Dutch Tugs 4

All these photos come through Fred Trooster.

Let’s start with the new build Noordstroom which wasn’t splashed until midMarch 2016.  Click here to see the triple-screw vessel at various stages of construction.

 

Catharina 7 on the other hand, is from 1958.  Here she passes the Bollard.

 

Here’s 1973 built Pacific Hickory.  I’m not sure what’s brought her to greater Rotterdam.

And we end today’s post with Osprey Fearless, 1997 built.

 

All photos by Freek Koning and via Fred Trooster.  Thank you very much.

NL8

Traffic backed up.  But in Schiedam it’s because of a drawbridge that’s up to allow a self-propelled barge to back out.  More on that later.  That windmill?  It’s at the Nolet distillery, a Ketel One facility that makes many spirits besides vodka.

Here’s the 1962 motorvrachtschip, Sentinela,

squeezing through the lock and

returning to the main waterway after delivering one of two loads of sand per day to the glass-making plant just up the creek from Ketel One.

But Hercules is the reason I’m here today.  The big steam vessel event is only a month and some away, so it’s painting and refurbishing time to prepare her.  For a larger set of photos of the preparations, including the mounting of a new mast created out of an old spar by Fred Trooster, click here.

Here is a set of photos I took of Hercules two years ago at the steam festival.

 

The barge being towed here is loaded upside and down below with smaller steam engine applications.

 

Click on the photo below to hear how silently she runs.

 

To keep her running, the owner Kees Boekweit needs to fabricate some of the parts himself.  He works as a steam engineer over at –you guessed it–Ketel One.   Click on the photo below to see a shorter video of her running on the North Sea.

Here are the fireboxes under the boiler.

Here is a cold firebox and

an empty coal pocket.

 

And one last glimpse of traffic on the main waterway here, Friday last Ovation of the Sea arrived in Rotterdam for the first time.  See eight minutes of edited tape here.  By the way, the KRVE boats are the line handlers.  Clearly, though, the tugs steal the show providing what I’ll call a “Dutch welcome,” to coin a phrase.

 

 

NL7b

This is a 1959 vessel with a rich and varied career.  Click here for photos from a maritime festival last year, and  here (scroll) with info about her sojourn in the US.

Click on the photo below to hear her run.

 

Click here to watch a 20-minute video documenting her meeting a near-sister a few years back.  The sister has been converted into a private yacht. See them together here. The next two photos I took in NL in 2014.

 

That’s Fred Trooster and me in the photo below;  thanks Fred for the invitation to come aboard Elbe.

For some of Fred’s photos of the visit, click here.

Marginally related, I wonder when a similar pilot boat–Wega–will leave its custody in Rio here (and scroll).

Also, marginally related and in response to a question from sfdi1947, click here for interactive navigation charts (waterkaarten or vaarkaarten) for Dutch inland waters, fun to play with but likely not guaranteed for actual use.

 

Port of Botlek

Call this GHP&W 11.

Botlek is a section of the port of Rotterdam.  Here tugs Smit Texelbank and En Avant 1 and 20 assist craneship Oleg Strashnov into port for regular maintenance.

Prior to coming into port, Oleg Strashnov had been working in the North Sea gas fields.

 

Click here for more particulars of the craneship.  Click here for some of the many posts I’ve done on the port of Rotterdam.

These photos come via Fred Trooster.

Raised Ace 3

Here are the previous posts in this series, showing the removal and disposal of the wreck of the RORO Baltic Ace, which sank after a collision in December 2012.

After more than two years underwater, this is how things appear.

 

 

 

 

 

Many thanks for these photos to Jan Oosterboer via Fred Trooster.

 

 

Dutch Tugs 3

Hudson, launched 1939, spent WW2 working for the British Ministry of Shipping, having left the Netherlands with a tow to Africa just before the Germany invasion and occupation.  After the War, it towed to ports worldwide until 1963, when it was deemed underpowered and sold for scrap.  Instead, it was purchased by a fishery as an ice-making ship, which it did until 1989.  And again it was to be scrapped.  This time, a foundation bought it, invested 14 years of restoration, and now, as a unique industrial  artifact, it’s berthed in Maassluis, where visitors can picture the life of those in ocean towing from just before WW2 until 1960.

 

 

Hercules was built in the Netherlands in 1915 and worked for a Danish company until the late 1970s, when it was purchased for much-needed restoration.  See its condition here.

 

Furie has a similar story:  it was built in the Netherlands in 1916, sold to a Swedish lumber company in 1918.  It worked mostly on the Baltic until 1976, when it was returned to the Netherlands for restoration and assumed a role in a Dutch TV series called Hollands Glorie, inspired by Jan de Hartog novel.  You can watch the 90-minute series pilot here.   It was made in 1977 and in Dutch, but it follows a new chief mate named Jan Wandelaar (hiker or wanderer) in the “hiring hall.”   Give it a shot.  If you want to skip around, the captain’s character gets established around the 10-minute mark.  Around the 21-minute mark they are off the coast of Ireland.  Around the 29-minute mark, the captain negotiates in his version of English for the tow and the next few minutes are exciting.  Around 41 minutes in, they are towing a dredge along the WestAfrican coast to Nigeria.  Around 1 hour 5,” they deal with a leak in the dredge.

 

Equally picturesque although I don’t know the stories are Anna and

Alphecca.

