Random Tugs 373

Kimberly Poling and barge lie alongside Maritime Gracious for lightering.

 

Eastern Dawn, here pushing a mini barge, continues to work in the sixth boro,

with a base over alongside the dormant Evening Tide. 

Bruce A. travels west in the East River after a job over near Throg’s Neck.

I love the “whitewater” on the uptown side of the 59th Street Bridge.

A mile or so behind Bruce A., Ellen McAllister passes  Rockefeller University’s River Campus.

Back exactly six years ago, pre-fab sections of the new campus building were lifted in place by a fleet of DonJon vessels here. 

And finally, in the late spring haze, it’s Mary Turecamo

approaching her next assist.

All photos, WVD, who’s entrusting these posts to the tugster tower robots.  Hat tip or whatever, robots.  Actually, I don’t even know how many robots are involved in this effort, since they appear happy to subsist on nothing more than the electricity I provide.

I’m trying to get together a post or two from my current location, which I was supposed to depart from a week ago . . .

Random Tugs 369

Happy spring.  All photos in this post were taken in winter two days ago and over a six-hour period.  Before noon, the five boros and the next state were obscured out of existence. I really think they didn’t exist during those hours, just like the imaginary sun crossed (??) the imaginary equator at 11:33 NYC time.  Crossed .  . by boat or chariot or blimp or goat cart . . .  I don’t know.

Kimberly  passed by and Robbins Reef was barely there.  Mariner brought boxes in, and Kirby passed by, and they might as well have been at sea.

Neptune shuttled by, and hints of Bayonne showed themselves.

Justine came by and the sunshine was making progress burning off the moisture.

When Cape Canaveral crossed in front of me, Manhattan was there, albeit like a matte painting;  right, that’s just a movie set, right?

The large gray ship . . . Soderman, that too was a different painted background, this time for Captain D.

Before Mary Turecamo appeared over on the starboard side of New York‘s trans-harbor load  of containers, I had no idea what I was seeing.

It wasn’t until well into the afternoon and–in the near distance–Bert Reinauer passed overtaking the Vane unit that I saw a boat pass by without a hint of fog.  That, however, was mostly due to the proximity

All photos, Friday, WVD.

Canal Tug Project M3

First I need to make a correction:  in M2 I stated that Tigre would have traveled through the Panama Canal;  she did not because she worked out of the Peruvian Amazon in the area of Iquitos!  Thanks to Paul Strubeck for the image below.  That would have been an interesting delivery!!

Next, photos and details of the STs Matton built in the first half of the 1940s are detailed in this fabulous site compiled by by Dan Friend.

Now we jump to 1954 and this photo showing a Cleveland 498 engine being lowered into a tugboat simply named Matton, which was reefed in 1990 as Troy.

Moving forward chronologically, William Lafferty has shared these two old Kodachromes taken on a sunny late September 1960 on the Welland Canal and I adapt from his comments:  “The 1957 Ralph E. Matton has entered the lock.  The tug was powered initially by a Cleveland Diesel 12-278, 2100 hp, later repowered with an EMD 16-567C.  It hauled oil barges on the Barge Canal and Great Lakes in the summer, mostly for Seaboard Shipping Corporation and Moran’s Morania division, and fuel oil barges in the winter on Long Island Sound. Its Great Lakes service ended by 1962.” 

To add my comment, the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959 effectively ended transportation of cargoes between salt water and the Great Lakes via the Barge Canal.

“Bart Turecamo  purchased the Matton operation in 1964 and the 84′ x 25′ Ralph E. Matton became the Mary Turecamo and then Albany in 1972 for American Dredging Company of Philadelphia. In 1994 it was sold to Casco Bay Towing Company, Portland ME, where it was dismantled in spring 2007.”

