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On this glum April 1 and the 25th month in a row, the blog looks back 10 years on day 1 of a new month . . . and sometimes day 2 as well, with a selection of photos from exactly a decade back, 120 months ago. What’s particularly interesting for me about this look back is the degree of change in the boro, replacement and realignment otherwise going almost unnoted, like movement only visible in slow motion.
Allied Transportation and their tug Socrates were still around; the company got absorbed into Kirby, and the tug was sold and transported to Nigeria almost eight years ago already. Here she passed the statue on her way to Florida with the barge Sugar Express.
On this Easter morning, Patapsco hurried eastbound in the KVK. Patapsco has been sold out of Vane and now carries Steven Wayne nameboards.
I recall that same Easter morning; Ivory Coast appeared to float in the air as she headed into the Kills. She still carries the same name and livery.
A bit later that morning, the 3800-teu Al-Mutanabbi, launched 1998, headed out with her containers; since then, the ship has been broken up on the south bank of the Yangtze in Jiangyin, upstream from Shanghai. Since then, UASC has merged with Hapag-Lloyd. And Al-Mutannabi, he was a poet who lived well but died young because of the power of his poetry.
Al-Sabahia was the same class/size container ship; she too has been broken up in Jiangyin, just two years ago. Count the number of containers across to understand the dramatic difference in size of some container ships; also, note the top of the wheelhouse is nearly at the deck level of the ship, compared with here or here. If you count carefully, that’s 20 across, rather than 13. Laura K Moran, escorting her in, has been reassigned to another port.
A unique flat-fronted tug, locally-built tug called Houma, 1970, was still around. She’s been scrapped. Beyond her is an interesting and eclectic cluster of lower Manhattan architecture, with one of my favorites, the former Standard Oil Building, just to the right of the black pyramid.
We’ll pick up on more April 2010 photos tomorrow. With increasing restrictions on movement around the boro, I might be digging into my archives a lot for a while. If you want to help by dipping into your own archives for photos and stories, I would greatly appreciate that. Maybe it’s time for new permutations of truckster, teamster, bikester, autoster, planester, hutster, hikester, storyster, . . . let’s help each other out.
All photos taken by and stories researched by . . . WVD, who wishes you all health. Hat tip to you performing essential services out there.
This post is front-loaded with photos, text heavy at the end . . . . Have you seen this boat before?
The name is new, as is the livery.
And in a previous lifetime it was . .
Patapsco! Below that’s a photo of Patapsco I took on September 2, 2007!! After the tugboat race, she went nose-to-nose with Lucy Reinauer.
It’s the first Vane boat I saw in the sixth boro, and it was even the name of a class of 4200 hp boats that followed. See a few more here.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
The venerable Frances came past to greet me first . . .
Lots of digital ink has been devoted to Frances on this blog. I even toured her once at the Waterford Tug Roundup.
I watched Potomac and Double Skin 59 made fast alongside Afra Willow as she slowly swung on her hook with the tide change.
Wicomico was outbound with a barge on the wire as
Patapsco had come in
with Double Skin 59 earlier.
And finally, this unidentified truckable tug came in. When she was way out, I imagined her a sailboat.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who really should spend more time at the Narrows.
T-boats are up today, and seeing some in Baltimore led me into the archives. Click here for a short history of Carina, a T-boat I saw in Clayton NY but never got a good photo of. Here’s a database of the existing ones, although the info looks dated. Here’s another article on T-boats and Sea Scouts.
Enjoy. Higgins hull #424 from 1952.
taken in January 2011
Higgins hull 434 from 1952
taken in September 2015
Higgins hull 504 from 1953
taken in September 2015
Higgins hull 513 from 1953
taken in July 2014
same boat . . . stern
All photos taken by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated but fascinating to me: the October 2015 National Geographic article on river transport on the Congo River in the DRC. The article describes conditions not unlike those I encountered on my travels on the River in 1973 and 1974. Click here for a post I did about that time.
Totally related: Here’s the book to read on Higgins.
