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It’s hard to believe, but I’ve not been to the Great North River Tugboat Race since 2014, but in normal times, September 5 would see the next race. But we’ve dispensed with the “normal times” concept for the time being.
In selecting the batch for this post, I wanted splash, froth, bubbles, and the effervescence the river can react with when tons of steel and thousands of horsepower push through the ever changing water. The next two photos are from that 2014 race.
It was overcast during the race, but an hour or so later, when pushing contests were happening and
the wakes flattened out and we sized up USAV MGen. Anthony Wayne, patches of blue appeared. I should leave you in suspense about how this push went. Let me put it this way; they left town not long after the push-off.
2013 was an equally overcast day, and again, not to identify every tugboat in that lineup, it appears that W. O. Decker has either jumped the gun or activated its jet drive and will soon rise up out of the Hudson on her hydrofoil assists. I’d guess the latter.
See what I told you . . . Decker has gone so far ahead that it’s already over the horizon.
Second lap maybe for Decker?
It’s starting to appear that in 2012, as in ’13 and ’14, it was overcast.
It was great to see Buchanan 12, usually burdened with a half dozen stone barges, disencumbered and frothing up the river. That’s the 1907 Pegasus back there too.
In 2011, I was able to get a photo of the racing craft along with sky spray by one of the fireboats present, likely 343. What’s remarkable comparing the photo above with the one below is the color of the water; hurricane Irene had dropped a lot of rain upstate and all the tributaries sent that into the Hudson with tribute in the form of silt.
Quantico Creek and Maurania III did an excellent job of stirring up the water.
But again, it was overcast and hazy over silty water.
However, in 2010, we had blue skies that really accentuated the DonJon boats like Cheyenne and
the harbor colossus, Atlantic Salvor.
In 2009, there were wispy clouds, allowing the “queen of the day” to be Ellen McAllister. But look who else showed up!!!!
Urger. Urger would EASILY have won the race, but she was doing what she does best . . . urging all the other boats and crews to be fleeter than she, holding herself back, allowed herself to be that day.
All photos and commentary, WVD. See you at the races in 2022.
First, the numbers, as Kai Ryssdal would say on NPR’s Marketplace show. The numbers I’m referring to are the bids on Grouper yesterday.
At 0600 yesterday, high bid was $150. That lasted until just after noon. By 1300, high bid was $420. More than 60 bids (out of a total of 104) were tendered in the last hour, some fractions of a second apart. Winning bid was $3100. At this point, I know nothing about the winning bidder or that person’s intention.
This will be a summer of many days away from the sixth boro, so I’m very happy when you send in photos. Great Lakes mariner retired (GLMR) sent in a few. Below is a cool pic, in the snow, of John B, for sale for some time now.
Here is a skeletal and unidentified fish tug.
Truckertim has sent a few along; Little Toot has got to be one of the more common names for a small tugboat. And it fits.
I like the color scheme.
I’d love to know the breadth here.
From Lewis Cobb, here’s one I’ve not seen in the sixth boro . . . Sea Coast, 60′ x 24′ and it has spent 41 years in Dann Marine colors.
Miss Judy, 59′ x 23′, works for a dredging company south of Norfolk, I believe.
A fantastic shot of Joker, here with her colors mimicked in the sunset, but who wore those colors better . . . why, Joker, of course. The 79′ x 25′ Joker used to work in the sixth boro–and out of it–as Taurus.
From Jake Van Reenen, up on the New York portion of the Saint Lawrence River, it’s Ruth Lucille, who’s gone into fresh water of the Great Lakes out of Milwaukee after working in salt water as Ocean Endeavor.
If you’ve never visited Clayton, you’re missing something. It’s a place I could move to.
And let’s end here with tugboat Hudson. I took this photo on July 3, 2017. I’m not answering the following question today. Where is Vane’s Hudson today?
Many thanks to all of you who’ve sent photos in.
Let’s end this post with a number Kai Ryssdal might be interested in : $11,200.
That’s today’s cost of moving a 40-foot shipping container from Shanghai to New York.
The 2010 post had a photo from 2009, so let me start this one with one from 2010. This photo made the cover of a NYS Restoration publication devoted to boats, but I lent my copy to someone and it’s never returned. If you know the publication, please let me know.
OK, let’s see one more from 2010, taken from the same bridge, but closer to the bank and less zoomed. Lots of folks come to these Roundups, but the number of working boats that can get there is decreasing because of increasing air draft and the inflexible 112th Street bridge, which also wiped out the viability of Matton shipyard.
The Roundup always begins with a parade, and that used to be always (in my times there) led by Urger.
Cornell and spawn named Augie waited on the wall in Troy.
Buffalo is now in Buffalo, and in less good condition. Here‘s more info on her. She’s 53′ x 16’ and worked for the Barge Canal from 1916 until 1973. Originally steam, she was repowered after WW2. See her engine, a Cooper Bessemer, running here back in 2007.
Wendy B was the show stealer in 2010. She looked good and no one I spoke with knew where she’d come from. She’s a 1940-build by Russel Brothers of Owen Sound ON, originally a steam tug called Lynn B. More info is here but you have to scroll.
