One Boat Six Decades

Many thanks to Lee Rust for working with the two photos immediately below, showing a boat frequently featured here.

Photo to the left was taken near the elevators in Manitowoc in a slip now filled in and frequently piled high with coal adjacent to Badger‘s slip. In the 1959 photo, the tug was owned by C. Reiss Coal Company. The tug had recently been repainted and repowered (1957).   Badger gets regular maintenance, so a similar treatment of that vessel would not evoke the same emotions.

Technically, the two photos above were 58 years apart, so I added the two below which I took in Lyons NY earlier in 2019; hence, six decades apart.

 

Thanks to Lee and Jeff for providing these photos.

Unrelated:  Check out freighterfreak’s photos from Duluth here.

Anyone have similar juxtapositions of a single vessel or vehicle across time, please send it in.

Ice and Fire 3

If you haven’t heard, a serious fire broke out on St. Clair last Saturday night in Toledo, OH, actually the eastern industrial suburb called Oregon, where a number of lakers are in winter layup at the CSX Torco dock.  Torco expands to (TOledo ORe railroad COmpany).  These photos were taken Monday or Tuesday, to the best of my knowledge, by Corey Hammond, a friend of a friend.

Some basic facts: St. Clair is a 760′ ore boat operating for American Steamship Company, or ASC, launched in Sturgeon Bay WI in 1975.  She transported diverse cargo with a capacity of 44,000 tons.  It appears the fire is now out, but investigation has possibly only just begun.  No one was injured.  Adjacent vessels –see Great Republic below–likely sustained little or no damage.

I never got photos of St. Clair underway, but here is a blogpost by a friend Michigan Exposures. 

To me, besides being tragic, this is a cautionary tale, an illustration of the fire triangle. If you wonder about the value of fire drills, here’s a good reminder of what happens in a fire and what science undergirds fighting one, with analogy provided by Ernest Hemingway. 

I’ll mostly let the photos speak for themselves.

 

 

One node of the fire triangle mentioned above is fuel.  Given the other two nodes–heat and oxygen, materials not commonly thought of as fuel do burn and fast.  Here’s a demo in  residential setting, well worth a view . . . how fast a fire spreads in one minute.

Vessel farthermost ahead is ASC’s John J. Boland, smaller than St. Clair. 

 

It looks gutted and heat deformed.

 

Boatnerd also has reportage on the St Clair fire.

There will be followup stories.

Many thanks again to Corey Hammond and Tim Hetrick for these photos.

Here are previous tugster posts called “ice and fire.”

 

Far-flung 1

This seems like it could be a useful line of posts . . . research-prompting photos.

Thanks to Bob Stopper, this is a generations-old set taken in Lyons at lock E-27.  The photos are sharp, the names are very clear, and we’re looking to confirm the identity

of the deckhand on F. W. G. Winn Jr.  Hugh O’Donnell shows up in the 1953-54 Merchant Vessels of the United States.   Also, in 1925, the tug was involved in a court case, some records are here, involving the loss of cargo from two barges  . . .

I’m looking for any info on the tug that might confirm the identity of the deckhand.

And next . . .  Paul Strubeck sent me this photo yesterday and mentioned that it’d been on tugster before.  Hurricane Irma and said destruction happened a year and a half ago.  I’d actually not noticed this story a year and a half ago.

but the photo I put up was here from four years ago.  I mentioned then that she was built in 1930 in Philly and before carrying the name constant was called Van Dyke 4, Big Shot, and James McAllister.

Does anyone know what happened to her after the hurricane?  Likely she was scrapped, and I did find a photo of an overturned hull . . .  But anything else?

Many thanks to Bob and Paul for sharing these photos.

Thanks to Kyle Stubbs D

Recently I posted photos from my first time seeing Cape Henry relatively closeup.

I knew it was one of an order of several, so imagine how happy I was to learn that Kyle Stubbs had gotten photos of possibly two others last summer down south.

First, it’s Cape Lookout, near the shipyard and ready for delivery.  As of this morning, I find Cape Lookout rounding the Mississippi delta.

At the same time Kyle got that snap, Cape Henry was yet to launch.

Was Cape Ann already launched by late last summer?  If so, what hull is this?

Many thanks to Kyle for use of these photos.

Previous photos by Kyle can be found here.

 

Thanks to Brian Wroblewski

Last winter I planned a trip along the southern shore of Lake Erie, hoping to catch photos of lakers in ice.  The results were here, a week after ice out, a schedule that depended on someone else’s time off.  It was a fun trip, but the photos I hoped for eluded me.  Well, Brian caught them in the photos below.  GL New York (1913) and Rhode Island (1930) are frozen in, and Oberstar is so deep in hibernation that her shutters are pulled down.

