Sixth Boro Sampler 4

Quick . . .  what do you know about this white lionine tugboat?  Answer follows.

We’re still being quick here?  What can you tell me about this model of Dianne E. in a display case on the lower level of a barge of Pier 66?  I know nothing about the model, but I stopped by at Pier 66 Wednesday for the first time in way too long.  Any interest in meeting gathering there one of these warm days?

And speaking of piers, I made my first stop at Pier 76 ever Wednesday as well.  It seems I’ve not been out here in a really long time. 

Harvey looked resplendent alongside the seating  . . ..

The NYS Canal system opens officially today, and that means Sparky might be a looper headed up there traveling north and then west to get back to Florida.  I’m just speculating. 

Anne Moore is busy.  Hey, NPS, I’d like to talk with you about this vessel.

Media Boat 5 is always out, always doing and seeing interesting sights.

RCC Africa is a RORO I’ve not seen before.   Here are Autoliner routes. 

Pacific Basin‘s Sharp Island left town light. 

Rolf Williams was returning to base after delivering lube solutions. 

And that brings us back to this tugboat . . .  the former J. George Betz.

All photos, WVD, who suggests you too gallivant around the original boro, the sixth boro, some warm day soon. 

Houses

Here’s the game:  try to guess the vessel from the house.  Exhibit A

is Laura K Moran.  Did you get it?

Exhibit B

is Gramma Lee T . . . also Moran.

Exhibit C is Miss March aka

Odin.

Exhibit D is

Rolf Williams, not a tug at all but a mini-tanker built in Alabama.

And Exhibit E

is Specialist II.

I’m working on seeing new detail.  Any suggestions?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Pairs in Springtime 2

It felt like spring this past week along the Arthur Kill, where Sarah and Shannon Dann gathered, maybe their crews spoke of fleetmate Allie B now approaching Gibraltar.  But the the boats, what secrets might they have shared?

Responder was light and downbound;  Rowan M in pushgear upbound.  When they met, I heard a hailer and Responder turned 180 and followed Rowan M back toward the east.

Later, Shannon, awaiting orders, stayed fast to barge Prysman 1 , while in the distance, Sunny and Rolf Williams, just forward of an unidentified K-Sea tug, delayed, as if asleep in a double bed.

Meanwhile this amorous couple weren’t waiting for anything . . . in March, things could turn too quickly turn cold again.

Maybe Cupid really did operate from the unidentified boat that sped past.

Unrelated:  see this article from the University College of London on mermaids assisting seismologists detect potential earthquakes on the seabed.   Really!!!  Mermaid, in this case, expands to Mobile Earthquake Recorder in Marine Areas by Independent Divers.  Now spring, pairings, Cupid, and deep earthquakes . . . might they actually be related?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Got Lube?

Tis the season for giving, and what might be best to cool the friction, soothe the raw, heal the wounds, and soften the chapped?

If you need it, it’s time for Sunny, launched in May ’08 from C & G.

Or Rolf, the slightly older (identical?)  sibling.

Lube, balm, antifricative . . .

delivered by double- or single-hulled vessel, we all need it sometimes.  Even Galahad, and

this has been a set-up for this song I hadn’t heard in a looong time.  Enjoy the soothe.

Unrelated:  Click here to see what pirates look like and what their repellers aboard the Chinese crane ship look like.

Cryptofleet

 

Part of the reason I keep doing this blog is that “looking” leads to understanding. So look at exhibit A, bow of Fr8 Endeavour. Cool name. Oh, that’s bunker vessel Rolf Williams passing to starboard.

 

Here’s the rest of Fr8 Endeavour.

 

And yesterday I saw Stena Contest. Again, cool name. Fancy paint job. Exhibit B. Strictly speaking, Stena Contest has three siblings, and four cousins.

 

That’s K-Sea Falcon behind that fuel barge to starboard and Don Jon Marine’s Atlantic Salvor (I think) towing off in the distance.

 

Silhouette says Atlantic Salvor, but I couldn’t confirm it. So which two of these vessels make up part of the same fleet?

I’d never have guessed, but Fr8 Endeavour (note the British spelling) and Stena Contest are part of the same fleet operated by Stena. Scroll on through to the MR (Middle Range) list, and you’ll see it. Launch sites differ: Fr8 Endeavour is South Korea and Stena Contest is Pula, Croatia.

Orange Ocean

I’ve wondered about these smaller vessels in Arthur Kill for almost as long as I’ve been doing this blog, which is now in its 12th month. They all have orange hulls, and the naming system alludes to the oceans of our planet. Guess their provenance? Answer is given below.

 

Here Arctic Ocean is offloaded while taking on lube oil from Rolf Williams, featured previously. I recall being excited when I first saw Arctic Ocean, thinking it came from the far north.

 

Atlantic Ocean is almost identical about 10, 000 dwt. Ready to guess yet? Registry is Nassau, and that might account for the orange, but what cargo?

 

Juxtaposition with the 5000+ teu MOL Experience (less than 6 months old) shows the relative size quite clearly. That’s Indian Ocean, and all three vessels were fotografed at Howland Hook in the past six months. So’d you guess what’s in the hold yet?

Would you guess . . . provenance is Ecuador? See the EL on the stack of Arctic Ocean? Ecuadorian Line uses Nassau as a flag of convenience. Cargo? My guess is bananas. If you look on the left side of the Ecuadorian Line homepage, there a link to bonita. Check out this bonita link. Seven days from Guayquil to Staten Island, read it here. Here’s more on banana shipment, thanks to . . Crisco.

So . . . why not paint these vessels yellow?

All images by Will Van Dorp.

Tankerin’ 2

In the sixth boro you find T A N K E R S and tankers, all equally entitled to the name, but some transport across oceans and offload into lighters or tank farms, and then others haul across the bay and offload into ship tanks. Let’s look at the latter.

Rolf Williams represents the future: double hulled, two skins, an increased margin of environmental safety for this three-year-old floating diesel station here refueling a container ship in Red Hook.

Older technology stays afloat in the 58-foot Capt Log painted in Circle Line colors. See p. 21.

I found little about Patrick Sky, other than it was built at Blount Boats and originally carried the name L. G. Laduca II.

Similarly, Linekin Bay, named for a body of water near Boothbay, ME, turns up in this obituary for Jeremiah Driscoll.

Two power plants and two skins… that’s the near future.

All photos, Will Van Dorp.