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This is the last Roundup I’ve attended. Here’s another shot from the swim platform, where I’m flat on my belly. That’s Mike Byrnes, last year’s “old man of the sea” at the portside of the wheelhouse.
Downbound in the Federal lock, it’s Waterford, Governor Cleveland, and Tender #3.
On the northbound trip, the two smaller tugs fell in alongside Grand Erie. Grand Erie is a 1951 build that first worked for the USACE in the Mississippi system.
Tug Buffalo heads for its berth beyond Pennsy 399 and Lehigh Valley #79, where
David Sharps bugle greets each vessel as it passes.
Lisa Ann was a newcomer that year, I believe. She was built at Marine Inland Fabricators, where the “new” canal tugs like Port Jackson have also been built.
Another newbie in 2015 was Solar Sal, a solar powered newbuild that actually transported cargo later in the season. Like Ceres the year before, these are prototypes, and like Ceres, Solar Sal transported this cargo.
Ever so salty, it’s Ben Grudinskas, captain and builder of Atlantic Hunter.
Here Atlantic Hunter faces off against the mighty Tender #3. By the way, Tender #3 is 43′ x 10′ and came off the ways in 1926!! 1926 . . . . 94 years ago.
It’s currently powered by a 220 hp Detroit Diesel.
In closing, the land activities include line toss, open to all comers, but won by the pros. I failed at the 15′ mark.
And I’ve not attended the Roundup since 2015, but unless I’m employed and on duty, I hope to make the 2021.
Back in 2010, I did four posts about the weekend, which you can see here. What I did for today’s post was look through the archives and just pick the photos that for a variety of reasons jumped out at me. A perk is each of the four posts has some video I made. One of these photos is from 2006.
Again, I’m not listing all the names, but you may know many of these. In other cases, you can just read the name. If you plug that name into the search window, you can see what other posts featured that particular vessel.
Below, here the pack that locked through the federal lock together make their way en masse toward the wall in Waterford.
You’ll see a lot of repetition here.
The photo above and most below were taken earlier than the top photo; here, Chancellor and Decker head southbound for the lock to meet others of the procession beginning in Albany.
2020 is Decker‘s 90th year.
Nope, it’s not Cheyenne. Alas, Crow became razor blades half a decade back.
Technically, not a tugboat, but Hestia is special. We may not have a functioning steam powered tug in the US, but we do have steam launches like Hestia, with very logical names.
You correctly conclude that I was quite smitten by Decker at the roundup back 10 years ago.
All photos, WVD.
And Shenandoah was not from 2010. It was 2009.
And let’s start with the more . . . more photos and info on previous posts. CCGS Samuel Risley appeared here. She’s currently approaching the Soo. What I didn’t know when I posted a photo of her on Lake Ontario is that she was returning from her first trip to Greenland (!!), where she was providing icebreaking support for a supply mission to Qaanaaq aka Thule.
Madison R–and I’ll do a whole post about her soon–now calls Detroit her base, I’m told.
Summer fog veils a Canadian cat and an Erie Canal buoy boat above E11.
How many folks pass by Day Peckinpaugh each summer and have no clue what she is (ILI 101… launched in May 1921!!), how long her work history (1921–1995) has been, how wide a range of waters (Duluth to Havana, I’m told) she covered, where her sister (ILI 105) languishes . . . . .
She gets attention.
Here’s the blue-and-gold yard above E3!!
Yup that’s Urger among them. And yes, the pause button on scuttling has been activated.
In the legends of Ford, a sign once marked this power plant adjacent to the Federal Lock in Troy as a Ford facility. Could this have become the location of Ford’s imagined electric car plant?
And this brings us to Troy, these walls where construction workers have staged their equipment.
Scaffold, ladders, floats, and Jackcyn
and Lisa Ann.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’s been working his way back to the sixth boro from the heartland.
If you’re local and would like to learn more about the New York State Canals, consider joining the Canal Society and coming to their fall conference . . . on Staten Island. I’ll be involved in two events . . .
This is day 3, the Rondout brought a surprising visitor in the form of
Kalmar Nyckel. When I’m back, I’ll do a whole post of this vessel.
These photos are included chronologically, so you’d be correct to conclude that north of the Rondout there are signs of nature. Foreign mariners especially must be surprised by all these critters.
The port of Coeymans always has activity, briefly docked here are Mister Jim
and James Turecamo.
Betty D is southbound just below the Federal Lock at Troy.
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Once in the Canal, we are treated to many boats, including Governor Cleveland,
BB 109,
and Day Peckinpaugh. Farther west, we pass the
Mohawk Harbor, the former Alco plant, dominated by the cube that is Walthousen reactor.
and a self-propelled scow.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
May 15, 2018 was the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Barge Canal. That fact was mentioned at the ceremonies opening the Canal to recreational traffic yesterday, and quite a diverse and international flotilla of recreational boats waited, like racers on the starter’s blocks.
But first, do you recognize this captain?
Well, he waved at all these school kids who serenaded him and all the other boats, first of the season, leaving lock E2. For prices on similar Hinckley 36 picnic boats, click here.
Sonically greeting them also were two Canal vessels: Governor Cleveland and Grand Erie.
But let’s step back about 15 minutes. The lower gates of E2 open to reveal the queue.
The nearest boat to the left was driven by the gentleman I asked whether you could identify. The large vessel to the right — a 78′ Azimut Benetti Spa registered in Grand Rapids MI–was rumored to belong to a well-known professional basketball player.
It was the second batch locking through that brought the more unique westbound boats.
The green vessel —Oliver Plunkett-– Canadian registry, was returning from a stint in the Bahamas. Her PEI fishing pedigree is quite noticeable.
Troll–hailing from Elburg NL– intrigues me, but I can’t point out anything besides an unusual name and bright hull color, both of which you’ve already noticed.
