Retro Sixth Boro 37 B

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Really Random Tugs 46

Happy 4th of July.  Here’s some sixth boro, some heartland, and some Pacific Northwest.  Here‘s the series.

But let’s start with Robert IV, a workhorse who last appeared in this blog here.

Hundreds of Cheyenne photos have appeared on this blog, showing her in a range of colors and trims; this photo was taken last week in Manitowoc by a Great Lakes mariner, who, by the way, at one time worked in the sixth boro.

Ellen McAllister has worked in the sixth boro longer than I’ve been taking photos here; as a result, hundreds of photos of her can be found here.

For a red-white-blue tug today, what could be better than a Nicholas Vinik photo.

 

An outa-towner has come through the sixth boro twice this week with an unusual bargeload;  bad decision-making means this is the best photo I got.  Sorry, Elizabeth Anne.  Did anyone get a better photo?  Any idea what the “marshmallow” load on that barge is?

Two of the tugs assisting in a Cosco Shipping ULCV, Brendan Turecamo and JRT Moran, seem small but bring adequate power to the task.

Another view of Cheyenne shows her location on the Manitowoc River, adjacent to Erich.

Thanks to Kyle Stubbs for sending along this photo of a raft of Boyer tugs.  L to r, it’s Sea, Billie H, Gretchen H, and Kirsten H.  You might have recognized Sea as the former Java Sea, a regular operating out of the sixth boro. Despite what’s on the bow, she’s now called Kinani H.  In the back row, that looks like Sonja H.

How about another red-white-blue boat for today?  This is from over 11 years ago. It’s the 1951 Dorothy Elizabeth, ex-Gotham, Christine Gellatly, Mobil 11, Socony 11.

To close out the set, Iron Salvor, a Vanuatu-flagged tug, is back in town. Anyone know her story . . . who she works for?

Many thanks to Great Lakes mariner, Kyle, and Tony A for some of these photos;  photos not otherwise attributed by WVD.

Retro Sixth Boro 7

Here are the previous installments.  Today’s photos all were taken in August–October2008.

Let’s start with part of the line-up for the 2008 tugboat race. If I’m not mistaken, the only boat left standing, as is, in this photo is St. Andrews, fourth from the left.

Escort, a Jakobson boat, is currently laid up.

Sea Raven, an intriguing “composite” vessel, whose hull was composed of two hulls of 1941 hulls, has been scrapped.

She was called Lone Ranger when she was in the sixth boro in 2008, owned by the CEO of Progressive Insurance.  The former oil-platform towing vessel is still on the seas, now as Sea Ranger. 

Ah!  Cheyenne . . . she been on this blog countless times. 

Frances, as she’s called now,  . . . back then I feared she was not long for this world…

Baltic Sea . . .  I’d love to see her now as she works the Gulf of Guinea.

I’ll repeat this photo . . . as a parting tribute shot, and since St Andrews is the only survivor, let me

show her tangling it up with Edith Thornton, with Dorothy Elizabeth watching.

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Retro Sixth Boro 6

. . . 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.

 

 

Retro Sixth Boro 5

Since W. O. Decker may soon be seen albeit briefly in the sixth boro, let’s start with this photo from July 2008, as she chugs past the waterfall under the Brooklyn Bridge, thanks to an Icelandic-Danish artist named Olafur Eliasson.

Reinauer had some of the same names as now assigned to different boats here a decade ago but now no more on this side of the Atlantic, like Dean.

Some names have not (yet) been reassigned like John.

Now for some that are still here, though some have different paint and names:  Juliet is now Big Jake.  Matthew Tibbetts is still all the same, externally at least.

Stena Poseidon–a great name– is now Espada Desgagnes, and Donald C may still be laid up as Mediterranean Sea.

The long-lived, many-named Dorothy Elizabeth has been scrapped.

Rowan M. McAllister is still around, but the Jones Act tanker S/R Wilmington has succumbed to scrappers’ tools in Brownsville TX.

Falcon has left the sixth boro for Philly and Vane, and Grand Orion, as of today, is headed for Belgium.

And finally . . . June K here assisting with Bouchard B. No. 295 . . .    she’s still around and hard  at work as Sarah Ann.

All photos by Will Van Dorp in July 2008.

 

Random Tugs 39

First this, . . . from a certain waterblogger I tandempost with,  about a Saturday gathering.

The Dann Ocean towing boat below bore no identifying info.  At first I wondered if it was Allie B returned from Romania, but it seemed smaller than Allie B.  An erudite reader helped me identify it.  Answer follows.

Here’s another shot, with Dorothy Elizabeth on the Staten Island side.

