You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Kirby Corporation’ tag.
March 2011,
March 2010, and
… can it be and not in Kirby white but
Vane classic green?
the LongIsland-built tug with a Louisiana name, Houma! And pushing DBL 25!
All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.
I had no idea why Fred Johannsen (47′ loa x 18′ and launched 1971) showed up at the east end of the KVK, westbound.
But a few hours later, she reappeared . . . with a dead ship.
Taurus, identified on the VHF as a dead ship?! !@#@!!
Up to Kingston she goes, and at 3 kts fighting the flood, it’s
going to be a long ride.
Click here for a post of almost five years ago when Taurus herself moved another dead ship.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Here was 18.
The following two fotos come thanks to Joseph Graham, a New Yorker who pilots a Kirby boat among various ports in the Gulf and on the Mississippi. Study the six tugs below . . . yes six. Recognize the one on the left?
Sure! It’s Odin, featured here and here and many more places. Right now she’s in the vessel equivalent of Sailors’ Snug Harbor, in Kirby’s reserve yard in Houston. Odin . . you’re not forgotten!
Notice anything unusual about this staple? It may be common elsewhere, but I’ve never seen one with a stainless steel insert. This foto comes compliments of Allen Baker; here’s one of his many fotos on this blog. And the vessel . . .
is three-year-old Delta Billie, 6800 hp and built in Washington state.
She was docked here on the San Francisco Embarcadero . . . below the Tower there named for “Firebelle Lil’ Coit.”
And finally, from Lauren Tivey, whose foto of a lion figurehead on a Shanghai barge appeared here a year and a half ago, a fisherman working on Er Lake in Yunnan . . . using
these birds we know well in the sixth boro. I love the paint job on these fishing boats. Quiz: Can you name three of the six major rivers that drain Yunnan province?
Poor foto . . . I took on Sunday, but I was fascinated by this KVK cormorant struggling at least two minutes to swallow this sea robin. Cormorants must have throat tissue like a rubber tire!
The rivers flowing out of Yunnan–which borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam– are the Irrawaddy, Mekong, Salween, Red, Pearl, and Yangtze.
Thanks again to Joseph, Allen, and Lauren for use of these fotos.
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So what happens in the rest of the sixth boro during Fleet Week? Works goes on. Ellen goes past the Statue to the next job, possibly to move USCGC Eagle out.
As is McKinley Sea, with its Kirby livery.
Terrapin Island continues its 24/7 sand moving.
Tankers transfer fluids and container vessels come and go.
Susquehanna follows Quantico Creek to the east.
Holiday jetskiers race off bow waves, abandoning prudence and caution.
Gulf Service awaits an appointment at the tanks.
Ice-bowed Ice Hawk, newly painted and
maybe newly-named, awaits its call.
And (in town for OpSail, Bay City, Michigan registered Appledore V, enjoys the late Monday sun and breeze.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated from Lake Michigan: 1907 SS Keewatin moves.
Kirbyfication, which looks
like this on Norwegian Sea, is only one transformation, although if you asked me to personify and interpret, I’d say Norwegian looks positively
mortified in these fotos. “OMG!! I can’t bear bare . . .
myself, can’t bear to see this,” she seems to say.
Here’s the changes from Barbara C (October 2010) to
Arabian Sea sand stack decorations (March 2012) to
this past weekend.
Others, like Miss Yvette take things much more in stride from here (third foto down) to June 2011
to yesterday.
Heron transforms from this March 2011 foto to
this one last week. And a year from now, as she plys waters off Equatorial Guinea . . . what will that look like?
Sun Road was clearly not always known that way, although
one of my sources was of no value.
For a thrilling transformation story, check out The Skipper & the Eagle, which relates how Horst Wessel became Eagle back in 1946.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
If you like to hear Jefferson Airplane, click here: their lyric based on a John Wyndham sci-fi novel goes “Life is change. How it differs from the rocks . . .”
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.
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.
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.
Check out the name plate . . . Davis Sea. Yup, it’s THAT Davis Sea as captured less than a week ago by John Skelson. Two months ago, I got a foto of Davis Sea looking like this (third foto down).
And from Pam Hepburn, THIS is what I spotted alongside Linda G, back in mid-February. It’s a Kori pontoon marsh buggy, working here along the Kills.
Here back at the dock, it’s transitioning from barge to terrafirma, not terra marsha.
I don’t generally go to the water to watch birds, but you can’t hang along the water long without seeing all manner of birds, solo or
in multiples or even
exponentials. Here’s an old post about these floating featured things. Of course, birds aren’t the only animals I see. How about ponies
like this one? And maybe here’s the rider
that chose to venture out solo.
And alien orbs . . . with Scott Turecamo and a turbine in the distance . . .
And then there’s HarvestDome, an ethereal orb coming to the waters this summer. And if you want to contribute to getting this completed and afloat, click here.
Click here and here for stories on a huge piece of flotsam currently on the western Indian Ocean.
And finally, from the Argus-eyed bowsprite, what’s this? This sailboat . . . is it cargo or has this creative captain traded in the usual orange lifeboat for a higher-performance ride back to terra firma for a little déjeuner sur l’herbe a la Manet should it be desired?
Happy March! And seriously, consider chipping in some dinars or ducats to help float Harvest Dome this summer. The link is here.
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