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Evening twilight rarely finds me at the KVK. I should go there more often.

That’s the 1960 Pelham, originally launched as Esso Pelham.

For a 60 year old machine, she still looks good.

Back before the Esso name was phased out in 1972, she must have been a formidable tugboat.


All photos, WVD.
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.
Recognize the tugboat below? Answer follows.
David McAllister, photo from 2013, has recently changed hands and is currently undergoing “re-power and life extension” as Tradewinds Towing Hannah.
Draco, photo below taken in 2007, shows the vessel that began life in 1951 as Esso Tug No. 12. I caught her in the sixth boro as Co here (scroll) back in 2009.
Pleon, built in 1953, has appeared on this blog several times recently.
Canal Deluge, shown here in Fournier Towing and Ship Services colors, has since been sold to Trinidad, where she is (somewhat appropriately) know as Boston Lady.
And finally, originally a steam tug built in the mid-1920s to assist ships and break ice on the Delaware river, the 125′ John Wanamaker claimed the title of the last steam tug operating commercially in the US, but after several stints as a restaurant boat, she was cut up in New Bedford sometime around 2007. Anyone have photos of her last days or her last decades as a restaurant in at least three different New England locations? For a great story about her–and many other boats– read Jim Sharp’s With Reckless Abandon. It seems that Jim has owned at least half the historic vessels on the East coast at one time or other. His Sail, Power, & Steam Museum will reopen in the spring.
Again, thanks to JG, these photos from the near but irretrievable past.
Oh, and that mystery tug at the top, she’s of course Pelham, seen in this post (scroll) and many others here.
It takes the right light to see things you don’t otherwise see, like raised lettering.
Pelham goes back quite a long time.
It’s good to see her at work.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
I got there JUST in time. A few minutes after I arrived, lines were cast off, and the yard tug moved the bow into the stream. What’s to comment . . . I’ll just put the times, to the nearest minute.
Here the yard tug–L W Caddell is moving lines from the dry dock to Wavertree.
And then it was lunch time.
Here you see the dry dock “ballasting” . . . or sinking.
Note the “wet” portion of the dry dock as it rises, or “deballasts.”
Note the size of the workers relative to the hull.
The next step is pressure washing the communities that traveled on the hull from the East River to the KVK.
Here Wavertree will stay through the winter as she goes through a thorough and exciting transformation. Become a member and send your own “bravo” to all the folks at South Street Seaport for all the strides in the right direction. See here and here.
Tomorrow I hit the road for New England for a while. I will try to post, but my laptop has become quite uncooperative.
First, notice the Tugboat Roundup logo upper left? Click on it for the schedule; I’ll be giving an illustrated talk “1500 Miles on the Erie Canal” Saturday and Sunday.
Also, if you are in Boston this Sunday, Maine Sail Freight will be at Long Wharf in Boston with pallets of products from farm and sea. Click here for a link to other sail freight initiatives around the world. Here’s more on that project; a change is that schooner Adventure rather than Harvey Gamage will be transporting.
I will be back tomorrow with close-ups of L’Hermione and more, but Bjoern of New York Media Boat sent me the very intriguing photo below. Recognize it? Answer follows. Clue: Elizabeth Anna.
Well, L’Hermione (pronounced LAIR me un) will find her way into more of these photos. Here’s the venerable W. O. Decker. Click and scroll to see her at work a few decades back.
It’s Pelham, power unit for Wavertree not long ago.
And it’s James Turecamo, preparing to escort in the French frigate currently at South Street.
And Frederick E. Bouchard, in the process of switching B. No. 264 from on the hawser to alongside.
And my first shot of James E. Brown, brand spanking new. I’ll devote a whole post to James E. soon, I hope.
Laura K. Moran watches the French lion pass . . .
as does Frances out in Gravesend Bay.
And the answer to the question about Elizabeth Anna . . . the top photo . . . I believe it’s the erstwhile Bear, the Disch tug acquired by DonJon at an auction back in December 2014. I wonder where she’s headed. Anyone help out?
Except the top photo by Bjoern Kils, all photos in the past few days by Will Van Dorp.
And if I haven’t said this explicitly enough, New York Media Boat is the faster, most versatile, shallowest draft means to see whatever you want in the sixth boro. Need waterborne support for a project or . . .want to see or show someone the sixth boro and its borders with the other boros, check them out.
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