Retro 27 Gallivant

Nothing says the Delaware River up around Philadelphia and Camden more distinctly than a group of Hays tugs, here Big Daddy, High Roller, and Purple Hays.  That’s the stern of Grape Ape to the left. No company, I gather, has had more fun naming their boats than the Hays Tug and Launch folks.   I hope Ed Roth got photos of these boats.

And I’ve never had so much fun on the Delaware River area than I did the day my friend John Curdy took me on a tour there.

Timothy McAllister was docked nearby.  She’s almost a twin of the sixth boro’s Ellen McAllister.

Amberjack (1981) was still in gray. She’s now the latest Thomas Dann, but I’ve not seen her yet.

Jack Holland was pushing a scow. Today’s Jack‘s in Norfolk.

I’m not sure where the 1967 Jakobson-built Grace Moran is,

but Helen D is now Sarah D, and is regularly seen on the Hudson.

Active, a 1956 Blount product, has been sold south and is now Chandler B, operating out of Virginia.

Soon after I took this photo, Coral Sea was sold to a Nigerian company and, at last report, was operating off Nigeria as Uganwaafor 2. I suspect she’s currently inactive.

Texan here is mostly out of the notch of Ponciana. She’s currently near Beaumont TX on the Neches River.

And finally, it’s USS Arthur W. Radford (DD 968) getting prepped for reefing. About a year later that reefing happened about 30 miles offshore, which appears to be out of range for most fishermen.

All photos, June 2010, by WVD, who will be in and on the Delaware River later this week, way in in the wild part of the river in NYS, trying to commune with the wild.   Don’t be concerned if no new posts appear for a spell after Wednesday.

 

Thanks to Barrel 8

Many thanks to barrel for this continuing series of old USACE vessels.  Chester below was built in the mid-1930s at a yard where this set of vessels was also built.

The above shipyard link says that later she became Elizabeth, but that leads me nowhere.  Anyone help?

Frankford is older . . . 1924, built in the same yard as Wilhelm Baum, 1923.

 

Here’s Escort . . . Wisconsin built.  A 2001 photo of Escort appears at the end of this post:  prepare yourself to gasp.

 

And finally, for the oldie photos today, it’s Woodbury, about which I have no info.

About the Baum . . . I know it sank two years ago, at the dock, and was raised. But since then, no updates.  I took this photo and the next one back in 2008 while spending an enjoyable time at the Michigan Maritime Museum.

 

And here, thanks to John Curdy, is a photo of Escort taken in 2001.  I believe that since 2005, it has been part of a reef near Sea Isle City, NJ.    Has anyone dived on it?

Many thanks to barrel to his archives.  And thanks to John Curdy–with whom I took these photos and more– for his poignant last look–that I know of– at Escort.

For some similar vessels, see tugster posts here and here.

And for a clue where I’ll be tomorrow morning, click here.

 

 

Dace Reinauer

This photo by John Curdy shows Dace Reinauer as she looked some time before 2008.

I took the rest of these photos, including the one below showing the same boat in October 2009.  The next one was

May 2014,

early November in Narragansett Bay post-modification and during sea trails and

taken by Rod Smith, and

here was later November 2015 in the sixth boro.   The changes are more subtle, but if you compare the stacks, you’ll see the pairs has grown.

Go Dace!!  Thanks, John and Rod.

Again, this post and the next dozen and a half or so have been “scheduled.”  I’m out of touch for a while.

Before I left, I’d modified the “About the photos” section.  If you feel so inclined, have a look at the first paragraph and comment.