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It’s March 1, and that invites a look back to March 2011.
Vinalines Queen is where I need to start. Less than two years after I took this photo, the 2005 bulk carrier was lost on a run between Morowali, Indonesia and China with a cargo of nickel ore, with the loss of all hands (22) except one.
Morowali has 19 nickel smelters. Nickel ore is considered the most dangerous bulk commodity. Two other nickel ships were lost in December 2010. Here‘s info about the single survivor of the sinking.
Assist here is provided by Miriam Moran.
Kongo Star was just off the ways when I took this photo; and the small tanker (13011 dwt) is still working and currently near Rotterdam, in fact, in the town where my father was born.
Entering the KVK, it’s Ross Sea and Houma, each with a barge. Houma was scrapped a few years ago already. Ross Sea is currently in Philly.
Heron, here passing CMA CGM Puget, was sold to a Nigerian company in 2012. The 4404 teu ship dates from 2002 and is currently traveling between Korea and Mexico.
Greenland Sea shows her Candies origins. She may currently be laid up. Torm Kristina just passed Cape Town, on a run between Asia and South America. She’s a large handysize crude tanker launched in 1999.
Ron G, now Captain Mark, is docked in Jacksonville.
It was in March 2011 that I first visited Puerto Rico. In Fajardo, I saw Isla Grande and Cayo Norte. Both are Blount boats, launched in 1976 and 1995, respectively. Cayo Norte is still working in Puerto Rico, although I’m not so sure about Isla Grande.
The 1973 Harvey Gamage is currently near Charleston SC. Can you recognize the tall ship off her stern?
Of course, it’s Bounty, launched in 1960 and lost over 100 miles SE of Cape Hatteras during Hurricane Sandy.
March 2011 was a busy month. I’ll post more photos of the month later.
All photos, WVD.
In fall 2010, deepening dredging was happening in the sixth boro to prepare for the ULCVs now so commonplace here, after Panama Canal enlargement and Bayonne Bridge raising. These operations afforded me the chance to see a cutterhead close up. The crewman wielding the hammer was trying to loosen a worn tooth. By the way, those teeth weigh 35 pounds each. Teeth . . . dentist?
Then as now, Layla Renee was in the dredge support trade. Right now she’s in Charleston. She was only two years old at the time of the photo.
It looks that way, but W. O. Decker is NOT a dredge tender in this photo. Here five people on Decker are catching the stare of the one dredge worker in work vest.
The entire K-Sea fleet has disappeared. As of 2020, Falcon has become Carol and I’ve not yet seen her latest livery. Houma was scrapped in 2017 in Baltimore.
Here are two of the McAllister tugs involved in easing MSC’s USNS Sisler (T-AKR 311)into Bayonne drydock as then-John P. Brown manages the door. For many more photos of the event, check out “floating the door,” where you also see Allied’s Sea Raven, unlabelled.
I caught Growler at Mystic Seaport that fall. Rumor has it that Growler has returned to the sixth boro under a new name and sans teeth, but is under wraps.
Also in Mystic at that time, 1885 steam/sail vessel Amazon (has nothing to do with Bezos), the 2000 Amistad, and the 1908 steamer Sabino. Does anyone know the whereabouts of Amazon today?
My reason to be in Mystic that October was to work on Pegasus, seen here with Araminta and Cangarda. What works of beauty all three are!
Deborah Quinn here is docked near where Jakobson Shipyard used to be located. I believe that’s her location as of this writing.
Under the old Bayonne bridge, Maurania III assumes position to ease the 1997 Maersk Kokura around Bergen Point. Maurania III is currently in Wilmington NC.
Back a decade ago, Day Peckinpaugh had some good paint on her, and Frances was like a cocoon in Turecamo livery. There’s scuttlebutt of a new lease on life for Day Peckinpaugh.
Let’s end with dredging, as we began. Terrapin Island was one of the regulars in the navigation dredging effort. Terrapin Island is currently in Norfolk.
All photos, October 2010, by WVD.
Big announcement soon.
Let’s do 2013 and 2014, or redo them, same conditions as I stated yesterday. But first let’s look at the 2013 crowd, packing in like you wouldn’t with covid. Here was the crowd at 1010 and
by 1035 they had grown significantly.
The compulsory muster takes place, irrigated by fireboat John J. Harvey.
Once the race begins, a front-runner like Decker
might soon get left in the wake.
The fire boat slices up from behind and
propels itself between two Miller boats.
Pushoffs happen next, sometimes quite equally matched like here, with 3900 hp countering 4200.
Let’s jump ahead to 2014, with the arrivals on the watery carpet,
the processing to the starting line,
and get straight to racing without all the preening and posturing.
Someone seems a bit oversize in that gray livery.
This is a fairly mis-matched pair: Wayne at 5100 hp, and Ellen at 4000. Maybe a re-match is in order Wayne v. Ava.
