Trader

Although quite common for tugboats and other smaller craft, New York is a rare place of registry in large vessels today.  Horizon Trader belongs to the same aging Jones Act fleet as Producer, Navigator, Challenger, . . . Crusader now scrapped.

I’m way out of my depth in bringing up the Jones Act, a set of statutes regulating maritime commerce dating from 1920 sponsored by Senator Wesley Livsey Jones.  But here is a fact:  35 years old is the average fleet age of Horizon’s container vessels . . . a large if not the largest Jones Act carrier.  That compares with 12 years  . . . for the international container vessel fleet.  Source for these ages is here.

As an untrained observer of the industry, I can state that Horizon Trader looks all of her 40 years, and again . .  as a fervent but unconnected news consumer, I’ve heard/read nothing that blemishes their safety record.

And here’s the newest development . . . Horizon will cease their commerce through New York, substituting Philly instead.

Technically Trader is a Type C6-S-85a designed for Farrell Lines by George G. Sharp, a firm with a stellar list of vessels to its name.

Enjoy the 40-year-old details.   I’d love to hear from someone who’d been onboard.

She looks small beside Laura K. Moran.  All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Producer

The forward portion of a new cruise ship?  Yes, I smudged the identifying marks a slash here and there.

Nah . . . almost 39 years ago she was launched as New Zealand Bear, one of two C-7 S-88s launched in Baltimore for the Pacific Far East Line.

Today Horizon Producer is one of a few dozen Jones Act containerships.  Here’s a foto of her leaving a drydocking at Brooklyn Navy Yard, a fact I heard about but never saw close up.

Compare bows here and

sterns.  Here‘s a recent itinerary for Kobe Express. More comparison:  Horizon Producer is 721′ loa x 95′, 25644 dwt.  Kobe Express is panamax . . . i.e., 964′ loa x 104′, 66,700 dwt.  See the 11th foto here for a panamax vessel shoehorned into a lock in Panama.   Tugs are Kimberley Turecamo and Laura K. Moran.

If you fancy beam-on profiles, click here.

As an aside, yesterday morning Producer passed this sad derelict launched from the same shipyard 82 years before our vintage containership, Philip T. Feeney . . .

All fotos within the past three days by Will Van Dorp, who’s mulling over a gallivant tomorrow.

Speaking of the Jones Act, here’s a recent NYTimes article about American shipping companies like Liberty Maritime not getting a fair share of US shipping. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of this company.

And shipping containers adding up to condos, check this out.  It’s threesquared.