Really Random Tugs

Thanks to Amy Bucciferro for the first two fotos here taken in San Francisco in early May.  From left to right here, Japanese training barque Kaiwo Maru II, unidentified AmNav tugs, and SFFD fireboat Guardian.  The AmNav tugs are either  Independence (farther) and Patricia Ann (nearer).

Below is 1914 tug Eppleton Hall, seaworthy enough in 1970 to travel from the North Sea to San Francisco via the Panama Canal.  For a foto of “Eppie” under way, click here.   (I love the “save the Eppie” art, for the aesthetic of the late 1960s.  Anyone know of a larger, more detailed version?)

Crowley Valor is bow escort for Vancouver Express into Seattle.

Foss Pacific Star awaits the signal to ease Cosco Antwerp off the pier, bound for sea.

Andrew Foss glides northbound toward bulker Tian Yu Feng.

Log bronc Skillful finds haven on Lake Union near Center for Wooden Boats’ Northwest Seaport.

Truckable tug Lynx stands by in Newcastle harbor.

In Bremerton and behind a fence, it’s YTB 828 Catahecassa.  Read the sign on the fence?  Catahecassa was a Shawanee chief.

Also behind the fence is YTB 779 Manhattan.  When I thought to try to get a closer, unobstructed foto, I

saw another sign, clearly, that reiterated what I couldn’t quite read on that other sign.

First two fotos by Amy Bucciferro;  all others by Will Van Dorp.

Not random but unrelated:  at PortSide NewYork in Atlantic Basin on July 22 (830 pm), the movie Random Lunacy will be shown, featuring a transAtlantic crossing by Poppa Neutrino aboard Son of Town Hall.  Read about Bonnie’s encounter on Jamaica Bay this weekend with a vessel made with parts of Son of Town Hall.

Salish Sea 7: Wood

It’s not that the sixth boro or other northeast locations do not see beautiful wood (my fav is the cornucopia in the 10th foto down);  the wood here only comes out on special occasions, like fine china and silver.  On the Salish Sea, especially around Lake Union, wooden boats seem to be more numerous than fiberglass, and it wasn’t even a special “wooden boat” event.

I start with this nameless vessel (and I think it’s wood) because the “golden hour” image intrigues me.  Remember, doubleclick enlarges, and each caption relates to the foto below.

“Swietenia” is part of the scientific name for mahogany.

Aiga

Nameless from my point of view and un-selfconscious.

Aquarama

Nameless and high and dry.

Nameless and back in fresh water east of and on the high side of the Chittenden locks.

1950? Auklet

Nameless but lovely with a blue top.

Ditto.  Having owned a mahogany and teak Owens once, which I unsuccessfully returned to its former glory, I can appreciate what is involved in maintenance of these aging beaties.

“Seattle’s most famous wooden motor yacht,” the 1924 Westward . . . . then 1940 Twin Isles, then namelesss blue peer.

Sea Witch is likely not wood, but a classic nonetheless.  Click here and scroll for a sixth boro version.

Of course, Seattle and Lake Union are famous for floating homes.  Check out these prices.

The fotos I took of the one with a swing out front, where a stringbikinied woman frolicked, were ohs0blurry, but I love this design, which

brings me to this closerup version of a foto from a few days back.  Note the design on the bow.  Click here for closerup fotos of the Tulalip rowers on their journey.

Speaking of Lake Union, while there, twice I was told about a transit system there, South Lake Union Transit.  Oh, you have to click here for the unofficial slogan.

Space for another wooden Lake Union vessel, the venerable Arthur Foss.

And drifting a bit offtopic but fascinating . . .   Mount Rainier . . .  who was Rainier?  Would you believe a former enemy combatant?

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Also unrelated but thanks to Captain JP, I write like . .  David Foster Wallace.  See JP’s post and paste in your own text.

Salish Sea 6

Once back in the sixth boro, we realized our phone chargers got left in Seattle . . . which brought to mind songs like Tony Bennett’s and Bob Dylan‘s.   It is a fact that–especially with the bright sun I saw in Seattle and the overcast days since returning here–I’m not ready to be here.  Rainier hangs over the city  like a moon, here beyond bulker Tian Yu Feng, possibly waiting for a load of grain.

So back to the waterfront, starting along the Canal.  Discovery Star is a fish processor that started life as a GOM mud boat, and we’ve heard way too much about mud and the Gulf these past months.

Fishing and processing vessel Courageous is another vessel that started life in a different game . . . a 180′ buoy tender named Tupelo launched in Duluth at Zenith Dredge in 1942.  The government builds their boats and ships to last.

Another case in point:  Assertive, now part of  Seattle Community Colleges’ Maritime Academy, began life as a Stalwart-class ocean surveillance ship aka T-AGOS, like our local Kings Pointer and (dock-bound?) Stalwart.

I loved the number of wooden boats in the Salish . . . like GloryBe, well-cared-for since 1914, and recently

rebuilt as part of a . . .  community college carpentry program.

Currently docked nearby are Lady Washington and . . .

cool figurehead … and

this tiny steamer and …

this 1928 water taxi.  See an urban sketcher’s rendering here.  A wooden vessel that was not saved is Wawona, whose final journey is shown in a youtube clip here.

And occasionally . . . a visitor ties up  (and later casts off) , like Coot.  By the way, to see almost four years of building Coot, click here.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Belated joyeux Bastille Day and happy birthday HRH Prince of Tonga!

