You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Iron Mike’ tag.

What seemed the story of this image of Charles D is you have to work even though you’re not quite “dressed.”  

John J. Harvey, in this case, was just leaving Caddell’s after a facelift.

Mister T then did the same thing she does now, shuttle barges between places in the Sound and the sixth boro.

Alice was still serving aggregates under that name. She still does the same work, but since 2019 (?) she’s operated as Algoma Verity.

This might have been the last time I saw Iron Mike.  That has to be one of the best names ever, deserving of a story.  I believe she’s now working in the Bahamas under that name.  Maersk Catherine continues to work, now as Moxon.

Over beyond Navig8 Stealth is Penn No. 4.  Last I knew, the tugboat was inactive in Louisana.  The tanker currently operates as Aquadisiac [another great name], and is currently heading from the Med to the Gulf of Guinea. 

Penn , seen here outbound with a number of military vehicles, is now operating as Admiral Galaxy, again . . . a name begging for a story. 

East Coast was getting some TLC at Caddells. 

 

Joseph Bisso was one of the first utility boats of this design that I’d seen in the boro.

Here’s a change:  Mako on April 12, and 

Mako four days later.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

Winter dawns and dusks can be the best, like this one creating golden water for Miss New York.

The 2000 Brooklyn had Vane livery then.

Haggerty Girls, attached here to RTC 60 and with Grace D alongside, was likely the newest tugboat in the Reinauer fleet.  Note the bulbous domes of Ellis Island to the right.

The 2006 Manson dredge Glenn Edwards was in town.  Currently, it’s in Florida.

Wittich Marine’s 1977 Iron Mike ranged the boro now and again.  I’m not sure if this boat is still around.

Brendan would have about a decade of work ahead of it yet.

The 2012 Evening Star and B. No. 250 made their way east.  Star is now Rose, Jordan Rose.  In the distance, that’s a Genesis Marine unit.

Then, as is still the case, the 1951 Twin Tube was the boro’s premiere delivery service.

Meagan McAllister still had the red/white striped stacks.  Currently she’s Charles James.

And some waterways in the boro could be as congested as the roadways around the watery boro.  Note three tugboats with Cheyenne to the left, Kimberly Turecamo forward, and Gramma Lee T assisting in Four Sky.

Laura K heads out for the next assist while Robert E. works another vessel to its berth.  Mare Pacific and another tanker line up along the opposite shore.

All photos, any errors, WVD, who wishes you a happy Imbolc aka marmot’s day.

 

Why does time pass so quickly?!  As if it were just a few years ago, I recall this Wilmington NC stop on the road trip return from family in Georgia.   I was surprised by the amount of traffic in this Cape Fear River port, like Margaret McAllister here passing Corpus Christi with Petrochem Supplier. Margaret McAllister is one of McAllister’s ex-USN Natick-class tugs, in Margaret‘s case previously known as Tonkawa (YTB-786)

Kathryne E. McAllister (the 1980 one) followed the Margaret to sail a tanker. 

Kathryne E. is currently laid up, but Moran’s Cape Henry (That’s a popular name for tugboats;  I know of at least two others, one Kirby and one Vane.) below is still working, although currently in the Caribbean.

The first few days of January 2012 were as mild as those in 2022.  Here Ellen S. Bouchard heads west in the KVK pushing B. No. 282.  Ellen S. now wears Centerline’s lion logo.

Iron Mike might still wear Wittich Brothers black, blue and white, although I’ve not seen her out in the boro in a while. 

Atlantic Salvor passes in front of a quite changed Manhattan skyline, as seen from St. George.

Gramma Lee T. Moran has departed the sixth boro for Baltimore.  Southern Spirit is an active crude tanker  but she goes by Celsius Esbjerg, currently departing the Bohai Sea for the Yellow Sea.

A light Mckinley Sea heads west in the Kills.  She’s currently painted in Kirby colors, but laid up in Louisiana. Beyond her, Laura K Moran–now based in Savannah–assists tanker Mount Hope.

Marion Moran is out of the Moran fleet, and is likely wearing Dann Ocean livery, although I can’t confirm that.

The 1983 Sand Master was always a favorite of mine;  she was sold into the southern Caribbean, but she may be scrapped by now. 

Capt. Fred Bouchard was sold to a southern California construction company.

And we hold it up here, midmonth, with a vessel type I’ve not seen in a while . . . a livestock ship, Shorthorn Express, which had come into the Upper Bay for services, not to transfer cargo. The 1998 Luxembourg-flagged  Shorthorn Express is active, currently traveling between Israel and Portugal.  I used to see these regularly coming into the Kuwaiti port of Shuwaikh.  I also recall a horrendous sinking of a livestock ship heading for China back in 2020.

All photos, WVD, in January 2012.

I’ve posted photos like this one of Thomas D. Witte moving recycling, but I’ve never

been inside Pratt Industries plant on the Arthur Kill.  Recently, William Hyman has though, and he’s shared his photos here.  It looks –and probably smells–like any waste handling facility, but

giant claws move the scrap around and

caldrons do their magic and

cardboard stock comes out.

Photos I’ve taken of the recycling barges back almost 10 years ago are below.

