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Nothing says the Delaware River up around Philadelphia and Camden more distinctly than a group of Hays tugs, here Big Daddy, High Roller, and Purple Hays. That’s the stern of Grape Ape to the left. No company, I gather, has had more fun naming their boats than the Hays Tug and Launch folks. I hope Ed Roth got photos of these boats.
And I’ve never had so much fun on the Delaware River area than I did the day my friend John Curdy took me on a tour there.
Timothy McAllister was docked nearby. She’s almost a twin of the sixth boro’s Ellen McAllister.
Amberjack (1981) was still in gray. She’s now the latest Thomas Dann, but I’ve not seen her yet.
Jack Holland was pushing a scow. Today’s Jack‘s in Norfolk.
I’m not sure where the 1967 Jakobson-built Grace Moran is,
but Helen D is now Sarah D, and is regularly seen on the Hudson.
Active, a 1956 Blount product, has been sold south and is now Chandler B, operating out of Virginia.
Soon after I took this photo, Coral Sea was sold to a Nigerian company and, at last report, was operating off Nigeria as Uganwaafor 2. I suspect she’s currently inactive.
Texan here is mostly out of the notch of Ponciana. She’s currently near Beaumont TX on the Neches River.
And finally, it’s USS Arthur W. Radford (DD 968) getting prepped for reefing. About a year later that reefing happened about 30 miles offshore, which appears to be out of range for most fishermen.
All photos, June 2010, by WVD, who will be in and on the Delaware River later this week, way in in the wild part of the river in NYS, trying to commune with the wild. Don’t be concerned if no new posts appear for a spell after Wednesday.
Here for some context is a post with drawings bowsprite did exactly a decade ago … .
I took the photo below of the same setting.
Whole fleets that existed a decade ago are gone. For example, K-Sea has been subsumed. Some boats like Maryland are still in the boro,
others are still on the East Coast but in other fleets like this Falcon.
But still others like Coral Sea and
and Baltic Sea have gone to another continent.
Others might be scrapped . . . like Volunteer and
Bismarck Sea.
Others like Adriatic Sea have crossed over to the other side of North America….
Another fleet subsumed under Kirby–as is K-Sea–is Allied. Here in July 2009, Sea Raven–now scrapped–and another Falcon have rafted up. Here’s the link to read in this post: how Sea Raven was built!!
Hornbeck had a fleet in the sixth boro, with their base in Brooklyn at the current Vane base. I don’t know what Atlantic Service is currently doing, if anything.
Spartan Service has been sold to a Mexican company,
Sandmaster was still sand mining with this rig. She was since sold to the Caribbean, and according to AIS, now flies the flag of Niger, which to me says she may be scrapped.
Cheyenne was still red back then, and has since changed colors twice, and exchanged salt water for fresh. She’s also won the International Tugboat Race on the Detroit River for the past two years.
And this Kristin Poling, 1934 built, still plied her trade, always a treat to see.
All photos from 10 years ago by Will Van Dorp, who is amazed by the amount of equipment change in the sixth boro in the past decade.
. . . 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.
This morning I was looking for something, I thought happened in spring 2008. Alas, I had the date wrong, but this research led me to these photos, some of which I may have posted before, all taken between April 10 and 17 2008, i.e., a decade ago exactly. Back then I’d go into work an hour or so early, and because I had not yet plugged into AIS on my phone–I had a flipper–it was catch as catch could. Revisiting these photos stunned me with how much specific equipment has changed.
Baltic Sea and Coral Sea have gone over to West Africa. Maybe a gallivant there is in order. I last left West Africa forty years ago!!.
Maryland is still in the area; I caught a glimpse of her in Jamaica Bay last week as Liz Vinik, but not close enough for a photo showing anything but a speck. Check out Birk’s site’s info on Vinik Marine Services.
Nathan E. Stewart came to an ignoble end.
Both K-Sea and Allied have been purchased by Kirby. Petrel has gone to Philadelphia, where she’s working as Northstar Integrity. Below, she was pushing Sugar Express, up to the plant in Yonkers.
Crude oil tanker Wilana (now Kamari) arriving at dawn on a very calm slack water Arthur Kill was the high point of that week, especially because it was the first tanker I’d watched coming into Linden. I’ll not forget how silent the process was.
On the starboard bow was Catherine Turecamo, now working in freshwater near the Great Lakes as John Marshall.
On her stern was Laura K Moran, now moved to another Moran base. And, notice the Bayonne Bridge now longer has the geometry as shown below.
Any time I feel that stuff never changes, guess I should look through my archives.
All photos taken in mid-April 2008 by Will Van Dorp, who wonders if anyone out there read Future Shock by Alvin Toffler. It was published almost a half century ago but I think he was on to something.
Ocean Tower passes the tow of Wavertree, aka “ocean wanderer.”
Ocean Tower, built 1969
At the east end of Caddell Dry Dock.
Coral Coast, 1970
Joyce D., no longer the newest Brown boat.
Joyce D. Brown, 2002
Between Atlantic Salt and Caddell.
Rae, 1952
In the Morris Canal.
Little C, 1988
At the southwest end of Shooters aka Mariners Harbor.
Bering Sea, 1975
On the Shooters Island end of the Bayonne Bridge.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated:
A video of the welcome of Half Moon now in Hoorn.
A fun 8-minute 7-day trip from the Hudson River to the Thousand Islands via the Erie Canal, with ALL the locks!
A less-professional video of the arrival of Half Moon in Hoorn, but showing music by the Musiek Boot, delightful man of the waters, Reinier Sijpkens, (click here and scroll) who entertained here in the sixth boro six years ago.
Although not all vessels on the harbor work there, all these fotos come compliments of Bernie Ente from the Working Harbor Committee. See the schedule for their fabulous summer 08 tours here. Well, the harbor doesn’t serve only for work. However, for
Coral Sea,
Buchanan 10,
the automated lighthouse “Kate” at Robbins Reef,
Doris Moran, with a ghostly Saint Michael’s Monastery Church on Union City ridge in the background,
and Socrates,
the sixth boro is the job site. Socrates, where did he come from? Uh, a Norfolker migrating up.
Now that clock in the background . . . well, the one that stood there until 1924 ended up in Jeffersonville, Indiana, facing across the Ohio River toward Louisville.
Small indie tugs need character maybe? Can you beat the color of Jenny Anne and Hubert Bays? Do you suppose fashion designers seek inspiration here?
Donjon’s Thomas D. Witte sports the best ice-blue under a wintry sky.
Barents Sea project exotic shapes to match their names against a monochomatic Staten Island and Bergen Point. That’s the west pylon of Verrazano upper left, 600+ feet high over the north ridge of Staten Island. More on the bridge soon.
Odin, Sakura Express, Kimberly Turecamo (right to left) eastward toward night movements.
All photos by Will Van Dorp
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