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The year 2007 spawned this series here. Since you’ve stayed with this blog, I’m celebrating a milestone . . . the 300th post in this series. Thanks for continued visits to tugster. To honor this event, I solicited photos from you, particularly photos that’d never previously appeared on this blog. I threw some of my own unusual ones in to round out the post. Thanks to all who sent in photos, or thought about it, and added some explanation. Since the internet allows quick and easy photo exchanges globally, I’m always interested in folks sharing photos of tugboats and other workboats from everywhere. Vladivostok? Karachi? Baku? Port of Spain? Paramaribo? Douala? Luanda? Umm Qasr? I hope you get the idea.
Tim Sansom wrote: ” taken at Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter in December 2016, showing the tugboat Koraki and the cement barge Marsden Bay. Koraki, built in 1985, regularly hauls cement barges between Auckland and Whangarei for Golden Bay Cement. The Wynyard Quarter is a redeveloped part of Auckland harbour between the ferry and cruise ship terminal and the marina, and usually has a few fishing boats tied up as well as ferries to the Hauraki Gulf islands, one of which you can see in the background.”
I took this one of Elizabeth Anne at the King’s Point dock in 2015. That’s the Throg’s Neck Bridge in the background. The 1980 tug was donated to the US Merchant Marine Academy in 2014.
I took this on Oneida Lake NY in November 2016. My platform was craneship Ward’s Island, now fish and other aquatic life habitat, but then was doing one of its last seasons plucking channel markers from the NYS Canals portion of the Lake. Tug Syracuse, 77′ x 20′ , has worked exclusively in NYS Canals since spring 1934.
William Mitchell took this photo of Donna and Charlie Costa’s Hobo in Wickford RI.
Jan van Sluisweg took this photo of the 1976 Arion, 94′ x 30′, towing City of Dubrovnik and approaching the lock in IJmuiden in 2014.
From Kyle Stubbs: “Brusco’s Capt Bob Campbell hasn’t appeared and offers a fun connection to Lindy Marie seen in your post Columbia River Tugs. Both the Lindy Marie (as Fireball) and Capt Bob Campbell (as Warrior), were in-house products of the Smith Tug and Barge Company of Rainier, Oregon. Founder Wilbur Smith had been witness to a number of accidents on tugboat decks, and as a result embraced a design philosophy that eliminated blind spots on the deck as seen from the pilothouse. The result was a series of tugs with unique, sloped deckhouses that earned the company the nickname of the “Studebaker Fleet” in reference to that automaker’s distinctive models of the 1950’s.”
The Studebaker fleet . . . I love that. Kyle took this photo at Grays Harbor on the Washington coast.
From George Schneider: “Maybe this one is too wee to count, but she’s the tug Elsa. She was built back in 1955 by the Welding and Shipbuilding Company of Costa Mesa CA as their hull #1, and to my knowledge, the only vessel built there. Her original owner was Francis P. Jones of the Jones Tug & Barge Company of Long Beach CA. At the time she was 50 ft in length and rated at 290 HP. Jones later lengthened her to about 60 ft. (58 ft registered) and HP was increased to 600. Jones closed shop in the 1980s. Since then she’s moved bunker barges in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area, and is now owned by Global Marine Transportation Inc. of Los Angeles.”
Another from George, not so wee: “Here’s my next , a Gulf tug. She was originally built as Abdon Martin by Halter Marine at their New Orleans yard in 1976, and ownership was always listed as Halter Marine Inc, although Andrew Martin Sea Service Inc. appears to be a separate company who operated her. In 1985 she was sold to the N. J. Guidry & Sons Towing Company, who remained listed as her owner while named Harvey Trojan, showing Harvey Gulf Intl. markings. When Harvey Gulf decided to concentrate on supply boat activities, they sold her in 2014 to Signet Maritime Corp, and since then she has sailed as their Signet Trojan.” If my info is correct, she’s 110′ x 34′ and rated at 13,500 hp.
From Antonio Alcaraz: “VB Andalucia [built in 2004 and 97’x 36′] underway service Algeciras port.”
One of my own from Block Island, it’s Petersburg in October 2015. The 1954 107′ tug was recently used in a movie.
Another of mine from February 2016, Sea Wolf A in Havana harbor. The 1996 tug was built by Damex Shipbuilding in Santiago Cuba.
And in the sixth boro, I took this one of Paul T Moran. Currently the 1975 built 138′ x 40′ 150′ x 49′ behemoth is in Mobile AL
Westbound in the East River, it’s Thomas D. Witte with Powhatan alongside. My record keeping for the period is scrambled, but i believe I took this is 2005 or 2006. As of this writing Powhatan, now operated by the Turkish Navy as Inebolu A590 is on the Turkish Black Sea coast between Trabzon and Samsun.
