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As tugster continues its CYPHER series, this is the 3633nd post, and almost 2.1 million hits. Thanks for staying with me.
On the other hand, if I were selling calendars, the number 12 would be significant. So for the next few days, let me offer some diverse dozens chosen quite subjectively, although what the photos have in common–besides subject–is that I like them.
Here’s a November 2016 photo along the Gowanus under the BQE. This tug looks good in blue, but I’ll never forget her in orange.
Here’s a November 2015 when the upper deck of Bayonne had yet to be assembled, and the lower disassembled. Amy C last appeared here as she nudged Empire State into her Fort Schuyler dock.
Here’s 2014. She’s recently worked in the Keys.
Here’s ’13. Where is Houma today?
’12. Ellen‘s a regular on this blog.
’11. Tasman has been doing this work since 1976!
’10. Is ex-Little Bear in Erie along with Bear?
’09. She now makes her way around the lower Caribbean . . . and currently anchored in Trinidad.
’08. And I’m adding another photo right after Linda (launched in ’08) of
Scott Turecamo (below) launched in 1998 but radically retrofitted in 2005, originally quite similar to Greenland Sea, here see the photos by Robert J. Smith. How many of these ATBs does Moran now operate? .
’07. This was the only time I ever saw Penobscot. Anyone know where foreign she went?
’06. Note the size of the yard workers around the wheels on Ralph E. Bouchard.
Again, some of these photos show what has changed in the sixth boro, spawning ground for this blog.
All photos by Will Van Dorp.
This is my Janus post . . . which I’ll start with a photo I took in January 2007 of an intriguing set of sculptures, since licensed to Trinity Church in Manhattan.
Since I’ve tons to do today, comment will be minimal. The photo below I took near the KVK salt pile on January 14, 2016. Eagle Ford, to the right, has since been scrapped in Pakistan.
The history of Alnair, photo taken in Havana harbor on February 4, 2016, is still untraced. It looks like an ex-USN tug. Click here for more Cuban photos.
This photo of JRT Moran and Orange Sun I took on March 12.
This photo of Hudson was taken in Maassluis, very near where my father grew up, on April 4. Many more Maassluis photos can be found here.
Sandmaster I photographed here on May 6. since then, she’s moved to Roatan, I’m told, and I’d love to go there and see how she’s doing. Maybe I can learn some Garifuna while I’m there.
June 1, I took this, with Robert E. McAllister and an invisible Ellen escorting Maersk Idaho out the door.
July 14, I saw GL tug Nebraska yank bulkier Isolda with 56,000 tons of corn through a narrow opening and out the Maumee.
August 23 I caught Atlantic Sail outbound past a nearly completed Wavertree. And come to think of it, this is a perfect Janus photo.
September 9 at the old port in Montreal I caught Svitzer Montreal tied up and waiting for the next job.
October 18, I caught Atlanticborg and Algoma Enterprise down bound between Cape Vincent and Clayton NY.
November 4, while waiting for another tow, I caught Sarah Ann switching out scrap scows in the Gowanus.
And I’ll end this retrospective Janus post with a mystery shot, which I hope to tell you more about in 2017. All I’ll say is that I took it yesterday and can identify only some of what is depicted. Anyone add something about this photo?
I feel blessed with another year of life, energy, gallivants, and challenges. Thank you for reading and writing me. Special thanks to you all who sent USPS cards ! I wish everyone a happy and prosperous 2017. Here’s what Spock would say and where he got it.
Here was my “last hours” post from 2015. And here from the year before with some vessels sailing away forever. And here showing what I painted in the last hours of 2013. And one more with origins “oud jaardag” stuff from the finale of 2011.
I considered calling this “random vessels,” since I haven’t used that title in a while, but here is a tighter focus for a few days: tugboats. Here I also randomize the backgrounds and seek out some vessels infrequently seen. Like the rare and exotic Shelby Rose and
Jay Michael and Vicki M and
Patricia with her racing stripes up against the gantry arms.
Wye River and James E. Brown here cross the south end of Newark Bay, where
Sandmaster has been tied up for (?) nearly a year now.
Sassafras did a circle in Erie Basin recently, and
Thomas, the Weeks tug, strode into town, picked up a barge and headed straight for Texas! The first time I saw Thomas was January 2009. Remember what memorable event splashed into the Hudson around the middle of that month?
