Scale 11

I took this in April;  I would never have guessed a Corvette was that much lower than an early 1950s (1952?) Pontiac.

Ditto here:  Kristy Ann once rescued a motorboat I happened to be on;  from the motorboat, Kristy Ann looked immense.  Next to . . . Nicole (I think that’s Nicole Leigh Reinauer.  I took the photo more than 10 years ago.), she’s a toy.

Notice the raised lettering on the front of the nearer tug’s wheelhouse?  It says Bear.  Bear was once all red.  Bear, believe it or not, had a fleet mate–Little Bear.  See it here.

Today these tugs are called Elizabeth Anna and Sarah Ann.  Sarah Ann used to be such a brilliant orange you’d never forget it.  Above and below, those photos were taken by Glenn Raymo.

Click here for previous “scale” posts.

Thanks to Glenn for use of his photo;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Other Peoples Photos 66

Let’s start with a Jupiter (1990) in Galveston, thanks to Allen Baker.  The photo was taken about a year ago, after Hurricane Harvey.

Next, thanks to Lisa Kolibabek, another Jupiter, a much older one, which recently went into dry dock in Philadelphia.   Know the date of launch?

Compare her frontal view with that of Pegasus, similar vintage. Click here and here for other Jupiter photos and previous Jupiter posts.

Jupiter dates from 1902.  And staying with vessels named for heavenly bodies, Rich Taylor sends along this photo of Pollux.

A delightfully busy photo, here Pollux appears again with two smalll craft, River Ij ferry, and Prinsendam.

Also from Rich, here’s a pilot boat called Pilot on the Trechtingshausen lies between Koblenz and Bingen right in the upper Rhine.  Although a pilot boat, it resembles an American tug, albeit a long one.  For many similar photo from another photographer traveling from Basel to Amsterdam, click here.

And finally, here are two more from Phil Porteus.  Below is a small yard tug on the Rondout and

here’s a tug near the Bayonne Bridge but typically along the coast of New Jersey . . . Pops.

Many thanks to Allen, Lisa, Rich, and Phil for these photos.

 

Other Peoples Photos 65

Thanks to Jeff, who caught Lucy H moving an oversize cargo through a sylvan stretch of Canal.  Recently Lucy H brought Ward’s Island across more than half the Erie Canal.

Thanks to Maureen, who caught these shots of two tugboats moving a Celebrity ship through the busy harbor of Venezia.  Here, here, and here are previous Venezia posts.

 

Thanks to Phil, who caught the elusive, Damen-styled Candace in the KVK.

And finally thanks to Jan,  who caught Vigilant I departing a creek in Toronto

with a stone scow.  Vigilant I was built by Russel Brothers for the Canadian Navy.

Also from Jan, the tug with my favorite name of all time, Radium Yellowknife.  It starts to make sense when you learn that she worked in the Arctic for over half a century.

I first became aware of her when looking for something on AIS on Lake Ontario;  Radium Yellowknife definitely caught my attention.

Thanks to Jeff, Maureen, Phil, and Jan for these photos.

 

 

Government Boats 48

I’ve posted photos of USS Little Rock on this blog last winter, when it was frozen rock hard into the Montreal winter.  Its lines helped me identify these vessels some weeks back as I was driving along the eastern shore of Wisconsin, where I had stopped to see what was in the Marinette Marine yard;  my guess is that these will be LCS 13, 15, and 17. 

The yard has also turned out Staten Island ferries like Molinari, Powhatan class tugs like Apache, coastal buoy tenders like Katherine Walker, YTBs like Ellen McAllister,  LCMs like Jennifer Miller . . . and lots of RB (M)s  . . .those are some that I know.

Here’s a link to Marinette Marine and its parent company.

 

And while we’re looking at Wisconsin-built government boats, check out these photos on Grasp.  They were taken in Scotland last year by Tommy Bryceland, a North Sea tug captain.

You may recall that just last week, Grasp was south of Fire Island doing training and a memorial service on USS San Diego.

Justin Zizes sent me these photos a few weeks back also, even captioning them as government boats.

Absolutely, an NYPD personal watercraft is a diminutive government boat.

Thanks to Tommy and Justin ;  the others by Will Van Dorp, who will be heading for the Great Lakes soon, so any disruption in posting is no cause for concern.   Keep an eye on the sixth boro and beyond, please.

Tale of 2 or 3 Canal Tugs

DeWitt Clinton was built in the 1920s, delivered before the crash. She came out of a shipyard in East Boothbay, I’m told, but I can find no record of this.   Here she was in Lockport in early October 2014.

Here is a view from the wheelhouse, and

another from a slightly different vantage point. That’s tug Urger (1901) on the wall up ahead.

Fast forward to this year, here’s one of the latest additions to the Canal tug fleet, and

here’s the view from the wheelhouse.  And yes . . . again, that’s tug Urger on the wall ahead. this time in Fonda NY, where she may or may not be today.

How about some more pics of Dewitt Clinton, all from October 2014.

Here she rounds a bend on the western Canal.

And since we’ve seen Urger from Dewitt, how about ending with Dewitt as seen from Urger.

Photos 4 and 5 by Jake van Reenen;  the others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Exotics 6

No, it has nothing to do with dance, but refers to my bird guide which calls “exotic” anything appearing outside of its usual habitat.  Here are the previous exotics posts.