 

Unless otherwise identified, all photos by Will Van Dorp. William Hyman’s previous photos can be found here.  Thank you, sir.

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A random gallivant around the sixth boro the other day showed these boats, starting with Iron Mike (1977) under the Williamsburg Bridge.

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a trio of Navigator (1981), Susan Miller (1981) , and Quantico Creek (2010) over by Con Hook,

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Robert IV (1975) a little farther north and east,

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Scott Turecamo (1998) headed for the Kills,

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HMS Liberty (1978) in the anchorage,

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Amberjack (1981) facing Yonkers,

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Barry Silverton (2015) swinging toward the Palisades, and

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Rhea I. Bouchard (1982) making way for a point up north.

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All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Helen Laraway (1957) might be the only tug based in Coeymans, NY.

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Thomas J. Brown (1962)  . . . Staten Island based will always be a head-turner.

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Charles A (1979) is another first-view for me.

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Chesapeake Coast (201) has spent much of its career in the sixth boro.

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Quantico Creek (2010) and USACE Hocking (?)  enter the east end of the Kills, although I think Hocking was tracing a survey pattern.

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Susan Miller (1981) moves a spud barge westbound.

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Prospector (1982?) sank at the dock in high winds about two months ago and is being refurbished.

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Also, high and dry for a shave and a make-over is Iron Mike.

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And let’s call it a day with Barbara McAllister (1969).

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All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes the internet folk keep the photos coursing through my local wires and those far off ones.

 

The sixth boro has pyramids?

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It does have fortifications, here patrolled by Gelberman.

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And lots of interesting names, making for great juxtapositions.

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And every now and then some seldom seen boats pass like this one, always out there but rarely –it seems–coming in close.

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Kendall J. Hebert for a closeup!

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I regret I didn’t get a close-up of the stack.

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Ron G rotates through the sixth boro now and then.

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So . . . back to those pyramids, there’re over by South Amboy, at Amboy Aggregates.  Sand Master is involved, of course.

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Thanks to Ashley Hutto for the pyramids and Sand Master photos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Iron Mike . . . 1977 and 53′ loa  . . . has lots of character

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although I don’t know what engine/horsepower moves her.    Anyone?

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Haggerty Girls . . . late 2013 and a surprising 110′ and 4000 hp . . .  with RTC60 must be the newest tug in the sixth boro.  Click here for a photo of her first arrival in NYC.

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If we were talking birds, Pacific Reliance (red stacks) would be called an exotic, not common to this habitat.  Pacific Reliance  . . . built in 2006 and 121′ loa uses 9280 hp to  move her payload.  Alongside is Quantico Creek, 90′ loa launched in 2010 and rated at 3000 hp.

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Brooklyn, 76′ loa, launched in 2000 with 2000 hp has had lots of identities in her 14 years of service.

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And finally .  .   . dwarfed by the Lower Manhattan skyline in February, it’s Pegasus.

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Built in 2001, 75′ loa and rated at 1900 hp.

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All photos by Will Van Dorp, yesterday, thanks to mobility by New York Media Boat.  Check them out here.

Wow!  It’s been over three years since I last used this title.  Here’s S 15.

A few hours this morning evoked the sense of the sixth boro as a place for the likes of  Harbour First and Charles D. McAllister, larger vessels from larger organizations,

as well as

others . .  like Thornton Bros.  Guess which of the five smaller tugs here is the oldest?

Or Maria J,

John P. Brown,

Gage Paul Thornton, here beside the resplendent Maria T barge,

0r Iron Mike?

How about another look at each . . . .  Thornton Bros,

Maria J, 

John P. Brown, 

Gage Paul Thornton, with the beautiful stained wood door,

Iron Mike, 

or . . . to throw in another,

Durham?  That’s John P. once again in the distance passing the globe-trotting, Suez-transiting Advance Victoria . . . .

And you were right if you guessed Gage Paul Thornton, ex-Coastline Girls, launched 1943.  Launch dates for the others, to the best of my info, are as follows:  John P Brown 2002, Iron Mike 1977, Maria J 1971, Durham 1964, and Thornton Bros 1958.

On the southern end of Arthur Kill lie in barely perceptible disintegration two tugboats launched one year later than Gage Paul Thornton . . . namely ATR-89 and LT-653.

Unrelated:  It looks like I’ll not be able to salvage Ryou-Un Maru . . . .

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.” Romeo & Juliet

 

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This weekend I finally caught the name of this small tug I’d wondered about for two years and it’s a keeper: Iron Mike! How fitting that the tow is scrap metal. Might there also be a Steel Mike, Brass Mike? Gold Mike would need an escort. Oops, that’s a different fleet.

 

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Duty ties Iron Mike for a no-nonsense name. Duty‘s siblings are Escort and Consort.

 

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Meet Realist and below, a sibling named

 

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Specialist! Wonder what future siblings might be called.

Truth be told, I enjoy the variety of fleet naming systems: family trees, seas, social roles, personality types, and … then poetry like Iron Mike… It certainly beats how the bus, train, and aircraft fleets now go . . . all numbers. “The doors in cars 3495 and 7032 will not platform.” EEew! But imagine this . . . Iron Mike and Specialist are bringing Alice in today. Cool!

All photos, Will Van Dorp.

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