Fred “Tug44” Wehner Will Be Missed

Fred left us yesterday, and he will be missed.  Click on the photo below to see the source of this photo and read the context. Fred was a hilarious and complicated guy:  born in Germany, raised in Canada and in the north country of New York State.  I first met him on the Hackensack River in Secaucus, over by Snake Rock.  After he retired and moved back to the north county of “Fort Ed’ard,” I would see him each year at the Tugboat Roundup.  In fact, I alway had a berth on his boat at the Roundup.  

From my perspective, Fred’s opus really was his website, the travels of Tug 44, named for his trawler, and accessible by clicking on the image below.    In this screenshot below, you see only a partial list of his categories.  Drill down to each of the categories, each of which contain almost infinite subsets of information.  

Fred contributed to a number of tugster posts here.  I know there are even more, but I’ve not always been consistent with my tags and categories.  When I thought I knew the canal, Fred showed me there was so much more to learn, leading me to return again and again.

My first email contact with Fred came here in 2007, and our exchanges about the Dutch boat Livet led eventually to my meeting him in Secaucus.

In recent years, Fred had turned to wildlife photography and took many stupendously beautiful photos of “critters” in the north country here.  If this is the only link you look at today from Fred’s site, you’ll be a big part of the afternoon admiring these.   

Blogposts I did with photos I took from tug44 over the years are too many to post, but here are a few:

2014 and before I knew I would crew on Urger.

2013 and again

A favorite is this one from 2009, when I first learned firsthand what craziness ensues when you have a potato gun primed with hairspray and an armory of 50-calibre radishes . . . .

Hilarious, complicated, generous . . .  Fred, you leave a hole in the universe.

Other Peoples Photos 36

. . . with some digressions . . .  .  The photo below of the procession leading to the Roundup comes from Jeff Anzevino.

Digress to the left . . . on the Troy (Lansingburgh) side through the trees is Melville Park and this sign and

this house.  If you’re looking for a good read about Melville’s later life on the waters off Lower Manhattan, check out this Frederick Busch historical novel.

Here’s another shot by Jeff, taken from the 112th Street Bridge.  You might recognize the crewman standing beside the wheelhouse port side.  There are many other posts with photos from Jeff, such as this one.

From Bob Stopper, exiting lock 27, it’s Roosevelt-late 1920s built-and Syracuse-early 1930s built.   Click here for some photos Bob –and others–sent along earlier this year.

From Jason LaDue . .  a photo of tender (?) Oneida taken in 2001.   Anyone know the disposition of Oneida?  Click here for some previous photos from Jason.

And finally, from Fred tug44 . . .  locking through E2  . . . right behind us.  I feel grateful to have an occasional view of self to post here.   Some of you have seen some of these on Facebook.

Thanks to Jeff, Jason, Bob, and Fred for photos here.

 

Really Random Tugs 20

Here’s a range of photos from the present to the unknowable past.  Gage Paul Thornton . . . 1944 equipment working well in adverse 2014 conditions.   Photo by Bjoern Kils of New York Media Boat.

In 2007, McAllister Responder (1967) moved Peking (1911) across the sixth boro for hull inspection.  Photo by Elizabeth Wood.  That’s me standing on port side Peking adjacent to Responder house.

1953 Hobo races in Greenport Harbor in 2007.

A glazed over Gulf Dawn (1966)  inbound from sea passes BlueFin (2010).

Deborah Quinn (1957) awaits in Oyster Bay in 2010.

HP-Otter and HR-Beaver . . .  said to be in C-6 Lock in Fort Edward yesterday.  Photo by tug44 Fred.   New equipment chokes on ancient foe but no doubt will be dried off to run again.  Compare this photo with the fourth one here.

Unidentified tug on Newburgh land’s edge back in 2009.  I’ve been told it’s no longer there.

Unidentified wooden tug possibly succumbing to time in August  2011.

Ditto.  Wish there was a connection with a past here.

Thanks to Bjoern, Elizabeth, and Fred for their photos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

More Ceres

Vermont Sail Freight . . . south bound.  Click here for their ports of call and dates.   More fotos courtesy of Fred Wehner.

I’m eager to see them with masts stepped and sails billowing.

If anyone wishes to contribute fotos of the vessel making her way south and calling at ports headed south, please get in touch.

Ceres Sighted!

Whatzit?!!  in the background with the classy leeboards.  In the foreground, of course, it’s the world-infamous tug44, and in its own lair near the hideaway of Fred, in the north country approximately 200 miles north of the sixth boro.

It’s the sailing freighter Ceres, a moving cornucopia of all things edible, sixth boro bound

with auxiliary power for the Canals, where sailing is not an option.

Here Ceres exits Lock C-7.

At the tiller, it looks like Steve Schwartz, whose inimitable idea of a figurehead appears in foto 8 here affixed to sloop Woody Guthrie.

Much appreciation to Fred Wehner for all fotos here.   Fair winds to Ceres.