Again from George Schneider, who took it in June 2014 on Portrero Reach, Richmond CA on San Francisco Bay: “One class of tugs you may not have seen in the Sixth Borough are the recent tractor tugs from Jensen Maritime Consultants. They’re a widely respected group, evolving since Bay Delta put the first one in service in 2007. Since that time, some of the majors have chartered these from Bay Delta, including Foss, Crowley, and AmNav, and once the quality of the design was recognized, companies have also gone directly to Jensen’s to have them built. Bay-Delta began congealing as a company in the early 1990’s with second-hand tonnage. They remain small, but obviously have been a leader in tug development. This shows Delta Cathryn, built by Nichols Brothers in 2009. She’s the second Jensen tug by that name, the first is now operating for Crowley as Vigilant. In 2019 the first hybrid tug of this series, Delta Teresa, was completed and also immediately chartered to Crowley.”
I took this photo of Ocean Henry Bain in Quebec City in March 2017. The 2006 z-drive measures in at 95′ x 37.’
From Maraki, a Chinese built tug Pino, working in Colombia then off Cartagena.
Many thanks to Tim, William, Jan, Kyle, Antonio, George, and Maraki for these delightful photos and text. I’d love to do this again, maybe at the 400 mark, or maybe sooner. My editor is very easy-going.
If you’re new on this blog, for the past 27 months I’ve been posting photos from exactly 10 years before. These then are photos I took in June 2010. What’s been interesting about this for me is that this shows how much harbor activities have changed in 10 years.
Tarpon, the 1974 tug that once worked for Morania and below carries the Penn Maritime livery, is now a Kirby boat. Tarpon, which may be “laid up” or inactive, pushes Potomac toward the Gate.
North River waits over by GMD shipyard with Sea Hawk, and now also a Kirby vessel. Sea Hawk is a slightly younger twin, at least in externals and some internals, of Lincoln Sea.
Irish Sea, third in a row, was K-Sea but now is also a Kirby boat.
Huron Service went from Candies to Hornbeck to now Genesis Energy, and works as Genesis Victory.
Ocean King is the oldest in this post . . . built in 1950. She’s in Boston, but I don’t know how active she is.
Petersburg dates from 1954, and currently serves as a live aboard. Here’s she’s Block Island bound, passing what is now Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Kristin Poling was built in 1934 and worked the Great Lakes and the Eastern Seaboard via the Erie Canal.
To digress, William Lafferty took this photo on 15 May 1966 at Thorold, Ontario, in the Welland Canal, same boat 44 years later.
And finally, she who travels jobs up and down the East Coast, the 1970 Miss Gill. She’s currently working in the Charleston area.
All photos, WVD, who never thought a decade ago while taking these photos that I’d revisit them while in the midst of a pandemic. June 2010 was a great month for photos, so I’ll do a retro a and b.
March 2009 . . . Stephen Scott here passes Port Ivory, near my old job, pushing RTC 70. I’m still looking for Stephen Scott photo is her new profile, sans upper wheelhouse. Port Ivory was an intriguing place name for me when I first moved here; once a North Shore Branch of the SIRR even had a station there.
Kimberly Poling already had the color scheme, but adding a few more teal stripes to her current appearance is a big improvement.
Lettie passed by once while I scheduled my lunch break. As of today’s posting, Lettie G is in Mobile AL!! If she continues, she could end up back in Lake Erie by way of the great loop. Is that what’s happening? A few months I caught her at the top end of the Welland Canal here.
More Port Ivory area, Specialist was around, then called Specialist II.
So was the huge K-Sea fleet, which included Falcon.
This post should be called “sixth boro and beyond,” since I took this photo of Justine with RTC 120 up near Saugerties. Back then,
was that a red canoe along her portside rail?
Side by side in the Rondout 10 years ago were Hackensack, the 1953 colorful one, and Petersburg, 1954 vintage and still in the general area. Last I knew, Hackensack was in Guyana pushing molasses barges.
And going farther out, it’s Allie B pulling Goliath on a cargo barge Brooklyn Bridge out of Quincy MA, with assistance from Vincent D. Tibbetts Jr and Justice.
Here’s a closer up of Liberty. For the entire reportage on that journey to Mangalia, Romania (!!), click here. Damen operates the crane in their shipyard there, the largest shipyard in the Damen collection.
All photos by Will Van Dorp, who hopes you enjoy these looks back as much as I do.
Here is one of the previous photos I’ve posted of Petersburg, a Higgins-built LT-2088, delivered in 1954.
Floating in a soup of eelgrass on a windless afternoon after a stormy week, every part of this half-century vessel begs to be admired.
The small fish in the clear water of New Harbor could not ever disturb the reflections.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
Click here for more info on Petersburg, from an article in the NYTimes a few years back.
Unrelated: In the late 1980s a “pirate radio” ship broadcasting as RNI anchored off Jones Beach. The ship was called variously Lichfield II and Sarah. According to this entry in wikipedia, “it was towed to its location off Long Island by Frank Ganter using his tugboat the M/V Munzer.” Does anyone know anything about Munzer or Mr. Ganter?
