Random Ships 56

The top photo here comes from Brian Thigpen.  Last Monday, the first 13000 teu container ship–OOCL Berlin— entered port, and I missed it.  Bravo to Brian for photographing it.  I suspect soon the 14000 teu and then subsequent records will be set. Escort visible here is Eric McAllister, I think.

With larger ships, escort procedures seem to be changing also, like tugs coming in sets of three and meeting the vessel outside the VZ Bridge.  Just a few years ago, nothing of the the size of Northern Justice–8400 teu–was calling here.

 

I really should get more photos of the ships passing through the sixth boro and heading anywhere from Yonkers to Albany.  Here’s Western Aida along the cliffs of the UWS, 

leaving the Palisades to port once under the GW.

Here’s Spottail westbound on the KVK, assisted by Ellen McAllister and  Bruce A. McAllister,  and soon to pass

Stolt Pride, 2016, showing a new look for Stolt.

Thanks again to Brian Thigpen for use of his photo.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Tugs 202

Patricia was built in 1963 and works in the sixth boro here and here, and last I knew worked for C.H. Phoenix LLC of Green Cove Springs, Fl. . . .   I like the racing stripes.

Caitlin Ann was built in 1961 and has worked for DonJon since 2011.   Here, she and

Sarah Ann appear to be moving coal.  Sarah Ann is from 2003, working for DonJon since 2009.

Marion Moran has worked by that name since 1982.  I think that’s Katherine Weeks on the far side of the barge.

Bruce A. McAllister, 

Eric McAllister, and

Alex McAllister were all working from the Narrows the

other morning.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

 

Narrows Dawn 2

It’s been a while since I used this title.  I went there yesterday morning to have a long walk but beat the impending heat.  Besides, a setting moon over Staten Island beckoned, and I had to be up early anyhow to milk the cows . . ..

Well, that was a kink in the time continuum.  But Eric McAllister had work,

as did Sarah D . . .

and Fidelio had arrived from who-knows-where over the horizon, a string of US ports but the voyage beginning in Lázaro Cárdenas, Mexico.

 

 

 

For Sarah D, once she’s past High Power, likely she’ll go to Inwood and then upriver.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Random Ships 54

Here was 53.

So many large ships pass through the sixth boro that unlimited time and a large staff of passionate observers could make ship watching (and learning from the experience) a tourist attraction.  Some of the names intrigue . . . like Stove Friend . . . recently built in the home of a quarter of all seafarers, the Philippines.

Axel Maersk may be one of the “longest” container ships that have called in the sixth boro, loa 1155′ x 140,’  assisted here by JRT, Jonathan C, and Miriam Moran.

Ibrahim Dede, here with escort Amy C McAllister, has been calling in NYC for almost as long as I’ve been doing this blog.

Eternal Ace . . . one of the 6400-car capacity PT, looks quite streamlined for a PCC or PCTC, but a newer design is coming . ..

Navios Venus is another fairly new bulk carrier.

I’ve seen CMA CGM Maupassant before, but this is the first time featured on this blog.  Kirby Moran, along the starboard side, seems to have a swell approaching from astern.

Liberty . . . last time I saw her she was Topeka, one of the T-class, and yet I can find no reference to a name change.  Hmmm.

Tanker MTM New Orleans . . . barely over a year old, is assisted here by Eric McAllister.

SCT Matterhorn leaving the Narrows bound for sea here has Basel as her homeport.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who just found out about this related event . . . related in that it focuses on the wet 2/3s of the planet.

 

Meeting the Fleet 2017 a

Here are the posts I did each of the past two years.  I’ll call this the beginning of the processional.  How many government vessels do you count in the photo below?

Carefully screened support vessels--Rana Miller, Elizabeth McAllister, and Resolute— lead the procession, here past Ellis Island,

while small craft of the NYC Navy and Air Force and others patrol.

Other McAllister boats include Alex McAllister . . . and

Eric.

CG-56 USS San Jacinto leads the larger vessel contingent.  She was here as well in 2012.   Know the import of that location in April 1836?  

Tomorrow will feature close-ups of the rest of the fleet, but for now we’ll leave it here.

 

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who counts eight government craft in the first photo.  Here’s a post-fleet week photo set from 2009.

 

Riverbanks 10

Here are previous installments focusing on background.

Sometimes the partial reveal and the juxtaposition highlight what’s on the shorelines, like those triple deckers in Bayonne that would blend in perfectly in many 19th century mill towns.

Or the hugely forgotten Singer plant in Elizabeth, hugely forgotten by most residents of Elizabeth, that is.  Imagine, if someone could turn the clock back on that one, 10,000 people would have manufacturing jobs . . . either sewing machines, or

weaponry of all sorts.

