Retro Piscataqua Mouth

Yes . . . I’ve been off wifi and away from the sixth boro, sometimes admiring images like the one below.  I’m back now and have more photos from July 2010 to revisit the Piscataqua, and a watershed where I canoed, kayaked, and just generally roamed from 1986 until 2000, along with some hiatuses out of the country.

A fixture in Portsmouth NH is the Moran fleet on Ceres Street.

L to R back in July 2010 are Mary M Coppedge, Carly A. Turecamo, and Eugenia Moran.  Mary M Coppedge, 1975 and 95′ x 30′ and 3200 hp is still in service.  Eugenia Moran 1966 and 102′ x 28′ and single screw 2875 hp and built at Jakobson  is “laid up.”   Carly A. Turecamo, 1966 and 98′ x 30′ and single screw at 2200 hp is now Marjorie Winsow.

Sakonnet . . . based in Gosport  . . . is a mystery to me.  This photo was taken in Portsmouth.

Portsmouth Navy Yard (PSNY) in the Picataqua has been active since 1800, the presidency of John Adams, making it the oldest continuously operated USN shipyard.   YTB 771 aka Keokuk, 109′ x 31′ was commissioned in 1964. Some other YTBs that have been featured on this blog can be found here.  The sixth boro’s staple ex-YTB is Ellen McAllister.

YTL 602 aka Cocheco was commissioned in 1945.

Nose-to nose with YTL 602 is a tug I can’t identify.  It’s much newer and has lots of fendering below the waterline, an adaptation for working with submarines, which is PNSH’s specialty.

By this article, the mystery tug and the one below are both LT-65 tugs, although that seems impossible to me.

Sir William Pepperell appears to be a launch named for a Colonial merchant from Kittery ME, right across the Piscataqua.  Click here to read a 1924 published book about  Pepperell and two friends written by John Francis Sprague.

Two USCG cutters in the harbor that day were Reliance and

Campbell.

And of course . . . there were lobster boats galore.

 

I have not been back in since 2017, when I went to see the new Moran tug San Jose. It’s high time for a revisit.  A memorable canoe trip I took there was  . . . early 1990s on the Great Bay, starting in Newmarket and eventually losing the tide.

Here‘s a bit more.

All photos, WVD.

Independence Day Weekend

To see a recap of the North River fireworks, click here, and for Queens/Bronx/East River fireworks foto’d by Mitch, click here.  In that foto, you can see three barges, each accompanied by a tug.  Anyone know which ones?   I mostly heard fireworks in what sounded like a north woods war, which must have chased all the fish into the deepest holes in the lakes.

On the way up, I sailed with Jeff Anzevino on Tide Rider and caught this view of NYS Marine Highway‘s  Margot‘s wake just after we had

circumnavigated this nameless

and peerless 1948 Chris Craft, which seemed to serve as waterside chase

crew for this hot air balloon, one of a half dozen launching from Poughkeepsie.

Later we headed to Portsmouth, where we talked to Bob Hassold (facing camera).  Interested in his 1966 tug (ex-Matinicus)?  It’s for sale.  See this article.  Bob runs a tugboat paraphernalia shop on the Portsmouth waterfront, where I found Thomas R. Flagg’s book New York Harbor Railroads in Color (a treasure for anyone interested in a “pre-truck intensive” when short-sea-shipping and cross-harbor shipping was the rule!) for less than Amazon’s price.    If you don’t know this book and are interested in the sixth boro, this IS a “must-read” book.  Tug Alley . . . it’s the most intense tug-oriented shop in the East . . . if not in the world–and I was not asked or paid to say that.

I love Portsmouth, up north in general . . . .  with its lights,

boats,

sights,

blue produce and brews,

planters painted in red-white-blue,

(actually these are Hudson River bottom feeders), and

the water.  Enjoy this gratuitous, top-feeder tugster-relaxing foto.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who continues gallivanting (from Puget Sound) soon.

And happy 234th . . .  read the sentiments here.