Finally, a relatively close-up foto of Katherine.
Bruce A. McAllister pushes through the snowflakes, as do
Blue Fin . . . still gray,
Brooklyn and Patapsco,
and finally Pegasus.
And finally . .. escuse the poor quality, but these are cam-captures of Miss Lis at the Gatun Locks last Thursday, six days ago. Although it’s not legible here, the container at the bow of the barge reads “FLUOR.” Let’s keep a watch for this tow at the Narrows in the next few days . . . from the Left Coast and headed here for the Tappan Zee project, I presume.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Happy . . . . first sunny Sunday in April. With balmy weather and a full spectrum of light conditions this first weekend of April, just call it the weekend right before summer although it may snow yet this spring . . . Whatzit below? I’ll do a post on Gabby soon; for now that’s all I’ll say.
Adriatic Sea–the most powerful sounding vessel in the boro–and Lincoln Sea, off in the distance lower left both recall for me summers past.
Oleander heads off to Bermuda while Baltic Sea enters the east end of KVK.
Kuroshio Express flushes water through its dolly partons while arriving for its boro-6 appointment, escorted by
Brendan Turecamo.
Patapsco prepares for an assist.
Ellen McAllister escorts in Zim Virginia.
As I watched from pier 66, Melvin E. Lemmerhirt passes between me and the setting sun, which
also burnished the dull gray surfaces of Intrepid.
All fotos taken on good Friday afternoon by Will Van Dorp.
The amazing diversity of traffic on the boro all year round thrills me, like feather-light kayaks gliding past dredgers sucking alluvial ooze from the floor,
one human powered craft yielding to OOCL Verrazano Bridge 4738-teu vessel with almost 60,000 (59764.08…) horsepower,
more kayaks posing with Lucky D and different sullage scooping equipment before
heading north into the habitat of furious ferries, who might change their whole image by slowing down a notch and getting themselves renamed as Tinker Bell and Puck.
On another day, overlaid with haze, more traffic flows: left to right are Petalouda, Lucky D, Patapsco, dredge barge GL51, and Sarah Dann. As to Petalouda, check out the name of the rest of the fleet in the link in the previous sentence.
And on a still hazier day, Vera K waits as Cosco Boston rounds Bergen Point on its final mile into Port Newark. That’s the Bayonne Bridge off in the east.
Fotos 2, 3, and 4 many thanks to Vladimir Brezina. See his comments on “Mixed Use.” Other fotos by Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated but you will be thrilled to check out these videos of paddlecam and icecam . . . via peconic jeff, 2010 comes to documenting surfing and ice-skating!!
According to the family history here, they started with schooners and currently, besides oil, they push water and do more. Monday I caught Susquehanna standing by along the KVK as container vessel Zim Shenzhen hurried for its assignation in Port Elizabeth.
The following four pics come from Jim Demske, who’s worked for Vane for over twenty years as Captain and is now Port Captain in charge of “New Tug Construction.” Elk River entered service mid-summer 2009, just a little over six months after Sassafras did.
Seabart sends along a link to the 23 August issue of Tugs Towing & Offshore Newsletter with a short piece about the Charles Burton launch: see page 4/12 of this link. Charles Burton is sibling to Elk River and Sassafras.
Compare wheelhouse of a Sassafras class with
that of Vane Brothers largest class–Brandywine. Click on boatnerd’s site here for pics of Brandywine’s first splash in early 2006 at Marinette Marine in cold Wisconsin. These folks also built the Molinari class Staten Island ferries.
More Brandywine and its mate Double Skin 141 here, loa 480′ and capacity of 145,000 barrels, also built in Wisconsin.
Jeff Anzevino took the next two fotos, Potomac of the Patapsco class, operating in the icy
Hudson north of Poughkeepsie.
Like the lead foto, I took this one. In this case, Patapsco thrusts forward and divides Hudson water in the Great North River race in 2007. Beyond Patapsco are Lucy Reinauer and Nathan E. Stewart. The two cruise ships mostly visible are Norwegian Spirit and Norwegian Dawn.