 

But one detail on the bank over by the NJ-side of the Bridge caught my attention.  So I thought these beams would be trucked from the disappearing bridge to a scrapping yard.  How surprised I was when the crane lifted the beam off the truck not 1000 feet from where they’d been on duty for decades and

lowered them

one after the other

to what might be a series of trucks below.  I can’t quite see what becomes of the beams on the ground at Bergen Point.  And I think that’s the Passaic small boat.  ??

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  Keep your eyes open and stay safe.

Erin McAllister and More

One of the joys about living in the sixth boro is its size and dynamism.  There are three bridges in this photo below that will not be the same if I take this shot again in three or four years;  this is my first notice of the stays already in place at the new Goethals. Will the new bridge still honor an engineer who worked on the Panama and then the PANYNJ?   I was interested in the ship because a friend had assisted docking when she arrived . . .

Overseas Long Beach last had a strange paint job, too.  AIS showed that Erin McAllister was on the bow, which I took possibly being a misspelling of Eric, pictured a bit farther below.

 

To my astonishment, when the escort emerged around the stern, it was

Erin, not Eric.  After the pilot was retrieved,

 

she spun

to port and

returned to base, allowing me to get a closeup and

compare the two boats, Erin from 1996, although I believe her bow has been modified since then, and

Eric from 2014.  And the differences are clear.

Erin actually originates from the same time, design, and shipyard as this tug, Z-One.

Photo by Will Van Dorp, San Juan, PR, March 2013

 

For more comparisons, click on this “Tale of the Tape” post from a year and a half ago.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

 

Atlantic Sail

Over half a year ago, I did a series of posts on Atlantic Star, the first of the new ACL c-ships arriving in the sixth boro for the first time.  The other day was my first time to spot the next of the set of five.

And given the location of Wavertree, a 130-year-old  veteran of Atlantic (and all its adjoining waters)  sailing,

juxtaposing the two seemed an opportunity not to pass up.  imagine this as cover art for a book called Atlantic Sail, Then and Now.   And no, I haven’t written it.

Here’s a shot.  Now if only I’d had a drone….  I suppose in a few weeks if Peking is docked here, a shot with that barque and this Zim vessel (IMO 9289544) would be the one to get.

See in the middle distance a Nukahevan craft passing Atlantic Sail?

No matter.  Let’s study the novel shapes and angles on the CONRO, assisted out here by Eric McAllister.

 

That’s the stack offset to port.

Steel curves like this in superstructure are unusual.

 

Sail on,

Atlantic Sail.  Here’s the report for the week Atlantic Compass went to scrap.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Meeting the Fleet 2016

This collage of orange and blue indicates that something unusual approaches . . .

0846 hr . . .

0904

 

 

Atlantic Salvor might have been headed out on a long range mission, but

at this point, I realized this mission would begin in the Lower Bay of the sixth boro along with

lots of other vessels, although

 

something new this year was the escort of four commercial tugs:  Sassafras, Miriam Moran, 

Atlantic Salvor, and Normandy.   1150.    I was happy to find someone to talk to.

It’s fleet week NYC.  Welcome all.

It’s USS DDG 96,

HMCS D 282,

WMEC 911,

HMCS MM 700,

HMCS MM 708,

LHD 5,

DDG 99,

and LSD 43.

At 1216, Eric McAllister joins the welcome party . . .

 

 

WLM 552.

An E-2 flew by too.

 

The message on the port wheel well ((?) amused me.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Here was last year’s arrival.

 

People on the Boro 19

For context, let’s look back here. And last year among some of the great photos shared by Harry Thompson, here (scroll) was a crowded harbor photo I really liked.

Last Saturday saw threatening weather; even so, lots of small boats and crowds braved the possibility of rain to see the races.

Vigilance prevailed and I heard of no incidents.

And yes, I paid a lot of attention to the Bath Maine-built 1906 Mary E, but that’s because I haven’t seen her in 9 years . . . obviously I was looking in the wrong places.  Click here and scroll for a photo of Mary E in Greenport almost 9 years ago.

Harvey was there.  Scroll here for one of my favorite photos of the 1931 Harvey, cutting through the pack at the 2013 tugboat race.

The 1885 Pioneer was there. Click here for a sail I did on Pioneer a few years back.

A raft of small boats clustered yet kept orderly.

The 1935 Enticer  . . . well, enticed, spectators as a platform.

as did a range of people movers. 

including the 1983 Arabella.

The captain of the heavyweight out there, the 2014 Eric McAllister, treaded lightly through the crowd.

Of course, out in the mist along the Jersey side there are more heavyweights, a Moran tug and its huge NCL gem.

And as for my ride, Monday morning it was earning money going for a load of scrap.

Another tall old ship that might have been present–the 1928 Bivalve NJ-based A. J. Meerwald had other missions to perform.

All photos by will Van Dorp.  And for photos of some of the people on the boro who were working during the race, check out NYMediaBoat’s blog post.