“Following the Matton tug, the 1923 UK-built Keybar was carrying 2600 tons of pulpwood for a mill in Erie PA.    Keybar would then proceed from Erie to Oswego to load coal for Montréal, clearing Oswego 4 October 1960.   The handsome Keybar (look at those windows beneath the pilothouse) was launched 19 March 1923 at South Bank-on-Tees, England, by Smith’s Dock Co., Ltd., for Keystone Transports Co., Ltd., Montréal, a shipping firm organized by the Montreal Power, Heat and Light Company, Ltd., to bring American coal to its generating plants.  Laid up at Kingston ON after the 1961 season, it arrived at Port Dalhousie ON for demolition on 1 June 1963.”

Matton launched Everglades in 1959.     Later, renamed Captain Nelson, she shows up in this submarine assist.   That particular submarine suffered substantial damage in a Kittery ME fire, and was subsequently decommissioned.    

Everglades was Matton’s only tugboat in 1959, and their only one in 1960 was Challenger.  Here she is after 1970 as Captain Brinn.    A 2012 image of her in Kingston, St. Vincent as Captain Bim can be found here.     This site claims she’s still afloat, but if you follow the location of her icon, she’s in mid-Sahara Desert, so  . . . uh, no.

Bart Turecamo was the first tugboat the shipyard produced after Turecamo had taken over the Hudson River shipyard. 

She’s still at work in Philadelphia bearing the same name, as seen in my photo from 2010.

After a series of launches for NYPD including the still extant No. 5, the yard released James Turecamo in December 1969, and she’s still works in the Albany area of the Hudson.  Has anyone seen James above the Troy Lock?

July 1971, the yard launched Mobil 1, which in 1992 was renamed Tioga and in 1993 was sold and renamed  Zachery Reinauer, still extant but I’ve not seen her in a long time.

In Sept 1976, the yard launched Largo Remo for Refineria Panama;  it eventually became Tridente and now (?) Vesca R-18.  Click on the photo below for more info.  Largo Remo is an island on the Caribbean side of Panama.

After Largo Remo, the yard produced only three more tugboats or boats of any kind:  Michael (now in Honduras as A. J. Ellis) , Joan, and Mary Turecamo, the latter in March 1983 being the very last.  Mary is alive and still working in the sixth boro, as evidenced in my photo from October 2021.

Many thanks to Paul Strubeck, William Lafferty, and the Canal Society for offer of and use of these photos.  Any errors in information attributable to WVD, and correction of such errors is appreciated.  Changes in font happen because of cutting/pasting.

Remember the Canal Society winter symposium is coming up a week from today;  I plan to be there.  Also, remember the conference in the early fall 2022.

 

Mary and Doris

Two boats working for the same company.  Mary Turecamo dates from 1983, and built in NYS at Matton Shipyard, their last build.  She’s 107′ x 32′ and brings 4300 hp to her work.

 

Doris Moran dates from around the same time, but built by McDermott in Louisiana. 

She’s a bit larger and more powerful than Mary, at 118′ x 34 and 4610 hp.

 

It’s always a joy to see them at work.

All photos, WVD, who has more Matton and Turecamo boats from the Canal Society archives coming soon.

People on the Boro 32

See the crew?

Scale is interesting here, even though Torrente is NOT a large container ship by today’s global standards.

Now you see him clearly, but recall the context provided by the first image.

That line is bigger around than his arm, yet gossamer compared with the ship and the tug.

With line all made up on the forward H-bitt, the crewman is done . . .  for the moment.

All photos, WVD.

Now contrast this set of photos with a set from almost a decade ago, when a crewman had a very bad day.

 

 

Dense Traffic 6

I’m surprised I’ve not used this title in almost a year, since the thought often comes my way that some very busy waterways exist in the sixth boro.  Like below with the four Moran tugs and one tanker.  Since three are headed to the left, you might be wondering why.  Easy . . .  those three–JRT, Kimberly, Margaret— are assisting an incoming ship, the single tug, Jonathan C,  in the foreground heading to the right will soon assist another ship coming in.  Polar Cod–a great name–is transferring petroleum product.

Here’s that incoming ship, exciting the birds as the ship and maybe stirring up the menhaden and their predators below.  We’ll get back to this.

Here’s a closer up of that fish/bird stirring ship, a torrent called Torrente.   Portside the ship is Mary Turecamo, and starboard, it’s the Belford-based Osprey. 

