TugBoat Roundup 2022

Another TBR is in the books.  Where else can you see very upclose and personal some much-loved boats. I can and might do a post on each of these boats, but for now, just a survey.

Shoofly . . .  complete name is Shoofly Pie. If you want actual detail, click here and scroll;  you’ll see some profile of each of these boats (and others).  All I’ll say about Shoofly is that she’s a WW2 naval vessel evolved into a rat rod (We need a new term for this category.) vessel.  It has also likely sailed the greatest number of places, freshwater and salt.  I’ve photographed this boat before, but somehow, it’s never made it onto this blog.  Some explanation follows.

I frame this as a comparison of push knees on Edna A and J. Arnold Witte.  

How about this as a frame– l to r, Nathan G, Margot, Benjamin Elliot, and Edna A. — involving two-thirds of the NYS Marine Highway boats participating in the event. Then another set of NYS Marine was not present  . . . working . . . .

CMT Otter . . . represented Coeymans.  I learned some modification history of this boat last weekend.  It was once Delta Ram and looked like this.

This vessel is the fourth in the series of Atlantic Hunter boats.  I had photos of Atlantic Hunter IV (under a different name last year) but those photos like those of Shoofly  . . . disappeared.

My Pal Sal is not the latest government boat purchased by NYS Canals, although you might suspect otherwise.  To stray down a tangent though;  Sal has a song named for her;  we really need a popular ditty about canal tugboats . . . any or all of them. Lobby your favorite songwriter or channel your own inner songwriter muse.

W. O. Decker looked spectacular!  Last time I saw her some details were not the same.

Joncaire is several years into her new livery;  she used to be the red of NYPA Niagara River boom maintenance fleet, as seen here (scroll).

Here’s the view from the 4th Street Bridge, and

here from the 2nd Street Bridge.

All photos yesterday, WVD, who got out there before many people were crowding the bulkhead.

I missed a lot of folks who were there because I stayed in the welcome center most of the time, listening to the talks.

Labor Days Past

Yesterday, Labor Day, I took no photos, except one of a wood sign carving project in progress.

It turns out . . .  Labor Day 2020 I took no photos either;  these were sent to me though by Josh Watts, and embarrassingly, I’ve not posted them until now.  Sometimes I get into a groove and lose track of things. These are two new generation NYS Canals tugs and a floating gradall, maintaining canal depth.  It’s a great shot.

Here’s anorther from that date and that area of the west-of-Rochester portion of the canal, Adams Basin. The vantage point is a house barge from Erie Canal Adventures.

Labor Day 2019 I had the good fortune to be laboring, and taking photos, and doing that in Cleveland.  Self-unloading freighter Algoma Buffalo was winding its way down the Cuyahoga

with assistance from  two tugs, Cleveland and Iowa, launched 2017 and 1915 respectively!! You caught that 102-year difference in age, right!  Also, that waterway used simultaneously for commerce and recreation . . . that’s the Cuyahoga, you know, the one that caught fire a number of times a half century ago.  That is a story of concerted problem-solving, concerted means people with different ideas solving problems together.

Labor Day 2018 I was exploring Chicago and saw this massive Muddy Waters mural.

Just beyond this navigation aid, you turn to port and enter the federal lock that leads to the Chicago River.

Labor Day 2017 I was in Manitowoc.  Then and many other times I’ve seen and wondered about Halten, a 1966 Swedish Coast Guard vessel (maybe not since painted-over raised letters on the stern say Oslo)  that appears to be a yacht that might not move much.  Maybe it just moves when I’ve not been paying attention.

Avenger IV passed us on Lake Michigan, where lots of fishing was happening from small boats.

Labor Day 2016 I had just left Ogdensburg downbound, and was passing the Canadian port of Johnstown, where the 1943 freighter Mississagi

was discharging cargo,

and a half hour later, we were still looking back at Johnstown in the beauty of the morning colors.

I could go farther back but won’t now.  I’ve no idea why I’ve not taken any photos the past two Labor Days.  September 5, 2022,  I need to get back to work. Thanks to Josh for the first two photos;  all others, WVD.

Looking ahead, just a reminder that after the TugBoat RoundUp, I’ll be road foto tripping a lot, and that might be no posts some days.

Tale of 2 or 3 Canal Tugs 2

Many thanks to Josh Watts for sending along these photos taken in western Monroe County, at Adams Basin.  You may recall that Adams Basin has appeared here before in the westbound end of the virtual Erie Canal tour.  Sure enough there was an Adams involved . . . way back at the time the first canal iteration was dug.

Joncaire?

Messieurs les Joncaires established themselves in what is now Buffalo, back before the Revolution.

Canal tug Joncaire appeared here once before a little over a year ago, along with DonJon tug Rebecca Ann;  in that photo, Joncaire is half blue and half red.   The Adams Basin lift bridge is one of 16 in the NYS Canals systems.

Joncaire used to be all red, as in this photo below from about four years ago, when it was on the Buffalo River and still painted in NYPA red.

In close proximity to Joncaire was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, one of the new 25′ tugs that have been coming into the NYS Canals system since 2018.

 

Gradall #4  was tied up there also, with

an unnamed (not yet named) small tug alongside.

Here’s the first new one I saw back in August 2018;  I believe this one has since been named Port Jackson.

Many thanks to Josh for sending along these photo;  Future Port Jackson and the red Joncaire are mine.

The first installment of this title can be seen here.

Freshwater Tugs 4

Let’s start with one that I can’t identify, other than by its name . . . Charlie E, I believe.  I took this photo in Port Colborne.

I was wrong when I thought McKeil’s Sharon M I was an ex-Candies tug like Na Hoku or Greenland Sea.  It turns out she was built in Japan.

I can’t ever remember seeing a heaping load of coal like this . . .

Petite Forte was docked also along the Welland Canal with barge St. Mary’s Cement.

I’ll put up a pilot boat post soon.  Meanwhile, can you identify this pilot boat?

Jaclyn is a 41′ tug built in 1967.

Joncaire, it turns out, is an important name in Niagara history.

Eagle is a 57′ tugboat built in 1943 and operating out of Cleveland. Here she heads for the outer harbor.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is unpacking as quickly as possible, and preparing to repack soon.