Buchanan 12 here is light and seen from almost her prop wash. I hadn’t noticed the Boston registry before.
Quantico Creek stays local a lot, but Severn I don’t see much.
Here’s Tangier Island behind . . yes, Gerardi’s Farmers Market.
OK . . . that’s it for today. All photos by Will Van Dorp. More random tugs tomorrow.
My library for the time period January 1, 2012 until today contains 11,244 fotos. Starting from tomorrow, any 2012 fotos will be taken along the road. So I decided to choose ONE foto per month, quite subjectively and without regard for this foto having previously been featured here. I don’t claim these are the best of the month. Only 12 fotos, one per month.
January, Sandmaster . . . waiting to refuel. Today, Dec 22 . . . Sandmaster was out there doing what it usually does, mining sand.
February . . . Eagle Beaumont escorted in the Arthur Kill by Charles D. McAllister.
March . . . side by side, CSAV Suape and bulker Honesty, Pacific bound through the Miraflores locks, demonstrating graphically what panamax means.
April . . . red-trimmed Taurus west bound on the KVK, cutting past Advance Victoria. And just today, I saw Taurus, now blue-trimmed, heading north between Manhattan and Jersey City.
Choosing just one foto per month is tough, but for May, here’s Swan packed and almost ready to go hulldown toward Africa with these specimens of the Crowley, Reinauer, and Allied fleets.
June . . . Weeks Shelby tows shuttle Enterprise from JFK toward Manhattan.
July and an unforgettable 4th using Pegasus as subject under the rocket’s glare
August . . . and coal-fired Badger heads into the sunset . . . and Wisconsin.
September, and a parade of vessels including Urger and Buffalo leave the Federal Lock bound for Waterford. My inimitable platform here is Fred’s Tug44.
At the start of the Great Chesapeake Schooner race, crew is setting sail on the unique tugantine Norfolk Rebel. In the distance, it’s Pride of Baltimore 2.
Coming into the home stretch from Montreal, it’s Atlantic Salvor delivering segments of the WTC1 antenna.
And December . . . it’s Stena Primorsk looming over the USCG vessels. At this time, Stena Primorsk was impatient to load that first hold with “north dakota crude,” only to experience the malfunction that has left her temporarily disabled upriver, its outer hull gashed open.
Tomorrow I hit the road . . . gallivanting and visiting season. I thank all of you for reading, many of you for helping me get these fotos, lots of you for correcting my errors and supplying missing info. Happy New Year and let’s pray for much-needed Peace on Earth . . . .
Working Harbor Committee (WHC) yesterday offered their first-ever trip around Staten Island; tickets sold out fast. Next circum with them: next year. Next trip with them: August 18 and then the tug race. I’ll post about the trip along the so-called “NJ inner coast” for the next few days.
A highlight for me was seeing the inimitable Nicole Leigh, one of Reinauer’s 7200 hp behemoths, also known to some as camera platform for some fantastic video of his rig moving with total control at a virtual 200+ knots. Here’s nytugmaster’s entire YouTube oeuvre to date.
Coming through Port Reading Reach, I saw Sandmaster–first time ever–out of the notch. Sandmaster in notch was here the last foto here.
Southbound on Outerbridge Reach, we met Anacostia, another first for me.
Anacostia, four months since launch, is Vane’s most recent Patapsco-class tug. More of that class soon.
Just south of Outerbridge Crossing, we passed Pati T Moran. Outerbridge is named for Eugenius Outerbridge; the fact that it’s geographically descriptive is entirely coincidental.
After a quick dash across Raritan Bay, we cut inside Swinburne Island as Duncan Island approached the Narrows.
Once in upper Bay, we encountered Charles McAllister and Ellen McAllister assisting CSAV Moema bound for sea. More CSAV history here as well as a gallery of Panama Canal tugs here.
More inner coast soon.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Many thanks to Working Harbor Committee for their efforts.
Someone I care about expressed delight in seeing Hornbeck boats. “They’re pretty, beautiful white and orange,” I recall a statement. Well, I have news for you: they’re Candies. What? are Candies? Well, many of them are ex-Candies, at least. That’s Otto Candies, LLC, Marine Transportation and Towing.
Like Patriot Service, ex-Sean Candies. From a distance, I imagined the black stack-fronts as darkened windows. Guess the total horsepower.
