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I’m away from the sixth boro, so here’s another from the vault, archived May 2011.
Twin Tube back then still had her lighter stick. Lichtenstein now sails as Mr Tigris.
Sand Master, the sand miner, had not yet gone to South America.
A company called K-Sea still existed, and Norwegian Sea still sailed.
The 1976 tug now sails as Miss Rui for Smith Maritime Ocean Towing and Salvage. She’s currently in Amelia LA.
Colleen McAllister was still in salt water; she’s now on Lake Michigan but not in service.
Stena Poseidon is now Espada Desgagnes, sailing the Saint Lawrence, where I saw her less than two years ago.
In late May, the first attempts were made to load a half dozen tugboats onto Blue Marlin, the heavy lift ship, but I talk more about that when I open the vault next month. Blue Marlin still sails the seas with unusual cargoes, currently between the Philippines and Shantou, in SE China.
And this boat, the 1951 Dorothy Elizabeth, begging to be captured on a painting, imho, was still intact.
All photos, WVD.
August can be hazy, and it appears that some August days in 2010 were, as below when Colleen McAllister towed dredge spoils scow GL 501 out and Brendan Turecamo (?) moved Bouchard barge B.No. 260 westbound in the Kills. Colleen has now traveled from sun to ice out to the Great Lakes, where the 1967 4300 hp tug is currently laid up. Brendan is alive and well and working in the sixth boro.
Kimberly Poling, then in a slightly different livery than now, pushed Noelle Cutler in the same direction. Both still work the waters in and out of the sixth boro.
These days I just don’t spend much time near the sixth boro at dusk, but here Aegean Sea pushes a barge northbound in the Upper Bay. Aegean now works the Massachusetts coast, and I recall she’s made at least one trip back to the Hudson since 2013.
On a jaunt on the lower Delaware, I caught Madeline easing the bow of Delta Ocean into a dock. The 2008 4200 hp Gladding Hearn tug is still working in the Wilmington DE area. Delta Ocean, a 2010 crude carrier at 157444 dwt, almost qualifies as a VLCC. She’s currently in Singapore.
Madeline is assisted here by Lindsey, the 60′ 1989 Gladding Hearn z-drive boat rated at 2760 hp.
Duty towed a barge downstream near Wilmington.
Recently she has sold to South Puerto Rico Towing and Boat Services, where the 3000 hp tug is now called Nydia P. I’d love to see her in SPRT mustard and red colors.
I traveled from the sixth boro to Philadelphia as crew on 1901 three-masted barkentine Gazela. In upper Delaware Bay, we were overtaken by US EPA Bold and Brandywine pushing barge Double Skin 141. Gazela, like other mostly volunteer-maintained vessels, is quiet now due to covid, but check out their FB page at Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild. US EPA Bold, now flying the flag of Vanuatu and called Bold Explorer, is southwest of Victoria BC on the Salish Sea. She was built in 1989 as USNS Bold. Brandywine, a 2006 6000 hp product of Marinette WI, has today just departed Savanna GA.
Getting this photo of the barkentine, and myself if you enlarge it, was a feat of coincidence and almost-instant networking, the story I’ll not tell here.
On a trip inland, I caught Tender #1 pushing an ancient barge through lock E-28B. I believe Tender #1 is still in service.
From a beach in Coney Island one morning, I caught Edith Thornton towing a barge into Jamaica Bay on very short gatelines. Edith is a 104′ x 26 1951-built Reading RR tug that passed through many hands. currently it’s Chassidy, working out of Trinidad and Tobago.
Here’s another version I shot that morning. For even more, click here.
The mighty Brangus assisted dredge Florida. Back in those days, the channels of the sixth boro were being deepened to allow today’s ULCVs–like CMA CGM T.Jefferson— to serve the sixth boro. If I’m not mistaken, Brangus has been a GLDD tug since it was built in 1965. Currently she’s in the Elizabeth River in VA.
Here she tends the shear leg portion of a GLDD dredging job. See the cutterhead to the left of the helmeted crew?
On another hazy day, a light Heron heads for the Kills. The 1968-built 106′ x 30′ tug rated at 3200 hp was sold to Nigerian interests in 2012. I’d love to see her in her current livery and context.
Java Sea resurfaced in Seattle as part of the Boyer fleet and now called Kinani H, seen here on tugster just a month ago. The 110′ x 32′ tug was launched in 1981 as Patriot.
And finally . . . probably the only time I saw her, crewboat Alert. She appears to be a Reinauer vessel.
All photos, WVD, from August 2010. If you want to see an unusual tugster post from that month, click here.
For some unusual August 2010 posts, click here.
Ten years ago . . . it seems like a lifetime sometimes. Minerva Joanna is still afloat, albeit at anchor along with dozens of other tankers off Lomie, Togo. Laura K Moran, currently working in Savannah.
Mel E. Lemmerhirt is now Evelyn Cutler, currently anchored off the Palisades.
Cosco Panama is now called Minerva and working among the islands of Indonesia. She was a 2005 Blohm & Voss build, with capacity of 2702 teu. She’s NOT to be confused with Cosco Shipping Panama, at 9443 teu.
