Along the Canal E28A

Rebecca Ann, shown here just above E28A,  has served as Donjon’s Erie Canal tug recently. Nearby is Witte 1407, which she delivered, and [Daniel] Joncaire, formerly of the Niagara River.

 

My question was . . . what will this “reef run” on the Canal pick up for the reef?  Here’s the background on this reef business.

This question is especially acute since the dry dock is fairly empty.  Although the large rectangular openings make it clear that this barge in the foreground will go, currently between that barge and Rebecca Ann is the venerable [and vulnerable] Grouper.

While I was at the lock, these canoeists appeared from the direction of lock E28B, and when the lock master opened the gate, I concluded I might witness my first time seeing canoes lock through.

Without fanfare,

valves allow about two million gallons of water move downstream and lower the water level for these paddlers.

Happy trails!

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Many thanks to Bob Stopper for the heads up.

 

One Boat Six Decades

Many thanks to Lee Rust for working with the two photos immediately below, showing a boat frequently featured here.

Photo to the left was taken near the elevators in Manitowoc in a slip now filled in and frequently piled high with coal adjacent to Badger‘s slip. In the 1959 photo, the tug was owned by C. Reiss Coal Company. The tug had recently been repainted and repowered (1957).   Badger gets regular maintenance, so a similar treatment of that vessel would not evoke the same emotions.

Technically, the two photos above were 58 years apart, so I added the two below which I took in Lyons NY earlier in 2019; hence, six decades apart.

 

Thanks to Lee and Jeff for providing these photos.

Unrelated:  Check out freighterfreak’s photos from Duluth here.

Anyone have similar juxtapositions of a single vessel or vehicle across time, please send it in.

High and Dry 10

Here are previous posts in this series.  Other titles with the word hulls can be found here.

I’ve taken all these photos since the start of 2019.  The one below is a leap forward:  that’s my first view of the 1912 hull of the oft-mentioned tug I know as Grouper.  This might be the year of destiny for this 107-year-old boat, although I’ve thought that many times before. If plans are to emerge from the foundry of all possibilities, this is the time to forge them.

A decade and a half younger at 90 years young, Kentucky illustrates the draft on these tugs.

Tender #1 will also be 90 years in service this year.

Fairchild is the youngster in this set . . . launched in 1953 at Roamer Boat in Holland. MI

And finally, I don’t believe this is the 1938 Kam.  But what boat is this?  And why are those square openings in the hull just above the waterline?  And is this the Purvis scrapyard?

All photos by Will Van Dorp, in Lyons NY and the Soo.

 

Canal Reef Express 4a

Here are the previous posts in this series.  And here are the posts I’ve done earlier on the 1929 Ward’s Island, whose builder’s plate photo I took in October 2016.  I was told it was removed some time ago and is in a safe place.  Here was my first post on “Ward’s.”

As a baseline photo of the double-ender ferry entered a second life in 1937 as a derrick boat or “crane ship,” I offer this shot I took in Lyons in March 2018.  That’s snow in the foreground.

In one of her most notable roles, she assisted in the clean up near lock E-12 after the Thruway bridge collapsed into Schoharie Creek, an event I recall vividly because I traversed that bridge just the day before.

Note the bow prop.  I wonder if at one time it had a rudder, as

you see in this photo of the stern prop.

The rest of these photos come from Bob Stopper.  Notice the glass has been removed from the wheelhouse, but the flag still flies.

Little by little, its crane abilities are removed and placed alongside the dry dock.

 

Pulling the shafts proved complicated,

x

but eventually the once crane ship looks more like a curvaceous barge.

Who knows whether these props will be reefed along with the ship . . . .?

 

A tug is expected to arrive in  Lyons imminently to move this vessel from central–almost western New York–to tidewater, then down the Hudson, and out to the designated reefing ground.

And in other news from Lyons, here’s who showed up late Tuesday afternoon . . . with some new signage on the stack and engine cover.  Compare with here from a month ago . . .

 

1923 Buffalo Auction Follow-up

More than half a year ago, Buffalo was auctioned off, and in my circles, no one knew what had become of her.  Some were speculating she had gone for scrap.  She lay against the wall in the dry dock all winter, but when spring came, she disappeared and some thought she had been scrapped.

It turns out she recently headed for Buffalo, and is currently making her way across the state of New York.  These photos from Jason LaDue show her westbound at Lock E28A in Lyons NY.

She ran on her own power at the RoundUp in 2012, but right now her power unit is this crew boat.

 

Here she passes through the center of Newark.  The weather now is so much more comfortable than a week ago.  Can you read the banner atop the deck house  . . .”bringing the Buffalo back to Buffalo.”  Yes!!

Here’s a closer up of the banner showing the Lardon Group web address, and

on the push boat, Union Concrete . . . .

Now on to the next town .  . Palmyra, and the next three photos were taken by Jim Hastings.

 

Tomorrow, I gather, the flotilla continues westbound.

