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[Specialized] vessels don’t push or tow or transport cargo per se. They are tools with a variety of applications, as diverse as the tools in a professional mechanic’s chest, in an entire full service garage, in fact.
Ocean Researcher has appeared here before, but not escorted by a tug, as James D. Moran is doing here. I’m not sure why it was escorted in the other day.
She came in after some time crisscrossing the all-but-trackless sea off Atlantic City.
Fugro Enterprise has appeared here before as well.
In this case, she was headed back out to sea,
Below is a sample of Fugro Enterprise’ track earlier this week.
And for comparison, Ocean Researcher left the indicated track SE of Atlantic city during the same time period.
Kings Pointer also has appeared here before . . . and she’s a tool with its own purpose . . training.
Before coming to the USMMA in 2014, this vessel was known as MV Liberty Star, and had a different use . .. locating and retrieving jettisoned Shuttle external fuel tanks.
Here–above and below– she transits Hell Gate, first westbound and then east.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who never marked Highland Eagle–still in Lake Huron–as a specialized vessel. Another Great Lakes-dedicated research vessel, with a notable environmental name, was recently put up for sale, as here. I saw it in Sturgeon Bay over two years ago here.
Wednesday was such a spectacular day for parading into NYC’s Upper Bay that even the cormorant took notice.
USS New York had this Osprey on its deck, surrounded by a crew of sailors and marines.
Previous appearances of USS New York, in the harbor and on this blog, can be found here.
Also in the procession were USCGC Campbell,
ketch HMCS Oriole,
some YPs, and
numerous smaller craft like this one . . ..
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who encourages you to tour whichever boats capture your fancy.
Katherine Walker has appeared or been mentioned here before many times. And–last but certainly not least– my favorite photos of Kings Pointer can be found here . . . near the end of the post.
Yesterday was National Maritime Day. At the edges of the Upper Bay, people associated with the maritime industries gather for a memorial.
at Marisol Escobar’s American Merchant Mariners’ Memorial statue.
Two of the newest tugboats in the sixth boro–Fort Schuyler and Kings Point, named for two area maritime academies–stood off.
Service and sacrifice were honored.
Prayers and
other words were offered by SCI’s Rev. David Rider and Marad’s Paul “Chip” Jaenichen.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
This is day 8 of the GHP&W series, so let me break pattern a bit. If you missed the beginning, GHP&W is not a law firm; it’s abbrev for “gunk holes, harbors, ports, and wharves.” I haven’t dusted off any wharves yet, but two-thirds of the months still lie ahead.
The story here is that TS Kings Pointer was out serving as a training platform and not at Kings Point, although there was a potential meeting somewhere south along our track to Portsmouth, VA.
Mile 1, 0738 Wednesday, heading for the Throg’s Neck Bridge.
0756. Passing SUNY Maritime and TS Empire State. Click here for photos from her summer sea term 2015.
0804, Robert Burton, a Norfolk boat.
0907, Mary Gellatly with a sand scow at the southern tip of Governors Island.
1010, passing the northern tip of Sandy Hook but looking back at Naval Weapons Station Earle, with USNS Medgar Evers at the wharf.
1017, Romer Shoal Light and Coney Island.
1517, Capt. Willie Landers northbound off Beach Haven, I think.
1612, FV Jonathan Ryan and tug Pops in the distance.
1618, entering a grid marked “numerous scientific buoys.”
1657 off Atlantic City, with unidentified tug and barge
1740 and about to switch watch.
Thursday, 0852, looking north into the Chesapeake after going wide around Fisherman Island.
0910 . . . it’s the current TS Kings Pointer, ex-Liberty Star. . .
. . . heading along Virginia Beach
before turning northward toward Long Island Sound. Her former sister ship–Freedom Star–was in the area but we did not see her.
Meanwhile, we head north into the Thimble Shoal Channel Tunnel and into port, which you can follow tomorrow. And that tug and crane barge in the distance . . . survey work for new infrastructure or maintenance dredging?
All photos by Will Van Dorp, with thanks to the USMMA Sailing Foundation for inviting me to crew in winter relocation for Tortuga. It was a smooth trip.
I wonder what the forgiveness factor for ice-against-hull here is. Bravest surely was pretty in our maybe soon-to-end Puerto Parcialmente Blanco.
RB 45605 was the fifth in this series, which is numbered consecutively and now up to 45774.
Must precautions be taken with these hulls during ice season?
And finally . . . off the stern of Bering Sea yesterday it’s the current Kings Pointer. This Kings Pointer started life as a solid rocket booster recovery vessel for NASA.
Click here for another photo of this vessel in NASA colors.
And here’s a photo I took back in August 2007 of the previous Kings Pointer, now known as General Rudder and based in Texas.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
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