Again, special thanks to Jim and Jeff for use of these pictures.
Choptank . . .
Nanticoke again . . .
Wye River . . . though it looks the same as Nanticoke and Choptank.
Christiana . . . is in a different class, for Vane, although she looks a lot like a certain Reinauer.
Chesapeake . . . thought it could be –at least to my eye– either Wye River, Choptank, or Nanticoke.
Wye River . . . although it could be Chesapeake with nameboards switched?? [No, there’s a slight window difference in the wheelhouse.]
The nameboards say Wicomico.
Wicomico again.
Wicomico a third time, passing what looks like Charles D. McAllister.
Patapsco, according to the nameboards.
Brandywine is a twin of Christiana. At 6000 hp, they’re a smidgeon less than 1/3 more hp than the Patapsco class.
Back to the Patapsco class, it’s Bohemia.
Of that class, I’ve yet to see Patuxent, Anacostia, and Severn.
Has there ever been another company that had 15 identical (are there nuances I’ve missed??) tugboats? And on the Patapsco class, why does the forward companionway lead starboard rather than port?
All fotos . . . Will Van Dorp.
Unrelated: See a new blog on my blogroll: the Newtown Pentacle; Newtown, as in the Creek. Also, another swimming post from Capt JP on swimming with urchins. Oh, the stories I could tell about my close encounters with fire coral in the Red Sea. Leave it to Frogma (I added this late the other day) to tell a pleasant tale about the swimming with parrotfish and their friends.
All fotos but the one directly below were taken yesterday, but what you see below is what John J. Harvey, ex-Engine 57, Engine 86, and Marine 2, does: in its prime, it pumped up to 18,000 gallons per minute. And now, the vessel and crew get invited from near and far to pump these prodigious amounts of water; I’ll call it the wet equivalent of fireworks . . . waterworks!!
Yesterday, thanks the the Harvey crew and Bernie & friends, I traveled Harvey the 6.5 hours to Poughkeepsie, queen of the Hudson.
Seven a.m. sharp departure was delayed by sizeable traffic in the middle of the channel (just forward of Bel Espoir 2) , but
other traffic–Comet southbound and Patapsco north–kept to the Jersey side.
At the Passenger Terminal, Taurus and Caribbean Sea stand by with a bunker barge for the sizeable traffic, shown earlier, delivering a morning load of travellers.
Lucy Reinauer waits at anchor with RTC 83, as Patapsco trails us, pushing fuel northbound.
Local traffic moves south with any serviceable conveyance.
Off the Palisades across from the Yonkers sugar mill, Falcon waits. Note that two Falcons at least inhabit the sixth boro, one is K-Sea and the other is green. Anyone know who operates this Falcon and Socrates and where the sugar comes from?
Just north of Tappan Zee we encounter Glen Cove, pushing stone.
Patrolman Walburger Launch No. 5 greets us in that same stretch of the river.
Harvey purrs and rides very steady in minor river chop, here passing Newburgh.
Poughkeepsie is almost in view.
The captain explains the difference between the larger and smaller diameter wheels (the smaller serves as a switch to trigger the larger).
Deck crew demonstrate their impressive line toss skill.
With only a short break before Harvey is called to perform, some crew (Carl, Huntley [captain], and Lucy) kicks back.
I wished I could have stayed but . .
before the water fest began, many of us took the train back to Grand Central.
Waterworks, fireworks, or just plain working, Happy Independence Day. John Adams, one of the luminaries of this day 233 years ago, suggests the following celebratory events: “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.” Harvey, a bell boat, brings pomp, show, water guns aka monitors, puts out bonfires, and entertains during illuminations. I think Adams would come aboard with enthusiasm.
As you recall in enjoyment your 4 July BBQs, consider Henry Hudson’s grub of a then-insignificant-date, 4 July 1607, Gregorian calendar, bacalao, hard tack, and genever after watch.
All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.
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