Escort was still calling in the sixth boro. Now I understand she’s working in southern NJ, but I’ve not seen her in much at all since 2010.
Sassafras has left the Vane fleet; now she’s George Holland of Norfolk tugs, and again, not around here.
Colleen McAllister . . . she’s in the Great Lakes, although I’m not sure she’s working.
Maurania III is busy, now in Wilmington NC.
I never did learn the name of this boat, not the manufacturer, but it has simple beautiful lines in wood. Is it still around? For sale?
And sailing . . . I don’t think this’ll be happening this month in the sixth boro, given the number of passengers.
We’ll hold it up here.
All photos, WVD, who has begun going out by private transportation. It really is somewhat odd to walk around this way, but it makes sense to me.
May 2010 . . . I took my first trip to see the thrills of the southern Arthur Kill, thanks to Bonnie. Back then the hull of Astoria (1925-1967 on the East River Line) was still there. Since then, I believe it’s been removed . . . said to be an eyesore. !@#$?!! Here’s more from that paddling trip. Keansburg Steamboat Company operated it until it ended up here. If I read The Boats We Rode, Roberts & Gillespie, p.13) right, I’m wondering why it spent so many years before being broken up. And why isn’t it listed here?
ABC-1 was hauled out back that month. I know some of you are happy to see what she looks like below the waterline.
OSG Vision was new, and spent some time at the Bayonne shipyard. Here she’s nose-to-nose with Horizon Discovery.
I recall vividly this spectacular spring morning before work . . . Irish Sea went by pushing DBL 103, passing NYK Rigel at Howland Hook. Mornings like that tempted me to skip work.
I’m not sure where this boat is today, but I did manage to get close-ups out of the water here, three and a half years later.
Heather M II here passed NYK Rigel. I’ve never seen Heather M since, I believe, but she has classy lines and a great bow pudding.
Colleen was still in salt water back then. I’m not sure she ever thawed out after a late December transit to Lake Michigan six years later.
Janice Ann, here pushing RTC 28, was still around here. If you want to read about life aboard Janice Ann, I did a review of a book written by one of her captains here.
Niz C. Gisclair was an exotic in town, likely here working on a dredging job. She has a Marquette logo on her stack.
Sorry about the backlighting here, but it’s Allied’s Falcon in the Kills. She has since appeared on this blog as Carolina Coast.
And finally . . . a sad shot of sister ship of Day-Peckinpaugh, launched as Interwaterways 101. The vessel below was launched two months later as Interwaterways 105, and from 1936 until 1976 operated as Michigan. She’s languished in the AK for decades, possibly since 1976. She’s an Eriemax, tailored to the dimensions of the Barge Canal locks, built in Duluth 99 years ago!
Here’s the same vessel on the Erie Canal, date and photographer unknown.
Yup . . . after 18 days of virtual Erie Canal touring, I needed to sneak another Erie Canal pic in here.
All photos except the last one by WVD.
The photo below may seem an unlikely choice on tugster, especially as lead photo. I post it here because this is where Urger in 1901 was designed, built, and launched at 300 Pine, on a finger of the Grand River and not far from Dornbos Island. I mention that because Urger was initially called Henry J. Dornbos.
Another odd photo lies below, until you recall some posts almost two years ago . . . Mariners to Muskegon. Here behind the chainlink, Colleen and Katie G await matched barges.
Trieste used to be called Vegsund.
I was fooled here: although the stern looked bald, I thought it was a laker
but wondered why the bridge windows were covered.
I was making no sense of the lines near the stern, until I remembered that this “laker” was a barge. No stack existed because the power plant was removed and turned into a notch. Her matched tug is Invincible; see them paired in this post (and scroll).
Sarah-B is a 1953 Roamer built tug, that went from USACE to a museum and back into service.
Is this a one-off?
And finally, I took a tour of this 1904 car ferry, now called Milwaukee Clipper, named like the PanAm flying boats.
For the first decades of her existence, the Clipper was SS Juniata.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who needed to get back on the boat and continue the loop.
. . . and beyond. Let’s start with August 7, 2008 . . . up by the Iroquois lock of the Seaway. And Canadian Provider . . . well . . . in 2013 she was towed to Aliaga as OVI, and scrapped. Note that she’s a straight-decker . . . no self-unloading gear.
August 14 . . . reef-making consisted of sinking subway cars. These went off Atlantic City. To see their condition now, click here.
August 16 in the Arthur Kill, Volunteer was off to remake the tow. Built in 1982, she met the scrappers earlier this year.
August 20 . . . Laura K and Margaret–I believe –have just helped Glasgow Express to Howland Hook terminal. Glasgow (2002) is still at work, and so are Laura K (in Savannah) and Margaret in the sixth boro.
August 23 . . . Colleen McAllister and Dean Reinauer bring a barge through the Gate, reading for the Sound. Colleen is now owned by for Port City Tug Company of Grosse Point. Has anyone seen her in operation? Dean went to Nigeria aboard Blue Marlin.
