You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Margot’ tag.
Another TBR is in the books. Where else can you see very upclose and personal some much-loved boats. I can and might do a post on each of these boats, but for now, just a survey.
Shoofly . . . complete name is Shoofly Pie. If you want actual detail, click here and scroll; you’ll see some profile of each of these boats (and others). All I’ll say about Shoofly is that she’s a WW2 naval vessel evolved into a rat rod (We need a new term for this category.) vessel. It has also likely sailed the greatest number of places, freshwater and salt. I’ve photographed this boat before, but somehow, it’s never made it onto this blog. Some explanation follows.
I frame this as a comparison of push knees on Edna A and J. Arnold Witte.
How about this as a frame– l to r, Nathan G, Margot, Benjamin Elliot, and Edna A. — involving two-thirds of the NYS Marine Highway boats participating in the event. Then another set of NYS Marine was not present . . . working . . . .
CMT Otter . . . represented Coeymans. I learned some modification history of this boat last weekend. It was once Delta Ram and looked like this.
This vessel is the fourth in the series of Atlantic Hunter boats. I had photos of Atlantic Hunter IV (under a different name last year) but those photos like those of Shoofly . . . disappeared.
My Pal Sal is not the latest government boat purchased by NYS Canals, although you might suspect otherwise. To stray down a tangent though; Sal has a song named for her; we really need a popular ditty about canal tugboats . . . any or all of them. Lobby your favorite songwriter or channel your own inner songwriter muse.
W. O. Decker looked spectacular! Last time I saw her some details were not the same.
Joncaire is several years into her new livery; she used to be the red of NYPA Niagara River boom maintenance fleet, as seen here (scroll).
Here’s the view from the 4th Street Bridge, and
here from the 2nd Street Bridge.
All photos yesterday, WVD, who got out there before many people were crowding the bulkhead.
I missed a lot of folks who were there because I stayed in the welcome center most of the time, listening to the talks.
June 2012 was pivotal for me. A photo sent along by a friend alerted me to Canal commerce–Canadian corn– entering the US at Oswego, a place I knew something of from my youth.
If that was a spark, then the breeze that fanned it was an invitation to do my trial article for Professional Mariner magazine, which led me to Kingston NY, the mouth of the Rondout, and a project involving use of a half century old tug Cornell to do TOAR signoffs. My most recent article in the magazine came out today and can be seen here.
On that assignment, I was privileged to have a mentor, Brian Gauvin, do the photography.
Other big events for June 2012 included the movement of shuttle Enterprise from JFK airport ,
ultimately to the Intrepid Museum to be
hoisted onto the flight deck as part of the display, now covered.
My daughter went off to Brasil (again) and the Amazon, leading me to go there myself a year later, fearing she’d never return because she loved it so much there.
I’d given her a camera before she went, and was rewarded with some quite interesting photos, like these small motor boats that looked almost like slippers …
with straight shafts coming straight out of air-cooled engines.
During my trip up to the Rondout, I stopped in Newburgh, where replicas of La Niña and Pinta, crafted using traditional techniques on the Una River in Bahia, Brasil, attracted crowds, one of many stops along the great loop route.
Other festivities on the Hudson that summer . . .
included the sails and music associated with the Clearwater Festival, and of course the small boats moving in some of the venues.
Patty Nolan and Augie were the small tugs, and of course the sailboats including Mystic Whaler, Woody Guthrie,
and of course the sloop Clearwater. The Clearwater organization will not be doing a music festival in June 2022. Mystic Whaler is now working in Oxnard CA at the Channel Islands Museum.
Summer time and the living is easy well, at least it feels that way some days . . . .
All photos, except the first one, WVD. That first photo was taken by Allan H. Seymour.
An omen of the future . . . in 2013, Urger was laid up, sans her problematic prop shaft. Here she’s nez-a-nez with Day Peckinpaugh.
Gowanus Bay was looking good.
NYS Marine Highway was well represented,
as always. And following two of the four NYS Marine Highway boats there was Cornell, Frances and Margot‘s senior by the better part of a decade.
