Seldom Seen 1

I’ve thought about using this title quite often, and I surely have a lot of candidates, my personal ones, to include here.

Know the tug(s) from the photo below?  Really the most seldom seen is the nearer one, the one with escape ropes mounted on either side of the wheelhouse egresses.

Pacific Dawn I last saw over six years ago here.  She tends to follow dredging projects, which might possibly have brought her in the other day. 

I’ve seen Delta a lot on AIS, but I believe I should consider her a “never seen” by me.  So voila!

Here she passes the seldom seen Ypapanti and the some to be no longer seen Pilot No. 1 New York.  I could be wrong about the last part of that statement.  

Delta also tends to follow dredging projects, it seems to me.

 

Have your own “seldom seen”?  Let me know.  All photos here in the past week, WVD.

Vane Brothers 8

What follows is photos of eleven Vane Brothers tugboats.  Can you identify the four that are 3000 hp;  the others are all 4200 hp.  The difference lies with the height of theupper wheelhouse.

You choices are Susquehanna,

Magothy and Fort McHenry,

 

Cape Fear,

Fells Point,

Choptank,

Fort McHenry again,

Pokomoke,

Hunting Creek,

and again . . .

Patuxent, and

Elizabeth Anne.

All photos, WVD.

The 3000s are Fort McHenry, Fort Schuyler, Fells Point,  Hunting Creek.  The key is the shorter upper wheelhouse stalk.

 

Random Tugs 257

New in town but probably only in as a transient . . .

It’s Michael L. Daigle, fleet mate of some Hebert boats that have also passed through the sixth boro and likely working on a dredging project in the region.  Note the white horizontal supports above the wheelhouse door on either side.  I’m guessing they’re for quick egress lines   . .  as seen here if you scroll through the 2010 post to Gulf Dawn.

Unrelated . . .  two Vane units approach the Narrows;  the forward unit below has already evolved from wire towing to alongside towing.

As a heavy squall approached, Potomac enters port allowed by

Patuxent, still with the wire out.

A few years back, HMS Justice was a regular in NYC.  These days not so much, but she called here recently.

Fleet mate HMS Liberty follows along behind.

CMT Otter heads outbound, likely towards Queens and Inwood.

And let’s end today’s post with another transient . . .  Captain Sam, here meeting Capt. Brian.  Captain Sam is a triple screw Rodriguez Shipyard boat from 2002.

All photos taken within the general confines of the sixth boro by Will Van Dorp.

 

Random Tugs 229

Let’s do the numbers again.  No, Pelham is NOT becoming a tugantine in the tradition of Norfolk Rebel.  Seeing Pelham out of the water really reveals a beauty I hadn’t noticed before.

OK, numbers, built in 1960 and rated at 3000 hp.

Atlantic Coast, 2007 and 3000hp.

 

Genesis Vision, 1981 and 3000hp.

Margaret Moran, 1979 and 3000hp.

(l to r) Fort Schuyler 2015 and 3000hp, Patuxent 2008 and 4200, and Kings Point 2014 and 3000.

Note the difference in “neck” length leading to the upper wheelhouse;  that hints at the difference in engines.

Resolve, 2007 and 9280hp.

Brownsville, 2008 and 12,000hp.

All photos by Will Van Dorp, who is playing in the Great Lakes by this time.

North on Gallatin’s Ditches 7

This leg from New York harbor, aka the sixth boro,  to Narragansett Bay was not proposed in Gallatin’s report, but we have gotten here by means after much time and miles in his ditches. We depart a few hours after dark and head into the

East River under some puffy clouds.

The 1903 Williamsburg Bridge seemed especially iconic this night…

At Hell Gate, we passed Evening Light towing a fuel barge.

Then we headed under the spans between Queens and the Bronx.

I shot once, a look back before getting too far eastward.

At foggy daylight, we passed Patuxent with barge and

some draggers with nets filtering through the Sound.

Block Island dashes ahead of us between Point Judith and its namesake island.

Lights at Point Judith and

Castle Hill guide us in, as they do

other vessels.

 

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Really Random Tugs 13

This NYPD officer of the peace got tugged right into a recent parade.  When that happens, you know all things could get downright disorderly.

This last June post is a melange of Pegasus and Lehigh Valley 79 in a setting rays irritating my camera,

Patuxent in the Philly dawn,

Sea Hawk approaching the St. John’s Bridge,

Patuxent redux,

Natoma docked in the Columbia,

Caspian Sea in the Delaware,

Surrie Moran in the same waters,

Aries in Portland,

Madeline,

Black Hawk,

more Black Hawk, 

Cape Henry,

again Madeline,

and finally Lewiston.

Rounding things out, it’s Siberian Sea in palm trees country aka the sixth boro, taken about a year ago.  I will resume the blog as soon as I can in a land with more palm trees

Thanks for reading the blog and sending comments either here or via email.  Sorry if I haven’t acknowledged everyone who’s sent along a tidbit or nice word.

If you’ve never taken a Working Harbor tour in NYC’s sixth boro, here’s info.  If you  know the sixth boro pretty well–especially the contemporary commercial aspects of it, you might even propose to them to narrate a tour.  That’s just me suggesting that, but there are folks who want to better understand the role of shipping and its interaction between the sixth boro and the five terrestrial ones.

Thanks to Seth Tane for the fotos of Aries, Black Hawk, Lewiston, Nahoma, and Sea Hawk.  All others by Will Van Dorp who hopes to next post from the obscure January River.