Maritime Tugboats

Regionally speaking, Andrew, along with 

Roderick and Nancy, could be said to sail in maritime waters.

In the maritime province of Nova Scotia, though, I caught up with Atlantic Towing Limited tugboats Atlantic Oak,

Atlantic Cedar, 

Atlantic Fir, and 

 

Atlantic Elm.  Given their extensive fleet, it seems I need to make my way back here.  Other than returning in October, I’m not sure when that will happen, but now it’s a goal.  

Seeing the Canso Strait, first hand and after being introduced to it by my friend Jack Ronalds,  satisfied a curiosity.

Behold Spitzer Bedford, Spitzer Montreal, and Point Chebucto.

All photos, any errors, WVD.

LL Eastport to Portland

You’ll understand if I say this is a wicked quick post.  Bear with me.  At the appointed hour, albeit Campobello time rather than Eastport time, we cast off and made for sea.

Once away from town, the pilot departed, back for the Eastport station aboard North Sea.

We rounded the light off the top of Campobello as a fishing boat worked the same area.  I wonder what the catch was. 

Making our way SW out of the Bay of Funky Funky Fundy (yes, that was an autocorrect 2X!) and into the Gulf of Maine, we passed Storm Rider.  Note the crewman looking our way between the house and the curtain on the stern deck. Yes, this song came to mind.

At daybreak this morning we took on a Portland pilot from Spring Point.

Ram Island Ledge Light, I presume.

I’ve lots of other lighthouse photos, but as we made fast, we were alongside the Portland McAllister fleet:  l to r, Roderick, Nancy, and Andrew. 

Heading into town for some supplies, I had to photograph this sign.

All photos, wicked fast, any errors because I’m too wicked fast, WVD.

ICW Tugs May 2017* A

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.

 

GHP&W 23: Elizabeth River b

Let’s go farther south–i.e., up the Elizabeth. Covered barge . . .

pushed by Gram-Me.  Coal?

Capt. Woody and Alexis of w3marine have the best logo.  See it better here. Fleetmate Ocean Endeavor was in yesterday’s post.

Lorette is one of two Norfolk tugs that used to be Moran boats.

As you can see by the livery, Ellie J is also a Norfolk tug, but although

similar, Stevens Towing’s Island Express is not.

Here’s a small portion of McAllister Virginia‘s fleet:  Nancy and Eileen.  The last time I saw Eileen she was returning a Staten Island ferry post rehab.

Vulcan construction has its logo on a number of tugs here, including Arapaho,

Aries,

Capt. Ron L, and

VMC Chattanooga.

Alexander Duff is a Vane tug.

Kodiak, here I think leaving the soybean depot– used to be Vane’s Capt. Russi.

Kodiak has been in the sixth boro on a few occasions.  Here’s more of her current fleet:  Maverick, ?Southern Star?, and Challenger.

Hoss, like the boats immediately above is also an Intracoastal Marine boat. Hoss is a close relative via Wiley Manufacturing of the sixth boro’s Patricia.   Sun Merchant, which I saw here in Savannah, is a Vane boat.

Corman Marine’s Captain Mac is yet another tugboat in the Elizabeth owned by a construction company.

Camie and Cajun look alike but may be owned by Robbins Maritime and Bay Transportation, respectively.

Three Sisters seems to be owned by a family-oriented company called Smith Brothers.

Elizabeth Ann, operated by Atlantic Gulf Towing, used to be known as El Hippo Grande, a truly satisfactory name for a workboat.

And finally, we seem to have two Skanska-owned boats, Ranger and

Cap’n Ed.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who imagined there’d be only about 10 photos in this post about a short section of the waterway in the Norfolk/Portsmouth VA area.  For the entirely delightful travel through the area, I am very grateful to the USMMA Sailing Foundation.

A request, though.   Over by the Norfolk Dredging yard, I saw their small tug Palmyra through the trees and could not get a good shot.  Has anyone taken one over the years?  If so, could you share it on this blog?  Send me an email, please.

Finally, some of you got an earlier version of this last night when I pushed the wrong button.  Sorry about that.  I could give other reasons for that error, but it was a slip and I had not intended you to think I had started using placeholder gibberish as captions.

Cheers.