Random Traffic December 2011

Thomas D. Witte . . . I did nothing to manipulate this image, no liquification, no DAP . . .

Yet another Mighty Servant 1 foto with four movers of the Miller’s Launch fleet.    As of this writing, the Mighty is still anchored at the Narrows.  Bravo on what appears to have been a flawless loading.

Gustav Schulte passes the loading on a very slow bell, partly because of the tow happening off its port bow also.

I’m not sure what this tow is . . . Sea Lion (?) and a thousand feet tailing it.  The tail boat may be Iron Wolf.    Can anyone help?

December means fishing on the sixth boro . . . here’s a newcomer for me . . . Mary Virginia (ex-Maazee).

Irish Sea moves a barge into the Bay.

Eagle Baltimore and Liechtenstein swing on the hook.

Crystal Cutler does too.

Shearwater motors out the east end of KVK headed, I believe, for North Cove.

Crystal Marie exits the Narrows.

Happy last day of Fall 2011.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.  And this just in . . . as of noon today, Mighty Servant 1 exited the Bay Nigeria-bound.  I hope the good folks on Meagan Ann get a foto they will share.

Kimberly Poling

… has changed.  When she first arrived in the sixth boro, Kimberly Poling (ex-Jaguar, 1994) looked like this.

She had a 10-year plus history with Mobro, but she looked like this or

this.  But now, look at her

profile and

livery.  I like it.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Kristin Poling 2

Actually this is Kristin 3, counting the mystery vessel post.  Let’s start in the wheelhouse, aka ship’s office, looking to port.  Notice the gauging equipment, sound-activated telephone, all the manuals.

Over on the starboard side below the controls, here’s a closeup of the pushbutton engine order telegraph, which corresponds to

this twin in the engine compartment, the engineer’s station looking forward.  The light down here is provided by portholes above.

Here’s a closeup of the starboard EMD 16-645-E2–if I recall–12-567

I’m guessing that Schoonmaker was a parts/service company?

Superchargers

Looking down/forward from the fiddley at port engine

After getting this foto of Kristin Poling just north of the Tappan Zee in May 2008, I wondered what I’d see through the portholes above the stern, and now

I know it’s a naturally-lit out-of-the-weather access area to the rudder machinery.

Note the folding joint on the mast.  What lies below these portholes is

the galley.  Again, the natural lighting is remarkable.    A note about these fotos . . . Kristin has been idle for several months now, and no attempt was made during this foto shoot to “spruce-up” any of the areas.

Large wooden door leads to the freezer, and the smaller door beside it  opens a defacto fridge.

Any guesses what lies beyond these portholes on the port side?

One of the crew’s quarters with sink, locker, and

bunk.  Is this color an off-white, yellowed with age, or was this “institutional buff”?

And these covered portholes on the forward port side of the “stern island” leads to

the engineer’s cabin.  The two recessed “bookshelves” are the interior of the portholes above.  I wonder the vintage of the desk and

(as seen from the portside porthole) the bunk with shelving beneath?    Excuse the blurry foto.

Corresponding portholes on the starboard side lead to the captain’s cabin.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Kristin as much as I did.

A near-twin of Kristin—Chester A. Poling–was my introduction to the name Poling, although it was another company.  I heard about Chester A. in the 1990s from a diver in Cape Ann, MA.  Like Kristin, Chester A. was launched in 1934 from the shipyard in Mariner’s Harbor.  Originally 251′, both were lengthened by a 30-foot midsection in 1956.   From this foto, it appears the bow bulwarks on Chester were less protected.  Click on the image to get to Auke Visser’s fabulous site, from which the foto is taken.  Take your pic here from a wealth of video by folks diving on Chester.

Again, many thanks to Ed Poling and Jim Ash for the opportunity to see/foto Kristin in her dotage.    Thanks to you all for reading and commenting.  Special thanks to Johannah for the info on all-welded construction article and to Sachem1907  on the identification of the locks, which confirms operation by these vessels onto the Great Lakes.  I welcome more info and further history on these vessels of past era.

My all-time favorite fotos of Kristin were taken here less than a year ago by Paul Strubeck and “lightened-up” by  tugster.

Kristin Poling 1

Harold Tartell got it right, again:  the mystery vessel yesterday was indeed this now retired Kristin Poling (ex-Poughkeepsie Socony  (PS), Mobil New York, Captain Sam).  I’ve posted on her here, here, here, and elsewhere.   Kristin was built just over a mile away in Mariner’s Harbor at United Dry Dock.