And here’s the most dense photo, eight tugboats from four different companies, two loaded container ships, and one tanker, all in less than two miles of waterway.

Getting back to all those birds and fish in the Con Hook Range . . .  a lot of people in small boats are putting their baited hooks in the water there.

Unrelated:  An unconfirmed report with this photo below says the 1912 Argo sank in Long Island Sound off Wading River NY on November 1.  Can anyone confirm that this happened?  I looked for a report but couldn’t find one anywhere.  To see a photo I took of it underway in the sixth boro just over 10 years ago, click here. And here, taken in June 2011.

The photo below was posted by Steve Adkins and said to be taken by USCG responding to the distress.

All photos except the last one, WVD.

Random Tugs 355

Happy 31st, aka Halloween, World Savings Day, Day of Seven Billion, National Candy Apple Day, Annual visit a cemetery or graveyard day . . . and more.  If you need suggestions for a graveyard, consider this one.  And just yesterday, I learned of this one and this one.  Who knew?!!?  Want to revisit a tugster ghost post?

For this post, there’s a quiz.  The first part is … name the oldest and newest boat here.  The second part … identify the only two boats here NOT built in Louisiana.  Of course, building is one thing, and designing is another.

All photos taken this October.  Susan Miller,

Miriam Moran and Pegasus,

Andrea,

Gregg McAllister,

Robert IV,

Buchanan 12,

Navigator,

Robert Burton,

Shawn Miller,

Pearl Coast,

Miss Ila,

Mary Turecamo,

and the always seasonal Kimberly Turecamo.

There you have it . . . And I’ll give the answers tomorrow.

And my question is . . .  who is Miss Ila‘s namesake and what do you call that shade of red?

Sixth Boro Details 11

Just photos will appear here today, and I realize I’m contradicting that statement by writing this sentence and the others.  However,  inspiration was failing me, so I decided this post should be not photo-driven, but photo-dominated.  Names are provided in the tags.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday started sunny, but then clouds moved in.

Random Tugs 354

The sixth boro offers many vistas.  Enjoy a few, starting with Sarah D towing a deeply loaded scow past Bay Ridge. 

At sunrise, Atlantic Salvor and Patrice McAllister head in the same direction for different tasks past Stapleton Heights.

Jonathan C works shipside on the ConHook range in the sixth boro

Julie Anne heads north or so inside the VZ Bridge.  I should know what buoys are there, but . . . I don’t.

Sarah D again and here shipside in the KVK.

Mary Turecamo assists alongside a rust-flecked box ship.

Seeley pushes Weeks 250 eastbound in the Kills.

Kirby Moran, Patrice McAllister, and Gregg McAllister assist another box ship, as Marie J Turecamo heads in their direction.

Sea Fox moves a barge past Global terminal in Bayonne.

Navigator rotates clockwise away from St George and heads north.

And finally, Charles James stands by with a scow off Sunset Park.

All photos and any errors, WVD.

 

Random Tugs 353

Barry Silverton first came to the sixth boro five and a half years ago.  Her twin Emery Zidell appeared here earlier this year, and i believe this is the first time to catch the ATB light and head on.

Roughly the same size, Haggerty Girls waits alongside as RTC 80 loads.

Mary Turecamo heads out  to meet a ship.  Mary Turecamo, Haggerty Girls, and Emery Zidell are all over 105′ and 4000 or more horsepower.

Margaret Moran here hangs close to a bulk carrier she’s escorting in.

Like Margaret above, Buchanan 12 is rated at 3000 hp and each has worked under the same name for the same company since coming from the shipyard. Buchanan 12 is a regular shuttling stone scows between the quarries up the Hudson and the sixth boro.

Franklin Reinauer has operated under that name since coming from the shipyard nearly 40 years ago.

I first saw Fort Point in Gloucester here over five years ago.

Joker seems to have become a regular in the sixth boro since this summer.  She used to be a regular here as Taurus.

Known as Brendan Turecamo for the past 30 years, this 1975 3900 hp tug is getting some TLC up on the floating drydock.

All photos here where we leave it today, WVD.