TugBoat Roundup 2022

Another TBR is in the books.  Where else can you see very upclose and personal some much-loved boats. I can and might do a post on each of these boats, but for now, just a survey.

Shoofly . . .  complete name is Shoofly Pie. If you want actual detail, click here and scroll;  you’ll see some profile of each of these boats (and others).  All I’ll say about Shoofly is that she’s a WW2 naval vessel evolved into a rat rod (We need a new term for this category.) vessel.  It has also likely sailed the greatest number of places, freshwater and salt.  I’ve photographed this boat before, but somehow, it’s never made it onto this blog.  Some explanation follows.

I frame this as a comparison of push knees on Edna A and J. Arnold Witte.  

How about this as a frame– l to r, Nathan G, Margot, Benjamin Elliot, and Edna A. — involving two-thirds of the NYS Marine Highway boats participating in the event. Then another set of NYS Marine was not present  . . . working . . . .

CMT Otter . . . represented Coeymans.  I learned some modification history of this boat last weekend.  It was once Delta Ram and looked like this.

This vessel is the fourth in the series of Atlantic Hunter boats.  I had photos of Atlantic Hunter IV (under a different name last year) but those photos like those of Shoofly  . . . disappeared.

My Pal Sal is not the latest government boat purchased by NYS Canals, although you might suspect otherwise.  To stray down a tangent though;  Sal has a song named for her;  we really need a popular ditty about canal tugboats . . . any or all of them. Lobby your favorite songwriter or channel your own inner songwriter muse.

W. O. Decker looked spectacular!  Last time I saw her some details were not the same.

Joncaire is several years into her new livery;  she used to be the red of NYPA Niagara River boom maintenance fleet, as seen here (scroll).

Here’s the view from the 4th Street Bridge, and

here from the 2nd Street Bridge.

All photos yesterday, WVD, who got out there before many people were crowding the bulkhead.

I missed a lot of folks who were there because I stayed in the welcome center most of the time, listening to the talks.

Random Tugs 257

New in town but probably only in as a transient . . .

It’s Michael L. Daigle, fleet mate of some Hebert boats that have also passed through the sixth boro and likely working on a dredging project in the region.  Note the white horizontal supports above the wheelhouse door on either side.  I’m guessing they’re for quick egress lines   . .  as seen here if you scroll through the 2010 post to Gulf Dawn.

Unrelated . . .  two Vane units approach the Narrows;  the forward unit below has already evolved from wire towing to alongside towing.

As a heavy squall approached, Potomac enters port allowed by

Patuxent, still with the wire out.

A few years back, HMS Justice was a regular in NYC.  These days not so much, but she called here recently.

Fleet mate HMS Liberty follows along behind.

CMT Otter heads outbound, likely towards Queens and Inwood.

And let’s end today’s post with another transient . . .  Captain Sam, here meeting Capt. Brian.  Captain Sam is a triple screw Rodriguez Shipyard boat from 2002.

All photos taken within the general confines of the sixth boro by Will Van Dorp.

 

All CMT Today

Years ago when Odin departed the sixth boro, someone said there’d likely never be another tug here of that sort.  Well, there is.  Every time I see either CMT Otter or Pike, I recall the unique Odin.

In CMT colors, Otter looks quite sharp.

Also in these sharp colors, it’s Daisy Mae westbound in the KVK a few days ago, pushing CMT Y NOT 2 with a good 8000 tons of southern Jersey sand.

I have an article about the sand run that will be published later this year.

Eastbound at the same point on another day is Mister Jim pushing

a barge deeply laden with aggregates.

And still fresh from a rehab, it’s Helen Laraway, ISO

a barge to load up with aggregates as well.   Here was probably the first photo of Helen Laraway on this blog.

CMT . . . the company had no tugs, actually was no company, just a half decade ago.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Tugs 248

Kristin Poling 2006

5000 hp.

Severn 2008

4200 hp

CMT Otter 1980

1200 hp

Gulf Coast 1982

2400 hp

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has more to say . . . just not today.

Random Tugs 237

Kirby Moran and James D Moran wait, like a team of horses, actually a team of 12,000 horses.

