Retro Sixth Boro 61 A

This is one of my last KVK photos of Ireland.  Eventually, a few years ago, she went upstate to Lake Ontario for repowering and much more.  She’s currently in the NYS canals, heading back towards the sixth boro, down the Hudson but then past and all the way to the Mississippi River watershed.  So if you’re north of the boro in the next few days, be on the lookout for  . . .  Hoppiness!!  See the end of this post.

In May 2013, I spotted this yacht coming in through the Narrows;  Nomada, it turns out, began life in 1943 as a Canadian navy tug, seen here. I’m not sure of Nomada‘s whereabouts today.

Specialist was getting spa treatment here, a few years before her tragic demise. 

Doro aka Dorothy J was at the same spa that day. 

Doris Moran towed in a new floating dry dock for Caddells, with James Turecamo steering the stern. 

State of Maine was in the boro.  As of this posting, she’s NE bound off Long Island about a hundred miles from the sixth boro, if I’m not in a time warp.  By the way, TS Empire State VII is still being completed on the Delaware, and will be making her maiden arrival in the boro in the summer, at a date so far not published. 

Speaking of Maine, I had a memorable sojourn in Belfast just a decade ago, and took in all the collections at Maine Maritime Museum.  It’s likely high time I get back there. 

During the 15 years I spent in the northern two-thirds of New England, boats like these were often on my mind and in my view.

In May 2013, Zumwalt DDG-1000 was in its final stages of completion. 

 

As of this morning, as was the case a decade ago, Fournier Tractor was ready for action in Belfast harbor. 

And here from the NYS Canals, photos of Hoppiness eastbound taken by a westbound yacht delivery captain . . .

Check out their progress on FB.  They’re likely transiting the middle portion of the the state canals today.

All photos except the last two, any errors, WVD.

 

Other Peoples Photos 107

The first time I used this title, although with a pretentious spelling, was here, more than 12 years ago, a collaboration I immediately liked.  This year I’ve posted quite a few, especially in the first three months of 2022, all related to the Barge Canal. 

Here’s one I’ve not posted.  I wish more text existed on the image, but all I can make out, other than STEAM BOAT COAL is Chas. C. Wing, the steamer tug to the right.  Wing came off the ways in Poughkeepsie in 1894;  it makes me wonder when the last tugboat was launched from Poughkeepsie.   She measured 50 x 15, registered in Albany, and according to MVUS, had a crew of one.  That makes me wonder about a number of things. Here she tows at least three dry bulk barges up to lock E-3.   This photo was likely taken by George Michon.  The Michon Collection (of photos) is in the NYS Museum.  Thanks, George, since you were taking photos on the Canal 30 years before I was born.

Delta Fox has been in the boro around for a while, but I’ve never seen her work.  I’m told she’s been sold foreign.  The 1980 tug measures 66′ x  24′, built in   1980, and has 1200 hp. That looks like a substantial Little Toot beside her.   This photo and the next two were taken by Tony A. 

This is the Hudson-Athens Light, in the early 00s of the watch.  I’d never put together until now that this light’s twin sister is in the LI Sound:  Stepping Stones.  The photo shows a whole different meaning to “lighthouse.”

James Turecamo came out of the shipyard not far to the north of this photo:  Matton,  1969.  She ‘s 92′ x 27’ and brings 2000 hp to the job. 

The next photos all come from the erudite George Schneider,  And rather than paraphrase, I’ll just verbatim quote his inimitable wit and style:  “U S ARMY RET ST 893 was originally the Army ST 893, built by J K Welding in Brooklyn NY in July 1945.  At some point (apparently in the 1980’s) she was transferred to Humboldt State College in Eureka CA, still named ST 893 and undocumented.  They added additional deckhouse to her for use as an oceanographic research and training vessel.  Sold in 1998, she was documented about 2004 with the painfully long name she now bears.  Her home port was changed to Kings Bay GA by a Florida owner, but she is now owned by someone in Anacortes WA.”  It makes me wonder how and how often she’s transited the Panama Canal. 

Next, it’s Gina as told by George:  “GINA (1247922), formerly CATAHECASSA (YTB 828).  She is owned by Basic Towing of Escanaba MI, but with the death of Papa Kobasic a few years ago, the company is streamlining and it’s unlikely this tug will return to the Lakes, where she was built in 1974.”  She’s another Panama Canal transiting tugboat.  Other YTBs on this blog, other than the sixth boro’s Ellen McAllister, can be found here. 