Thanks to Jeff Anzevino for this shot, the Media Boat has military background in common with Wayne.
After Wayne has strutted its stuff in the push-offs, some of the boats lined up for the roping the bollard.
Let’s hold it up here. All photos, WVD.
On this glum April 1 and the 25th month in a row, the blog looks back 10 years on day 1 of a new month . . . and sometimes day 2 as well, with a selection of photos from exactly a decade back, 120 months ago. What’s particularly interesting for me about this look back is the degree of change in the boro, replacement and realignment otherwise going almost unnoted, like movement only visible in slow motion.
Allied Transportation and their tug Socrates were still around; the company got absorbed into Kirby, and the tug was sold and transported to Nigeria almost eight years ago already. Here she passed the statue on her way to Florida with the barge Sugar Express.
On this Easter morning, Patapsco hurried eastbound in the KVK. Patapsco has been sold out of Vane and now carries Steven Wayne nameboards.
I recall that same Easter morning; Ivory Coast appeared to float in the air as she headed into the Kills. She still carries the same name and livery.
A bit later that morning, the 3800-teu Al-Mutanabbi, launched 1998, headed out with her containers; since then, the ship has been broken up on the south bank of the Yangtze in Jiangyin, upstream from Shanghai. Since then, UASC has merged with Hapag-Lloyd. And Al-Mutannabi, he was a poet who lived well but died young because of the power of his poetry.
Al-Sabahia was the same class/size container ship; she too has been broken up in Jiangyin, just two years ago. Count the number of containers across to understand the dramatic difference in size of some container ships; also, note the top of the wheelhouse is nearly at the deck level of the ship, compared with here or here. If you count carefully, that’s 20 across, rather than 13. Laura K Moran, escorting her in, has been reassigned to another port.
A unique flat-fronted tug, locally-built tug called Houma, 1970, was still around. She’s been scrapped. Beyond her is an interesting and eclectic cluster of lower Manhattan architecture, with one of my favorites, the former Standard Oil Building, just to the right of the black pyramid.
We’ll pick up on more April 2010 photos tomorrow. With increasing restrictions on movement around the boro, I might be digging into my archives a lot for a while. If you want to help by dipping into your own archives for photos and stories, I would greatly appreciate that. Maybe it’s time for new permutations of truckster, teamster, bikester, autoster, planester, hutster, hikester, storyster, . . . let’s help each other out.
All photos taken by and stories researched by . . . WVD, who wishes you all health. Hat tip to you performing essential services out there.
Some things like winter fishing in the harbor appear not to change in a decade, but
Houma will never again move Mary A. Whalen. Houma, built at Jakobson in 1970, was scrapped in 2017. PortSide NewYork currently has a berth for the tanker and many other activities in Atlantic Basin, Red Hook.
B. E. Lindholm, built in St.Paul MN in 1985, is alive and well, currently dredging off Fire Island.
This Kristin Poling was still working 10 years ago, definitely a survivor from before WW2 and also definitely then in her home stretch. Byearly 2012 she was scrapped.
In March 2010 I also had a chance to gallivant off to Baltimore, home of NS Savannah. If my calculations are correct, she was in service for 10 years total, and now in mothballs for 48!! Truth be told, she was a prototype, a demo ship with limited cargo capacity but also passengers. Her beautiful lines were designed by George S. Sharp. Recently she was at the end of a towline, a sight I’m sorry I missed. A wealth of info and video as well as smart comments can be found on this demo vessel here in a publication called Atomic Insights. Let me quote a small section to tease you into reading the article: “By technical measures, the ship was a success. She performed well at sea, her safety record was impressive, her fuel economy was unsurpassed and her gleaming white paint was never smudged by exhaust smoke.”
Cajun stood by Chios Voyager near the Inner Harbor Domino Sugars plant. Cajun still works along the east coast US. Chios Voyager, built 1984, has been scrapped.
And a somber last photo . . . I caught El Faro in Baltimore 10 years ago. Little did I expect then what we all know now.
All photos, WVD, in March 2010.
This feature of the blog serves to look back at this month exactly a decade ago, i.e., photos from my archives from exactly 120 months back.
John B. Caddell was still kept compliant, spruced up, and –I assume–profitable.
Nathan E. Stewart commemorated a tragic incident but it worked on the East Coast to redeem itself. That certainly did not pan out.
K-Sea must have been at its peak back then: in this one shot are Greenland Sea, Baltic Sea, and Houma.
Hornbeck Offshore worked out of a footprint now occupied by Vane. Their boats like Patriot Service and
Spartan Service and others had a distinctive appearance.
Janice Ann Reinauer seemed much beloved, possibly because of the lush bow pudding missing in the photo below.
