Random Tugs 115

I took these fotos Friday before the winds started.

Viking . .  . . To see how she’s evolved over the past 41 years, click here.

Brooklyn was previously a fleetmate of Viking.  For her history, click here.

Above and below . . . it’s Huron Service, which recently got new paint as well.  Here’s an overview–possibly out of date–of routes served by Genesis Energy.

Clearly, from the foto, to say commerce USED to happen on the Gowanus Canal . . . uses the wrong verb tense.   Here, from L to R, it’s Shawn Miller, Samantha Miller, Miss Ayva, and Diane B.

Finally, and still in Gowanus Bay, it’s Discovery Coast and

Potomac and Hunting Creek.

Stay inside or at least firmly attached to something substantial.

Something Different 4

This foto comes compliments of Lauren Tivey, a poet from Vermont College of Fine Arts.  Question:  where/what?   Note the person in doorway just behind the lion “figurehead.”  Answer below.

Since my goal here is to post unexpected fotos, enjoy this shot of the befigured Patty Nolan, a unique tug itself towing something different last summer.

Behold the sixth boro’s own Dal Lake or Sausalito or Lake Union.    Guess where?

Behold the glorious Gowanus!

And some of its exotic fauna.

These last three fotos come compliments of intrepid paddler Vladimir Brezina, whose fotos have appeared here, among other places.

Lauren’s foto at the top is a restaurant on a barge on West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province . . . just south of Shanghai.

Raving about Rae

I first saw Rae before she was Rae, when she was red and called Miss Bonnie.  Scroll through here.

Rae is approaching 60 years, two years shy of it.  And she’s not a behemoth:    46′ x 15′ x 5 with (at one time at least) 450 hp.  Rae hails originally from Texas, not far from the Louisiana border.

In the confines of at the mouth of Gowanus Canal, Rae might be the perfect tool. Some jobs call for dental picks and others for crowbars.

Whoa!!! And then sometimes small can do impressive work moving crushed rock!  And does it only look like Loujaine, the cement ship is assist vessel?  For other fotos on that ship, see here.

All fotos thanks to Jed, for whose work I am grateful.

This recalls the summer of 2005, though, when a smaller tugboat–Rachel Marie at 43′ x 16′ x 5′ — towed an artificial continent (based on drawings by Robert Smithson) round and round the sixth boro.  See tugster fotos here.  Has anyone seen Rachel Marie recently?

As to artificial continents, someone’s new vision for Governors Island-makeover includes hills and according to this article, canyons with vistas.

Unrelated:  Here’s a 2.5 minute audio slideshow for an article in the 4/19 New Yorker magazine, a story of a family towing life written by Burkhard Bilger.