Linda, Mary, and Girls

I had no idea what I was seeing until I zoomed in on it here and recognized it as one of the small Miller tugs with a deck barge.

Linda L Miller heading across the Upper Bay, where

QM2 was in port.

Later, I saw Linda L sans barge, passing two anchored Reinauer units.

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A couple days earlier I saw this and initially failed to identify what I was looking at.

I took photos anyhow and then realized it was Miller Girls with the northeasterly wind splashing a mess of water over the bow.

Here from earlier this year are photos of Miller Girls in a previous lifetime, 1974.

Earlier this year I’d seen her with skimming outriggers on, working in Poughkeepsie.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Thanks to Paul Strubeck 7

and to someone else who took these photos back in 1974.

From what I can see in these photos, taken in the shipyard over in Jersey City, the lines are simple and very pleasing.

Of course, I can’t see the frames, and even if I could, I’m not a naval architect in any way shape or form.

Here’s she’s had finish paint.  Joe Weber was the yard foreman.  Here’s a photo of Joe Weber at work in 1983, and here’s one of her at Miller Girls at work around 2006.

I took the next photo, below, in January 2007, thirty-three years after she was built.  And my question is . . . since I have not seen Miller Girls in a long time, is she still around?

It looks like some sponsons have been added.

Photos this old qualify this as a “fifth dimension” post.

Many thanks to Paul for passing these along.

 

 

Sixth Boro Fifth Dimension 4

Back three decades again with more fotos by Seth Tane, in this case with some vessels  now considered dead.

Foto #1.  QM2 assisted at the dock by Diana L. Moran, a 1956 Jakobson boat now seven years scrapped.

Foto #2.  Rio la Plata.  Here’s what Harold Tartell has to say about her:  ” In 1984, RIO LA PLATA was built [by Sanchez Marine Services of Fall River, MA].  At the time Turecamo was quite busy, short on boats, and chartered the boat with the option to buy.  Turecamo also had another tug on charter from Tidewater Marine Services around the same time period.  She was EL ZORRO GRANDE.  She was to be renamed HELEN J. TURECAMO, but I never saw a photo of her officially with that name affixed.  She was sold to Dunlap Towing Co., LaConner, Wa., & renamed MANFRED NYSTROM.  In 1987, RIO LA PLATA went West to become Oscar Niemeth Towing’s SILVER EAGLE.  She is still in service.”

Foto #3.  Harold says  “The McAllister tug assisting LASH Atlantico with barges is MARGARET M. McALLISTER.”

Foto #4.  “The red canaller towing the two light oil barges is Morania Oil Tanker Corporation’s MORANIA NO. 8.”

Foto #5.  “JULIAN A was built 1943 By George Lawley & Soms, Neponset Ma., as DPC-28, WSA-22, WOTOCO, GAY MORAN (1967).  In 1972, she became JULIAN A. owned by Julian A. Corp.  In the early 1980’s she was owned by River Towing Corp. name unchanged.  She was later sold to Raymond Connelly Shamrock Marine Corp. & renamed INTREPID.  By 2001 her existence was in doubt,”  Harold.

Here’s the class of Army DPCs.   In this foto, Julian A was towing salvaged scalloper Fatima from Massachusetts waters to the sixth boro, where her  engine parts would be used in a restoration project.  Not long after this foto was taken, the tug was searched by the federal agents who found $32 million of marijuana.

Foto #6.  About the yard vessel sporting the flag and striped stack, Harold says, ” JOE WEBER McAllister’s little yard tug at Tug & Barge Drydocks, Jersey City.  They built her in 1975.  She was later sold to Miller Launch, & is now MILLER GIRLS.”

Click here and jump ahead to 1983 in this fascinating compilation of Jersey City history from 4.6 billion years ago to the present for a reference to the now-gone McAllister Tug & Barge Drydocks.  Click here for a tugster foto of Miller Girls.

Foto #7.  Harold says, “I’m having a little difficulty indentifying.  Under the handrails on the lower small white panel near the pilothouse door, it appears to read N.J. MATHER.  I will continue to work on it.”  Any ideas?  She seems narrow boat;  someone with long arms in the wheelhouse could have a hand out each each at the same time.

Foto #8.  On the Morris Canal . . .  here’s a foto I wish I could truly travel back in time to see.  Part of the house seems to be a huge rectangular tank.  Up high the sign says “nite blues limited.”  Anyone know the story?  The Morris Canal today has changed.  Anyone have water-focused fotos of the Canal you are willing to share on tugster?  Type morris canal into the search window and you’ll find lots more fotos.

I’m eager for your interpretation of these fotos of a lost sixth boro, captured on fotos of Seth Tane.

Graves of Arthur Kill has archival footage of a boneyard on the Arthur Kill from about the same era.  I’d love to see more fotos of what was new and what was derelict in the sixth boro from then and before.

More Cargoes 10

A few years back the technician at the doctor’s office where I’d had the tests for my Z-card told me the urine test results would be processed by the next morning in a government-sanctioned lab in the midwest.  I had to ask.  “Oh, Fedex,” she replied.  Since then, I can’t see a Fedex air freighter land or take off from Newark International without wondering how much urine (and other fluids) it’s urgently and expensively transporting.  ’nuff said?

Further, in this age of containerized cargo, it’s refreshing to see the transparency resulting from this antiquated and maybe inefficient means of transport.  I wonder who/what Reynolds’ ABC-1 (below) hauls for.

And Miller Girls, where’s that large blue electric motor now working?

Water transportation can be generally cheaper and faster between places of the banlks of the sixth boro.  And this brings me back to Dutch “parlevinker” boats I blogged about back in August.

Names 2

In spite of a tendency to refer to vessels using pronouns for female humans, gender equality is alive and well in naming.

 

 

high and dry Miller Girls, not named for a so-called beverage . . .

 

wet and buoyant Miller Girls . . . with the name invisible?

 

 

A few minutes later, westbound comes Barker Boys . . .pulling a string of empty gravel barges. Suppose the Barker Boys and Miller Girls ever raft up?

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

According to this database maintained by the Tugboat Enthusiast Society, Miller Girls launched in Jersey City 32 years ago; Barker Boys launched in Louisiana 33 years ago. They’re age-compatible.