Here’s a different perspective on Kirby as she returns from a job.

CMT Otter and a salt barge lies alongside Nord Summit while along the other side, the venerable Twin Tube reprovisions from stern starboard.

Atlantic Salvor (or Enterprise??)  . . . I’ll never catch up as she heads for one of the many skylines of Brooklyn.  By the way, has anyone caught a photo of Hunter D in the sixth boro?

With Shooters Island and beyond that the cranes of Howland Hook in the background, it’s Discovery Coast, these days somewhat rare in the sixth boro.

Mister Jim is looking sharp these days, much better than her earlier livery.

Kodi is quite far away here, but she is a mere 42.6 footer.

Bering Dawn . . . she’s been on the East Coast some time now,

but all told, she’s spent more time on the West Coast.

The elusive Thomas stopped by the salt pile the other morning to retrieve a crane.

Margaret Moran . . . as always assisting ships into and out of the sixth boro.  More Margaret soon.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Pairs in Autumn

Here are all the previous “pairs” post, a direction I glanced at after seeing Bouchard Boys and Linda Lee Bouchard rafted up last weekend . . .  I’m not sure why the formation, but it certainly showed their relative size.

And once I see a pattern in one place, I start to notice it in others.  Here Otter and Pike almost appear to be in the right lane for Exit 10.   I’m eager to see Muskie and Gar.

Over in Hudson Yards below “the vessel” a pair of Schenectady’s finest EMDs hold a place in the rotation out east.

Between Montreal and Trois-Rivieres lies Lac St. Pierre, where I saw this pair.  To the right, I’ve already commented that Espada used to call in the sixth boro as Stena Poseidon.  Now I look up Laurentia–to the left–and discover she used to call in our watery boro as Palva!   If it’s about the witness protection program, the effort would be foolproof.  I’d never have seen Palva in her new color, suggesting to me that paint and color trump lines.

A report that continues to fascinate me about Lac St. Pierre is that it spawns “ice rocks,” which are rocks that become embedded in the winter ice in the shallow portions of the lake that freeze solid all the way to the lakebed, until these rocks are carried downstream encased in floating ice and become lethal targets for fast spinning propellers.  Ice rocks, what a concept!

Pairs of dug canal banks, as seen in midSeptember west of Rome, show how surveyor straight some parts of the waterway are.

Guard gates are essential canal infrastructure.

And I’ll conclude with a pair of liberty statues, one pointed east and the other west.  A few of you will know immediately where a pair of these “crowns” a building, and I’ll just wait for someone to make the identification.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who asks as treat that you share your favorite tugster post or obsession or vessel  . . . today with some friends.  Be safe.

Oh, and one of my favorites is this post I did about a Halloween-escape trip seven (!!) years ago.

 

CMT and Another Feat

This is the second of three digressions I’m making from the GWA series, and what a digression it is.

How can one postpone posting these photos of the largest ever single unit transported by barge down the Hudson!  And with outstanding photos like these.  By the way, the first two, by Glenn Raymo are available to purchase here.

I post about this cargo, which has been covered extensively on FB, because not everyone enters the labyrinth called FB.

Two of the same tugs made the high profile tow to Rochester via the Erie Canal earlier this year as seen here.

When this tow entered the Kills, many hours later, the passed the salt pile,  where Brian DeForest took these shots.

Click on the photo below to read the banner, part of which says “union built in the USA.”

Hats off to all involved.  Many thanks to Glenn and Brian for photos I couldn’t chase.

Click here for more prints by Glenn.

Previous photos of Mister Jim here, CMT Otter here, and Helen Laraway here.

More Cargoes 19 b

More than a week ago, these tanks entered the Erie Canal system at lock E-2 in Waterford.  Sunday afternoon they tied up for the night in Lyons below E-27.  Let’s call the first nine photos here Batch 1.

 

This morning early, they made their way through E-27 and then on to E-28A.

Here’s a view back toward E-27 and the village of Lyons . . . around the bend.

The forward most barge gets pushed in, unmade from the second barge, and then CMT Otter reverses out with that second barge.

