TugBoat Roundup 2022

Another TBR is in the books.  Where else can you see very upclose and personal some much-loved boats. I can and might do a post on each of these boats, but for now, just a survey.

Shoofly . . .  complete name is Shoofly Pie. If you want actual detail, click here and scroll;  you’ll see some profile of each of these boats (and others).  All I’ll say about Shoofly is that she’s a WW2 naval vessel evolved into a rat rod (We need a new term for this category.) vessel.  It has also likely sailed the greatest number of places, freshwater and salt.  I’ve photographed this boat before, but somehow, it’s never made it onto this blog.  Some explanation follows.

I frame this as a comparison of push knees on Edna A and J. Arnold Witte.  

How about this as a frame– l to r, Nathan G, Margot, Benjamin Elliot, and Edna A. — involving two-thirds of the NYS Marine Highway boats participating in the event. Then another set of NYS Marine was not present  . . . working . . . .

CMT Otter . . . represented Coeymans.  I learned some modification history of this boat last weekend.  It was once Delta Ram and looked like this.

This vessel is the fourth in the series of Atlantic Hunter boats.  I had photos of Atlantic Hunter IV (under a different name last year) but those photos like those of Shoofly  . . . disappeared.

My Pal Sal is not the latest government boat purchased by NYS Canals, although you might suspect otherwise.  To stray down a tangent though;  Sal has a song named for her;  we really need a popular ditty about canal tugboats . . . any or all of them. Lobby your favorite songwriter or channel your own inner songwriter muse.

W. O. Decker looked spectacular!  Last time I saw her some details were not the same.

Joncaire is several years into her new livery;  she used to be the red of NYPA Niagara River boom maintenance fleet, as seen here (scroll).

Here’s the view from the 4th Street Bridge, and

here from the 2nd Street Bridge.

All photos yesterday, WVD, who got out there before many people were crowding the bulkhead.

I missed a lot of folks who were there because I stayed in the welcome center most of the time, listening to the talks.

Edna A and the Shrinkwrapped Mystery

Last spring, Edna A passed my location with a “nameless” tugboat.

The day before the official opening of the Canal season, Edna A climbed the Flight westbound with a light barge 82 heading for Albion NY.

Three days after passing Newark for Albion, Edna A and the 82 were back, heading east.

If you’ve ever wondered about the rationale for the design of a boat like Edna A, the next two photos should be adequate explanation.

 

Note the shrinkwrapped cargo in the 82.

What is it?  From what I read, it’s a 100-ton condenser manufactured in Batavia NY to be used on a nuclear submarine.  Ultimately, it’ll be delivered to and unwrapped in New London CT.  It’ll be coming down the Hudson soon . . . or maybe already has.   A cargo of 100 tons . . .  that needs to travel by water.

All photos, Bob Stopper, a friend and frequent contributor to this blog.

Edna A and the Nameless Tugboat

When this tow came off Oneida Lake headed west, 

I wondered how many folks would interpret this incorrectly, that this was a tow and not a push.

Ditto . . . heading into lock E-23.

 

Of course, regular readers of this blog know precisely what is going on. After a long hiatus at the dry dock in Waterford, Urger has been pushed across the state to the dry dock in Lysander to be hauled out and mothballed, maybe and hopefully to be revived when the time is right, like a cicada or a future astronaut traveling light years in suspended animation . . . .

For more people than not in the “canal corridor” of New York State, Urger is without doubt that best known tugboat, the only one that thousands of New Yorkers have set foot on . . . . 

Who is that unmasked fellow with a t-shirt that reads “tug boating is a contact sport”?

I have it on the best authority that exactly five years ago yesterday, he was in the Urger wheelhouse piloting the now nameless vessel through this very same lock, very much mechanically alive.

 

All photos yesterday, WVD, who offers this post as contribution to #URGERjourney.

Edna A has appeared on this blog by that name;  it was also here as HR Hawk. 

Random Tugs 266

It’s been a few months since number 265, so let’s catch up.

Kimberly Poling had brought product upriver via Noelle Cutler, and you can tell some time has passed since I took this photo by the foliage.

Edna A was assisting a crane barge working on the power lines near Hudson NY.

Challenger came in through the Narrows yesterday, delivering a crane barge.  A few years back she delivered what was initially a mystery cargo here.

Eli stood by as salt was transshipped from scow to large truck.

Mister T was westbound for the Upper Bay with four scow to be filled.

Pokomoke brought petroleum upriver.

Memory Motel, the original exotic,  . . . I wondered where she had gone until I saw her high and dry up by Scarano.

Betty D and Mary Kay . . .  they were docked just south of Albany.

Mary Turecamo brought container barge New York from Red Hook to Port Elizabeth . . .

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who has many more saved up from the summer and early fall.