Canal Reef Express 4a

Here are the previous posts in this series.  And here are the posts I’ve done earlier on the 1929 Ward’s Island, whose builder’s plate photo I took in October 2016.  I was told it was removed some time ago and is in a safe place.  Here was my first post on “Ward’s.”

As a baseline photo of the double-ender ferry entered a second life in 1937 as a derrick boat or “crane ship,” I offer this shot I took in Lyons in March 2018.  That’s snow in the foreground.

In one of her most notable roles, she assisted in the clean up near lock E-12 after the Thruway bridge collapsed into Schoharie Creek, an event I recall vividly because I traversed that bridge just the day before.

Note the bow prop.  I wonder if at one time it had a rudder, as

you see in this photo of the stern prop.

The rest of these photos come from Bob Stopper.  Notice the glass has been removed from the wheelhouse, but the flag still flies.

Little by little, its crane abilities are removed and placed alongside the dry dock.

 

Pulling the shafts proved complicated,

x

but eventually the once crane ship looks more like a curvaceous barge.

Who knows whether these props will be reefed along with the ship . . . .?

 

A tug is expected to arrive in  Lyons imminently to move this vessel from central–almost western New York–to tidewater, then down the Hudson, and out to the designated reefing ground.

And in other news from Lyons, here’s who showed up late Tuesday afternoon . . . with some new signage on the stack and engine cover.  Compare with here from a month ago . . .

 

Tug Seneca, engine room

Tug Seneca (1932) has two Cummins engines, oriented  in opposite directions for ease of control from the center passageway.  As a diesel electric power plant, the engines connect to electric motors which turn a single prop.

Canal Corp Boats 7

Here’s a view from the oldest of the fleet–Urger–heading through the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge.

Grand Erie and Tender 4 (?) heading west almost three weeks ago.

SPS 54 (?) tied up above lock 1 of the Cayuga-Seneca Canal.   By the way . . . SPS expands to “self-propelled scow.”

Earlier this week, Urger meets Grand Erie near Clyde.

Seneca in Lyons.   It was built by Electric Boat in 1932, and in 1960, was sold from the USN to Canal Corp.

Another SPS,

a derrick boat and a tender.

 

Syracuse, a heavily loaded scow, and a derrick boat.

And finally . . . can you tell by the foliage color?  Urger and buoy boat 109 with external fuel tanks in late August.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who recently with one erroneous click, lost about 200 photos.  Ouch and we move on.

 

Second Lives 15

 

Can you guess the origins of this freshwater vessel?

 

I’d think the underwater structure here is something of a clue.

I’ve no idea how many years ago this house was added.

Here’s another clue, although it might be quite the distractor.

I like the off center crane.

Check 1929 on that above clue.

This is a plan of the ferry WARD’S ISLAND, designed by Eads Johnson, and built for the New York State Department of Mental Health in 1929 by Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT (slow year for submarines?). Steel, diesel, 101 ft. x 32 ft. Retired in 1937 by construction of bridges.

Many thanks to Norman Brouwer for the above drawing and identification.  Photos by Will Van Dorp, who needs to find out what propulsion engine (s) the derrick vessel has today.  I’ve also not found a photo of Ward’s Island prior to her conversion.   Photos were taken along the Oswego Canal.

 

Marylands

This vessel might be known as Jakobson Shipyard Hull # 406, launched January 1962 (foto taken in April 2011).

And this might be referred to as SSBN-738, launched August 1991 in Groton, CT just across the Sound from where Jakobson’s was.  And of course the one has nothing to do with the other.  Also, you may know the gentleman in the brown jacket, standing rightmost foreward of the sail.

Hull #406 is also known as Maryland, and

SSBN-738  goes by USS Maryland.    Edison Chouest Offshore (Alpha Marine Services)  has the most interesting tugs.

The comparison between a tugboat and a sub is of course absurd but offered here for fun:

Tug:  loa 94′,   horsepower about 3000, twin screw, crew size around 6.  no armaments.  hitch . . . two weeks on.  nicknames unknown.  habitat:  East coast USA, often seen in the sixth boro.

Sub:  loa 560′,   horsepower about 60,000, single screw, crew size over 150.  note the machine gun but out of sight are an unspecified number of Mk-48 torpedoes and 24 Trident II ballistic missiles.  hitch:  70 days on.   nickname:  Fighting Mary.  habitat:  worldwide but is believed to have never entered the sixth boro.

Click here for a story of life aboard an SSBN.  Click here for a model.

Again, if you know the gentleman in the brown jacket, tell him thanks for passing these fotos along.

Entirely unrelated:  Russian sailing!!