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I really enjoy putting together this monthly feature, opening the archives from a decade back to see what I did and saw. I just happened to walk past South Street Seaport that morning and caught Lettie G. Howard returning from repairs in Maine. See more from the set here. She turned 130 in the Great Lakes this year.
The 1977 McAllister Sisters continues to carry that only name she’s ever had. Two changes, though, are she’s lost the upper wheelhouse and she’s moved to Baltimore.
It’s the time of year for clamming in the sixth boro. I’ve not seen Dutch Girl yet this year, although I believe I spotted Eastern Welder . . . the nearer boat.
The 1997 Ever Decent was scrapped in Alang in 2020; the 2012 Evening Star has become Jordan Rose and continues to operate through the sixth boro.
This Mount Saline in Port Newark has been replenished several times, and its granules may have kept you safely on the road.
The 1963 Crow, high in the water here, would never again move on its own power and was scrapped in 2015.
These two Thornton boats–Gage Paul and Bros— are gone as well, one scrapped and one growing into undersea habitat deep in a Caribbean trench and will likely never be seen again.
The 1951 Twin Tube here squeezes in between the pier and Balder as Balder discharges more Chilean salt. More on the surprising contents of Balder‘s belly here. She may now be laid up as Ventura in West Africa. Check out the harbor supply boat on her mission that day here. Twin Tube continues to operate in the boro.
I don’t know what has become of the 1954 Ticonderoga; she may still be behind Prall’s Island.
I don’t have any updates on this government boat, said to date from 1929.
The 1966 Patrick Sky has long left the boro. Summit Europe is now Myra and is anchored near Istanbul. Indeed, the sixth boro is connected to the rest of the watery parts of the planet.
If you want to breeze back through the entire month, click here. And I do hope you enjoy these glances in the rearview as much as I do.
Happy December.
Since I’m currently riding the long rails, including this one, I’ve queued up a few posts. More on the rails soon.
But let’s go back a decade and a month in this case, and see some happenings in the sixth boro in 2013. Diane B was already around, and here she was taking advantage of the high tide to make her way with a light John Blanche downstream from the head of navigation on the Hutchinson River to the East River tidal strait.
Americas Spirit came in with assistance from Barbara McAllister and McAllister Sisters. Barbara is now Patsy K, and sisters is still Sisters. Spirit is still Spirit.
Marquette’s Miss Emily made a run through the KVK, likely in connection with some dredge work.
Vernon G was already Mary Gellatly then. Now she’s a very busy Mackenzie Rose.
Catherine Turecamo retrieves a docking pilot. Catherine is now on the Lakes as John Marshall.
Harry McNeal moves Clyde along by the hip. Work was just months away from the old version of the Bayonne bridge. Both boats I believe are still in the boro.
Lincoln Sea was the biggest regular in the boro, and still occasionally comes through.
Gramma Lee T. Moran still worked here, and I’d not yet met her namesake.
You know it, of course, this photo is about the Mini Cooper, not the RORO that delivered it here.
Mixed traffic worked here, as it still true.
A very rusty Horizon Trader- a 1973 cargo ship now long scrapped-–passed through the port with its 2325 teu capacity.
Back then an occasional tanker with this type of Cyrillic writing could be seen.
And around this time I started to use the tag “collaboration.” This photo comes from Capt. Fred Kosnac on an “excessively windy” day.
All photos here, as attributed. Thanks to Fred for the photo above.
As remnants of Hurricane Nicole pass through the sixth boro, we might have a look back to details of aftermath of Sandy exactly 10 years ago, like this undecked pier over on the NJ side of the Arthur Kill, across from Howland Hook.
USCGC Spencer came up for the cleanup, as did
then-USCGC Gallatin, now NNS Okpabana.
NASA’s Enterprise saw some damage as well, leading to installation of a more robust pavilion.
McAllister Sisters assisted ACL Atlantic Concert past the damage to the park shoreline just west of St. George while
National Guard units staged in the then parking lot area.
And I have to digress here to rant about a shoreside issue: hundreds of millions have been spent in preparing this area for the ill-fated “NY Wheel,” and in the process transformed what had been a simple but pleasant park into a wasteland behind an unsightly green wall and guarded chain link. Hey mister mayor and mister SI boro president, clean it up and reopen it for the public. The “wheeler-dealers” and the NYC EDC did more damage here–and allowed it to fester–than Sandy. Is the small wheel next?