If you’ve never attended, trust me when I say the fireworks show is extraordinary! Here from the bulkhead a dozen or so thousand spectators
and a few on solo craft
are captivated by the show.
I can’t tell you much about Iron Chief, except that it has nice brass, a working steam engine, and was for sale in 2012. In that link, you hear it run. Of course, in the distance that’s ex-Atlantic Hunter, now Little Giant.
For me personally, 2013 was my first time to see the Blount Small Ship Adventures vessels head into a lock.
Besides tugboats, you never know what or who you might see.
it’s bowsprite of the blog and the etsy shop on an underwater mission.
Here’s the line up.
All photos, WVD.
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.
Back in 2010, I did four posts about the weekend, which you can see here. What I did for today’s post was look through the archives and just pick the photos that for a variety of reasons jumped out at me. A perk is each of the four posts has some video I made. One of these photos is from 2006.
Again, I’m not listing all the names, but you may know many of these. In other cases, you can just read the name. If you plug that name into the search window, you can see what other posts featured that particular vessel.
Below, here the pack that locked through the federal lock together make their way en masse toward the wall in Waterford.
You’ll see a lot of repetition here.
The photo above and most below were taken earlier than the top photo; here, Chancellor and Decker head southbound for the lock to meet others of the procession beginning in Albany.
2020 is Decker‘s 90th year.
Nope, it’s not Cheyenne. Alas, Crow became razor blades half a decade back.
Technically, not a tugboat, but Hestia is special. We may not have a functioning steam powered tug in the US, but we do have steam launches like Hestia, with very logical names.
You correctly conclude that I was quite smitten by Decker at the roundup back 10 years ago.
All photos, WVD.
And Shenandoah was not from 2010. It was 2009.
This title goes back more than 10 years. But I got some congested photos recently, so I dredge up an old title. Count the boats of all sizes here. Of course, foreshortening makes them seem much closer to each other than they really are. I count at least 12 vessels on the photo below, including some I had not noticed when I took it.
There are five here, and maybe two miles of separation between the two container ships.
Three operations were happening simultaneously in this stretch of the channel, and all were either stemming or moving very slowly.
Again, there’s lots of foreshortening here.
It may be exhilarating to get this close to a large ship, but if your engine stalls . . . stuff’ll happen really fast.
Here’s a different sort of “traffic” photo from august 31, 2008 . . . exactly 12 years ago. And it gives me an idea for a post. By the way, left to right, can you name at least half of the 12 boats at least partly visible here?
All photos, WVD.
x
As of this morning, USS Slater is back to Albany again, after its latest shipyard visit.
Below, thanks to Tim Rizzuto, are some photos from exactly 27 years ago, showing two McAllister tugboats assisting the large Russian, now Ukrainian, tugboat Gepard, which successfully delivered Slater from the Mediterranean to the sixth boro. I know this is a digression, but Gepard has an “exciting” history. It’s still working, currently in the Black Sea.
Maybe someone can assist in identifying the two McAllister tugs. This photo shows the significant difference in beam: Gepard 66′ and Slater 37’…
From 1993, let’s jump to 1997. Jeff Anzevino got the following photos as the destroyer escort made its initial trip up the Hudson to Albany. Jeff has contributed many photos to this blog, going back almost to the beginning. The tug pictured her is Rainbow, currently called Patriotic, which has been in the Morris Canal for quite a long time. Patriotic is a 1937 Bushey build.
Also assisting in the 1997 tow were Benjamin Elliot and Mame Faye!
Jeff also caught the tow back in 2014. And . . . is that Margot on starboard? That IS Benjamin Elliot on port.
Many thanks to Tim Rizzuto and Jeff Anzevino for use of these photos. If you’re interested in donating to USS Slater.org to help defray expenses, click here.
I’d really appreciate identification of the McAllister tugs above.
My previous Slater posts can be found here.
Decked out in canvas for the postponed move last week, it’s the venerable Margot. She’s appeared on this blog many times, house up as below and house down as here.
Believe it or not, Saint Emilion appears here for the first time, although she’s been here as Arabian Sea and Barbara C. The fisherman in the background was catching too many fish to vacate that spot.
