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Full disclosure: Years ago I was showing friends from Germany around the city, and chuckled when they stopped to take photos of squirrels. Squirrels were a novelty, they said, because they’d never seen one in Germany.
The closest thing to an alligator I’ve seen in the sixth boro is this plastic toy that lay along the KVK a long time this winter; I took the photo then because NYC’s terra- and sub-terra boros have their own alligator tales–with some basis in fact– like here.
Given all that, I’m pleasantly surprised to have seen at least two alligators now, differing in size, alongside the vessel we’re readying to move. More info on that that later.
Yesterday I managed to see the gator coming our way with enough advance warning that I had time to grab my real camera.
This photo I took shooting straight down from wheelhouse . . . about 35′ above the water. I’d estimate this “el lagarto” to be 6′ to 8′.
No, I would not want to be in the water with this Alligator mississippiensis.
All photos, WVD, who apologizes to the robots for interjecting this post into their orderly queue.
Name that river where the hunters are putting in their boat on a ramp that’s showing some roughness? If the guy taking fotos turns around, you’ll see
this arch by Saarinen. So it’s a low water Mississippi, making the levees seem even higher than the posted 38′ to the street. By the way, I hadn’t expected to be so impressed as I was by the arch and the underground museum.
This January along this part of the Mississippi had below freezing temperatures, not the weather to run show boats by these delightful names. To ride either Becky Thatcher or Tom Sawyer, we’ll have to return in summer. A few days ago in New Orleans, it was 77.
And that’s fine. Summer would be a better time to go slowly through the Illinois River Valley, and enjoy sights like the 170′ pushboat America. A few miles upriver–we didn’t get there–is also the former showboat Goldenrod, which I need to return to the area to see.
I hope to have more pics of America soon.
Another ferry–Golden Eagle Ferry–rests on the bank not far from to the south. Click here for more ferries of the Middle Mississippi River valley.
Right in the middle of Kampsville is the “108 bridge,” sort of like the US Route 10 Bridge between Michigan and Wisconsin. But I digress.
Actually this is Miss Illinois, a 1998 Chattanooga-built tug connected by rotating kingpin to a barge ferry
The barge stays pointed the same direction all the time, but Miss Illinois pivots on the pin each time it shuttles to the other bank.
And the water is icy!
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
A quick reprise first: back in Nola, here Connie 2 assists B. John Yeager dock a tow along Algiers. Route 90 bridge in the background.
Here’s the mystery vessel from the last post: the retired MV Mississippi IV in Vicksburg, positioned here in 2007 when an even larger replacement came on line.
In Memphis, it’s Richard headed southbound under the I-55 bridge.
From Fort Defiance Park in Cairo, Il, that’s the Route 60 bridge over the Ohio . . . at the very end of the Ohio. The confluence is behind me. Tug is ADM’s American Pillar. Note the barges and tugs along the far bank.
Less than a quarter mile away, along the Mississippi bank, it’s AEP’s Michael G. Morris. The bridge is the Mississippi crossing of Route 60.
And in between the two previous fotos, here’s the commingling. Notice the Ohio on the left is muddier than the Mississippi on the right. Coming thru is Okie Moore’s Diving and Salvage’s Stephen Foster, pusing crane barges and Captain Val, based along the Missouri.
And finally for now, it’s Gateway Express as seen from the top of the St Louis Arch and
from the St Louis bank.
Many more to come from points in between . . . from Will Van Dorp.
I’m dedicating these to Otis Redding . . . . and I know I’m getting some details wrong and will correct when I’m back. Thanks much for your comments and corrections. My day started with Overseas Houston. I think I just missed Christian Reinauer headed upstream before light in my location;
followed by an upstream flanking turn by B. John Yeager. . .
and more including Custom.
Farther upstream –can you guess where– I caught Catherine S and fleetmates;
Can you identify this massive levee?
Presager‘s background may help.
Creole Sun and a cluster of tugs and barges await while . . .
Myra Epstein powers
a long train of barges,
and churns up the Mississippi cafe au lait.
OK . . answer tomorrow . . . can you idenify this vessel?
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who’s headed north along the defining river of this continent.
At my age . . . I’ve come to some places where –at each–I could spend a lifetime; choices need to be made. And if I can’t spend that much time at each, the alternative might be to just keep moving . . . since it’s too hard to figure out how
to get access. Those do look like parts of the superstructure of USS New York, which makes the Avondale Shipyard over there somewhere. In the sixth boro, tugboat Dorothy Elizabeth and prison barge Vernon C. Bain come out of Avondale, along with this huge international list.
Bayou Lafourche along 308 sports signs like this, birthplace of lots of Vane Brothers tugs, a Gellatly & Criscione, and several Penn Maritimes.
A couple of twists and turns later, there’s this Bollinger yard, home to the Sentinel-class of Coast Guard cutter. Consider this, two major US shipyards in a town of less than 3000!! Here’s more info on those cutters.
Continue south for 12 miles and you’ll see North American Shipbuilding, one of several Edison-Chouest Offshore facilities. Provider was delivered in 1999.
Manufacturing and then . . . those are banana “trees.” And in this tropical waterway, a cornucopia of boats can be found like
Victor J. Curole, (1979)
as well as
Capt. Thuan, (1987)
Squeegee and Sponge, (turns out they’re oil recovery vessels or were at one time, 1966)
Wyoming, (1940 fishing vessel)
nameless and Big Tattoo, (1981)
a floating home?
