Random Nola Tugs 7

“What do you like about New Orleans?”  A friend asked me that recently.  Different answers exist: ubiquitous and diverse music, unique architecture, history and present through all the senses, spicy and delicious food, free spirits, bons temps roulants…  this list can be even longer.  But for me, the traffic on the river is without rival .  . . that I know of.  That’s what calls me back.  I can even skip the music, merriment, and tastes, but the river always attracts and satisfies.  From my recent stay, here are some photos.

I’m thinking this may be a formerly Bouchard boat, but I really don’t know who this is getting spa treatment.

Any help?

Mary Moran was there too.  She’s of the same general class as Miriam and Margaret.

A. Thomas Higgins is not as new as I thought, but still, she’s not yet at the 5-year mark.  

Here’s a recent article on her from ProfessionalMariner, which among many other things mentions her namesake.  It makes me wonder if this Mr. Higgins is related to Andrew J. Higgins, the “new Noah”

Turquoise Coast, formerly Barbara E Bouchard, was in.

Rodney, the former Sheila Moran, came through with a barge, heading upstream.

Michael S I thought was newer, but she’s from 2009. 

More info can be found here. 

Know this unit?

A clue is the name . . . well, number . .  of the barge, 1964.

It’s Millville, the WaWa . . . THAT WaWa, tug, which I saw under construction in Sturgeon Bay in 2017, which seems like a lifetime ago.  My friend Jack caught the unit in Nova Scotia here,  as she was first headed into salt water.  Take a close look at the last photo in this post from 2017 . . . yup that was what would become 1964. 

All photos, WVD, who wonders if you’ve noticed what type of tugboat I’ve omitted here.  This is not-so-random a selection, as you’ll see in an upcoming post. 

 

Millville and 1964 at the Canso Lock

Canso Canal separates the Nova Scotia mainland from Cape Breton Island, lying between Northumberland Strait to the north and Chedabucto Bay to the south.  And it’s a great place to watch traffic between eastern USA and the Great Lakes.  Jack Ronalds pays attention to that traffic, and is always eager to accept paying photo commissions, he tells me.

Right around Christmas, he caught Millville and 1964,  beautiful winter light bathing newly painted steel.  Millville and barge came off the ways in Sturgeon Bay WI this fall, and is currently passing the Florida Keys on a run to a Texas port.

 

Notice the traffic backed up on the causeway.  For a very comprehensive slideshow of 450 images compiled by the Gut of Canso Museum, click here.  For more on Port Hastings on the east side of the Canso Canal, click here.

Note the pilot boat on the far side.

According to tugboat information.com, she 129.9′ x 41.9′ using two GE 12V250MDC8s for a total of 8000 hp to push the 578′ loa, 180,000 bbl barge 1964.

Many thanks to Jack for permission to post these photos.  I’m definitely looking to get up there this coming summer.

 

Random Tugs 219

Suppose we go back to “random tugs 2,” which was 10 years and two and a half months ago.  What might be the same?  Answer follows.  These photos I took last week.  Alex and Capt. Brian were not around when I did the #2 post.

Craig Eric Reinauer was, but the barge RTC 103 likely was not.

In 2007, Diane B had a different name and was a Kirby machine.  Now she’s a creek-specialist and pushing John Blanche.

Here’s the best photo I got of Millville and 1964, the newest unit most likely to pass through the harbor.

Emerald Coast heads westbound.

Oleander passes Normandy.  Anyone know why Bermuda Islander (I got no photo.) was in town last week?

And Evening Tide is eastbound in the KVK.  So just by chance, if you look at Random Tugs 2, Evening Tide is there as well.

And since we started with a team of escort boats, have a look at these:  (l to r) JRT, Miriam, James D, and Kirby Moran.

All photos taken last week by Will Van Dorp.

Random Tugs 206

Seen this logo before?  I had not.

Millville?  That would be the town formerly known as Shingle Landing in New Jersey, and here’s the origin and logic of the name.

Also, in the yard and visible and indomitable from the street overtop the buildings, it’s

Invincible.

And this, I take it, is the start of a new barge.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is sorry to miss the tugboat race this year.  Here was my 2009 post, and here’s an index of all the others.

Here’s more of the Grand River Navigation fleet.