APL Cyprine, then flagged US and carrying USMC vehicles, has gone to Alang flying the flag of Comoros. Ditto ACL Atlantic Concert, shown up the column.
Patrick Sky was still working back then, and Happy Delta brought in one of the first loads of NYC sanitation cranes.
That year, by November 9–the date of this photo–we’d already had a dusting of cold, white stuff here.
Cashman’s TSHD Atchafalaya was in the boro. She’s still afloat in Florida.
On black Friday 2012, the high point of my day was seeing Atlantic Salvor return to the boro with Witte 1407 carrying segments of what is visible today as
the antenna atop WTC 1.
All photos, any opinions and all errors, WVD.
Let’s jump back to May 2012. Over along the Manhattan side of the East River then, I caught this scene. Since then, there’s been some movement: Peking to Germany, Marion M to the Chesapeake, Helen McAllister to . . . rebirth as new steel.
Cheyenne has migrated to the Lake Michigan for now.
Twin Tube is still around but sans the boom.
Ellen McAllister is also still hard at work in the sixth boro, but I don’t see her doing much indirect towing as here.
Mark Moran was just passing through from the shipyard to Charleston.
Swan, built in 1981 and showing as her last movement three and a half years ago in China, has likely gone to rebirth as new steel.
But a decade ago in May 2012, she was here to move some used tugboats over to West Africa. Here she’s already down and BFT No. 38 with a crew boat strapped on has already been loaded, while
McAllister Sisters and McAllister Girls wait with three Crowley tugs,
Cavalier, Pioneer, and Mars.
After they are floated aboard, the tide turns the anchored Swan.
Socrates and Heron also float aboard, and
overnight, Swan gets deballasted and raises the hull, so that we can see their five-bladed wheels. More of the story here.
Also in the boro those days was Picton Castle, showing the flag and more, maybe recruiting some hands
before sailing away. Does anyone have news about her? Has she really stayed in Lunenburg since late 2020?
All photos, WVD, exactly 120 months ago.
Unrelated to any of this, read this May 2004 article by the late great Don Sutherland and reflect on how much change has occurred.
I’ve traveled the ICW from Charleston SC to NYC, some parts several times. This is a “revisit” focusing solely on tugboats. I’ll start in Charleston with Elizabeth Turecamo in the fog.
Recycling comments on the boats below from Georgetown SC, by George Schneider: “The little one shows the name Laura , which has one of two possible origins: A 45-foot tug by the Equitable Equipment Company of Louisiana, or a 45-foot Army dredge tender of Army Design 320, mirroring the Equitable design. I’m guessing she’s ON 1060493, originally the Army ST 2051, then the Army Corps Fort Brooke , and now owned by Sampit Towing of Charleston SC.”
And by William Lafferty: “I’m thinking the larger tug is Susan Richards, built in 1909 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Corporation at Quincy, Massachusetts, as the Gen. R. H. Jackson for the Army Quartermaster Corps and stationed at Jacksonville, Florida, later named Fort Sumter and Three Bros. It’s owned by Richards Marine Towing at McClennanville, South Carolina, and has been a fixture at Charleston for decades, originally run by White Stack Towing there.”
Thx George and William.
Crossing the border north to North Carolina, my next stop is Southport, where Sea Oak was working on a dredge project.
And after that, it’s Wilmington and Cape Henry.
The next batch is from Morehead City NC. Atlantic Dawn was working on a dredging project there.
Na Hoku was there also, formerly a K-Sea boat. She currently works out of Jacksonville.
Liz Alma was too.
Morehead City is the deep water export center for potash, mined farther north in Aurora. Grace Moran then waited at the dock. Is she still around?
Beaufort Belle, then PSC Phosphate, is now Norfolk tug. Has she been repainted?
Peter G. Turecamo appears still to be working in Morehead City.
Clearly marked here in Norfolk are Miss Willa, Nancy McAllister, and McAllister Sisters. Second from the left might be Steven Eileen McAllister.
Jack T. Moran was just a year old back ion 2017.
Thunder is one of a trio of Robbins Maritime small tugs with meteorological names: Thunder, Lightning, and Storm.
Camie is also a Robbins Maritime boat.