Christine M McAllister stands by in Erie Basin on August 24. This 6000hp tug is currently working down south of here.
August 27 . . . the reclusive Susan E. Witte eastbound and Adriatic Sea westbound. Beyond Adriatic, that might be Aegean. Adriatic is currently on a tow on the 2000+ stretch of Ocean between Honolulu and Kwajalein! Can someone confirm this? Nine years ago, I caught Adriatic near the Bear Mountain Bridge here (scroll).
August 29 . . . Coral Sea westbound, while later in the same day,
the scarcely-seen up here Paul T Moran heads for the Bridge while Maryland approaches from that direction. Coral Sea has gone to West Africa, Maryland has become Liz Vinik, and Paul T stays mostly around the Gulf.
The Tugboat Races and other contests were on the 31st that year. Here Justin shows good style hitting that bollard.
HMS Liberty mixes it up with some real history. Edith went down to Trinidad and the venerable Dorothy Elizabeth (1951) was scrapped the next year. Liberty is still in the sixth boro.
And to close it out . . . the 1907 Pegasus made a showing at the races that year. She’s laid up on the morris Canal so far as I know.
I hope you enjoyed these walks through waters no longer here.
Now my big announcement: as this posts, I’m on board Grande Mariner for the next seven weeks, Chicago bound. I will post when I can with what photos I can. But I’ve done that before. GWA (Going west again) was my series title last year. You have to read this one about my role on the vessel. GW was the title I used in 2016.
Maybe this year it should TGWYA . . . thank god i’m going west again . . . Anyhow . . . this is my version of a “gone fishing’ sign.
Remember the December 2016 saga involving
Colleen McAllister and Katie G. McAllister? Note the blackout painting where the stack rings once were? Thanks to Krystal Kauffman, here’s
an update from Muskegon.
The photo below comes from Jake Van Reenen as they were departing Frink Park in Clayton near the 1000 Islands. It’s a moody photo. Ontario–ex-Jeffrey K McAllister— and Erie–ex-Missy McAllister— traveled from the East Coast, with a stop in Halifax, and
were in Cleveland earlier this year. If that is Erie, along Ontario‘s starboard side, she’s already received some paint. South Carolina, maybe scrapped by now, is a product of Manitowoc 1925.
Maine, a product of Cleveland, dates from 1921.
Towmaster is a 1952 product of Bushey, currently shown here in New London.
Ira S. Bushey also produced Thameship, a 1940 vessel, two hulls later than Chancellor.
Thanks to Krystal Kauffman for use of the first three photos, hats off to Jake Van Reenen, and the others by Will Van Dorp.
If you “do” FB, Krystal has a FB page called My Michigan By Krystal.
Back on December 4, two formerly McAllister tugboats departed the home base in Mariners Harbor (typically referred to as “Mariners”) for Muskegon Michigan. Word is that they have now safely arrived.
A few days after they departed NYC, Nelson Brace caught this photo of the two traversing the Cape Cod Canal.
On December 19, Michel Gosselin caught these photos of the two unbound from Lock 2 of the Welland Canal, many cold blustery, and icy days later.
Many thanks to Nelson and Michel for use of these photos. Hats off to the crew . . . better yet, given that ice, keep your hats on.
Below is the screenshot of the tow arriving in Muskegon late Christmas Eve.
It would be nice to see some of the photos crew might have taken as they crossed the stormy Gulf of Saint Lawrence and fought their way across Lake Ontario with strong winds out of the NW. And I’m looking forward to seeing them in Port City Tug colors.
That is a long way from the Staten Island base these boats have long used . . . and how many engine rooms are hot here?
So Katie G and Colleen McAllister danced their way east to get north and way west past the dancing (or leaning) towers of the East River this morning.
Notice you can still see the original Libby Black name in the raised metal of Katie G McAllister, soon to be named something else?
Here’s a previous post I did featuring Katie G. remaking a tow at the Battery.
Click here and here for posts featuring Colleen at work. Here’s one at the dock in Mariners.
I’m guessing this voyage will take about three weeks?
Godspeed, and beat the ice!
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Click here for another way to move a tug with a cold engine. And here–scroll to the 4th photo–to see another way it can be done. And another. And I’ll add another post here with alongside towing.
Colleen basks in early morning light before the race earlier this month.
Resolute makes a quick turn to assist with a tow.
Discovery Coast turns westbound into the KVK.
Resolute takes the stern of Thomas J. Brown.
Miriam Moran reports for yet another job.
The inimitable Herbert P. Brake leaves the east end of the Kill.
Laura K. Moran . . . speed turning.
Taurus heads for the mooring.
Treasure Coast crosses in the foreground after Taurus gets to the mooring.
Discovery Coast cruises back to home base.
It’s Choptank light about to cross the Upper Bay for Brooklyn, and
a whole bevvy of McAllisters, including Helen. in Mariner’s Harbor . . . also just before the tugboat race almost three weeks ago.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who does a short gallivant starting later tomorrow.
tugster: a waterblog 
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