“TIOGA (1021169) no longer has her red hull and red stacks.  One might guess she’s in the process of being sold, but you’ll also note the Crowley logo is freshly marked on her, also with the blue highlights.  Is the company we knew half a century ago only as “Red Stack” becoming Blue Stack? “

George shares lots of photos, and I really should pass more on for you all to see. 

Next I’ll interject a photo I took a few years back.  If you don’t immediately know why I post this photo of a NRofHP plaque, see the next photo. 

This photo from Kevin Oldenburg shows Edna A pushing Chancellor, the “landmarked” 1938 tug to the location where she’ll be “dismantled,” a somewhat archaic word that I find preferable to “scrapped.”  Preferable words of not, many wanted to see Chancellor live on, and now she will only in photos. Edna A has been featured in some momentous projects the past few years.   For some of Kevin’s other work, click here. 

Thanks to all of you who send in photos now and then.  As blogster-in-chief at tugster tower, I sometimes post when I feel I can do justice to you and your photo. 

A bit more reflection this anniversary week . . . I’m reminded we all see everything through our unique eye/brain/personality lenses.  That could lead to conflict, but here, other perspectives help motivate me to devote time to this desk every day.  And the value of collaboration, that goes without explaining.  So thanks.  Thanks for the comments as well.  Today’s photos come thanks to George, Tony, and Kevin., but other days  . . . other people.  You know who you are. 

Happy Thanksgiving. 

Canal Tug Project M3

First I need to make a correction:  in M2 I stated that Tigre would have traveled through the Panama Canal;  she did not because she worked out of the Peruvian Amazon in the area of Iquitos!  Thanks to Paul Strubeck for the image below.  That would have been an interesting delivery!!

Next, photos and details of the STs Matton built in the first half of the 1940s are detailed in this fabulous site compiled by by Dan Friend.

Now we jump to 1954 and this photo showing a Cleveland 498 engine being lowered into a tugboat simply named Matton, which was reefed in 1990 as Troy.

Moving forward chronologically, William Lafferty has shared these two old Kodachromes taken on a sunny late September 1960 on the Welland Canal and I adapt from his comments:  “The 1957 Ralph E. Matton has entered the lock.  The tug was powered initially by a Cleveland Diesel 12-278, 2100 hp, later repowered with an EMD 16-567C.  It hauled oil barges on the Barge Canal and Great Lakes in the summer, mostly for Seaboard Shipping Corporation and Moran’s Morania division, and fuel oil barges in the winter on Long Island Sound. Its Great Lakes service ended by 1962.” 

To add my comment, the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959 effectively ended transportation of cargoes between salt water and the Great Lakes via the Barge Canal.

“Bart Turecamo  purchased the Matton operation in 1964 and the 84′ x 25′ Ralph E. Matton became the Mary Turecamo and then Albany in 1972 for American Dredging Company of Philadelphia. In 1994 it was sold to Casco Bay Towing Company, Portland ME, where it was dismantled in spring 2007.”

“Following the Matton tug, the 1923 UK-built Keybar was carrying 2600 tons of pulpwood for a mill in Erie PA.    Keybar would then proceed from Erie to Oswego to load coal for Montréal, clearing Oswego 4 October 1960.   The handsome Keybar (look at those windows beneath the pilothouse) was launched 19 March 1923 at South Bank-on-Tees, England, by Smith’s Dock Co., Ltd., for Keystone Transports Co., Ltd., Montréal, a shipping firm organized by the Montreal Power, Heat and Light Company, Ltd., to bring American coal to its generating plants.  Laid up at Kingston ON after the 1961 season, it arrived at Port Dalhousie ON for demolition on 1 June 1963.”

Matton launched Everglades in 1959.     Later, renamed Captain Nelson, she shows up in this submarine assist.   That particular submarine suffered substantial damage in a Kittery ME fire, and was subsequently decommissioned.    

Everglades was Matton’s only tugboat in 1959, and their only one in 1960 was Challenger.  Here she is after 1970 as Captain Brinn.    A 2012 image of her in Kingston, St. Vincent as Captain Bim can be found here.     This site claims she’s still afloat, but if you follow the location of her icon, she’s in mid-Sahara Desert, so  . . . uh, no.