These photos by Freek Konings come via Fred Trooster, to whom both I am grateful.

This post from 2013  was prompted by a request from Freek that I try to learn the disposition of a former Dutch Navy tug, likely sunk by the USCG.  We are still looking for info on the fate of Wamandai.

Sail Amsterdam 2015

I first thought to call this PBB 5, following on 1, 2, 3, and 4 from last year, taken from a harbor area in “north” Amsterdam called “place beyond belief.”.  But sometimes straightforward is clearest.

Check out Half Moon, gone over the Ocean and now leading a parade  . . . hanging with the likes of Grace Kelly.

Gotta sing.  Remember the armada that traveled up the north River six years ago?  They traveled with their own song leader, Reinier Sijpkens, who got them going at night.

Big in the middle ground, it’s Kruzenshtern.

And in this batch of photos sent along by Fred Trooster and taken by Fons Tuijl, I can see converted trawler  Pedro Doncker,  Polish training vessel Dar Mlodziezy, 

retired Dutch research vessel Castor,

pilot boat Polaris,

the nearest one here frigate Shtandart,

Indian training ship Tarangini,

Colombian training ship ARC Gloria–who wow’ed in the sixth boro here a few years ago,

Portuguese training vessel Sagres–recently in Greenport NY– and repurposed minesweeper Naaldwijk PW-809.

Of course . . . so much more, but I wasn’t there yesterday.

Again, many thanks to Fred and Fons for these photos.

For more shots, see gCaptain here.

 

Port of R’Dam 4

More photos by taken by Jan Oosterboer showing traffic quite different from what you’d see on our parts of the watery globe.

Let’s start with Matador 3.  With the North Sea as the densest area of the globe for offshore wind turbines, floating cranes like this–with lift capacity of 1800 tons– keep busy.

And Wei Li . . . self-propelled and with lift capacity of 3000 tons.  Before we move to a different type of vessel, do you remember Pelicano from Guanabara Bay?

Seven Rio is a recent launch . . . deep sea pipe layer.

Kolga, the larger tugboat here, is 236′ x 59,’ yet

it’s dwarfed by its tow, crane vessel Hermod, with two cranes whose lift capacity surpasses 8000 tons.

K. R. V. E. 61 is a highly visible crew tender.

Here’s another view of Hermod.

SD Sting Ray (104′ x 39′) is like a mouse at a foot of an elephant here,

the elephant being Stena Don, a Stena drill rig.

 

Many thanks to Jan Oosterboer for these photos which came via Fred Trooster.

Port of R’dam 3

Here’s another set of recent photos, all taken by Jan Oosterboer, and all showing traffic quite different from what you’d see on our side of the A-Ocean.

Start with these four tugs, three by Fairmount.  In the lead, it’s Fairmount Expedition, rated at 16320 bhp, and 205 ton bollard pull.   She’s Japan-built 2007.

Second in that line, FairPlay 33, 8160 bhp,  is Romania-built 2011, likely constructed in the yard where Allie B towed the old Quincy Goliath crane.

Check the Fairmount link above for the particulars on Alpine and

Sherpa.

Union Sovereign, 2003 and China built and rated at 16500 bhp.

Going from chartreuse to primer red . . . .this is a multicat shallow draft vessel built in Gdansk to be completed in greater Rotterdam.  Click here and here to see how this vessel gets launched.

 

The unfinished multicat is towed here by Egesund, a tug that could most easily fit in in the sixth boro.   The offset house allows more deck equipment to be fitted.

And finally . . . above and below, it’s Norman Flipper, 2003 and Norway built.

 

These photos by Jan Oosterboer come via Fred Trooster, to whom both I am grateful.

Port of R’dam 1

The etymology here is “rotte” and “dam,” and as a silly kid, I used to call it “rotten dam,” since silly kids make fun of their heritage.  Rotte, though, is an old name for a waterway in the Rhine-Maas delta.  It is truly a complex port, and thanks to my parents, one where I can speak the language, unlike the case in even more complex ports like Singapore and Shanghai.  In one area of the port, depths can accommodate vessels with drafts of up to 78 feet!  Early on, an important commodity was fish, and fishing boats are still present.  “SCH” on the vessel below identifies it as based in Scheveningen, a port to the northwest of R’dam with a name that’s a veritable shibboleth.   

OD signifies Ouddorp, or “old village.”   Here are the codes.

The bow symbol says it all.  Ouddorp is a small village in the delta.

I’m thinking we’re looking at an old and new version of Maarten-Jacob.

Whenever you take a photo of a vessel in a port, it really is just a moment in time.  All these vessels shared this port one day in late June, but now . . .

Wylde Swan, former steam ship

they’re all either “on the fishing grounds” around Scotland, as is true of Wylde Swan and Sandettie and

Alida, 

 

or fisheries research vessels (l to r) Tridens,  Isis, Zirfaea, and Arca.

Yes, that vessel is called Isis, and has been since 1983.

Here’s Oceaan II  . . . between jobs.

And finally Oleg Strashnov, heavy lifting crane ship, with lift capacity of 5000 tons!  It’s also headed into the North Sea for wind farm support.

Of course, many previous posts have been devoted to the port of greater Rotterdam, like here, here, here, and here. Of course, there are many more.

Again, many thanks to Jan Oosterboer via Fred Trooster for these photos.