8th Sea is a staple of the Roundup, probably has been since the beginning. She was built in 1953 at ST 2050 by American Electric Welding. That makes her a sister to ST 2062, now in the sixth boro as Robbins Reef, seen here if you scroll. Here‘s a tug44 description of tug and captain.
Small can still be salty, especially with this innovative propulsion . . . . Little Toot.
As I said, one of the traditions of the Roundup is that Urger leads the way. Here, above the federal lock, the boats muster. And traditions are important.
The active commercial boats line up at the wall nearest the Hudson River, but when a job needs doing, they head out.
Since the Roundup happens just below lock E-2 of the Erie Canal, the thoroughfare for the Great Loop, it’s not uncommon to see some long distance boats pass by. All I know about Merluza is that it’s the Spanish word for hake.
What happened to 2011 you may ask? Irene happened and the Roundup was cancelled. We’re indebted to tug44 for documenting the damage of that hurricane in the Mohawk Valley.
All photos, unless otherwise attributed, WVD.
I’ll devote a whole post once again to the 2012 races, since I have a lot of photos. What I did was look for the most dramatic or interesting photos and, in some cases, re-edited them. What I didn’t do is go back through the 2012 posts, but you can here if you want.
Again, you can identify these, or I’ll help you if you can’t. I call this the pre-race cluster, with some even pointing upstream, as if Yonkers would be the finish line.
The cluster continues as more boats arrive.
And then there’s the burn-out, or in this case . . . froth-out as two Cat D-399s crank out over 2200 hp.
The pack spreads out quickly. This was almost 60 seconds into the race. If this were a terrestrial drag race, the contest would already be over and the smoke clearer.
I’m not sure I’d want to be in a kayak, particularly a double, as all this wake translates into wave motion.
A full five minutes into the race, Quantico Creek‘s two Cat 3512 3000 hp power plants take her past the finish line with sturm und drang . . .
Seven minutes into the race . . . they’re still coming.
At the 19-minute mark, the race is over, but the bulls appear to have scores to settle . . .
and next thing you know . . . it’s tugboat rugby!
Tomorrow . . . how about returning to 2013.
All photos, WVD.
Yesterday’s post led with Jared S aka Cheyenne II, and so I’m grateful to Jason LaDue for sending along a photo he took before she sank into the Genesee River, where she still lies.
This next photo was taken by Renee Lutz Stanley, recently, as Pelham assisted the dead but lively Frying Pan to Caddell for some work. This is my first time seeing Frying Pan away from her berth at Pier 66. Previous posts with Frying Pan include this, this, and notably this; in the fifth photo of the “notable” third link there, you get a little background on Frying Pan and its name, as well as see the location the lightship MIGHT have ended up at as mainstay of a North Carolina maritime museum, which would have put it much closer to Frying Pan Shoal. Here and here are some recent posts with Pelham.
The next five photos I took on a recent gallivant down east. Little Toot, who works at Washburn & Doughty ( W & D) of East Boothbay, ME, appears to be a pristine-looking 1953 product of Roamer Boat company of Holland, MI.
On the opposite side of the big blue shed at W & D is one of East Boothbay’s newest almost completed tugs, likely the JRT Moran.
I saw Dorothy L (1965) twice while I was in the area inland from Monhegan, this time and once later but at about 0600 h and the light and motion of my ride didn’t lend itself to a good photo.
And here are some from the sixth boro, Haggerty Girls in the notch of RTC 107, and
And finally, a veteran . .. it’s Freddie K Miller inside the water and
out. For a wide range of photos of this boat’s life, click here.
Thanks to Jason and Renee for use of their photos. For more of Renee’s photos of the Frying Pan move, click here.
And here, verbatim, is my call for collaboration for November posts. Thanks to those of you who have already responded.
“And if you’re interested in collaboration, I invite your help for November posts. All month long I hope to feature different ports–harbors–waterways and their workboats, which means not only towing vessels, but also ferries, fish boats, maintenance vessels, even yachts with professional crews. I’ve been traveling a lot the past few months and have a fairly large backlog of boats from ports–harbors–waterways mostly in New England. But as a social medium, this blog thrives on collaboration, so no matter which waters are near you, I’m inviting you to send along photos of workboats from ports I might not get to. I’d need at least three interesting photos to warrant a focus on a port. Here are examples I’ve already done that illustrate what I’m thinking to do.”
As you know, today is the first full day of spring, and this morning roar man looked like this.
My neighborhood looked like this, and
a local shipyard looked like this, with snow obscuring the name entirely or
partly.
But lest you think I’m glum . . . my day blossomed as soon as I saw
this . . . juices–at least orange juice–flowing, infusing by the ton into the port. And this . . .
new life–at least a vessel new to me in the sixth boro. Welcome Josephine K. Miller.
And you guy below and friends, you gotta go.
All photos by Will Van Dorp. Snow obscured tug is of course Little Toot, only recently employed in North river icebreaking.
There was a Little Toot here half a year ago, but
this one, in spite of its name, can work.
Give it a more assertive name, please. Or, since this is time for “sirens on sunday,”
festoon it with a pudding like this.
Photos, WVD.
tugster: a waterblog 
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