The unaccompanied barge is moved out the upper gates by means of the capstan, a machine as old as the Barge Canal and very infrequently used.

After this barge is moved forward and secured to the wall, the gates close, the lock is drained, the lower gates opened, and the rest of the tow enters to be raised to the level of the forward barge.

These next photos taken west of Newark . . . E-28 B . . . show just how narrow this part of the Canal is, and

silt that’s lain on the bottom gets stirred up.

Here’s an article from the NYTimes, but I wish the author had spoken with a wider range of informants.

Many thanks to Bob Stopper (1,2, 6, 7) , Jason Ladue (8, 9) , and John Van Dorp (3, 4, 5) for these photos.

Now Batch 2, thanks to Bob Stopper.  Bob took this batch this morning very near my “upstate home,”  between Newark and Widewaters.  Note that this batch is moved by HR Pike.  

For a long tow, this part of the Canal  (same as here) is very narrow.

It’s mind-boggling that these inland waters are directly connected to the Pacific Ocean and China, but it’s the case.

The school bus here is crossing the Whitbeck Road Bridge, a span I’ve crossed probably a thousand times . . .

Many thanks to all, especially to Bob Stopper, who was unstoppable in getting these photos just this morning.

 

 

 

More Cargoes 19

Here are previous posts with this title.  Another unusual cargo that passed through here were these barged US, British, and Russian jets five years ago also in May.

I owe all these shots to Mike Pelletier and other folks who were at E2 in Waterford yesterday, as the Erie Canal opened for its 200th consecutive season.  It’s cause for celebration that Day 1 brings significant commercial cargo into the Canal.

The job will entail moving a total of 12 identical tanks from the Hudson River level to the Rochester level. At the end of this post, I share a photo I took at the Rochester area a few years ago in the fall.  Can you imagine what that part of the Canal looks like?  But I digress.

If you don’t know the story, let me highlight some details, although you can read more here.  The cargo here consists of three tanks, each 20′ x 60′ and fabricated of stainless steel.  If each tank holds 2000 barrels, or 661,000 cans, and if I drink an average of two six-packs a month, one tank holds a 4,500 year supply of Genesee for me….  Another way to think of it . . . if a party was held and each guest had three beers, all twelve tanks would contain enough beer for 2,644,000 guests!  That would be enough beer @ two or three beers each for every 21+ person in Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, and Alaska . .  and quite a bit more left over.  But I’ve really digressed.

Here the tow lies alongside the wall below E2. #Toast the tanks is the tag Genesee wishes “social media makers” to use to group-document this journey.

Here CMT Otter pushes the tow into the opened lower gates of E2.  Here is a previous post featuring Otter and fleet mates.

So, here the tow is inside and the lower gates closed. The shot above was shot from midpoint on the catwalk over the gates beyond the stern of the tug.   The lock chamber valves are now set to fill. The two crew lower photo are radioing distances to the captain.

 

Now the camera is back to that same catwalk.  What else do you see?   I missed it the first times I looked at this photo….

See the drone?  It’s between the catwalk rail and the portside stern of CMT Otter.  I’m guessing this is CMT’s camera team.

Believe it or not, this is the Canal through which these tanks will travel near the end of their journey to Gates . . . Rochester, beyond E33.   From the Canal, Rochester is mostly invisible.

Now some speculation . . . I believe the tanks arrived in the US aboard Wladyslaw Orkan on a voyage that began in Shanghai around March 13.  My guess would be that the manufacturer is Lehui, possibly in Xiangshan Ningbo.  If all this is true, I’m curious about this stated goal on the Lehui site:  “During a two-decade-plus journey, Lehui exercises “European Quality, Chinese Price” philosophy, which won Lehui “the most outstanding beer/beverage equipment manufacturer” in China.”  Where were previous Genesee tanks fabricated?  With concerted several decades effort, a 21st century plan to return more manufacturing to the US might be held on course with a mantra something like ““European Quality, Chinese Price, US Essence, ”    . . . concerted effort . . .

Click here to see the tentative schedule.

Thanks again to Mike Pelletier.