Random Tugs 300 Extension

I found it hard to move on from the #300 mile marker, so let me offer up another set, with some of your generous contributions.

Thanks to John “Jed” Jedrlinic, two tugboats from Tahiti, Aito Nui and

Aito Nui II.   My machine translator tells me the name means “champions of the universe.” Aito Nui, 98′ x 33′, dates from 2001, built in Concarneau, Brittany. Aito Nui II, 94′ x 34′, is a Damen tug built in 2017. Jed took these photos last October in Tahiti.

From George Schneider, “Here’s one of Curtin Maritime’s remarkable tug rebuilds: Sarah C (501167), 65′ x 24′. She was built in 1965 for Pacific Towboat Co. after they’d been aligned with Foss. She came out as Sea Queen, sister to the Martinolich/Foss M class. In 1974 she was fully fossticized and became Mathilda Foss. She was discarded in the mid 1980’s and was picked up by Mogul Ocean Towing (apparently a corporate name for Campbell Towing) who owned her through 2007. It was then that Curtin Maritime picked her up for reconstruction.”

She’s a beauty. Check out the Curtin webpage here, with its great header photo. George took the photo in February 2020 in San Diego.

Kyle Stubbs:  “I found David has appeared on your blog once before, in Something Different 21.  [Click on that link for an unbelievable transformation.]   At that time, you asked for information about David‘s  continued existence and later names. I’m surprised that it had not come out of the woodwork that she’s still around under her original name, working on Long Island Sound. When I took these photos at New Haven in 2017, she was working for a construction company from Branford, Connecticut called Blakeslee Arpaia Chapman. Given that her Coast Guard documentation still lists her homeport as Branford, I’m assuming that’s still the case.”

Again, it’s hard to believe it’s the same hull given the radical superstructure changes.

TS Poderoso I took in Niteroi Brasil in 2013.  TS Poderoso (name is Portuguese for “powerful”) was built in southern Brasil in 2007 by a company intriguingly named Detroit S. A. Group.

 

On the same trip I took this photo of Cape Cumbria, built Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd. in Bideford (southwestern UK) in 1977.  Technically, it’s not a tugboat, but beside it,

is C Brilhante, a 2008 built tug.

I add this photo because it was taken in Beirut harbor by Godra.  Click on the image for fuller info.  Thank you, Godra.  I’d love to know more about the ports of Lebanon.

Harold Tartell shared this photo years ago, but I never used it until now because I wondered who’d taken it,  when, and what the context was. Maybe Capt. Bill VanVoorhis took it?   Fannie J is currently working in Haiti as Sisters.  She was built in . . . ready for this . . . . 1874!!  1874!!!  Here‘s a photo of her as Sisters.

I took this photo on the Chesapeake in October 2012 . . . Norfolk Rebel in the Great Chesapeake Schooner Race. She’s the world’s only tugantine.

This was the Donjon Shipbuilding yard in Erie PA Febuary 2018.  From left to right, Dorothy Ann (the world’s largest z-drive tug at 124′ x 44′), Joyce L. VanEnkvort (135′ x 50′), and Elizabeth Anna (54′ x 17′).

Salvage Monarch (98′ x 29′) here was crossing Lake St. Clair. Notice the jetski as her workboat.

And I’ll close this post with Mackenzie Rose, the latest iteration of the 2000-built boat from Fall River MA.

Many thanks to Jed, Kyle, George, Godra, Harold and whoever took that photo.  All other photos by WVD.  Thanks for continuing to read the blog.

Time to move on to RT 301 soon.

Scale 11

I took this in April;  I would never have guessed a Corvette was that much lower than an early 1950s (1952?) Pontiac.

Ditto here:  Kristy Ann once rescued a motorboat I happened to be on;  from the motorboat, Kristy Ann looked immense.  Next to . . . Nicole (I think that’s Nicole Leigh Reinauer.  I took the photo more than 10 years ago.), she’s a toy.

Notice the raised lettering on the front of the nearer tug’s wheelhouse?  It says Bear.  Bear was once all red.  Bear, believe it or not, had a fleet mate–Little Bear.  See it here.

Today these tugs are called Elizabeth Anna and Sarah Ann.  Sarah Ann used to be such a brilliant orange you’d never forget it.  Above and below, those photos were taken by Glenn Raymo.

Click here for previous “scale” posts.

Thanks to Glenn for use of his photo;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Port of Erie PA 2

Not to belabor the point, but I wanted to see this scene with ice, and expected to, given this was taken in late February and the fishermen have already put away their ice drills.

Ahead of the former fixture in the sixth boro, then called Bear and now Elizabeth Anna, it’s the huge Joyce L. Van Enkevort, launched 21 years ago.

Joyce L. is a 10,000 hp tug with dimensions of 135′ x 50.’

 

Joyce L. is mated to Great Lakes Trader, launched in Louisiana in 2001.  The barge has capacity of 39,600 tons, 66% greater than that of Edmund Fitzgerald.