Mia Molloy bow and
stern,
Winds of Change . . . (2002) which appears to have a pusher knee integrated into its bow,
Mr Russell, (1995)
and I’d love to know more about this one,
Capt. Manuel, (1982)
this nameless variation on Lil Rip,
lots of dipnetters,
nameless, Carissa Breigh, (1980) and Junie Bop, (1981)
Lugger Tug, (maybe 1981)
swarms of swamp fans,
… let me stop here on this post which breaks my record for number of fotos . . . nameless, but I can almost make out the spelling of TUGSTER on the stern. Is it possible I’ve found myself and my place to settle here? She looks to have some pedigree . . . 1940s lines? Can anyone help with a bit of history here?
Time for tugster (1952) to stop this trip and contemplate and refresh with some Bayou Teche biere pale . . . . For more on Bayou Teche, the place, click here.
I intend to return to the Bayou soon, spend more time, and . . . who knows what might transpire.
All fotos here by either Will or Christina, partners in this jaunt-within-a-gallivant.
For a waterman’s view of the general area, click here.
From the air you can see the traffic . . . the sinuous lines it scribes into the legendary river.
From the bank, you can see sometimes three tugs abreast (l. to r. Bobby Jones-1966, David G. Sehrt-1965, and Born Again-1974) pushing more than a dozen barges slipping around the turn between Algiers and the 9th Ward. And when I say slipping, I mean even big vessels seem to slide through this crescent. That erosion in the foreground bespeaks higher water.
Uh . . . a variation on seasnake?
Crescent’s J. K. McLean (2010 at C & G Boatworks of Mobile, AL) and New Orleans (1998 at ThomaSea) maneuver in front of 1995 American Queen.
Close-up of McLean.
Empty Barge Lines’ Grosbec (1980).
Olga G. Stone (1981) pushing oil downbound.
Miss Abby (1960 ?) upbound.
Slatten’s Allison S (1994) light and headed upstream past Bollinger’s.
Ingram Barge Company’s Mark C. A few years back, I saw Ingram boats all the up in Cincinnati, OH and Pittsburgh, PA.
Another Ingram vessel featured a few days ago . . . David G. Sehrt.
Vickie (1975) pushing . . . crushed concrete maybe . . .
Port Allen (1945?!!)
Chelsea (1989)
I’m back at work in environs of the sixth boro, and this is the last set about Nola strictly defined. Tomorrow I hope to put up some fotos from a jaunt-within-a-gallivant southwest from the Crescent City, a truly magical place to which I really must return soon because there’s much I’ve yet to understand . . . like why
the nola hula only appears to salute certain vessels.
And is it true there’s a nun driving a tugboat somewhere on the Lower Mississippi? Here’s a ghost story, and if you have a chance to find it, listen to Austin Lounge Lizard’s “Boudreaux was a Nutcase.”
All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who also has tons of fotos from Panama to put up.
No, the blog hasn’t gone politico-preachy . . . America‘s the name of the push vessel below. Check out the unusual (at least by sixth boro standards) of four side-by-side stacks, each stack corresponding to a Cooper-Bessemer LS-8 engine, with a total combined horsepower of 9000 bhp. Details are these: 170′ x 58′ x 10.3′ and launched in St. Louis in 1960. For two decades America pushed for Federal Barge Lines. After that, it went to another pushboat company, was repossessed, converted to a restaurant, casino, and is now in conversion to a B & B. I want to see this vessel that’s trying on all these post-push vessel roles.
Foto used with permission from Steve Schulte. Thanks much, Steve.
Summer’s approaching, and I’m feeling a strong urge for a gallivant along the Ohio leading the “misi-ziibi“ and any other “tight-assed” river tributaries, as John McPhee called one of them. Can anyone offer suggestions of where to get the best fotos along the central Mississippi and the Illinois? And while at the juncture, I’m visiting here.
For a list of towboat companies on the Mississippi watershed, click here.
These fotos compliments of Allen Baker, whose fotos ran previously here and here … and other places. Elsbeth II (featured in a New Yorker story by Burkhard Bilger in April 19, 2010) tows dead ship Horizon Crusader to be scrapped At Southern Recycling. Elsbeth II is a triple-screw boat built by Smith Maritime‘s owner, Latham Smith.
Of the two Crescent vessels, Point Clear minds the stern and another tug escorts on port. Tug alongside on starboard . . . identified with Harold Tartell’s help … is Angus R. Cooper (1965, ex-Paragon, Anthony St. Philip).
Crusader‘s older sib–Challenger–seems to languish in Bayonne. Anyone know what’s happening with Challenger? It did make at least one trip south recently, but now it seems idled again. [[Thanks to Jeff Schurr: Said Bayonne vessel is NOT Challenger but rather Discovery, which explains why I thought she (Challenger) had quickly deteriorated into her former condition. ]] Jeff, thanks for the correction.
Also, down along the big river recently was Paul T. Moran, 1975, ex-Ocean Venture, S/R Golden State, Exxon Golden State, and Eliska. Paul T. appeared here light back more than two years ago.
Also along the big river, from left to right: Bluefin (2009), Susan W (1982, ex-General Lee), Gladys B (1937), and Capt. Albert 1931, ex-Miss Sarah) .
Many thanks to Allen and Harold.
tugster: a waterblog 
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