Tugster Retro 2013 B

The first half of January 2013–a decade ago–was one long gallivant, taking in New Orleans to St Louis to Pittsburgh and then back home.  In the spirit of these retro posts, let me start here, shooting right off the Algiers ferry. Barbara E. Bouchard is now Dann M’s Turquoise Coast, which I’ve not seen.

No stroll in the night life of Nola is complete without a stop at Igor’s Checkpoint Charlie, combo bar, music venue, and laundromat!!

Following the river by car, we next stopped in Baton Rouge, and among the dozens of boats, enjoy this one–Ned Ferry–with a sixth boro connection:  It was built in 1959 Pittsburgh for Pennsylvania Railroad, which in 1968 merged with the New York Central to form Penn Central.  In 1974 it was sold to Crescent, which repowered and rebuilt it . . .  Find more in Paul Strubeck’s Diesel Railroad Tugs Vol 1.

The river is quite busy;  here Creole Sun works on a fleeting job.

Richard‘s pushing a set of tank barges. You might imagine I’m toying with a Mississippi River cruise this year.

American Pillar is a good example of a line haul boat:  195′ x 54′ and working with 10500 hp.

Fort Defiance Park in Cairo IL is a good place to see the Ohio and the Mississippi River refuse to mix for a while.  Note the difference in water color.

I never mentioned that my car was broken into in East St Louis in summer 2021;  Malcolm W Martin Park right across the way is the place.  I left a review on tripadvisor in September 2021 here if you scroll through.

Leaving St Louis in 2013 we made a stop in Kampville to catch the ferry across the Illinois River.

 

Then it was a lot of dry until we got to the Monongahela River at Belle Vernon PA, and the port of registry on these boats tell you where the nearest port (to the north) is.

We’ll leave it there.  If you want to peruse the archives for January 2013, click here . . .  they are in reverse chronological order.  There were obviously many many photos.

All photos, WVD.

Retro Road Photos

These photos I took on a road trip 10 years ago.  Revisiting some photos from this trip underscores how little I know about the inland waterways.  Let’s start in Pittsburgh with Consol Energy’s Gabriel.

Farther west at Pike Island locks, Brenda Rose pushes some large components up the Ohio.

Downstream across from the stadiums in Cincinnati, Shirley B waits at the dock.

McGinnis’ Canadian heads upstream.

And still in Cincinnati, TPG Mt Vernon Marine’s William Jeffrey Bayer moves coal downstream.  I wonder how they identify themselves on the radio.

Belle of Louisville–in Louisville–is a piece of history, launched only a little over 50 years after Herman Melville stopped by the port.

Cutting north to follow the eastern side of Lake Michigan, we came upon Captain George, looking immaculate for a 1929 built tug, here alongside Silversides.

This classic fish tug had no markings anywhere.

Nibroc, here in Muskegon, dates from 1938.

And finally, Paul H. Townsend, has since been towed to Port Colborne to be scrapped.  I hope to see her remnants, macabre as that may sound, when I pass through there in early August.

All photos taken in late spring 2008 by Will Van Dorp, who’s currently doing a trip taking in coastlines and waterways not explored before.

 

 

North Bound

or Go North . . . or up and then down bound.It’s all better than going south ….

Anyhow, in the spirit of the first of series from earlier this past months’ peregrinations, I’ll start with the map.  The red pushpins are overnights and the yellows are shorter stops.  An unexpected jaunt will be from Ogdensburg to Quebec City without stopping at Trois Rivieres or Montreal, where we stop after Quebec City.

Locks there’ll be plenty–37 total I believe–because the alternative is shown below. You can descend the Lachine Rapids, but in a different type of boat.   Lachine . . . that’s French for what it looks like in English . . . China, as in … the folks like Cartier thought that if only they could get past the rapids, they’d be in China.

Here’s another way to look at the St Lawrence watershed, care of an USACE diagram.

Here’s to hoping you read this and to my having wifi.

By the way, I was shocked when I learned the namesake of the St Lawrence, patron saint of the BBQ.  Sizzlicious!!

Go West . . .

. . .it turns out Horace Greeley might not be the author, and John B. L. Soule, who may have been, had some harsh ideas about people.

I use it as explanation for something new I’m doing.  Today I head over toward the pushpin to the right . . . Narragansett Bay, where I board a small passenger ship that has hired me as onboard lecturer.  By July 12, we expect to be in Chicago via the route indicated.  I am thrilled!  The red dots are overnight stops, and the greenish ones are daytime stops for such tasks as lowering and raising the wheelhouse.

Here was Grande Mariner along the west side of Manhattan back in May 2016,

and here are two shots of her sister vessel farther upstate taken in 2013 and 2014.

The challenge I’m giving myself is to post each day of the westward journey, using photos from that day.  Note that these ships with telescoping wheelhouse are truly Eriemax, designed to carry 100 souls along inland waterways on weeks-long voyages.  My job is to present lectures every other day on topics ranging from wars along these waterways to 19th century canal fever to the storied and obscure cast of characters who lived along the waterways (e.g.., Seeger, Fulton, Rockefeller, Freed, Stanton, Tecumseh, Brock, Hanks) . . .    to –of course–the variety of shipping working there.

In a way, it’s a 21st century version of the D & C route for which there’s the poster below.

If you don’t hear from me for a few days, just know I’m hoping to be somewhere along that route.