Retro Sixth Boro 61

This is one of my last KVK photos of Ireland.  Eventually, a few years ago, she went upstate to Lake Ontario for repowering and much more.  She’s currently in the NYS canals, heading back towards the sixth boro, down the Hudson but then past and all the way to the Mississippi River watershed.  So if you’re north of the boro in the next few days, be on the lookout for  . . .  Hoppiness!!  See the end of this post.

In May 2013, I spotted this yacht coming in through the Narrows;  Nomada, it turns out, began life in 1943 as a Canadian navy tug, seen here. I’m not sure of Nomada‘s whereabouts today.

Specialist was getting spa treatment here, a few years before her tragic demise. 

Doro aka Dorothy J was at the same spa that day. 

Doris Moran towed in a new floating dry dock for Caddells, with James Turecamo steering the stern. 

State of Maine was in the boro.  As of this posting, she’s NE bound off Long Island about a hundred miles from the sixth boro, if I’m not in a time warp.  By the way, TS Empire State VII is still being completed on the Delaware, and will be making her maiden arrival in the boro in the summer, at a date so far not published. 

Speaking of Maine, I had a memorable sojourn in Belfast just a decade ago, and took in all the collections at Maine Maritime Museum.  It’s likely high time I get back there. 

During the 15 years I spent in the northern two-thirds of New England, boats like these were often on my mind and in my view.

In May 2013, Zumwalt DDG-1000 was in its final stages of completion. 

 

As of this morning, as was the case a decade ago, Fournier Tractor was ready for action in Belfast harbor. 

And here from the NYS Canals, photos of Hoppiness eastbound taken by a westbound yacht delivery captain . . .

Check out their progress on FB.  They’re likely transiting the middle portion of the the state canals today.

All photos except the last two, any errors, WVD.

 

Other Peoples Photos 93

I suddenly have a full hopper of photos from readers like you.  Thanks.  Let’s start with a photo of these two boats from Tony A taken on October 29.

Yesterday, November 3, I got this photo from Dan Horton showing how things are trending.  My wager is that by now the red on Evening Star is gone and she matches Susan Rose and might be even be carrying Jordan Rose signage.  At first I thought this was a gray, but here it looks like a flat off-white.

Meanwhile, in Belfast, here’s a surprise from William Mitchell. 

She’s not been renamed but she joins the fleet of this boat.  Know it?

It’s Fournier Tractor, previously McAllister Tractor and Mabel Colle.  Fournier Tractor appeared in this blog here a few years back.

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Since we’re in Belfast, how about this rudder?  Ever seen one like it, with it’s three-part design?

Here’s the vessel it’s from, Sequoia at French and Webb.  Sequoia made its way up there on a deck barge two years ago, as seen here.  The photo above and below come from Allan Seymour.

Liz Alma has been in the area this past month.  I’ve just missed her a few times, but Tony A got this photo over in the Arthur Kill.  I caught her along the North Carolina coast here a few years back.

And let’s close this out with this lowly supply boat for Alcatraz Island, an LCM-8 built by Higgins in New Orleans in 1954.  George Schneider sends it along as a boat on his list of “seldom cared about vessels.”  He writes that she’s “commercially documented as # 1191433, and was given an appropriate name for her service:  Solitary.”  I’d say some name paint is in order, although maybe supply chain woes have delayed it. A striped livery might work well too, almost a dazzle in this case to call attention to itself.   George goes on about a large tour boat on this coast named Escape. He writes, “You’d think that name has an overtone of Shangri-la, but she was originally purchased for the Alcatraz tourist business until found inappropriate for that run.”  I wonder if only the boat was inappropriate or the name as well.

Many thanks to Tony, Dan, William, Allan, and George for these photos. 

Seats of Power 4

My trickster truckster hopper is filling and will dump one of these days soon, but this photo fits better in the “seats” category.

But to put this back on the water, here’s the power seat on ex-Catherine Turecamo now John Marshall.  I’d love to see this vessel in her current colors and working in her current environment . . . the tri-state ports along southern Lake Michigan.  I wonder if this is the original 1972 seat.  For the photo, thanks to Mike Fiedler, who also sent along this photo of the helm seat for Lake Express here (scroll).