 

Between the stern of Oberstar and the bow of Presque Ile in the distance, that’s Dorothy Ann, half the ATB with . . .

barge Pathfinder, launched in 1953 as the ore boat J. L. Mauthe.  The stern of the newly-renamed barge Maumee clearly shows the deep notch.  Maumee also started life as a 1953-launched ore boat.

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Tug Victory, which worked in salt water for her first 25 years,  is laid up here between her barge Maumee, until recently called James L. Kuber, and J. S. St John.

Many thanks to Brian for letting me share these photos on tugster.

 

 

Thanks to Paul Strubeck 6

GL tug Mississippi has appeared on this blog several times before.  She’s a tiller-steered boat that looks good and still works hard although built in 1916!!

GL tug Ohio was built in 1903!! and originally served as a Chicago Milwaukee fireboat. 

She’s recently changed roles again, as a result of her joining up with that green-hulled laker behind her.  Recognize it?

Now she’ll live on more decades, centuries we hope.

Of course, the green hull is the Colonel, Col. James M. Schoonmaker. If you’re in Toledo area, check them out.

Many thanks to Paul for use of these photos, and reminding me, I have a bunch of Schoonmaker photos I’ve never posted.  Maybe I’ll do that tomorrow.

Browns 2

Thomas J. Brown and Sons Inc. has been a marine towing enterprise in the sixth boro since 1927.  Their boats are busy and always very attractive. More than a decade ago I first used this title.

Thomas J. Brown, the oldest current boat, is a classic.

Joyce D. Brown, the most powerful current boat, is headed past Shooters Island here.  That color . . .  I just love it, especially in winter like this.

The newest boat–James E–arrived from the shipyard just a few years ago and regularly moves the rail cars across the boro.   I wonder if this cross-harbor rail tunnel will ever happen.

A few weeks ago James E. was moving this jackup platform.

Paul Strubeck caught the same job here.

As he did catching Thomas assisting James moving rail cars.

And finally, a real treat from Paul, a photo of Cecilia J. Brown, ex- DPC 42, Skipper (1948), Viatic (1952/54), Dalzellance (1957), Cecilia J. Brown, reefed some years ago, although I know not where.

Thanks to Paul for his photos;  all others by will Van Dorp.

 

Bright Lights 7

Today’s post goes up at the theoretical sunrise on the shortest day of the year in the sixth boro;  the solstice is here, and I’m grateful the days can’t get any shorter this year.  It’s 58 degrees (!!) but blustery, rainy right now, so there won’t be an observable sunrise.  Now we start moving back to those long evenings, which can’t come soon enough for me.  Maybe 2019 will bring the summer midnight sun for me, if I commit to going where that happens.

And what captures the spirit of the winter solstice better than lighthouses.   Obviously I didn’t take the shot below.  The last lightship named Ambrose was retired in August 1967, and a tower stood from 1967 until 2008.  This photo was likely taken in 1967.  The first tower was hit by a tanker and seriously damaged in 1996.  Three years later, a new tower was built nearby, but in the next decade that tower was struck TWICE by ships, and it was razed;  technology, one assumed, had rendered those sorts of markers at the entrance to the sixth boro obsolete.  If you have more of this history, and especially photos showing the damaged structures and the demolition process,I’d love to hear, read, and see.

The entrance to the Buffalo River once had this odd 1903 “bottle light,” which some call the Jules Verne light.   Again, I’d love to read more about decisions that led to this design.  It’s no longer active but still visible.

I took all the photos in this post except the first one and the last two.  Behold the end here!!   At the east end of Long Island stands Montauk Light, along with the shorter WW2 lookout tower.   Montauk is the site of NYS’s first lighthouse.

Chicago Harbor Southeast Guiding Wall light is just outside the USACE lock at the “source” of the Chicago River; previously, the source we’d call the mouth.  Click here for more info on Centennial Wheel over on Navy Pier.

Ship John Shoal is named for  . . .  a vessel named John that came to its end there in 1797.  Somewhere–and I wish I could locate where–I read last summer that many of the lighthouses on shoals of Upper Lake Michigan came to be sited because of wrecks, and therefore can be thought of as memorials and cautionary tales.

