Sixth Boro Details 10

I’ve been meaning to ask about this lumber on the piers at Red Hook container terminal.  Not quite a year ago an unusual looking vessel called Mozu Arrow deposited these bundles of lumber.  Here‘s another shot showing all the bundles.  All through the stories of lumber being outrageously expensive,  this lumber stayed here.  In some places, the coverings have ripped off leaving the wood exposed to the weather, wasting away.  Can anyone tell me the story of this lumber and why it hasn’t moved in 11 months.  As of this writing, the lumber carrier is traveling between South Korea and British Columbia, light maybe, having deposited lumber on piers in Busan perhaps?  On second thought, would this vessel travel sans cargo across the Pacific?  What cargo might it be carrying to Canada?

Brendan Turecamo is a regular on this blog;  behold about nine feet of the boat you never see when she’s working.

Here’s a limitation of gantry cranes;  if you have a container ship loaded higher than the cranes can accommodate, getting a last box in place means lifting to the height and then sliding it in aft to fore.  Understand what’s happening here?  The box was lifted farther “back” than the empty slot, and now the crane operator is sliding it in laterally, toward the right in this photo.  Is this a common occurrence on these “tall ships,” to give a new meaning to the phrase?

Do you remember “you go girl” graffiti on a ferry just west of the Bayonne Bridge?  Well, clearly it has shifted over toward the Bayonne, New Jersey, side and is showing a different and more corroded side.  I wonder where she goes next.

From this angle, there appears to be quite a few Reinauer tugs in their yard.  While we’re playing an Andy Rooney and asking questions about everything, has anyone learned more about the WindServe Marine toehold within the Reinauer real estate here?  Isn’t it hard to believe that Andy Rooney has been gone for almost a decade now?

Getting back to the warehouse sheds in Red Hook, is it possible this very experienced tow truck is there to prosecute any violators who choose to trespass and/or dock?  I saw a more intimidating sign and sight in Belfast ME some years ago in the second photo here.

To show location of these signs and the antique tow truck, note it in the wider view photo below.

Shall we leave it here?    I suppose.  All photos, WVD, with conveyance from the New York Media Boat.

 

TEFC Lumber Carrier 2

This vessel–Mozu Arrow– intrigued me about two months ago, but I never saw it.  I’m grateful to Mike Abegg for these photos then.

I followed it on AIS, thinking maybe it’d lead to some Equatorial places, maybe to load tropical woods…  but instead, after hitting lots of US East Coast ports, it headed to Europe.

G2 Ocean has quite the diverse fleet, including some TEFCs, totally enclosed forestry carriers.

So when I noticed they were back in Red Hook–from Europe!!– I decided to take a boat ride.

Notice the two side hatches on the port side.

And, inside that RORO-like space, cranes operate, here discharging 10 bundles at once.  In high school I had a job offloading lumber, board by board, standing on the truck handing one board down to my boss–on a kiln rail car, as a furniture factory rep put down spacers so that air could get between the planks.  He also measured or scaled each plank, making notations on his clipboard to determine how much my boss got paid and to create an inventory of how much wood they’d put in the drying kiln.

Here, that’s all been done, so the pace is faster. 

But I still wondered where all this wood was coming from.  In the past, wood might come from the tropics but in the form of logs, forest giants, their buttressed roots cut off,  that might have fit only one log to a trailer.

So here’s the clue, and you can be sure I looked it up, especially when there’s an “over the top” slogan . . . perfection in timber.  Where might this be coming from?

It turns out this is European wood from forests and mills in central and eastern Europe, especially Romania.  I have to be honest . . . I’m not thrilled.  I know they likely buy our stuff, but don’t we have forests and mills in the US?  I’m guessing it’s planed timber, but there may be other products here.

All photos and sentiments, WVD.

As of yesterday evening, Mozu Arrow departed Red Hook for Baltimore.

 

Lumber Carrier

Here’s a new type of vessel, a TEFC.  Know that abbreviation?  She called in Red Hook about a month ago.  These photos come thanks to Mike Abegg.

A clue is the white/red bundles on the dock.

Here’s a closer up view.  Last opportunity to guess.

TEFC expands to “totally enclosed forests carrier,” a subset of dry bulk transportation.  After Red Hook she called at a number of ports headed south.  She’s currently in Mobile AL.  My guess is that she loaded her lumber cargo in Brasil, but I’m not sure of that.

If you can get FB, here’s a video of Mozu Arrow and her hold.  Here are videos of many other Arrow vessels.

Many thanks to Mike for taking these photos.