Random Tugs 43

I made my way to the Kills looking for the wayward Ilya, and several times a surfacing cormorant startled me, but alas.  Except for knowing that the origin is Carib, I’d make a lame joke that Ilya should be called a woman-atee rather than a man-atee.  OK, I’m sure it’s been done.  Anyhow, instead, believe it or not, I spotted a motley group of tugs, ships, and boats.  I’ll start with the tugs, both ones I saw and others I remembered.

Bismarck Sea ex-John H. Malik (who was he?) and ex-Gulf Ruler, built 1976.  Notice the oval on the stack awaiting a K-Sea logo.

Remember the color scheme?  It’s John H. Malik, foto taken winter 2007 in the sixth boro.  Malik was a “founding Roehrig employee who helped to guide and grow the company until he passed away in 2001.”

Here’s that Roehrig color scheme on Eileen M Roehrig, now North Sea, built 1982 and pictured a week and a half back here.

Herbert P Brake . . . built 1992 of recycled steel by Bart Brake.  Anyone tell more about the evolution of this tug?

Foto by Jed of Michigan Service, ex-Kevin Candies, 1981. I love those Gowanus Bay gravel piles in the distance.

Frederick E Bouchard, 1975.

Atlantic Coast, 2007!

Adriatic Sea, ex-Diplomat, 1978.

Linda Moran, 2009

All fotos but the two Roehrig boats taken in the past week.

Michigan Service by Jed;  all others by Tugster.  Some info thanks to Harold Tartell.

More Tugging

Here’s another light tug steaming southward in front of Weehawken.

The dark red superstructure and large white “M” make this unmistakeably a Moran tug. Moran began in the port of New York, and 150 years later is still a major presence.

The tug above is said to be towing “on the hip.” The hip here might be the widest or beamiest part of the tug. A barge towed on the hip can be moved with far greater control than one towed on the hawser. Notice on the tug above the raised pilothouse that allows the helmsman to see over the barge.

Moving a barge–or multiple barges–on the nose is probably the most in the harbor.

Looking for giftbook suggestions?  Check out Geo Matteson’s Tugboats of New York written by a former tug owner.