Some day I hope to take a closeup tour of Waugoshance Light, west of Mackinac City.  Supposedly no keepers wanted serve there after frequent reports of hauntings.  She was made obsolete by a stronger beam, taller light and abandoned.  In WW2, the tower and crib were used for bombing practice, detailed here.  Given that, I’m surprised how intact it seems in 2018.

This is White Shoals light, the one that replaced Waugoshance.  In the distance, that’s the 1000′ Indiana Harbor, eastbound and heading for the Soo. A few months ago, the Detroit News ran a story about the light’s new owner, with lots of closeup and interior photos;  to read it, click here.

Big Sable Point Light . . .  stands in front of the dunes north of Ludington MI.  Some miles to the south is Little Sable Point Light.

Two Rivers Point Light (Rawley Point) is located near the town made famous by the marine products of Kahlenberg.

Poverty Island Light, on an island in the chain between the Door and the Garden Peninsulas,  is hard to get to and seriously endangered.  Better pics here.

Round Island Passage Light stands on a shoal between Mackinac Island and Round Island.  In the distance, that’s Paul R. Tregurtha arriving from the east, the entrance to the Soo. Round Island Passage, despite being quite narrow, is very heavily trafficked by vessels large and small.

The Erie Canal –and I know this number will be challenged–has three full size lighthouses, the most prominent of which–especially as seen from the west–is Verona Beach Light.

Toro Point is the skeletal light located on the Caribbean side of the Panamian isthmus in what is referred to as Fuerte Sherman, a place to see to appreciate the speed with which the jungle overtakes a clearing.

This photo comes from my daughter, taken near Salvador, Brasil.  I love the photo but can’t tell you more.

.And finally, to close out this solstice post, which I hope has brought you some light and cheer, Muanda Light in the DRC, taken by a friend who has spent most of his life there. I never got to see it while I was working there in the mid 1970s.

Happy solstice!!   Build a bonfire!  Light some candles!!  Click on some bright bright lights!!  Click here for my previous summer and winter solstice posts.

Thanks to Steve and Myriam for their photos;  all others by Will Van Dorp, who alone is responsible for any errors.

Also, if there are readers out there with photos to share of lighthouses from Europe, Asia, Oceania, and Australia, please send them along.

 

 

Happy 85th to Tug Syracuse

According to the archives, tug Syracuse was splashed in late 1933 and completed in spring 1934 in Syracuse Inner Harbor.  The tug was certainly the oldest entity in the Lyons area of the Canal organization.

The clipping below connects the splash to early December 1933.  Some numbers on the boat:  77′ x 20.8′ x 9 with a 6′ 6″ prop.  She was first built with a 250 hp steam engine from the previous tug Syracuse;  in 1970, a Caterpillar 510 D379 8 cylinder was installed.  I don’t know if there was an intermediary power plant.  Her 1933 $40,000 cost would be just over $750,000 in 2018 dollars.

Here’s a photo of Syracuse of Syracuse NY in Oswego in July 2014. The laker in the distance is Capt. Henry Jackman of Sault Ste Marie.

I’ll do another post on Syracuse soon, but for now, let me share my favorite photos of this veteran, which I took in October 2014 as we passed her with Urger.

I don’t believe there’s ever been a tug that looks quite like Syracuse of Syracuse, except maybe Reliable of Utica, now owned and operated by Mr. Davy Jones.  Check out these trains, cars, and even some boats of this same era here.

So . . . eighty-five years working and still looking great!!

Click here for a post about a 90-year-old canal tug.

The top photo by Bob Stopper;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Really Random Tugs 44

First, from Kyle Stubbs, three Vane tugs  (Elizabeth Anne, Hudson, and Delaware alongside DoubleSkin 501) which would not be that unusual on this blog, except he took the photo in Seattle over by Terminal 5.  Click here for previous photos from Kyle.

Leaping south to the Mexican port of Manzanillo–north of Lazaro Cardenas–it’s VB Yucatan, in between  CMM Jarocho. and CMM Maguey. 

Not a tugboat, but also in Manzanillo .  . it’s Elizabeth Oldendorff, a gearless differently-geared sister of Alice.

In the center of the photo below, I’m unable to identify this Grupo TMM tug. 

Heading up the Hudson River, here’s an oldie-but-goodie, Ronald J. Dahlke.  Photo was taken about a month ago by Willard Bridgham in Waterford.  Anyone know where she’s gone to now?  She’s a sister of Urger and built in 1903!!

And it is that season, as this photo of Cornell by Paul Strubeck reminds us.

Thanks to Kyle, Maraki, Willard, and Paul for use of these photos.