 

The Old Rite Russian Orthodox church in the background is Church of the Nativity. 

I can’t wait to see these two units mated and  . . . great lakes’ trading.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Ice 7

Twin Cities tug North Carolina (1952)  breaking ice.  Next two photo thanks to Paul Scinocca on FB.    As I said yesterday, fresh water reacts differenttly than salt water to extreme temperatures.

American Mariner in Twin Cities Ports (Duluth MN and Superior WI)  harbor on what has to be the last run of the season.  Thanks again to Paul.  Here’s more on recent temperatures in the Twin Ports.  Click here for photos I took in Twin Ports a half year ago.

And here, from the FB group Erie Shipping News, a photo (l to r)  of tug New York (and Dorothy Ann and Elizabeth Anna) from December in Erie PA,

and from a few days ago . . .  .  Here’s more on recent weather in Erie. GL tug New York is over 100 years old.

Thanks to the folks at Erie Shipping News and Paul Scinocca in Duluth for this glimpse of early January elsewhere.

Freshwater Tugs 8

I’m back near the sixth boro now and have photos for at least through early October, at which time I leave on another gallivant.

So here’s step one in catching up.  Up the meandering Cuyahoga, here are Iowa (1915) and Oklahoma (1913);  these boats were built to work and last.

 

The vintage GL tugs may just be replaced for the next century by this design:  Cleveland, launched less than six months ago . . . 2017.

Click here for a recent article on Cleveland.

Cleveland in this series was doing assist for 610′ x 78′ sand barge Ashtabula powered by 142′ tug Defiance. 

Here’s Elizabeth Anna in the Lake Erie port on Erie PA.

Elizabeth Anna (ex-Bear) last appeared on this blog here.

In the entrance to the old Buffalo River, here’s Daniel Joncaire II, a NYPA tug

launched in late 2015 by Great Lakes Shipyard in Cleveland. NYPA uses the tug for ice boom installations near its hydropower units on the Niagara River. I’m curious now about Niagara Queen II and William H. Latham. 

I’ve always had misgivings about my series title “freshwater tugs” and here’s a good illustration why:  Calusa Coast–here with Kirby barge Delaware–was until a few years ago a regular in the saltwater and brackish , in and out of the sixth boro.   Here she is in the Niagara River headed for Black Rock.

Beyond her stern here is the combination Buffalo Intake Crib Lighthouse. 

And to close out today’s post, it’s Sarah Andrie, another tug that’s made the transition from saltwater to fresh . . . the former Caribe Service.

She’s making her way here upstream into Lake Erie from the Welland Canal.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Tugs 146

With many thanks to a friend up on the Erie Canal, it’s ex-Bear, journeying toward the west as Elizabeth Anna.  I suspect she might head for Lockport, rather than Oswego, so maybe someone will confirm they’ve seen her after turning to starboard or port at Three Rivers.  Here some years ago was part of the rest of her fleet.

She seems small by current sixth boro standards, but not here.  Anyone know the location?  Answer follows.

Thanks to Mark “woodywud” Woods, here’s Colonel, not a common sight up river, although that could change.

And finally, some pics I took . . . James E. Brown last week moving railcars on barge 278 between NJ and  Brooklyn, NYNJR. Here’s a 2012 article.

So the top two photos were taken at Sylvan Beach NY, east end of Oneida Lake, a popular stopping point along the Erie Canal. Thanks to Jim and Mark for sending these photos.  The Brown photos are by me, Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 145

I will be back tomorrow with close-ups of L’Hermione and more, but Bjoern of New York Media Boat sent me the very intriguing photo below.  Recognize it?  Answer follows.  Clue:  Elizabeth Anna.

Well, L’Hermione  (pronounced LAIR me un) will find her way into more of these photos.  Here’s the venerable W. O. Decker.  Click and scroll to see her at work a few decades back.

It’s Pelham, power unit for Wavertree not long ago.

And it’s James Turecamo, preparing to escort in the French frigate currently at South Street.

And Frederick E. Bouchard, in the process of switching B. No. 264 from on the hawser to alongside.

And my first shot of James E. Brown, brand spanking new.  I’ll devote a whole post to James E. soon, I hope.

Laura K. Moran watches the French lion pass . . .

as does Frances out in Gravesend Bay.

And the answer to the question about Elizabeth Anna . . . the top photo . . . I believe it’s the erstwhile Bear, the Disch tug acquired by DonJon at an auction back in December 2014.  I wonder where she’s headed.  Anyone help out?

Except the top photo by Bjoern Kils, all photos in the past few days by Will Van Dorp.

And if I haven’t said this explicitly enough, New York Media Boat is the faster, most versatile, shallowest draft means to see whatever you want in the sixth boro.  Need waterborne support for a project or  . . .want to see or show someone the sixth boro and its borders with the other boros, check them out.