And finally, two more from Jason LaDue.  As to the slogan on Waterford’s logo, I’d raise the point that just as Waterford is a gateway to the New York State Canal System, so is Buffalo, and so are Whitehall, Troy, and Oswego, for that matter. It just depends on your direction and coordinates of entrance.

As attractive as this shot is, my guess is that the boats have already moved west.

Many thanks to Jason and Jim for taking these photos.  I’ll be looking for Buffalo in Buffalo this August or September.

For many more photos of her taken some years back by Fred of tug44, click here.

 

Other Peoples Photos 63

Jack Ronalds took this photo of Ontario (Jeffrey K. McAllister) and Erie (Missy McAllister) in Canso back in August 2016.

John Jedrlinic took this in the sixth boro in December 2008.

I took the photo below a few months earlier in 2008, as the transfer from Normandy to Ross Sea was happening.

Grouper has been featured here many, many times over the years, but you’ve never seen this much of her out of the water;  it’s “draw-down” time on the Erie Canal near lock E-28A.  These photos come from Bob Stopper a few weeks ago.

 

From Bangkok, Ashley Hutto sends along photos of a decidedly pastel Thai tug

with two barges

on a hawser.

Thanks to Jack, Jed, Bob, and Ashley for these photos.

 

More Cargoes 19 b

More than a week ago, these tanks entered the Erie Canal system at lock E-2 in Waterford.  Sunday afternoon they tied up for the night in Lyons below E-27.  Let’s call the first nine photos here Batch 1.

 

This morning early, they made their way through E-27 and then on to E-28A.

Here’s a view back toward E-27 and the village of Lyons . . . around the bend.

The forward most barge gets pushed in, unmade from the second barge, and then CMT Otter reverses out with that second barge.

The unaccompanied barge is moved out the upper gates by means of the capstan, a machine as old as the Barge Canal and very infrequently used.

After this barge is moved forward and secured to the wall, the gates close, the lock is drained, the lower gates opened, and the rest of the tow enters to be raised to the level of the forward barge.

These next photos taken west of Newark . . . E-28 B . . . show just how narrow this part of the Canal is, and

silt that’s lain on the bottom gets stirred up.

Here’s an article from the NYTimes, but I wish the author had spoken with a wider range of informants.

Many thanks to Bob Stopper (1,2, 6, 7) , Jason Ladue (8, 9) , and John Van Dorp (3, 4, 5) for these photos.

Now Batch 2, thanks to Bob Stopper.  Bob took this batch this morning very near my “upstate home,”  between Newark and Widewaters.  Note that this batch is moved by HR Pike.  

For a long tow, this part of the Canal  (same as here) is very narrow.

It’s mind-boggling that these inland waters are directly connected to the Pacific Ocean and China, but it’s the case.

The school bus here is crossing the Whitbeck Road Bridge, a span I’ve crossed probably a thousand times . . .

Many thanks to all, especially to Bob Stopper, who was unstoppable in getting these photos just this morning.

 

 

 

Sojourn Sixth Boro Bound

You may remember the Sojourn story here, about a Belgian freight barge that the original owner and builder sold, lost track of, and then rediscovered in upstate New York?  Here was how she arrived in upstate NY.

Well, after two years of work, she’s under way–just ahead of winter storm Argos.  These photos were taken yesterday (Thursday) by Bob Stopper up in Lyons, NY.  Below, Sojourn is easing not Lock 28A,

heading for Lock 27, and

and out of the canal before it closes, draw-down takes place, and ice invades.

Calling all eastern Erie Canal watchers and Hudson River photographers, here’s Bob’s short background to the vessel:

“First arrived in Lyons on November 12, 2013 . The boat was built in 1963 and originally used as a coal and materials barge. It was used for over 40 years by the same family, but eventually because of family illness, the barge was sold. The barge was purchased by Paula Meehan, founder of Redken Cosmetics, renamed the Sojourn, and converted in 2006  to a Hotel Barge and used for high style cruises in France. Ms Redken shipped the barge via freighter to America with the intention of cruising American waters, especially the Erie Canal. Unfortunately, Ms Redkin died in 2014, and the barge returned to the Lyons Dydock on October 15, 2014. It sat  in the Lyons Drydock and began to deteriorate  until purchased by a young hi-tech  internet entrepreneur from the state of Washington. The newly renovated barge, 126′ x 18′,  left Lyons on November 17 headed for its new home in the NYC Harbor.”

 

All photos by Bob Stopper.

You may recall that my connection with Lyons is that it’s the county seat of the county where I grew up.  It’s also the county where Grouper languishes, about to freeze into another canal winter.

 

Thanks to Robert Stopper

When I noticed someone standing on a bridge in this rural area, I suspected it might be Bob, a person I’d never met but  . . . click here to see how many posts he’s already contributed to.

Anyhow, I was not surprised when later I received the following photos…

… all taken between Clyde and Lyons by Robert Stopper.

Thank, Bob, and great to meet you.