RetroJune 2012-16

It’s hard settling back into the blog after being in steamy alligatorland for most of the month, and didn’t even expect to be suddenly back.  So my solution, the ether in my air intake, so to speak, is to just somewhat randomly choose and post photos I took in Junes from 2012 through 2016.

Starting with June 2012, behold Sam M and

Buchanan 1.  I recall learning that Sam M made its way to Alaska, and Buchanan 1 . . . to the Rondout.  Would you consider Sam M to be a lugger tug?

June 2013 took me to Philly a few times, where I got photos of  Madeline and Captain Harry in the distance and

Sentry pulling El Rey, San Juan bound.  The two Wilmington Tug vessels still work the Delaware River, whereas Sentry–last I read–flies the Bolivian flag. I should get down to Philly again one of these days.

In 2014 it’s Navigator and

Sabine.   Navigator is still based in the sixth boro and Sabine is in the GOM.

In 2015, it’s Stephen B–still in the sixth boro–and

Evening Star, along with Wavertree during her makeover.  Stephen B still works out of the boro by that name although Evening Star now has started working out of the boro again as Jordan Rose. 

And 2016, it’s Eric McAllister and

a newly arrived Jonathan C Moran.  Jonathan is still here, but Eric is in Baltimore.

All photos in a series of Junes, WVD, who does Junes from 2017 through 2021 tomorrow.

Retro Sixth Boro 29

August can be hazy, and it appears that some August days in 2010 were, as below when Colleen McAllister towed dredge spoils scow GL 501 out and Brendan Turecamo (?) moved Bouchard barge B.No. 260 westbound in the Kills.  Colleen has now traveled from sun to ice out to the Great Lakes, where the 1967 4300 hp tug is currently laid up.   Brendan is alive and well and working in the sixth boro.

Kimberly Poling, then in a slightly different livery than now,  pushed Noelle Cutler in the same direction.  Both still work the waters in and out of the sixth boro.

These days I just don’t spend much time near the sixth boro at dusk, but here Aegean Sea pushes a barge northbound in the Upper Bay.  Aegean now works the Massachusetts coast, and I recall she’s made at least one trip back to the Hudson since 2013.

On a jaunt on the lower Delaware, I caught Madeline easing the bow of Delta Ocean into a dock.  The 2008 4200 hp Gladding Hearn tug is still working in the Wilmington DE area. Delta Ocean, a 2010 crude carrier at 157444 dwt, almost qualifies as a VLCC. She’s currently in Singapore.

Madeline is assisted here by Lindsey, the 60′ 1989 Gladding Hearn z-drive boat rated at 2760 hp.

Duty towed a barge downstream near Wilmington.

Recently she has sold to South Puerto Rico Towing and Boat Services, where the 3000 hp tug is now called Nydia P.  I’d love to see her in SPRT mustard and red colors.

I traveled from the sixth boro to Philadelphia as crew on 1901 three-masted barkentine Gazela.  In upper Delaware Bay, we were overtaken by US EPA Bold and Brandywine pushing barge Double Skin 141.  Gazela, like other mostly volunteer-maintained vessels, is quiet now due to covid, but check out their FB page at Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild.   US EPA Bold, now flying the flag of Vanuatu and called Bold Explorer, is southwest of Victoria BC on the Salish Sea. She was built in 1989 as USNS Bold.  Brandywine, a 2006 6000 hp product of Marinette WI, has today just departed Savanna GA.

Getting this photo of the barkentine, and myself if you enlarge it, was a feat of coincidence and almost-instant networking, the story I’ll not tell here.

On a trip inland, I caught Tender #1 pushing an ancient barge through lock E-28B.  I believe Tender #1 is still in service.

From a beach in Coney Island one morning, I caught Edith Thornton towing a barge into Jamaica Bay on very short gatelines.  Edith is a 104′ x 26 1951-built Reading RR tug that passed through many hands.  currently it’s Chassidy, working out of Trinidad and Tobago.

Here’s another version I shot that morning. For even more, click here.

