Other Peoples Photos 109

One enjoyable thing about this tugster “business” is that you all send me photos, some of which I’ve shared 108 times before this post.

First, from a Mississippi River vantage point that I only recently left, some photos from Lew, who previously contributed these photos.  

I’ll consult tugboatinformation.com for the low down on this vessel.

 

 

Thanks, Lew, and I’d left New Orleans just the day before;  sorry to have missed you.  I did, however, serendipitously cross paths with Bjoern of New York Media Boat while I was there.  That’s another story.

Tony A sent along these photos of George Holland, ex-Sassafras!

 

How about this photo from May 1946, sent along by William Lafferty.

William writes:  “St. Louis Shipbuilding & Steel Company was very proud of its post-war towboats, and with good reason.  Merlin Banta was christened Havana Zephyr at St. Louis on 15 May 1946 by Mrs. Kenneth Baker, wife of a co-owner of Streett Towing Company of St. Louis.  Streett had it built to tow petroleum barges from Baton Rouge to Bettendorf, Iowa, where Socony Vacuum Oil Company had a large refinery.  Originally with twin Superior turbo-charged 80-MX-6 Diesels, 1980-bhp total, replaced in 1973 by twin EMD 12-567Es, 2800-bhp when it ran as H. F. Leonard for Huffman Towing Company, St. Louis.  It now has 3200-bhp EMDs since 2010.  Streett had SLSB&SCo build a couple more, but nothing that looked like this.  “C C” on it today stands for Chemical Carriers, Inc., of Plaquemine.”  Gone are the days of “streamlined” tugboats, which in 1936 led to a streamlined tugboat called David here, which is still around although with a changed appearance.

And finally, how about this from Sea Bart . . .  Loke Viking

a huge 279′ x 75′.

Sea Bart writes that he saw the actual vessel off Scotland, and in the local pilot’s station, there’s a model

 

made with Legos.  The the size of the model!

Many thanks to Lew, Tony A, William Lafferty, and Sea Bart for passing along these photos. 

Here are photos of my encounter with Merlin Banta back in 2014.

 

Other Peoples Photos 90

Many thanks to my friend Lew who caught this even without a functioning AIS… on the Connecticut River, coming from Windsor Locks CT and heading for the Intrepid Museum . . .

it’s an Douglas F4D Skyray aircraft, not to be confused with an F-4 Phantom.  Here I quote from officials:  “The Skyray, named for the unique shape of its wing (which resembles a manta ray), went into operation with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in 1956. It was designed to be a high-altitude fleet protection interceptor, fast enough to catch and neutralize an approaching enemy bomber flying at 500 knots. Skyrays set many speed and time-to-climb records in their day as they were able to reach supersonic speeds. The specific Skyray acquired by the Intrepid Museum from the New England Air Museum … served in VF-162 and deployed on Intrepid between June 1961 and March 1962 with Carrier Air Wing Six.”  Ah!  So there’s a connection between this plane and the carrier.

Shawn Miller is doing the job with deck barge Weeks 47.

 

I’ll post this early so that folks might be able to catch it on either side of Manhattan Monday morning.  As of 0600 now, she is anchored just east and north of Throgs Neck Bridge.  Once she gets underway, she could be passing lower Manhattan in a half an hour.

Many thanks, Lew.