Anne Jarrett is another Norfolk Tug vessel. It resembles a Vane tug, and at least two former Vane boats are now with Norfolk Tugs: ex-Patapsco and Sassafras.
All photos, WVD. The * denotes that most but not all photos were taken in May 2017. It’s high time I take another trip along the ICW to see what has changed. And we still have more from Norfolk to the sixth boro.
Coastline Girls and many other names including Gage Paul Thornton and ST-497, the 1944-build now sleeps deep in Davy Jones locker, and was not an intentional reefing.
It’s been a while since I last saw Mcallister Sisters, shown here passing the Esopus Meadows light. If I’m not mistaken, she’s currently based in Baltimore.
Ten years ago, this boat had already been painted blue over orange, but she still carried the June K name board.
Socrates, classic lines and a classic name, has since gone off to Nigeria, riding over in mid-2012 on a heavy lift ship called Swan.
Urger on blocks in Lyons . . . one would have thought then that she’d run forever. These days she’s back on blocks at the eastern end of the Canal.
And February 2010 was the time of prime iceboating, and that’s Bonnie of frogma.
James Turecamo, with its wheelhouse down as I rarely saw it, works these days upriver as far north as Albany. Photo by Allen Baker.
Brandywine and Odin these days spend most of their time on Gulf of Mexico waters.
Gramma Lee T Moran straining here as she pulled the tanker off the dock. She now works in Baltimore.
In the foreground, East Coast departs the Kills; I can’t say I recall seeing her recently,but AIS says she’s currently northbound north of the GW. In the distance and approaching, June K, now Sarah Ann, and she regularly works in the sixth boro.
All photos, except Allen’s, WVD, from February 2010.
I have to share back story about getting that top photo. I was on foot on Richmond Terrace walking east toward Jersey Street when I saw the Coastline tug and Hughes barge. I didn’t recognize the profile and realized I could get the photo ONLY if I ran. At the same time, I noticed an NYPD car had pulled over another car, and you know, it’s never a good idea to run for no apparent reason when the police are nearby. But . . . you understand my dilemma: walk and miss the shot, or run and maybe attract the curiosity of the police officer. I ran, got the shot, and sure enough, the police called me over and wanted to know what I was doing. Since I knew I’d done nothing wrong except appear suspicious, I gave him my business card and launched full tilt into my “new yorkers are so lucky because they are witness to so much marine business traffic, and why didn’t he too have a camera and join me watching and taking photos of the variety of vessels . . . .” You can imagine the stare I got. My enthusiasm failed to move him. No handcuffs, no taser, not even a ticket, but an impassive gaze from a weary officer of the law possibly wondering if I’d escaped from an institution or a time warp. He wrote up a report and left me with this advice: don’t run when you see a police officer nearby. “Yessir,” I said, thinking . . . well sure, but I’d likely do it again if I again noticed something unusual transiting the waterway. Since then, though, I’ve not had any further encounters with the LEOs, at least not on the banks of the sixth boro.
It’s that time again . . . a glance back at exactly a decade ago. Back in June 2009, the 400th anniversary of the Half Moon going up the Hudson kicked off with a 20th century version of the Half Moon going up the Hudson. Note the banner hung to the old TZ Bridge along the right side of the photo. That replica is now in the Netherlands, looking for a new home, and that bridge–parts of it–have become fish structure somewhere off Long Island.
A newish boat in town was Peter F. Gellatly, now Vane’s Long Island.
Bounty–alas her fate–was still an irregular visitor to the sixth boro. Here she’s made up to Harvey just outboard of Frying Pan.
Brian Nicholas moves a scrap barge out of the East River.
Paul T. Moran made one of her really rare visits to the sixth boro.
Container vessels calling in the ports of NY and NJ had not yet become UL . . . ultra large versions
Harvey follows Half Moon northbound on the Hudson.
Michigan Service and Erie Service gather near IMTT.
Sisters assists with a tanker, and
here’s more of the River Day procession marking the year of Half Moon the first.
All photos taken in June 2009 by Will Van Dorp.
I hope you all are enjoying these glances back a decade as much as I enjoy putting them together. If you weren’t paying attention back then, this hints at how much the traffic in the harbor has changed, just as it has on the roads. If you were watching back in spring 2009, you might have this same appreciation at the changes; In addition, you might be amazed how quickly time has passed. Maybe you’ve forgotten about some of these boats.