Broadsword, German registry, is a 58′ New Zealand-built Artnautica LRC 58 motoring around the world to the east, although here headed west.
Each of these boats has a story, many stories, I’ll never know.
And finally, this Florida-registered Axopar caught my attention too late and too far from the camera. But, check out these Finnish boat designs.
To see some unusual recreational boat designs, lock E2 is the place to be on opening day. I would be remiss, however, to leave out reference to commercial vessels . . . several of whom have already locked through, and that may be a story I pick back up in a few days.
The first boat here–a Nordhavn 62– was an unusual vessel to see up in Waterford.
And the person at the helm of the Hinckley, it was Geraldo Rivera, whom you’ve likely heard of. But, check out his info on this wiki page for lots of tidbits you probably don’t know, eg, he attended SUNY Maritime, he’s a lawyer, he went to West Babylon High School, and some scandals . . .
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who’d love to hear more about any of these boats at points farther west . . .
On May 4, 1928 this “oil-burning” tug was launched at Buffalo Marine Construction Co. The 1928 price for the 74’1″ x 19’6″ x 8’2″ tug was $44,250, which is (adjusted for inflation) $644,318.82 in 2018 money. Here are some photos over the few years I’ve followed her. Starting below, September 2008.
September 2010 here
and here.
October 2013.
June 2014
August 2017. Yes, she’s a working boat.
Now clearly this is not Cleveland, but her sister Governor Roosevelt. That is a deep hull. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen Cleveland hauled out. According to Michele A. McFee’s A Long Haul, the two Governors were purchased by NYS DPW in the late 1920s to break ice, and proved their worth in the dramatic November 1936 deep freeze.
Thanks to Chris Freeman who put her “birth certificate” on FB this morning and alerted me to this day for ceremony for the Cleveland.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who leaves you with this obscure story of Cleveland (later POTUS 22 AND 24) getting incarcerated in Medina NY on a suspected “corruption of a minor female” charge . . . all a mistake. Read it below:
GWA is “going west again,” and here we start at about 130′ above sea level. We’ve just passed the road sign included in a post here in 2006. Ahead of us is lock E-2, the beginning of the flight of five, located in the town of Waterford.
Above E-3, my former vessel waits, along with Chancellor. Those two boats alone have a combined total life of 196 years between them. In the foreground is the business end of a cutter suction dredge.
Recreation boats come from everywhere.
Beyond the guard gate atop E-6 is Grand Erie, who also came from away, the Ohio River in her case.
Locals know how to enjoy the 200-year-old waterway.
Below E-11, we get a green light in the early morning drizzle.
Squeezing a 183′ x 39′ vessel through the locks involves a skilled crew and vigilant lock master.
Drivers on the Thruway at this point are 42 miles from Albany, 190 from NYC.
At E-15, still in the drizzle, a Florida boat —Sharon Ann–waits as we lock through.
Above E-16, the 90-year-old Governor Cleveland attends dredge pipes, maintenance dredging being ongoing. Yes, the canal needs maintenance, and so does the Thruway, any street, RR tracks and infrastructure, my car, my body . . . .
A boxer takes its human for a run . . .
More guard gates–width is 55′–to squeeze through.
Lords of the air watch all along the waterway.
At E-17 we share a lock with Tender #5.
Since we tie off above E-18, Lil Diamond II has to maneuver around.
An SPS lands a crew on the bank for preventative maintenance … keeping dead trees from falling into the water and jamming lock gates.
More recreational boats from far-off ports.
More maintenance above E-19, this time with dragon dredge and the electric tender . . . #4.
Reinforcement of the canal walls is a canal priority this year.
I always imagine the mythical Utica lies beyond the berm marked by the open tower. Central NY was once included in the “military tract,” land distributed to Revolutionary War veterans.
Above lock E-20, we are at the high point of this portion of the Erie Canal,
and Rome was the original high point/ portage in the Mohawk portion of the waterways that pre-date Europeans settlement of North america.
We are now 456′ above sea level, where we’ll pick up the journey tomorrow.
All photos by and any errors attributable to Will Van Dorp.
Here are the previous posts in this series.
What’s unique about these photos is the season, the gray of November and absence of colors in the trees set off by the vibrant paint on Erie,
the two Governors shown together here so that you can see the difference in paint scheme–Cleveland and
Roosevelt, which different even
in nameboard.
Waterford, I’d guess, got too close to a dredge pumping operation.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
As we progress toward winter as well, the daylight hours shorten, making less to photograph, but I was happy we passed lock E8 in daylight to capture the crane GE uses to transship large cargos, like the rotor of a few weeks ago.
The changing leaves complement the colors of the vintage floating plant,
locks,
and even Thruway vessels.
Venerable Frances is a tug for all seasons as is
the Eriemax freighter built in Duluth,
both based near the city of the original Uncle Sam, which splashes its wall
with additional color and info.
Once this Eriemax passenger vessel raises its pilot house, we’ll continue our way to the sixth boro.
Will Van Dorp took all these photos in about a 12 hour period.
Click here for posts from lots of other years. In today’s post, you’ll see almost all blue-and-gold before the parade, i.e., heading for the muster
entering the top of lock 2
It was great to have two covered barges for events.
Lehigh Valley 79, dry dock repairs complete, heads for the sixth boro this week.
Urger exits the low side of lock 2 and . . .
enters the Hudson.
Note the Waterford wall with the covered barges in the distance.
The federal lock at Troy leads into the rest of the Hudson . . .
After the dignitaries are picked up,
the flotilla heads back north into the Troy lock,
and
the parade has begun.
All photos by Will Van Dorp. Many thanks to tug44 as host and photo boat.
For more photos, check these from the Daily Gazette.
tugster: a waterblog 
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