These photos were all taken by Mike Abegg in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

It’s Beverly M I, a McKeil tug.  I quote from the site linked:  “built in 1993 by Imamura Shipbuilding of Japan as the Shek O for Hong Kong Towing and Salvage.”  Remember, Canada has no Jones Act-type origin rules.

 

 

A tug registered in St. John’s . . .  I’d call that exotic.  Anyone know the story?  Since it delivered a barge that went into the graving dock, I’m guessing it was an emergency repair.

I’ve seen her fleet mate–Sharon M I— several times on the Great Lakes.

Many thanks to Mike for getting these photos.  Click here to see his previous catches.

 

Thanks to David Silver

All All but one of the photos in this post come from David Silver, assigned as a cadet this summer on a Maersk vessel going halfway around the world and back.  He departed Port Elizabeth on May 21.  This post follows his voyage, focusing on what someone like me–mostly fixed–doesn’t see.

May 24.  Charleston.  Mark Moran.

May 30. Houston.   Thor.

 

May 31.  Houston.  Wesley A.

June 06.  Norfolk.   Maxwell Paul Moran.

June 08.  Pilot boards in sixth boro of NYC.  JRT Moran.

June 08.  VZ Bridge as seen from the ship and

as seen from my location, at about the same moment.

June 09.  Port  Elizabeth.   Kirby Moran. 

There was a stop in Algeciras–the world’s 10th largest transshipment port– but no photos of assist tugboats.

June 25.  Suez Canal.  It could be one of the Mosaed boats, maybe number 1.

June 26.  Suez Canal.  One of the boats called Salam.

After transiting the Red Sea and stopping in Djibouti, July 9.  Mont Arrey, 

they rounded the peninsula and entered the Gulf.

July 9.  Jebel Ali.  P&O Venture.  That could be P&O Energy off the stern.

 

July 12.  Port Qasim.  SL Hodeida  with pilot boat and other Smit Lamnalco tugs.

July 13.  Port Pipavav.  It appears to be Ocean Supreme and another one of the Ocean Sparkle boats in the distance.

 

I have enjoyed seeing this variety of towing vessels from this trip halfway around the world.  Now I hope the return trip brings more photos and a safe return in late August.

Many thanks, David.

Balls on Hulls

Thanks to Ashley Hutto, I started on this path a month ago.  Notice the equipment just beyond the H-bitt and slightly toward the capstan?

The same equipment can be found on this $161 million stationary vessel on the East River:  the orange ring and net seems to be to the right and several balls can be seen lower left.

Here’s the same on this

ship called Kestrel.  I suppose the ship is named for the backboard?

And notice this one on Ocearch just above and beyond the lighter blue tent?

Here’s another . . . standard version on

this LNG tanker Atlantic bound at the Cocoli locks….

A slight permutation gets us to “bulls on halls…”    Well, we’ve had cows here and here . . .   Has anyone seen livestock vessels in the sixth boro recently?

Thanks to Ashley for the first shot;  the others by Will Van Dorp.   Here are some more hoops.  Remember this “cardiac gym” on Apache?   I enjoy looking, expecting to find surprises everywhere.

 

 

1923 Buffalo Auction Followup

More than half a year ago, Buffalo was auctioned off, and in my circles, no one knew what had become of her.  Some were speculating she had gone for scrap.  She lay against the wall in the dry dock all winter, but when spring came, she disappeared and some thought she had been scrapped.

It turns out she recently headed for Buffalo, and is currently making her way across the state of New York.  These photos from Jason LaDue show her westbound at Lock E28A in Lyons NY.

She ran on her own power at the RoundUp in 2012, but right now her power unit is this crew boat.

 

Here she passes through the center of Newark.  The weather now is so much more comfortable than a week ago.  Can you read the banner atop the deck house  . . .”bringing the Buffalo back to Buffalo.”  Yes!!

Here’s a closer up of the banner showing the Lardon Group web address, and

on the push boat, Union Concrete . . . .

Now on to the next town .  . Palmyra, and the next three photos were taken by Jim Hastings.

 

Tomorrow, I gather, the flotilla continues westbound.

And finally, two more from Jason LaDue.  As to the slogan on Waterford’s logo, I’d raise the point that just as Waterford is a gateway to the New York State Canal System, so is Buffalo, and so are Whitehall, Troy, and Oswego, for that matter. It just depends on your direction and coordinates of entrance.

As attractive as this shot is, my guess is that the boats have already moved west.

Many thanks to Jason and Jim for taking these photos.  I’ll be looking for Buffalo in Buffalo this August or September.

For many more photos of her taken some years back by Fred of tug44, click here.

 

Whatzit 40

Maybe I should post this under “caption contest,” but here are some photos worth contemplating.  The first comes from Patrick Gallagher.  It seems that this yacht has just come off a container vessel and that’s an automobile of some sort under the tarp on the bow.  I know nothing more, although I’d really like to hear “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.

The next two photos come from Jason LaDue.  I’d put this under the category of “we don’t need no stinking’ tugboat.”

Given the tarp, stool, and head . . .  I’m thinking they need a hot plate in lieu of a full galley.

Many thanks to Patrick and Jason for these photos.