Pegasus, quo vadis? I’ve heard some ominous scuttlebutt, the kind you’d hear about any 112-year-old vessel. Your project site is still up. Here she was in front of the Hoboken Terminal, which opened the same year–1907–as Peg was launched.
Starboard view and port . . it’s the 1968 McAllister Girls . . . if she’s still around, I’ve not seen her in quite some time. In the background over near the Jersey City river’s edge, Clipper City and Pioneer sail toward each other.
Ditto the 1977 Sisters.
Ellen (1967) and Amy C (1976) are still active in the harbor, but it’s been years since APL Cyprine has called here.
The 1978 Mary Gellatly has been sold up down east, and last I knew, working as Alice Winslow for Winslow Marine Inc. out of Southport Maine.
The K-Sea fleet in the sixth boro in 2009 was quite large. Norwegian Sea was a workhorse on the Hudson; now she’s Miss Rui operating for Smith Maritime.
Houma (1970) has been scrapped.
Taurus (1979) recently reappeared here as Joker.
Onrust was launched into the Mohawk River in May 2009, and I believe she will again be sailing out of Essex CT. Her splash up and over the riverbank trees was quite spectacular.
All photos a short 10 years ago by Will Van Dorp.
April 2009 . . . a decade ago but it’s still palpable and present.
How could I not remember the morning before work I stood on the Elizabethport dock wishing the punch-in clock mechanism would slow to a pace slower than McAllister Responder and McAllister Sisters helping Eagle Boston ooze toward her Linden berth . . . Some who don’t take many photos might not be able to fathom how those moments stick to the memory.
Or the unmistakeable Norwegian Sea light and going for fuel near IMTT . . at dawn; it’s unforgettable. I was hoping there’d no delays on the rest of my way to work that morning.
Another day, I took lunch break in Elizabethport, thrilled that Laura K and Margaret were escorting Seoul Express away from Howland Hook . . .. backing her down.
And here’s one . . . I recall my pain this morning as I walked north along HRP, conflicted between the hurt of betrayal and the chill of being under-dressed, since I’d crept out early on a Saturday morning thinking that sun in April translated into warmth .. . and the throaty sound of Melvin E. Lemmerhirt distracted me from all those things.
Also from that dock in Elizabethport, I watched Rosemary McAllister and Responder ease Hyundai Voyager boat toward the dock in Howland Hook . . .
The scene here is harder to recall, but from l to r, it’s Nathan E. Stewart, New River, and –the uniquely named– Gramma Lee T Moran . . .!
In April 2009, I commuted into work early a lot,so that I could catch the likes of this . . . John Reinauer moving a barge southbound on the Arthur Kill… not knowing that a few years later, that equipment would travel across to the South Atlantic.
Scott Turecamo . . . this is the only photo in this “oldies” set that could have been taken in 2019 as easily as in 2009, except I’d have to photoshop in the current Manhattan skyline in the distance . . .
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes he’s still fit to add to the archives in 2029 . . .
That’s twelve hundred feet of France heading into Bergen Point. Note the scale of 108′ McAllister Sisters near the bow. Of course, this group of ships set a record back last summer and that was then eclipsed by early September with the arrival of CMA CGM T. Roosevelt. But it is my first time to photograph a ULCV; previous arrivals and departures were at night, or I was distracted or traveling. Does ULCV apply to vessels of this size?
And if OOCL France looks a drab shade of grey, well, she left China on Christmas day and this is her first port since then.
Tailing straight back is Capt. Brian A. McAllister . . . until
she gets the signal to
initiate the rotation, assisting the twin bow thrusters on the ship and
the other tugs:
Sisters, Marjorie B., and
and Alex.
That makes over 19,000 hp of ship-assist spinning OOCL France clockwise in front of Shooters Island. For the record, this is my first time to catch one of the largest box ships in the Kills. Details: 1200′ x 157′ and 144,044 summer dwt; launched 2013 as NYK Hercules and 13,208 teu, i.e., over 1000 teu fewer than CMA CGM T. Roosevelt, photos of which I’ll post soon.
All photos yesterday by Will Van Dorp, who keeps watching the names and numbers in hopes of catching a larger vessel or an autonomous one.
tugster: a waterblog 
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