114′ loa and launched in 1996.
Spartan Service . . new to boro6 this summer? Formerly Domar Captain.
Redundant radars? Spartan is 101′ loa and launched in 1978.
Huron Service, ex-Eric Candies. Left to right in background: Zachery Reinauer and Baltic Sea. I first wrote about Huron here over a year ago.
Left to right here in Gowanus Bay: Huron Service 98′ loa and from 1981, Sea Service 104′ and 1975, and Atlantic Service 100′ and also 1975. Bridge in the background is the BQE.
Here’s Sea Service over at the Palisades anchorage . . . or is it called Yonkers anchorage.
Erie Service, ex-Brett Candies 98′ and 1981.
And here’s Michigan Service, ex-Kevin Candies 980 and 1981; along with Erie. Now given these names, you know there has to be a Superior Service. I’ve just never seen it. Maybe it operates elsewhere. Here’s the Hornbeck site.
When I saw the colors here, I thought it was a Candies boat operating as a Candies boat in boro6. Wrong. It’s Sandmaster of Amboy Aggregates. Oh, it’s ex-Ben Candies, 107′ and 1983.
Answer to Patriot Service hp: 6140.
All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Again, click on a foto to enlarge it . . . at least, it does so on my machine.
F . . . fantastic or fabulous . . . as in it might exist but if I hadn’t seen it or read it in a reliable source, I’d think it of the realm of fantasies and fantasms, i.e., incredible stuff.
Take Fractor, maybe aka GLDD’s Drill Boat No. 8, which has hidden on my header “logo” from Day 1 of this blog. Tug beside it is Melvin E. Lemmerhirt. I admit this is a poor quality foto, but what’s interesting is that “drill” here means creating a hole into which dynamite charges are set and then detonated for gross overburden removal, said charges having previously resided on the boat. Safety redundancy has undoubtedly been built into drill boats, but 80 years ago drill boat J. B. King exploded in the St. Lawrence with deadly effect. More great GLDD vessel fotos here, including how cutter suction dredge vessels manage to move across oceans to new jobs. If you know how to arrange a visit to the GLDD yard, please email me.
While on topic of fantastic dredge vessels, I caught this approaching the Narrows yesterday. And what is it? Mining equipment, I learned; sand mining happens in various channels leading into the sixth boro. Sand mining, as I understand it, entails keeping channels clear as well as collecting a resource to sell to the construction trade, i.e., sand. I have more fotos of this unit including the tug, appropriately named Sandmaster, but I haven’t found much info about it. In the foto, notice the outline of the West Bank Lighthouse off Sandmaster‘s port, and a ghostly shape of tanker Altius, off starboard, or maybe it is. Sand mining . . . the term reminds me of that scene in the first Star Wars movie, surface on the planet Tatooine, which was and then was no more.
More dredging fantasms . . . I believe these disassembled parts once made up the cutter head featured here and then rendered in Bowsprite’s water color here.
Just as the cutter head looks as toothy as the toothiest of lophiiforms, so the roofless walls of Bannerman’s Castle with masonry-studded crenelation appear as fantastically hyper-architecture expected only in video games.
Thanks to Jed for the foto below. Suppose you spotted a house traveling upriver, like here off Croton Point. I’d study it through the binoculars, then probably rub my eyes, check that I count exactly 10 fingers on my hands, then look back in the direction of the house to see if it was still there. By the way, anyone know the tug? Jed got no VHF response or identification.
Now suppose your first-ever view of a tanker were from this angle. Then someone asked you to draw Eagle Baltimore. Wouldn’t you draw it as a roundish tub with very little freeboard? I’d never imagine it to be over 800 feet long.
And finally, this foto comes thanks to Bowsprite also . . . if you saw a sky like this in a movie, wouldn’t you just assume the color and texture fake, special effects? But fantastic as it may appear, what you see here is what we sixth boro denizens saw just a few weeks ago.
The worst fantasms, though, are ones where you think someone exists, some feelings are felt, some history has happened . . . and no one, none, nothing is, and maybe never did. I can’t even show a foto of those, the ones that rattle me most.
All fotos unless otherwise attributed by Will Van Dorp. Cameras provide evidence that eyes did or didn’t see; remember to double-click on a foto to double its size.
tugster: a waterblog 
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