The last one was seven, so … for number eight, I bring back this version of a foto from two years ago. June K was the essential orange in the sixth boro; nothing was more orange than June K, but
it’s 2010, not 2008, and it seems the answer is Punxsutawney Phil and Staten Island Chuck might say more than yes or no, and “Yes a leopard can change its spots.” And it’s year of the tiger and the tiger might
just strip off its stripes.
A blue June K! And that’s in transition to Sarah Ann. I know it’s frivolous, but I liked the orange on this product of Amelia, Louisiana.
While I adjust to that, check out these fotos of Hackensack (inland from Petersburg) in March 2009 and
in the same location–although imprisoned in ice–in January 2010.
Change is good. viva transformation . . . although I’m still going to have a hard time feeling the same about a blue June K.
Blue June K fotos … many thanks to Jed. All others by Will Van Dorp.
No . . I’ve been tied up with spring cleaning . . . really. But the blog needs to break out. Here’s Davis Sea pushing up the Rondout past Petersburg and Hackensack.
And all the rest here from Paul Strubeck’s lens/flickr account, and all take between 60 and 110 miles north of the sixth boro. Cheyenne,
and a government boat, Wire.
And as I post this, here downriver, it FEELS like a thaw, like a hint of spring in January.
Many thanks to Paul Strubeck for these fotos. Paul works on Cornell.
The google map below has two points marked; all fotos above were taken between those points.
Time to reprise one of my summer meditations: the one on line. Countless line-handling events happen in the sixth boro.
Crews everywhere and from every nation do it.
The technique is generally the same . . .
The goal is to attach to a cleat or bollard.
Vikings do it.
Those seeking shelter from impending storms do it.
It has to be done safely, for the dangers with line come fast and irreversibly. I know from almost . .. key word . . almost losing some fingers. Towmasters speaks of the dangers here, aptly illustrated.
First foto thanks to Mike Lesser, last one to Elizabeth Wood, and the others . . . Will Van Dorp.
Imagine this post–in honor of April 1, ie, the start of the second month of the year (?…explanation later)–assembled like the films done on the streets, buildings, and parks in the land areas surrounding the sixth boro: directors lead camera crews to gather countless short snippets, some a second or two long, into a reality with or without resemblance to the calendared and salaried world. So here goes a movie, silent of course . . .
The trip up Rondout Creek began without incident; from the waterside we documented no flora or fauna but technologica like Gowanus Bay and
Spooky Boat facing down both Petersburg and Hackensack. When we landed to foto from the shore, camera-bearing guardians
surprised us as we attempted to decipher the decals, thunderclouds, and underlying paint. We fled
and pursuit ensued. (We need a chase scene.)
When eventually cornered, we learned that we had misunderstood a reception intended to be friendly. That led to an invite to visit Cornell
and smaller vessel that incorporated a novel steering system controlled by finger pointing that signaled return to
the mouth of the creek where the lighthouse stood
and beyond which the fog shrouded in mystery;
modern aids to navigation gave way to
more primitive but equally effective ones, and time
regressed, first by smaller increments and then
with one long barbaric yawp, we found ourselves back almost 400 years or so, from where Henry will be channeling again soon.
Hope you enjoyed the movie. Happy April 1. Top seven fotos by Bowsprite. The rest, by Will Van Dorp.
The calendar . . . counting back using the names we still use like December (tenth), November (ninth), October (eighth) and September (seventh)… we get to the Roman calendar with March as the first month.
Thanks to Kaya for the Iphone foto below. Kaya intrigued me by stating he wished to ride the lady’s wake, literally. Given her top end of 34 knots, her final wave–wherever that may form–could be formidable. I hope the soon-to-appear QE3 designers improve her speed rather than her make-up.
Compliments of Ron, at balloonist level, see QE2 process southward as
QM2 creeps into place as QE2‘s maid.
Compliments of bowsprite, QM2 shows herself no slouch, a truly flashy maid, pirouetting on her axis at the confluence of Morris Canal and the North and East Rivers where
she holds station allowing the Dann Ocean Towing boat to push some cement through.
The cement salute is a unique feature of this ceremony, maybe the crosscurrents of the tow compound the challenge of surfing QE2s wake.
Anyone identify the gray hull in foreground shooting water?
Moran tugs escort the elegant lady past QM2.
Dubai lies over the horizon for QE2. Honestly, given the lines and speed, I hope the inertia of the Palm
Jumeirah agree with her in her second life. Dubai is located on the west lower end of the Omani Horn that juts northward in the Gulf. By the way, in the background from L to R, Verrazano, the heights of Staten Island, and Lady Liberty on ex-Bedloe‘s Island. It’s remarkable how narrow QE2‘s waist seems at several miles distance.
QE2 herself has surfed a remarkable wave created by Hurricane Luis back in 1995.
See Newyorkology‘s take here with video.
tugster: a waterblog 
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