I posted Outrageous a year ago here moving a barge on the hip westbound on the East River.   Just today, thanks to Bob Beegle on the tugboats yahoo group I learned it’s the ex-Maya “built in 1981 by Dravo Steelship for Apex Towing Company (Apex Oil), as a shallow draft tug capable of working both inland and coastal waters and fitted with both steering and flanking rudders.  Reportedly very maneuverable.”  Great name, unusual profile.

Brian Nicholas 1966 (ex-Banda Sea, Jenna B., Bunker Tide, Dad II)  pushes

a scow.  Note:  Dad is an acronym.  Expansion comes tomorrow.

Approaching is Dorothy Elizabeth 1951! (ex-Gotham and Christine Gellatly) with its unmistakeable color scheme.

And we’ll end as we started with a Dann Ocean Towing boat . . .  but this one is identified:  Thomas Dann 1975 (ex-Yabucoa Service, Yabucoa, Yabucoa Sun), named for a town in southeastern Puerto Rico.

Here’s another shot of Thomas Dann.

So if you identified that first boat as Comet, you’d be right.  Thanks to Harold E. Tartell for the ID.  I ran a foto of Comet here a year ago.

Photos, WVD.

People on the Boro 7

On sunny days, crew spend some time between

jobs out on deck, prepping or

conferring or

repairing and more prepping or

maybe singing or

thinking and reflecting or

plotting tactics and strategy but

whatever the goal, it’s just better out on deck this time of year.

Photos, WVD.

NYC Tugboat Race 2008 C

What I enjoy about the race:  meeting friends enough old and new to convince me that NYC is really an enormous set of superimposed villages.  One water village converged on Pier 84 yesterday.   And elders like Pegasus got the respect deserved, as did those of all generations who got the 101-year-old out there to the village square of the sixth boro; and

seeing some vessels dock in the fancy part of Manhattan in finery and Sunday’s best with whatever assistance they need and come ashore; and

finding drama in competition no matter horsepower (like Line v. Growler),

size, or vintage; and

and witnessing the nine tugs boats in this foto raise so much dust in the corral that the “fiberglass outa-placer” saw the wisdom in getting out of the way, and

more tomorrow.

Interesting “fact” mentioned in the ceremony yesterday by the Coast Guard commander:  25% of the tugboats on the East Coast are  based in New York City.  Did I get that right?

Top two fotos above taken by Elizabeth Wood.

Three

days left . . . and three fotos. Up close . . . with Dorothy Elizabeth. Will mascot Gotham appear this year?

Will the mystifying Odin take part, and if so, house up or down?

And will Susan Miller, below shown in a backwater of Brooklyn, be tag teamed with Catherine C?

A shot from last year’s race, and

… here’s Sunday’s schedule.

9:30 a.m. – Spectator Boat departs Pier 83 (boarding begins at 9 a.m.); advance reservation necessary*

10 a.m. – Parade of Tugboats starts at Pier 84

10:30 a.m. – Race begins near W.72nd Street & Hudson River

11 a.m. to Noon – Nose-to-nose pushing contests and line-toss
competition

Noon to 1 p.m. – Tugboats and crews gather at Pier 84
Spinach-eating contest (SPINACH???? Dulse might be more appropriate.)

1 p.m. Awards for the above PLUS best tattoo and other fascinating qualities.

* The spectator boat will depart at 9:30 a.m. sharp from Circle
Line’s Pier 83 at 43rd Street and the Hudson River. The boat will
join in the tugboat parade and provide the closest view of the action
as the tugs race down the river at full throttle and then go nose-to-
nose in the nautical version of an arm-wrestling contest. Tickets are
$35 adults/$30 children and seniors (free to members of the press on
assignment). Advance tickets can be purchased online at
www.workingharbor.org or by calling: 212-757-1600.

Admission to the Pier 84 events is free.

Here’s the complete press release from Working Harbor.

Surprises might be debut of a new tractor tug. Maybe an award for the crewman most resembling King Neptune?

Photos, WVD.

Random Tugs 23

Countdown begins. Five days left. As training perhaps, Cheyenne pushes gravel,

Joan Turecamo froths up the KVK,

Labrador Sea and Taurus diverge off Mariners Harbor (foto thanks to Jed),

Marie J McAllister, Pati R Moran, and the sweet Brandywine converse in Bayonne,

Might those above raft up at Pier 84 in five days as these did last year?

Might they churn up the Hudson as Urger and Hackensack did two years ago?

Unrelated update on a delivery–not of pizza—but of cranes. Below is Zhen Hua 10 in Port Elizabeth as of mid-day Tuesday, August 26.

Photos, WVD.