Bart Turecamo was the first tugboat the shipyard produced after Turecamo had taken over the Hudson River shipyard. 

She’s still at work in Philadelphia bearing the same name, as seen in my photo from 2010.

After a series of launches for NYPD including the still extant No. 5, the yard released James Turecamo in December 1969, and she’s still works in the Albany area of the Hudson.  Has anyone seen James above the Troy Lock?

July 1971, the yard launched Mobil 1, which in 1992 was renamed Tioga and in 1993 was sold and renamed  Zachery Reinauer, still extant but I’ve not seen her in a long time.

In Sept 1976, the yard launched Largo Remo for Refineria Panama;  it eventually became Tridente and now (?) Vesca R-18.  Click on the photo below for more info.  Largo Remo is an island on the Caribbean side of Panama.

After Largo Remo, the yard produced only three more tugboats or boats of any kind:  Michael (now in Honduras as A. J. Ellis) , Joan, and Mary Turecamo, the latter in March 1983 being the very last.  Mary is alive and still working in the sixth boro, as evidenced in my photo from October 2021.

Many thanks to Paul Strubeck, William Lafferty, and the Canal Society for offer of and use of these photos.  Any errors in information attributable to WVD, and correction of such errors is appreciated.  Changes in font happen because of cutting/pasting.

Remember the Canal Society winter symposium is coming up a week from today;  I plan to be there.  Also, remember the conference in the early fall 2022.

 

Retro Sixth Boro 42 B

The bridge photo at the end of part A was of Kristin Poling, right after she’d been taken out of service.  In her long life from 1934 until 2011, she carried the nameplates of Poughkeepsie Socony, Mobil New York, and Captain Sam, before taking on her last name. 

Here’s a shot from the bow, and

here from near the stern looking forward along the catwalk.

This is one of my all-time favorite photos.  I wonder where this Coastie is today.

A decade ago, Maurania III worked in the harbor, here alongside the venerable Chemical Pioneer and

here muscling Suez Canal Bridge around Bergen Point.

APL Coral was scrapped in 2017, I believe.  Anyone know what those bolts of green fabric are?  By their location, I’d guess an anti-piracy measure.  Nicole Leigh continues to work.

DEP’s Newtown Creek was in her last days;  currently she’s a dive destination in Pompano Beach, FL known as Lady Luck.

Lygra (1979) went to Alang in 2018, after carrying that name as well as Centro America, Nornews Service, and Transfjord. 

Does anyone know where Captain Zeke has gone to?  I don’t.   If I ever did, I’ve forgotten.

Catherine Turecamo assists SN Azzurra away from a dock. The tanker seems still to be working as Augusta;  she’s also carried the names Blue Dolphin and Stena Commander.  In 2014, Catherine T. went to fresh water and, the last I knew,  became a Chicago area based John Marshall.

If you click on no links in this post except this one, you will be pleased;  it’s the legendary 1937 commuter yacht Aphrodite.  HERE is the link.  Those all-caps are intentional.

Note the raked forward portion of Maersk Murotsu, getting an assist from Kimberly Turecamo. The tanker is currently known as Ardmore Seafarer, which I have seen but not photographed in the boro.  It’s impossible to keep up . . .  hang on to that thought until the end of the post.

And let’s close out  with some busy photos, here Barbara McAllister moves a barge, East Coast follows light, and Gramma Lee T Moran assists a tanker.  Barbara is now Patsy K.

And finally, the waters here are churned up by James Turecamo, Resolute, and Laura K Moran, as well as a few tankers off to the left.

All photos, WVD, who’s astonished how much changes if not daily or monthly but surely by decade.

And about that thought I asked you hang onto:  I’m considering taking a break, a sabbatical, or as Chapter 17 of Moby Dick explains . . .  a ramadan, a term used with respect. I say this as a solicitation of advice.

 

Barges 4

Jeremy Whitman took this photo of the big blue Konecranes #38 crane.  Tail boat is Candace Elise, prior to 2015 known as Stephen Dann, as here.  OXBO is managing the transport.

