrial only area back over 150 years ago.
Industry still exists. Tourism to the right, and cement to the left.
Count the three tugboats in this photo from 2014. From near to far, Margot is pushing some oversize electrical equipment from Schenectady to Massena; the blue Cheyenne is heading to Lake Erie via the Welland Canal to retrieve new barges from a shipyard, and Wilf Seymour, the tugboat on in the distance pushing the large barge* that has delivered aluminum ingots via the Saint Lawrence River for use at the Novelis plant just north of Oswego. Interesting as evidence of the commercial value of the Canal, Margot is based in Troy NY, Cheyenne then in Hillside NJ**, and Wilf Seymour in Burlington ON.
***That barge transports the equivalent of 920 20-ton trucks, and Cheyenne is now based in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
A different day brings different commercial boats here; I’m not sure where the speedboat is based, but the two boats on the wall are from New Jersey and Rhode Island, and
Seaway Maid, from Clayton, on the St. Lawrence.
From right to left here, the white building is the H. Lee White Maritime Museum and the tug in the front of it it LT-5, a veteran of the Normandy invasion. Here‘s more on that tug, aka Nash. Moving to the left, it’s 85′ schooner Ontario, and Niña and Pinta of the Columbus Foundation. I wrote here about touring the Niña and Pinta on the Hudson back in 2012. Ask me about schooner Ontario and I’ll tell you a sad tale.
This Canadian sailboat enters the system here, bound for the Caribbean.
Proximity to Canada made Oswego, the US first port on the Great Lakes, an important station in the Underground Railroad.
If you’re interested in some hard-to-explain details of Oswego harbor, you’ll love browsing through all the historical photos here. Oswego became an official US port of entry in 1799, and
an active shipbuilding center. Vandalia, 91′ x 20′ and built here in 1841, was the first propeller steamship on the Great Lakes.
The brig Oneida was built here as well, less than a decade before the War of 1812.
Working backward here, this place was wrangled over for a long time, and a plaque in front of the star-shaped fort on a bluff east of the mouth of the river is …
my all-time favorite historical marker: “Built, captured & destroyed, rebuilt, destroyed . . .” Needing more historical recognition is Dr. Mary E. Walker, the only woman as yet to receive a Medal of Honor, and do read that link.
Notable in the recent era, Fort Ontario served as a refugee settlement shelter called “safe haven” in 1944-45. In summer 2019 refugees returned to Oswego to commemorate the 75th anniversary of their sojourn there.
So here were are; we’ve virtually transited one possible course on the Erie Canal, traveled about 225 miles. We were raised 405′ and then lowered back down about 175′, doing some rounding of numbers. I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride, learned something about this waterway, and gotten some good photos. As to food and drink on board, sorry . . . that’s not my department.
Let’s head due west about 20 miles, into Lake Ontario. Here I’m looking south toward Sodus Point, where I learned to swim in the early 1960s. It’s so calm I could “stand-up canoe-paddle” all the way to the lighthouse. Six months later this SE corner of Ontario had 20′ to 30′ waves, according to NOAA. This area of the lake, called the Rochester Basin, is 802′ deep at its greatest depth. NOAA held meetings in summer 2019 for public comment on a proposed designation of the area as a National Marine Sanctuary.
If we continue on this course about 140 miles, we’ll be at Port Weller, ON, the entrance to another Canal, the Welland. But unless you sign me on for that trip, I’ll be leaving you here.
Until tomorrow with something different. Meanwhile, the virtual boat crew needs to refuel with virtual fuel, do virtual maintenance on virtual hardware, etc . . . and we’ll begin another transit through different portions of the canal on May first. Let’s NOT make that may day, which has a whole set of negative connotations I’d rather avoid. Seats are still available for good prices, all, of course, virtual.
Meanwhile, if you plan to do a real transit of the canal –read this note about the 2020 season opening!!–and need crew with local knowledge, get in touch. I can tie knots, throw lines, and spin yarns. And if you want to make real evaluative comments of our virtual trip–e.g., errors, omissions, additions…–I’d love to read them. Comment here or to my email.
This post covers the St. Clair River (in the wee hours) and down to Detroit. If it seems that it’s just a chronological series of photos of the voyage, well . . . yes, that’s what it is, and what’s wrong with that.
Can you identify the vessel that we passed between 0415 and 0430? I’ll give the answer at the end of the post.
We followed Kaye E. Barker into the sixth Great Lakes. . .
Partway across, we both passed Atlantic Huron.
Just south of Belle Isle, we saw Bristol Bay with her barge and
still farther, Cheyenne light.
Federal Seto was moored near the Boblo-marked building, and
The last two boats for this post are Iver Bright and
Patricia Hoey.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
The mystery vessel was Paul R. Tregurtha.
xx
Gott passed just south of Detroit, so let’s pick up the journey there.
On their way to Tall Ships Erie, Niagara above and Denis Sullivan below down bound under bare poles.
At a steel plant, Herbert C. Jackson offloads coal.
CSL Baie Comeau heads down bound.
Bushey tug transplanted to fresh waters, it’s Cheyenne reinventing herself.
Passing us near midtown, it’s the many-times reinvented Lee A. Tregurtha,
sailing into a storm.
We’d not even gotten into Lake St Clair when the storm caught up with us . . . and this dinner boat heading south.
All photos by Will Van dorp.
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