May 2012 Boro6 News

Tugster does not strive to be a “shipping news” site, but each time I walk or ride my beat, I DO keep an watchful eye for change, novelty, well . . . new sights.  Certainly this was true yesterday:   let’s start with the orange vessel to your left.  You’ve seen the colors before, but is that a “hole through the stern above deck”?

I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a bit more of Swan in the next few days.  And I trust lessons have been learned from last spring’s Blue Marlin saga.

So Beaufort Sea has begun its Kirbyfication.  As has Norwegian Sea, but I was too far off to get a good foto.

Resolute‘s foredeck seemed to be carrying a lot more than deckhands yesterday.  And is that a movie camera?  And what were they all looking at?

How about this unusual equipment on Ellen?  Is MOL Earnest that tough a customer?

Iron Eagle is not new to the harbor, but the Conti name is . . . at least to me.

Rosemary Miller?  New too.  I wonder what has become of Sorenson Miller.

With spring comes the sailing season, and America 2.0 . . .  I last saw closeup  here last fall.

And one last “newby” I was lucky to catch yesterday was Mark Moran, headed south to  .  . who knows where?    Mark‘s so new that even on Birk and Harold’s excellent site, there’s only a drawing of her.

Followup on lots of these soon.   All fotos taken yesterday by Will Van Dorp.

For the news from the Narrows between Detroit (which means “the narrows” in French) and Windsor, click here for Isaac’s site and some great fotos from Wade.  The surprise there for me was Zeus, who worked the sixth boro a bit a few years back.  Also, there are more shots of DonJon’s huge Great Lakes ATB unit.

Also, of course please vote for tug Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79.   The fact that they’re not in the top few places should NOT be a reason to give up;  we have a daily vote until the 21st.

Random Tugs 93

Tugboats in the sixth boro of New York City vary not quite infinitely, but almost.   Consider Pegasus (1907), here with Lehigh Valley 79 (1914) alongside.  And my social medium tells me they’re about to link up and travel again soon.    Watch Pier 25.

And Coral Coast (1970) versus its fleetmate,

and newest tugboat in the boro .  .  . Discovery Coast (2012).

Amy C. McAllister (1975) and

Bohemia (2007).

Taurus (1979) and

James Turecamo (1969) along assisting Scott Turecamo (1998).

Thornton Brothers (1958),

Caitlin Ann (1961), and

Maria J (1958).

Rounding it all out . . . is JoAnne Reinauer III (1970), here passing the unmistakeable Torm-orange house of Torm Thames (2005), and see this spotlight by selfabsorbedboomer.

Having called this set almost infinitely varied, I must say there’s NOTHING operating in the sixth boro quite an unusual as Joseph Thompson Jr. (portions from 1944), the tug portion of an ATM unit currently working the North Coast between US and Canadian ports.   Thank’s to Isaac Pennock aka tugboathunter for introducing me to this vessel;  For the dizzying set of transformations, read the bio by boatnerd here . . . and follow the fotos, especially the ones by Mark Vander Meulen, Steve Hause, Lee Rowe, and Rod Burdick.

Foto of Discovery Coast by Joel Milton;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 92

Note: If you’re new to this blog and wondering what resources provide “pedigree” of these vessels, a fantastic reference work in progress is tugboatinformation.com       Start out by clicking the letter of the company name to find the fleets, present and past.

This is what a “Kirbyfied” Barbara C looks like today.   Scroll through to the bottom of that Kirby Corporation link to see their string of acquisitions.

Barbara C (now Arabian Sea) used to be sibling to Donald C (now Med Sea);  as Seas, you could call them once-and-future siblings.  If you squint while looking at Med Sea‘s stack, the shadow outlining one side of the logo board there almost looks like a crescent.

How long til Med Sea loses its green for white?

Will all the former K-Sea boats, like Aegean,  be repainted .  .  .  ?

Or Tasman and

Taurus?

Another tool is the NOAA documentation registry.  Here you just type in vessel name. You’ll find, e.g., that Maria J used to be called Jesus Saves.   I took this fotos last Thursday in the rich colors of 7 am near Howland Hook container port, one of my “offices,”  where NYK Constellation was having containers shifted.  By now, Constellation has been in and back of Norfolk and Savannah and is heading ultimately through the Canal and out west . . .

Best fashions-in-fur award goes to Resolute, which stated tools here says has been called that since 1975.

All fotos in the past week by will Van Dorp.   Time to head to my bread-and-butter job, two hours early, so that I can show some face time along the KVK.