The mighty Brangus assisted dredge Florida.  Back in those days, the channels of the sixth boro were being deepened to allow today’s ULCVs–like CMA CGM T.Jefferson— to serve the sixth boro.  If I’m not mistaken, Brangus has been a GLDD tug since it was built in 1965. Currently she’s in the Elizabeth River in VA.

Here she tends the shear leg portion of a GLDD dredging job.  See the cutterhead to the left of the helmeted crew?

On another hazy day, a light Heron heads for the Kills.  The 1968-built 106′ x 30′ tug rated at 3200 hp was sold to Nigerian interests in 2012.   I’d love to see her in her current livery and context.

Java Sea resurfaced in Seattle as part of the Boyer fleet and now called Kinani H, seen here on tugster just a month ago.    The 110′ x 32′ tug was launched in 1981 as Patriot.

And finally . . . probably the only time I saw her, crewboat Alert.  She appears to be a Reinauer vessel.

All photos, WVD, from August 2010.  If you want to see an unusual tugster post from that month, click here.

For some unusual August 2010 posts, click here.

 

 

Really Random Tugs 23

The difference between “really random” and just “random” is that with the former, I include photos taken in different waterways and ports.  Guess the ports/waterways here?

All these photos have been taken during the past 30 days by Will Van Dorp, who needed to do a random __ tugs post to dispel notions that this blog has succumbed to focus creep.  Soon, maybe tomorrow, I’ll return to my zoning of the canal.  I’ll also return to some background vessels in this post.

Oh . .  the first four photos were taken near the Delaware River in Philly, the next two were in the KVK, the following was the Hudson river across from the mouth of the Rondout and the now-derelict Delaware & Hudson Canal, and the last one was between locks 7 and 6 in the Erie Canal.  I included the KVK pics to show that although I’m mostly gallivanting these days, mu roots still remain emplaned in the sixth boro.

Really Random Tugs 13

This NYPD officer of the peace got tugged right into a recent parade.  When that happens, you know all things could get downright disorderly.

This last June post is a melange of Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79 in a setting rays irritating my camera,

Patuxent in the Philly dawn,

Sea Hawk approaching the St. John’s Bridge,

Patuxent redux,

Natoma docked in the Columbia,

Caspian Sea in the Delaware,

Surrie Moran in the same waters,

Aries in Portland,

Madeline,

Black Hawk,

more Black Hawk, 

Cape Henry,

again Madeline,

and finally Lewiston.

Rounding things out, it’s Siberian Sea in palm trees country aka the sixth boro, taken about a year ago.  I will resume the blog as soon as I can in a land with more palm trees

Thanks for reading the blog and sending comments either here or via email.  Sorry if I haven’t acknowledged everyone who’s sent along a tidbit or nice word.

If you’ve never taken a Working Harbor tour in NYC’s sixth boro, here’s info.  If you  know the sixth boro pretty well–especially the contemporary commercial aspects of it, you might even propose to them to narrate a tour.  That’s just me suggesting that, but there are folks who want to better understand the role of shipping and its interaction between the sixth boro and the five terrestrial ones.

Thanks to Seth Tane for the fotos of Aries, Black Hawk, Lewiston, Nahoma, and Sea Hawk.  All others by Will Van Dorp who hopes to next post from the obscure January River.

Delaware Traffic 3

River traffic travels in all weather and times of day.   So at first I was dismayed to be without my camera, but fortunately Elizabeth had hers when Timothy McAllister came past and got

really close.  Thanks to the crew, whose demonstration probably inspired some young’uns to want to grow up and be mariners.

Earlier Madeline had moseyed past, checking out Gazela and all else along the PA side while

Captain Harry did the same on the NJ side.

While the rain fell, Caspian Sea headed out as

Teresa McAllister headed upriver.

as did Reid McAllister.

Art and reality mimic each other.  At the Independence Seaport Museum, you have just over a month left to see the exhibit of friend and marine artist Dave Boone’s work and wit.

You’ll be thrilled by the paintings and the biographical materials.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, except the first two by Elizabeth Wood, who had a charged phone.