They departed Manitowoc a week or so ago and are now in a very wide portion of the Saint Lawrence, downstream from Gaspé Peninsula.  Manitowoc, among other things, is the western terminus of SS Badger. 

Jake Van Reenen took this photo as they passed Clayton.  Molly M I has replaced Candace Elise.  The barge supporting the barge is Cashman Equipment Corp.’s JMC 253, with dimensions of 250′ x72′ x16′ deck barge.

René Beauchamp got this shot –and more on FB Seaway News-Voie maritime Infos–of the tow.  His vantage point over the South Shore Canal portion of the Saint Lawrewnce Seaway  was the Cartier Bridge.  ETA for the tow at the mouth of the Piscataqua and Kittery ME is June 17.  I look forward to photos from there.

Harry McNeal moved deck barge 1962 with crane away from the IMTT docks the other day, 

Face on, the crane appeared to be straight up.

Allan Seymour caught this Denali with tank barge DBL 104 upbound on Penobscot Bay yesterday.  If I have the right number, DBL 104 has a capacity is just over 105,000 barrels.

I spotted Paul Andrew with the recycling scow DS 171 heading for the Arthur Kill.

The destination for this is PS&S/Visy Paper.

Erich A. caught Emery Zidell up the Hudson in the notch of 83,000 bbl tank barge Dr. Robert J. Beall.

James Turecamo meets the Centerline unit up in the scenic Hudson River below Albany.

And I saw Eastern Dawn aka Toula pushing two

mini-barges.

The minis, one at a time, carry dredge spoils from the depths of Gowanus Canal.  Prior to this project, I’d never seen mini barges, or scows.

All photos, as credited: Jeremy, Jake, René , Erich, and WVD.

Unrelated, the highest bid for tug Grouper as of this morning is $26.00.

 

April 2015 Retro

Eric McAllister assisted Cielo di Roma, now Baki Akar and Turkish-flagged, out of her IMTT berth.

Mako, in the dawnlight, which I see through an urban window these days, waits alongside her barge.

Bow Riad meets Genesis Victory and

sails west.  She was Huron Service until some point in 2013.

I recall I got this photo as Atlantic Salvor was returning from the Caribbean, although I can’t remember where in the Caribbean.

James Turecamo was doing ship assist down here just five years ago. Here, James rotates Fidias along with Gramma Lee T Moran.

Charles A . . . and I honestly can’t recall where that was, given the background.

Here’s two

of an interestingly marked Jane McAllister, likely headed downeast somewhere.

And let’s end with three of

Simone, more here,

whom I hadn’t seen before and haven’t since.  As of very shortly, she’s on her way to Guantanamo.

All photos taken in April 2015 by WVD.  Stay healthy, keep your distance, and avoid expelled missiles with corona warheads.

Retro Sixth Boro 23

Coastline Girls and many other names including Gage Paul Thornton and  ST-497, the 1944-build now sleeps deep in Davy Jones locker,  and was not an intentional reefing.

It’s been a while since I last saw Mcallister Sisters, shown here passing the Esopus Meadows light.  If I’m not mistaken, she’s currently based in Baltimore.

Ten years ago, this boat had already been painted blue over orange, but she still carried the June K name board.

Socrates, classic lines and a classic name, has since gone off to Nigeria, riding over in mid-2012 on a heavy lift ship called Swan.

Urger on blocks in Lyons . . . one would have thought then that she’d run forever.  These days she’s back on blocks at the eastern end of the Canal.

And February 2010 was the time of prime iceboating, and that’s Bonnie of frogma.

James Turecamo, with its wheelhouse down as I rarely saw it, works these days upriver as far north as Albany.  Photo by Allen Baker.

Brandywine and Odin these days spend most of their time on Gulf of Mexico waters.

Gramma Lee T Moran straining here as she pulled the tanker off the dock.  She now works in Baltimore.

In the foreground, East Coast departs the Kills;  I can’t say I recall seeing her recently,but AIS says she’s currently northbound north of the GW.    In the distance and approaching, June K, now Sarah Ann, and she regularly works in the sixth boro.

All photos, except Allen’s, WVD, from February 2010.