Landmarks 2 Revisited

I did this post just over a year ago; note the prominent change happening in the Manhattan skyline, as seen from the north coast of Rockaway Queens.  The last time you saw the tug shown here was December 2011.  Any guesses what Patty was towing yesterday?  Answer tomorrow.

Most of my views of the rising tower come from my “office” on the north coast of Staten Island.  It looms there, beyond these McAllisters,

Na Hoku,

Caitlin Ann,

Magothy,

Penn No. 6,

Thomas J. Brown,

Norwegian Sea,

JoAnne Reinauer III,

Hayward,

Elk River,

and Resolute.

Unrelated:  Following their own landmarks, a new crop of aeons-old silvery slime has reportedly returned to sixth boro waterways.    What . . . you ask?  Click here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Really Random Tugs 10

Ryba’s Tenacious (1960 Mississippi-built) in lower right, then barge Great Lakes with tug Michigan (1982 Wisconsin), and USCG Mackinaw (not WAGB 83 but WLLB 33).

Durocher Marine’s tugs from near to far: Ray D (1943  ?), Joe Van (1905!! Buffalo, NY) , and Champion (1974 Louisiana).

Barbara E. Bouchard (1992 Mississippi)  afloat and

araised and dry.  Those props are at least 10′ diameter . . . I don’t know the exact number.  Barbara E. first appeared here in 2008.

Kirby’s

Davis Sea (1982 Florida).

Danielle M. Bouchard (1997 Louisiana),  who first appeared on tugster

three years ago but I hadn’t seen since.

And of course with the gray training wheels and hard in pursuit of APL Spinel, it’s

Ellen McAllister (1966 Wisconsin), here neck-n-neck with Amy C. McAllister (1975 Louisiana).   Ellen may have appeared on this blog more often than any other tug;  here … with some additional lettering on her flanks … I believe is her debut post.

The tug only visible as an upper wheelhouse is Potomac.  The bridge just beyond the flottage is the Queensboro . . . memorialized in this song.

Potomac (2007 and built along the Bayou Lafourche . . . third foto)  moves neck-n-neck with . . .

Resolute (1975 Oyster Bay, NY), she currently with the most fibrous fendering in the sixth boro.  In between the two is Weddell Sea (2007 Rhode Island).

And of course you recognize the tallest portions of Manhattan, a few miles across the Upper Bay looking across the southeastern tip of Bayonne, NJ.

Fotos here credited to Kyran Clune, Allen Baker, and Birk Thomas:  thanks much.   All others by Will Van Dorp.

Considering the shipyards mentioned above, I’m wondering why–so far as I know–no active shipyards remain on New York’s Great Lakes shore, and when the last one on that shore closed.

Random Traffic March 2012

I just hoped the weather forecast was wrong, that the sun would appear.  Instead  . . . a lot of overcast.  But no matter, the sixth boro is a space of many moods, like a lot of people.  And beauty or at least points of interest can be found even under brooding skies.   Like Mississippi-built Brendan J. Bouchard . . .

or Maine-built Laura K. Moran . . . both less than an hour after sunrise.

Before 0800,  Miriam Moran and Kimberly Turecamo, both built in Morgan City, LA, prepare to

prepare to shift Chang Hang Tan Suo, built in Huludao, China.   Note the spare prop on deck.

Bering Sea moves DBL 27 out the east end of KVK, as

Brendan Turecamo (like Bering Sea . . . built in Houma, LA) moves west.  Note the distortion of distant lights right above Brendan‘s exhaust gases.

By 0900, clouds have turned the harbor colors many hues of gloomy, and Kimberly has moved on to the next assist.  By then, the local constabulary have asked me to move on . . . possibly wondering why I’d be taking fotos of of such a somber scene . . .

Chang Hang Tan Suo moves to an anchorage, and

Taurus (also out of Houma) moves into the Upper Bay.  And for me, second breakfast and some really hot tea.

So is my restlessness showing?  All fotos this morning by Will Van Dorp.

Chang Hang Tan Suo has appeared on this blog before.

Totally related:  Here’s random traffic from December and August.

Random Tugs 90

Just for the record, here are the first two posts in this series, “1” and 2.

The foto below and the one of Dublin Sea come from Birk.   Greenland Sea is off Barents Sea port side.

 I last saw Barents move in early December here.   This foto is taken from near the old Singer plant in Elizabethport.

From the same vantage point, it’s Yankee, Greenland, and a third tug I should but can’t identify.

Here’s another shot from Birk, Dublin Sea over at the south end of Arthur Kill.  Dublin Sea was launched in Wisconsin in 2009.