Here’s a previously unpublished foto I took of her in 2009 passing Red Hook containerport.

From this, it appears her gestation period was a month shy of three years!  Delivery date 15 Dec 1934 . . . I can’t fully imagine the ways that was a different time.  If this “history of welding” is accurate  (???)  … albeit it sporting a wrong date, she was the first all-welded vessel built (See timeline for 1920s stuck between 1919 and 1920.)  Here’s the main site.  Was there a previous Poughkeepsie Socony built in the 1920s?

Appearance alone always led me to suspect the house on Kristin could be lowered since she operated on the Erie (Barge) and Champlain Canal.  Click here for an article about Kristin (PS) tied up in Fulton, NY, over the  July 4 holiday in 1956 as a precaution against a fireworks-caused catastrophe.  Below, the house is down.  Anyone recognize the double locks?  I don’t.

Here’s said house, and here

port aft corner is a track it once rode in.

From the house, a catwalk leads toward the stern.

From atop the house, looking forward, notice the breakwater aka delta.

Although I never heard them, the horns (notice my blue hat to the left) are formidable.

From the portside aft quarter looking forward, notice the portside pump engine and a gauge part of the way forward along the catwalk.

Closeup of the gauging system.  Masts on house, like all masts on Kristin, can be folded down for greater clearance.

Closeup of the starboard pump system looking aft.

Looking forward, closeup of the engine driving that pump

Details of piping and valves.

View into one of the cleaning and de-gassed holds.

Looking aft.  The portholes in the foreground allow light into the engine room.

Looking farther aft.  Portholes over the galley, Kristin‘s trademark picnic table, and folding mast.

In the next post, we go below.  All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who wishes to thank Ed Poling and Jim Ash for generous access to Kristin Poling.

Unrelated to Kristin but offered as counterpoint to this series . . . click here for a tour of a small Russian tanker of similar vintage.

1934 Ship Revisited 2

Type Kristin Poling into the search window here, and you’ll find lots of references to the 1934 vessel, which still works as hard as ever.  One of my favorites is here.  The foto below shows her under load, looking ever so slightly likea vessel from 120 years before her . . . if you lop off the paddle wheels.   To read how Clermont intersected my ife, click here.    By the way, whatever became of the project to build a replica of Clermont a few years back?

Foto by will Van Dorp.

Poling and Cutler

Would  “teal” be the best word to describe this green?  Crystal Cutler and barge Patricia E. Poling have been in the harbor less than six months;  if I round off her time here to the nearest year, her age is zero.   Fleetmate tanker Kristin Poling‘s age is 77 years!    Only recently was Coral Queen, an even older member of the fleet, morphed into metal heaven.

Rafted up here is the other Poling & Cutler tug, Kimberly Poling.

Kimberly Poling is about 16 years old.

Here Dann Ocean’s Comet moves Eva Leigh Cutler past Kimberly Poling and  Crystal Cutler.

Teal or jade . . . I do like this color.  And for more delightful colors, check out bowsprite’s latest hues.  The first tug . . . hmmm, what company is running the avocado fleet?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  Morphed into the universe . . .  Poppa Neutrino aka David Pearlman, at age 77.  Here’s some info on one of his vessels.

Non-Random Tugs 5

Rick over at Old Salt blog pointed me toward this story.  As to the foto below, I quote from The Hindu of  1/26/2011:  “Letha Sushil, wife of Vice-Admiral K.N. Sushil, Flag Officer Commander-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command, ceremoniously launched the ship on Tuesday.”  The event is the launch of the newbuild barque INS Sudarthshini at Goa Shipbuilding.    My question is:  What is Letha Sushil holding about to smash and fizz against the hull?

Below is a foto of what might be the newest tugboat in the sixth boro, Crystal Cutler.  A year ago, some of this vessel was just steel plate awaiting the magic of assembling, welding, and paint.   More Crystal fotos soon.

On the far side of Nord Integrity is another of the more recent arrivals in the harbor, Quantico Creek.  I had been hoping to get to her

launch last March.  See it here.  It looks like Capt Log on this side of the tanker.

Here is more of the foto of INS Sudarthshini’s christening.  Tugster covered a sixth boro christening two-and-a-half years ago here.  In the US ship christenings often involve alcohol and bottles;  in India, a coconut is smashed against the bow, as you see in the top foto.  Click here for the Flickr photostream of Independence Seaport Museum, showing women, breaking glass, and spilled alcohol.

Click here for more info on ship christening traditions, including spilling oil (bitumen), blood, and crafting axes.   I wonder what was involved in the Crystal Cutler and Quantico Creek ceremonies.

