Really Random Tugs 42

Naming the setting is easy, but can you name this tug?  I thought it was Emerald Coast with a modified paint job.

It’s a newbie in town from the Harley Gulf fleet, appropriately named Lightning, given that sky. .

Iron Salvor I’d seen before, but at the dock.  The other day she loaded some fuel at the IMTT pump.  Her intriguing history was commented on here from two months ago.

I don’t believe I’ve seen Kodi before.

She comes from across Raritan Bay, from Belford.

Let’s mix things up with a photo from about 10 years ago . . . Swift, a 1958 tug out of New Haven.

I’ve never seen Miss Circle Line away from the dock, but getting this photo on a stroll along the Hudson the other day led me to discover (maybe again) that she’s a 1955 product of Matton’s shipyard, although she doesn’t appear on this shipyard list, unless my eyes fail me or the list is incomplete.

To go over to Europe, from Jed . . . it’s Union 5. 

photo date 15 JUNE 2017

And a rare shot from Jed, it’s Japanese tug Azusa.  Since then, she’s been sold to Indian concerns and operates as Ocean Marvel out of the port of Krishnapatnam.  Scroll down on that link to see a drawing of elephants being loaded . . . likely more than a half century ago.

photo date 16 Jan 2008

And in closing, here’s Decker and Matilda, photo I took on May 26, 2008.  Where does the time go?

Thanks to Jed for use of his photos, many more of which are in the hopper.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

 

Decker with Company

William Oscar (W. O.) Decker, the restored tugboat operated by South Street Seaport, is available for charter. I wrote about it here last year. We crossed paths in Kingston Memorial weekend Saturday night. Here she’s docked beside Mathilda, shorepiece of Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, NY.

Mathilda dates from 1898; Decker from 1930. Both originally used steam power; Mathilda was never converted. Other connections between Mathilda and Decker . . . at South Street Seaport exist.

Decker slipped out of Rondout Creek with little more than a horn blast Sunday morning. I heard no line commands.

I recently saw an issue of Lekko, whose website I urge you to check out. The explanation I got for the title is this: “Lekko” is the spelling of the line command Dutch dock workers (my ancestors) “heard” as English sailors were leaving the dock. Maybe there’s another magazine called “kastof.”

To round out this post, here’s Crow headed north off Yonkers. Mathilda, Decker, and Crow–built 1963 in Brooklyn–are each spaced about a human generation apart.

Crow works for Port Albany Ventures, owner also of the mystery tug in Random Tugs 17, identified by Harold E. Tartell, who also supplied the close-up below, as Herbert P. Brake. Check out this link to learn of Mr. Brake and materials he used to construct this push boat. More on Brake in this really interesting blog.

This is a post that wants to go on and on. Alice, for example, is in Marseille. Yeah! and I”m outa the sixth boro and may/may not post from the Ohio River. On verra.