First appearance of this vessel on tugster . . . taken a week ago passing Howland Hook . . . it’s Ireland (ex-Yorktown) built

in 1940!!  Some great Coastline Marine Towing jobs fotos can be found here.

Also moving a crane barge eastbound on the KVK, it’s Stephanie Dann (1978, ex-Mary Defelice); meanwhile

that same morning, it’s Taurus, launched under that name in Houma in 1979, heading

toward the North River, as

Turecamo Girls (launched in Savannah in 1965 as Capt. Jan Porel) headed under the Bayonne Bridge, eastbound and

Margaret Moran (launched in Morgan City in 1979) headed westbound.

Thanks Birk.

Not exactly related:  Some big doings on April 10 in Erie, PA as Ken Boothe Sr. and Lakes Contender get christened.  Have you been invited and want to get a few fotos for tugster?  Please get in touch.

Other People’s Fotos 12

All fotos today come from Isaac Pennock at various Canadian shorelines along the eastern Great Lakes.  And an interesting set of vessels this is.  Take James A. Hannah, foto shot in Hamilton.  Look at her lines.  You’ve seen a sibling of this vessel here before.    Recall Bloxom here and in the graveyard here. More on James A. Hannah and siblings at the end of this post.

This foto of M. R. Kane was taken in Toronto.  Kane appeared in the sixth boro on this blog three years ago in a foto Bowsprite took from her cliff.  Finally . . . a closeup.

Wilf Seymour foto was taken Port Colborne.  Seymour is Port Arthur, TX-built in 1961 and some of you may remember her as M. Moran!  Here are more specs from the McKeil Marine site.

Salvor is Long Island-built former Esther Moran. Salvor, delivered in 1963, was hull # 417.   To add some context here, K-Sea’s Maryland was also built  at the Jakobson yard in Long Island, hull # 406 and delivered a year before Salvor.

There’s not much to see here, but I believe–Isaac asserts– is the Australian-built, Canadian-flagged K-Sea tug William J. Moore, taken here in St. Catherines.  I’ve never heard of this vessel. I quote from Birk and Harold’s site:  “at one point she was dubbed the largest and highest-horepower tug in Australia.”  Who knew?

I located this image in the photo archives of Marietta Manufacturing.  Taken on May 20, 1944, it shows LT-650.  Bloxom was launched a month later, same location, as LT-653.   Two years later, LT-650 was sold to China, and current disposition . . . I’ve no clue how to trace.  Is there an US Army tugs-in-China expert out there?    James A. Hannah was launched a year later–July 1945 as LT-820.   Fleet siblings of James are David E. Hannah and Mary E. Hannah, respectively LT-815 (April 1945) and LT-821.  David E. appears to have been out of service since 2009, somewhere near Chicago.  Birk and Harold have her series of names listed here;  one of those former names was   Kristin Lee Hannah, shown here, although the date of build listed as 1953 is wrong.  Click here for a 2009 article on the demise/auctioning off of Hannah Marine.  I’d love to see a current foto of David E. or know her approximate whereabouts.

Many thanks to Isaac for these fotos.  Also thanks to the Point Pleasant (WV) River Museum pointing me in the direction of the Marietta Manufacturing photo archives.

Second Lives 10

Huron Service used to be Eric Candies.  Look at the lines of her hull and house.   Do they

look like these on Na Hoku?  No surprise . . . Na Hoku used to be Chris Candies.  At least a half dozen other ex-Candies boats work as regulars in the sixth boro.

Now look at the barge on Na Hoku‘s hip.  DBL 85 used to be

Freedom.   Stuff doesn’t change that much;  it just gets renamed.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

And this just in from Birk, another fleet sib, Sandmaster, (ex-Ben Candies).  You recently saw this angle wet here on tugster.

Cheers.

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Meagan Ann, Seattle-built in 1975.  Note the glazing and  icicles.

For more info from Birk and Harold’s site, , click here.

McAllister Responder’ s name alludes to its former role as an oil-spill response vessel.

Until 2009, the Florida-built vessel was immediately distinguishable from Charles D. McAllister by her boom spool.

Tasman Sea comes out of Louisiana in 1976.

Click here to see her as Ambassador.

Magothy is a Patapsco-class 4200 hp vessel launched in 2008.

Hornbeck Tidewater equipment seems less frequent in the sixth boro these days, but last weekend I caught

Gulf Service and

Huron Service, 1979 and ’81 respectively.   Astern is the unmistakeable Atlantic Salvor, itself a former Tidewater boat.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.