You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Iron Mike’ tag.
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.
a trio of Navigator (1981), Susan Miller (1981) , and Quantico Creek (2010) over by Con Hook,
Robert IV (1975) a little farther north and east,
Scott Turecamo (1998) headed for the Kills,
HMS Liberty (1978) in the anchorage,
Amberjack (1981) facing Yonkers,
Barry Silverton (2015) swinging toward the Palisades, and
Rhea I. Bouchard (1982) making way for a point up north.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Helen Laraway (1957) might be the only tug based in Coeymans, NY.
Thomas J. Brown (1962) . . . Staten Island based will always be a head-turner.
Charles A (1979) is another first-view for me.
Chesapeake Coast (201) has spent much of its career in the sixth boro.
Quantico Creek (2010) and USACE Hocking (?) enter the east end of the Kills, although I think Hocking was tracing a survey pattern.
Susan Miller (1981) moves a spud barge westbound.
Prospector (1982?) sank at the dock in high winds about two months ago and is being refurbished.
Also, high and dry for a shave and a make-over is Iron Mike.
And let’s call it a day with Barbara McAllister (1969).
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?
It does have fortifications, here patrolled by Gelberman.
And lots of interesting names, making for great juxtapositions.
And every now and then some seldom seen boats pass like this one, always out there but rarely –it seems–coming in close.
Kendall J. Hebert for a closeup!
I regret I didn’t get a close-up of the stack.
Ron G rotates through the sixth boro now and then.
So . . . back to those pyramids, there’re over by South Amboy, at Amboy Aggregates. Sand Master is involved, of course.
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
although I don’t know what engine/horsepower moves her. Anyone?
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.
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.
Brooklyn, 76′ loa, launched in 2000 with 2000 hp has had lots of identities in her 14 years of service.
And finally . . . dwarfed by the Lower Manhattan skyline in February, it’s Pegasus.
Built in 2001, 75′ loa and rated at 1900 hp.
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
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.
Duty ties Iron Mike for a no-nonsense name. Duty‘s siblings are Escort and Consort.
Meet Realist and below, a sibling named
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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