Here she was in the East River in 2008.

To take on a Peacemaker with a 50-horse Boston Whaler look-alike, your seat must provide a sense of power.

Now this is a well-appointed seat of power, currently a training seat for other seats of power.  It’s Pentagoet (1980), platform for tug and barge skills acquisition at Maine Maritime.

Can you identify this seat of power?  The exterior colors could be a giveaway.

The “sticks” move the rudders on Grand Erie, flagship of the Canal Corp, former Mississippi River system Corps of Engineers pusher tug.

Any ideas of this?  I’ll call it the mystery seat until the end of this post.

Here’s a clue:  those are my shoes and below the seat is a glass floor.

Here is the locus of power award Fournier Tractor (1984), which currently works mostly in Penobscot Bay.  I took these other photos of the Maine boats here almost five years ago.

And the last seat of power comes from George Schneider.  Orange is the color of Edison Chouest.  George writes:  “It was 2011, and I was sent out on the ROV support ship MAX CHOUEST while they did an ROV survey of the wreckage of the DEEPWATER HORIZON.  The MAX, of course, is dynamically positioned, and so the operator needs to have all the DP displays nearby, plus controls to tell the system how to maneuver the vessel.  But being a workboat, it needs to be able to operate forward (in transit) or aft (when doing industrial work).  So the controls move with the operator, and the “Cyber Chair” slides fore and aft within the bridge as well as swiveling.  The whole concept was completely overwhelming to me.”

Thanks to Mike and George.  All other photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s planning at least one more “seats of power” post, so if you have photos of a bridge/helm/wheelhouse seat, please send it along.

Oh, the mystery seat . . . was in a dockside gantry crane operator cabin.

 

Port of Belfast, ME

Belfast probably has fewer people than does my block in Queens, but it jam packed with character.  In fact, I wanted to move there after spending a single weekend there two years ago.  Here and here are some posts I did from there.

Many thanks to Tom Mann for these photos, taken in July 2015. Notable among vessels in port, the exquisite Cangarda.  Here’s a post I did on it five years ago. Click here for the truly unique Cangarda, built in 1901 and almost lost several times.

This is their 400-ton crane.

From l. to r., it’s Fournier Tractor and Taurus.  In case you didn’t click on all the links above, click here to see a photo I took of the Fournier Tractor a few years back, as well as a warning sign in case anyone thinks about usurping a parking spot in front of the Fournier Towing and Ship Service office.

Notice that the blue here matches the blue on the tug below, which happens to be the 1944 Capt. Mackintire of Eastport Port Authority.

I’m not sure who the current owner of Fort Point is.  She’s the 1970 YTB-809.

Cape Race is a frequent fixture of Atlantic Basin in Brooklyn.  Does anyone know what’s current with Wanderbird, which came into Long Island Sound about two weeks ago.  Wanderbird is a similar repurposed North Sea trawler . . . as an expedition yacht.

I can’t sign off without another photo of the steam yacht Cangarda, built at Pusey & Jones in 1901, originally for a lumber magnate in Manistee, Michigan, named Charles J. Canfield.

Again, many thanks to Tom Mann for these photos.

 

Road Fotos 29

Quick update on National Maritime Day from Belfast, Maine.  What got me here was this vessel, today a platform for tours between here and the Arctic mostly.  Wanderbird started this stage of her life after fishing for 30 years, cod and herring.  The shoes in the foreground reflect its origins  . . . launched in 1963 as a beam trawler in Maassluis, Holland.

What enforces this sign is . . .

this.  David put the specs up on yesterday’s post.

The “towed” vehicle will be observed from here.

Also on hand are Maine Maritime Academy vessels.  Here’s tug Pentagoet, training vessel powered

by two sets of Detroit diesels.  Note this is one set, two blocks mounted together.

And the wheelhouse . . . shows TLC.

Another MMA vessel is Ted, as in

Ted Nusunginya, revealing its previous Alaska work and soon to be renamed for an MMA alum.  Vessel Ned is a classroom, a lab, in fact, for courses such as Navigation, Celestial Navigation . . . and more.

The pilot boat is

Florida built.

If you have a chance, you might fall in love with Belle fast.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.