Of the boats so far in this post, Freddie K II is the only one that still works in the sixth boro these days. Of the others, only Patriot Service and Greenland Sea still operate in the US, and at least three of the others here have been scrapped.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who wishes you a happy and safe August 2019.
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I hope you all are enjoying these glances back a decade as much as I enjoy putting them together. If you weren’t paying attention back then, this hints at how much the traffic in the harbor has changed, just as it has on the roads. If you were watching back in spring 2009, you might have this same appreciation at the changes; In addition, you might be amazed how quickly time has passed. Maybe you’ve forgotten about some of these boats.
Pegasus, quo vadis? I’ve heard some ominous scuttlebutt, the kind you’d hear about any 112-year-old vessel. Your project site is still up. Here she was in front of the Hoboken Terminal, which opened the same year–1907–as Peg was launched.
Starboard view and port . . it’s the 1968 McAllister Girls . . . if she’s still around, I’ve not seen her in quite some time. In the background over near the Jersey City river’s edge, Clipper City and Pioneer sail toward each other.
Ditto the 1977 Sisters.
Ellen (1967) and Amy C (1976) are still active in the harbor, but it’s been years since APL Cyprine has called here.
The 1978 Mary Gellatly has been sold up down east, and last I knew, working as Alice Winslow for Winslow Marine Inc. out of Southport Maine.
The K-Sea fleet in the sixth boro in 2009 was quite large. Norwegian Sea was a workhorse on the Hudson; now she’s Miss Rui operating for Smith Maritime.
Houma (1970) has been scrapped.
Taurus (1979) recently reappeared here as Joker.
Onrust was launched into the Mohawk River in May 2009, and I believe she will again be sailing out of Essex CT. Her splash up and over the riverbank trees was quite spectacular.
All photos a short 10 years ago by Will Van Dorp.
As tugster continues its CYPHER series, this is the 3633nd post, and almost 2.1 million hits. Thanks for staying with me.
On the other hand, if I were selling calendars, the number 12 would be significant. So for the next few days, let me offer some diverse dozens chosen quite subjectively, although what the photos have in common–besides subject–is that I like them.
Here’s a November 2016 photo along the Gowanus under the BQE. This tug looks good in blue, but I’ll never forget her in orange.
Here’s a November 2015 when the upper deck of Bayonne had yet to be assembled, and the lower disassembled. Amy C last appeared here as she nudged Empire State into her Fort Schuyler dock.
Here’s 2014. She’s recently worked in the Keys.
Here’s ’13. Where is Houma today?
’12. Ellen‘s a regular on this blog.
’11. Tasman has been doing this work since 1976!
’10. Is ex-Little Bear in Erie along with Bear?
’09. She now makes her way around the lower Caribbean . . . and currently anchored in Trinidad.
’08. And I’m adding another photo right after Linda (launched in ’08) of
Scott Turecamo (below) launched in 1998 but radically retrofitted in 2005, originally quite similar to Greenland Sea, here see the photos by Robert J. Smith. How many of these ATBs does Moran now operate? .
’07. This was the only time I ever saw Penobscot. Anyone know where foreign she went?
’06. Note the size of the yard workers around the wheels on Ralph E. Bouchard.
Again, some of these photos show what has changed in the sixth boro, spawning ground for this blog.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
If you have a lot of free time, you can trace this back to the first installment.
These photos are all from the past week, starting out with Bouchard Boys, 1975.
Pelham, 1960. Behind her is USNS Red Cloud.
Barney Turecamo (1995) and
Scott Turecamo (1998).
Eric R. Thornton (1960)
Jill Reinauer (1967) and Dace Reinauer (1968) with RTC 61.
Add Stephen-Scott (1967) and Ruth M. Reinauer (2008) pushing RTC 102.
Margaret Moran (1979) starting a backing-down of Heina with
James D. Moran (2015). More on this backing down later this week.
Captain D (1974) with CVA-604.
Meagan Ann (1975)
Houma (1970).
Frances (1957) and I think I know the crewman forward of the house.
And finally, I put this photo here because of a boat in the background. Is that Kristy Ann Reinauer (1962)? I thought she was scrapped half a year ago already. Hmm.
Other boats here are L. to r.) Realist, Kristy Ann, Hubert Bays, Long Splice, Samantha Miller, Stephen B, and Hunt Girls, which has been in the yard there for (?) two years now?
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
For as multipurpose as sixth boro waterways are in summertime, my perception is that safety prevails. RORO, barge on a short wire, and canoe stay well apart.
Ditto here with spacing.
PWCs . . I’ll never be a fan.
Foreshortening masks the fact that from a vantage point like Fort Wadsworth . . . I can see over 10 miles.
The traditional ship here was launched in 1997; the tug beyond . . . in 2001.
My only question is where that classy yellow sand is going. TZ Bridge?
All photos recently by Will Van Dorp.
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