I have to share back story about getting that top photo.  I was on foot on Richmond Terrace walking east toward Jersey Street when I saw the Coastline tug and Hughes barge.  I didn’t recognize the profile and realized I could get the photo ONLY if I ran.  At the same time, I noticed an NYPD car had pulled over another car, and you know, it’s never a good idea to run for no apparent reason when the police are nearby.  But . . . you understand my dilemma:  walk and miss the shot, or run and maybe attract the curiosity of the police officer.  I ran, got the shot, and sure enough, the police called me over and wanted to know what I was doing.  Since I knew I’d done nothing wrong except appear suspicious, I gave him my business card and launched full tilt into my “new yorkers are so lucky because they are witness to so much marine business traffic, and why didn’t he too have a camera and join me watching and taking photos of the variety of vessels . . . .”  You can imagine the stare I got.  My enthusiasm failed to move him.  No handcuffs, no taser, not even a ticket, but an impassive gaze from a weary officer of the law possibly wondering  if I’d escaped from an institution or a time warp.  He wrote up a report and left me with this advice:  don’t run when you see a police officer nearby.  “Yessir,” I said, thinking . . . well sure, but I’d likely do it again if I again noticed something unusual transiting the waterway.  Since then, though, I’ve not had any further encounters with the LEOs, at least not on the banks of the sixth boro.

BW2M c

Here’s a company I’ve not encountered before . . . LMZ.

LMZ Europa was northbound at Stuyvesant as we passed, and following her

were James Turecamo and

Turecamo Girls, both

 

have been regulars down near the mouth of the Hudson, but these days the

main ship assist horsepower up in this part of the River. As it turned out, the ship had completed discharging cargo in Coeymans (named for the Koijemans family) and was headed north only briefly to spin around.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes to see them again in these parts a few weeks farther toward winter.

 

 

Retro Sixth Boro 10

In only ten years, a lot of changes have happened in the sixth boro.  I wish I’d started this blog 30 years ago to document even more, but 1988 predated blogs, the internet, and digital photography.  Wow . . . how did people relate back then?

Joking aside, let’s see some that have moved on.  On January 11, 2009 Kristin Poling, the 1934 tanker, still operated.

January 12.  Sun Right, built 1993 and already dead, moved westbound in the KVK escorted by Eileen McAllister.  What’s remarkable to me is how large the tug looks in compared to the ship in contrast to tugs today looking miniature on the stern of a ULCV.

Five minutes later . . . Odin.  Indeed I was smitten by this unusual vessel, which has since moved to the South and lost her ability to rise up as if on hind legs.  I’ve no sense of what it was like to work on her.

January 15.  Never did I imagine then that this Dean Reinauer would be replaced by this Dean.

January 18  The boro’s big story of January 2009, of course, was the plane crash in the Hudson.  Here the efforts to lift the USAir Flight 1549 out of the water have just begun.  Thomas stands by Weeks 533.

January 29  NYC DEP’s Red Hook had just arrived in the harbor, and it seemed she was escorted everywhere by James Turecamo. Sine then, NYC DEP has added a  whole new generation of sludge tankers aka honey boats.

January 31  Taurus has become Joker, another intriguingly named tugboat operated not in NYC but Philadelphia area by Hays Tug and Launch, with fleet mate names like Purple Hays, High Roller, Grape Ape, and more.

Let’s leave it there.  Happy new year’s greetings still ring in my ears, leaving me with an ongoing inexplicable smile and desire to treat all with respect.  Go out of your way to smile at someone today.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, whose smile gets hidden by a respirator whenever he goes into the archives on Tugster Tower.

 

Other Peoples Photos 70

I’m still working to catch up and photos some of you have sent.

First, from Scotland and Robin Denny, it’s Seal Carr (1983) and

Oxcar, 1978 and looking almost like the USACE colors.  They’re working MV Saga Pearl 11 out of Firth of Forth, port of Edinburgh.

From Port Newark and Tony A, it’s scrap . . .

loading to the right marks on Thor Infinity.

Here from Tony is a mishmash of vessels at Port Newark.

And another from Tony . . . the former Sea Monster and Mars.

And from Brooklyn looking over at Manhattan by Daniel Meeter, it’s Commander.  She has a history going back to in 1917, built by the Beele Wallace Co., Morehead City, NC.  She did patrol work in World War 1.

From Port of Coeymans and Erik Springer, it’s James Turecamo,  a frequently depicted boat on tugster

Thanks Robin, Tony, Daniel, and Erik.