Three middle fotos by Will Van Dorp, who in 2011 must christen and launch his kayak AND who would suggestions on christening it.  If you’ve built a kayak and want to send in fotos, I’m planning a kayak post in mid-February.

And while I’m out taking fotos from the internet, check out the unnamed Yangtze River tour vessel below that redefines the term “figurehead.”

Poling

I owe Paul Strubeck for these fotos;  he endured the 2 a.m. cold at Crum Elbow to get them.  Kristin Poling you’ve seen here many times before.

I manipulated the fotos, squeezing out some of the darkness, enhancing the little light in the original.  The stem bitt in the lower right belongs to tug Cornell, attempting to get Kristin Poling unstuck from the ice.  What does this look like to you . . . other than the obvious ship stuck in chunk ice?

I get competing thoughts and associations:  like a submarine scene from a Jules Vernesque sci-fi movie, or

a vessel trapped in polar ice.  No disrespect for the family or vessel name . . . but “poling” could be a verb referring to exploration of the top and bottom parts of the planet . . . as in “Peary left the sixth boro in the summer of ’08 aboard Roosevelt, headed north to go poling. . . .”   My eyes could easily be convinced that the venerable Kristin P here is “poling.”

Imagine this stretch of the river six months forward or backwards.  A deck in that location could be an idyllic spot to stretch out, enjoy summer heat, watch stars, and think of love or whatever you wish; a fit swimmer could slip into the water and drift or make for shore.  However,

in January like this, the Hudson seems as inhospitable as the poles.  Frederick Cook, Peary’s physician in the 1891-2 “north poling” expedition and later a challenger to Peary’s claim to have reached the North Pole first, said this about being in the frozen north:  “We were the only pulsating creatures in a dead world of ice.”   I can imagine the crews of Kristin Poling and Cornell thinking that . . .  at least they and the reliable engines in the vessels.

Cook was a founder member of NYC’s Explorers Club.

Again, many thanks to Paul Strubeck for the fotos, which you may have seen in different format on Paul’s facebook page.

Two Hours on the KVK 3: Winter Solstice

I chased the moon this morning, and lost.  By the time I got away from my high-horizoned, building-intensive lair, the solstice moon only recently eclipsed, had slipped beneath the New Jersey highlands, but in spite of the cold . . . . I was not disappointed.

First I caught the sixth-boro newby Crystal Cutler pushing

barge Patricia E. Poling into the Upper Bay.

Then MSC Mandraki headed past with

bulb exposed to the cold winds and

Gramma Lee T Moran protecting Mandraki‘s assets.

Freddy K Miller (ex-Fred K and ex-Stapleton Service)  headed west on a mission.

Rarely sixth-boro-seen Marion Moran sprayed past

in the stark but intense winter solstice colors.

As my fingers were losing all sense of feeling in the wind chill 19 degree sunlight, Freddie K and Susan Miller headed back east with Weeks 533, which has appeared here

powerlifting locomotives and Sully’s Airbus 320.

And before I crawled back into a warm place, I caught Sassafras pushing some fuel in Doubleskin 34 and

What!!?? . . .   a classroom on a fieldtrip?  checking out Minerva Rita.

Well, maybe this floating classroom is a figment of my imagination brought about by the cold.

Mermaids emerge on the summer solstice and draw the crazy out in me and some of my best friends.  I MUCH prefer THAT solstice, now only a half year away again.

All fotos here by Will Van Dorp.

Unrelated:  check out these fotos of the Crowley barge on towmasters.

Random Tugs 62

Thanks to Pat Folan of Pelican Passage . . . a new Cutler boat?  See another foto at the end of the post.

Also thanks to Pat, a new Vane Brothers boat . . . Quantico Creek.  See fotos of the launch of the 3000 hp tug here.

A fairly new Wilmington Towing vessel, Capt Harry, brother of Sonie.

Odin, seen here many times before

Marion C. Bouchard, 1979 built.

Bohemia, a 4200 hp Vane boat.

And thanks to east river, the tiniest ATB power unit towing barge Massachusetts . . .

Clearly not a tug, but I wonder if anyone can identify this self-described Black Pearl . . . .

Finally, as promised, another view of the first vessel:  Crystal Cutler, a 1600ish hp newbuild rcently arrived in the sixth boro.  Welcome!

For more of Pat’s great fotos, click here.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

See you at the MWA 2010 Waterfront Conference on Tuesday.    For details, click the icon on left side of page.