Retro Sixth Boro 29

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

Time Warp 3

What’s prompted the reappearance of the past here is that I’ve been sorting my archives.

So let’s start in April 2008, and this vessel will reappear tomorrow.   I miss that orange in the harbor.

This is November 2009.  Where is McAllister Brothers (built as Dalzelleagle) these days?

This is what Eagle Service (now Genesis Eagle) looked like in March 2010.

Here’s a closer up of the vintage Horizon ship.  Is she still in lay up?

Ivory Coast, headed into the KVK here on a foggy morning, appeared almost to be floating on air above the water’s surface.

And here, a mysterious swimmer, Edith Thornton (now in Trinidad as Chassidy?), and a Hanjin ship.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wonders who says things stay the same.

Change 2

I took this foto in January 2008.  According to this site, Cosette–321′ loa, launched 1966– was seized in Martinique some time in 2010.

She used to fill the niche currently occupied in the sixth boro by Grey Shark and Lygra, in the Narragansett Bay by Danalith, and who knows what vessels in any other port.   Anyhow, I was just wondering if anyone knows the current disposition of Cosette . . .

Ditto  . . .  Sea Dart (II)?, here in a foto I took in October 2008 and never used.  Is she still around?  Is this the 1953 Higgins vessel owned by someone in Elizabeth, NJ?

Here’s a pair I haven’t seen in a few years . . .  Realist

and Specialist.  There was also a Specialist II for a while.  I recall stories about one of them going to the Great Lakes and another to Puerto Rico, but have no confirmation.   Just curious . . . not working for a collections group.

Below is the boat that prompted this post . . . Edith Thornton back a few at the 2008 tugboat race . . . here’s another shot . . .  and

same hardware now as Guyanese tug Chassidy.  Many thanks to Gerard Thornton for sending the foto below and starting the percolating process.  I have to mention here a novel that served as catalyst for this thought process:  The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis.  The book is part Joseph Conrad, part Gabriel Garcia Marquez . ..  with some Melville and Jensen thrown in as seasoning . . . and Maqroll el Gaviero–along with his “dispatcher/business partner” Abdul Bashur–are  aventureros sin igual!

Here’s a different illustration of change . . . Pegasus a few years back and

last weekend:  it’s springtime and she’s sprouted an upper wheelhouse

Ambassador in March 2010 is now Pramudita, a very Buddhist name.  When Ambassador was here three years ago, she seemed to be under treatment for propulsion issues.

Three years from now . . . or 30  . .  who knows what changes we’ll see . . .  All fotos–unless otherwise attributed–by Will Van Dorp.

Century of Tugs

Left to right:  Laura K Moran, new this year; Edith Thornton, 1951; and Pegasus, 1907.  Laura K didn’t race on Sunday but escorted in a cruise ship moments before.  Built in Maine, New Jersey, and New York, respectively.

Rosemary McAllister , 2008, raced, a stand-in for Andrew McAllister, also 2008, Florida.

And while we’re on McAllisters, this foto taken back in January shows McAllister Responder, 1967,  escorting Peking;  in the foreground in Helen McAllister, 1900,  recently disappeared from South Street Seaport.  Built in Florida and New York.  Hope Helen comes back a tractor.

Photos, WVD.

NYC Tugboat Race 2008 B

So through the magic of blogging, let’s turn time back and shift camera position, kind of like the movie Groundhog Day.  Or “TR 2008  . . . Take 2.”  The crew of W. O. Decker–the only tug in the harbor taking paying passengers–coordinate to rope a bollard.  By the way, W. O. took first place in best mascot . . . and guesses what it was?  Answer follows.

Truth must out . . . these fabuous fotos were captured by Brian, also intrepid captain of Puffin.  Below, Charles Oxman pushes around Rosemary . . . until Rosemary turns on all her 6000 hp.  The Oxman takes my first prize for the most unusual house design AND best namesake.  Bravo Vinik!

Brian gets a prize for catching the drama of nose-to-nose gladiating (I’m sure that’s not a word til now) with Edith Thornton, who saved all its grit for this, twisting it up with St. Andrew.

Best-looking tug in the harbor . . . Matthew Tibbetts.  Anyone know its namesake?

And one more shot for today of “sturm und drang” as portrayed by speed winners, Ross Sea and Maryland.

Oh . . . about the best mascot:  beating out a disqualified tattoo queen, a ferret, a large dog and a puppy, and some very happy clams . . . winner was an East River spider crab.  Does it have a name?  A special snack for winning?  Check back later.

Daily News reports the news here, even dragging in some Yankees-RedSox causality.

OK . .  last addition for today, thanks to Bernie of the Working Harbor Committee, someone who loves spinach . . . although I still suspect it’s seaweed.  Either way, he’s gonna grow up strong.

Green Tugs 2

Thornton Bros and Edith Thornton, the latter possibly not named for the actress, take a weekend break along the KVK. That’s Shooter’s Island and Port Elizabeth in the background.

 

Edith is the ex-Tamaqua, built in 1951 in Camden for the Reading Railroad. I never noticed until now how much the Marine Steel white-diamond logo resembles the old Reading Railroad logo. Tamaqua is a Pennsylvania coal region town.

 

The above foto is related to the Thorntons only in the color, green. Would you believe a barge full of emeralds transported to the gem district? No? Actually, this is a pile of broken recycled bottles used for . . .

sandblasting. Read the references in Props 1 and 2 to “green” material at the bottom of the dry dock holding Orion; yes, this is the sand. Glass is made from sand, right? April is environmental consciousness-raising month. This just makes sense.

Photos, WVD.