Franklin Reinauer . . . she’s a classic.
Lincoln Sea . . . for me is a different kind of classic.
Gulf Coast is an infrequent visitor in the sixth boro.
Crystal Cutler has appeared here many times since her first arrival as a newbuild in 2010.
Cape Henry is one of three
Kirby boats of the same design.
Could Lincoln Sea look any better?
And to end . . . have a look at Thomas D. Witte, a 1961 tug that looks great.
All photos, WVD.
I hope you all enjoy looking at these retro posts as much as I do putting them together. I’m seeing that 2010 was the year I started to gallivant extensively, so the division for July 2010 retrospective is part a is for local, and part b will be for away.
Count the boats in the photo below! Greenland Sea is prominent, but in the distance, find a Staten Island ferry, QM2, Susan (?) Miller, a dredge operation where I see Rae, and a Reinauer tug (Ruth?) beyond that! Greenland Sea is now on the hard in Houma LA, the SI ferries run regularly but with fewer passengers due to the covid catastophes, QM2 is in Southampton, the Miller boats are still busy, Rae is kept in reserve for special projects designed for a 46′ tug, navigation dredging is over for now, and the Reinauer tugs have proliferated and keep busy.
Navigation dredging has created deeper channels, and the Bayonne Bridge has been raised. Miss Gill is now in Jacksonville FL, and GL 55, the dumper scow, is wherever work may require her.
The formerly-yellow submarine is located at the entrance to Coney Island Creek, a place I’ve not been to in almost a decade.
I never did identify the wrecks at the mouth of said Creek, which seemed then to have an abundance of blue-clawed crabs.
Jane A. Bouchard languishes along with the rest of the fleet, and Cape Cod, with one of the intra-port SSS barges here, has moved to Philly, last I knew.
Barbara McAllister pushes B. No. 262 with an assist from Ron G. Barbara has not been in the sixth boro in quite a while, the 262 is laid up, and Ron G has been sold south.
Cape Race arrives here in Atlantic Basin, with a much-changed lower Manhattan skyline. The former fishing trawler/now expedition yacht is currently on the Elbe, south of Hamburg.
Margot still “keeps on pushing,” although I’ve not seen her down in the sixth boro of late.
And here, Patty Nolan passes a wreck–I’ve not yet identified it . . . maybe you have–inside Sommerville Basin in coastal Queens. Patty Nolan has been on the hard a few years.
And here’s a photo taken exactly a decade ago today . . . an unnamed houseboat being towed from Peekskill to Queens, not a view you see every day. It’s Patty Nolan towing with gatelines. Here and here she tows other houseboats.
All photos, WVD, who wishes everyone health and patience in this difficult time. Also, these “retro sixth boro” posts take us back only one decade. It’d be great to locate more photos of identifiable locations going back 50 or so years, the fifth dimension of time photos.
This happens to be the 1953 Hobo, but any boat single, twin, triple, or quadruple looks like this when first hauled out.
And here . . . after a shave and haircut,and some good pomade. She’s 38′ 12′.
The unicorn here is W. O. Decker, 1930, wooden-hulled. She’d been power washed but was waiting for more work. The 52′ x 15′ tug would be out doing tours had it not been for COVID.
I leave this one as the quiz. Name that single-screwed tugboat. I realize there’s really no clues. you just need to go through your list of single-screwed tugs working in the sixth boro.
The 66′ x 18′ 1940 Ireland is up on Lake Ontario, living under a new name . . . Hoppiness the Tug. The main engine has been pulled, and soon she’ll be high and dry up on the Great Lake.
This was assuredly the 1944 Capt. Mackintire‘s last haul out. the 1944 tug was 80′ x 23′ hauled out here in Belfast ME. She sank in 158’ of water three miles off Kennebunkport ME in February 2018.
The 1958 Margot is 85′ x 24′ and has been featured on this blog many times.
And that’s all I got. Thanks to Donna for sending along the photos of Hobo. All others, WVD.
And the mystery tug is Frances, a year older than Margot but with otherwise virtually the same dimensions.
tugster: a waterblog 
Recent Comments