Salish Sea 5: The Canal Mostly

July is officially “gallivant month” this year, but as an update on yesterday’s “Bridge” post . . . the tow got somewhere out of foto range before daybreak;  when I got up to check progress on AIS at 5 am local time, it was already south of the Holland Tunnel vents.  I guess we’ll have to catch the mobile bridge when it heads from the Weeks yard up to its home over the Harlem River . . . later this month?  Also, since I’m out yon and hither this month, check Bonnie’s blog for sixth boro events.

Not on the Canal . . .  check out Royal Argosy . . . and find something strange about her design.  My answer at end of post.

Crabber Wizard, 1945 built by Brooklyn’s own Bushey yard, and one of the feature vessels of “Deadliest Catch,”  served as a YO-153 Navy oiler and a molasses tanker before its transformation into crabber in 1978.  Some YO-153s are now local reefs.

Another Bushey oiler-turned-crabber is Blue Gadus, launched two years earlier than Wizard.  Brooklyn’s yards have sent boats to the seven seas, above and beneath.

Like Wizard and Blue Gadus, Sahara hopes for a second life.  Any guesses about her previous life from this stern shot?

She was a also government ship,  R-101 Oceanographer, launched from Jacksonville, Florida in April 1964, now possibly transforming into a yacht.

Freemont Tug Co.’s Blueberry began life in 1941 in Tacoma as a 65′ buoy tender.

Ranger 7 was originally built for the United States Forest Service in 1926, but I’ve located no vintage fotos.

Maris Pearl is a repurposed 1944 Navy tug.  This foto was taken outside the Canal.

Amak was built in Goble, Oregon in 1916 and worked in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Newt, 1924.

Skillful?  Maybe, I just have no clue about her past.

And this returns us to Royal Argosy.  Notice what feeds into the forward stack . . . or rather, what does not feed into it.  It’s a faux-funnel, maybe-smoke from nowhere, a mild form of “amelioration.”

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Salish Sea 4

I leave Seattle today, reluctantly.  But days to come will feature more fotos I took here.  From this angle, can you guess this one?

If you couldn’t read the name or recognize the clipper-bow profile, it’s Garth Foss with all her 8000 hp moving through her VSP.

And Pacific Star, between ship shifting jobs.

Shifting from green to orange, it’s Chief and

Valor, lying in wait for

Vancouver Express.

Ocean Titan, second foto in a few days, is a thing of beauty here shrunk by the snowcapped Olympics.

And along the Ship Canal, here are Western Ranger and

(left to right) Flyer, Hornet, Wasp, and Fearless.  For more info, see the Western Towboat site here.

Closing shot for now:  Arthur Foss (ex-Wallowa, 1889), movie star and much much more.  I don’t know the small vessel beside her.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Salish Sea 3

More from Seattle:  Leschi and Chief Seattle . . . next to the ferry docks.

Olympic Tug and Barge’s James T. Quigg preparing to bunker Cosco Antwerp.

Over in Bremerton (an hour away by ferry) is USS Vincennes, CG 49, of the 1988 incident.

Bremerton deserves several posts, but for now, here are a line of attack subs (SSNs) slowly processing through the SRP “recycling” program.  671 is Narwhal and 696 is New York City.  Click on the SRP link to identify others here.

DD951 Turner Joy has to be the most significant US naval vessel of the 1960s.

Scenery shot from the ferry ride back to Seattle:  Rainier–2.5 hours away by road– dominates everything.

I wish I’d seen this from close:  this resembles my favorite exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History.  Anyone know the story here?  Two of these headed north from West Seattle.

Western Towing’s Ocean Titan heads south from the Ship Canal and

Andrew Foss assists Sanmar Paragon into the Pier 86 grain terminal.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who has so much to see and so little time.

Salish Sea 2

I continue my gallivant in Seattle, seeing through eyes conditioned by time in the sixth boro aka harbor New York.  And again, mostly lists, as I’d rather be moving around than writing here.  Ferry Tacoma (of the largest ferry system in the US, third in the world) carries vehicles as well as people as it approaches the Seattle dock.  That’s the Olympic range in the background.

Those are WAGB-10 and 11 (Polar Star and Polar Sea) over in West Seattle.  I plan to get closer fotos soon.

Seattle is its own complex tapestry, but Alaska is a palpable presence here.

Island Packer does short (or not so short) sea shipping from here to the Aleutians, I believe (1943 built).

Cargill operates this grain terminal at Pier 86.  In the foreground are salmon pens.  Vessel is Genco Thunder, loading grain.  In the distance is bulker Sanmar Paragon.  I enjoyed being close enough to this pier that I could smell the grain as it flowed into the hold.

Closer up.  Check Muckleshoot and Suquamish.

Rainier, more than 50 miles away,  dominates Seattle.

At Pier 91, catcher-processor Northern Hawk emerges from transfer

of ownership.

In the Lake Washington Ship Canal, a crewman of crabber Lilli Ann–in response to my question–said they were “headed for Dutch” a bit less than a week away.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who is solely responsible for any and all errors in this info.  As a newby gallivanter here, I might conjecture here and there while  trying to get oriented in my limited sojourn.

Unrelated but wonderful, check out Herb Cold is the Sea‘s rendering of a husky-blue-eyed blogger.  Herb . . . wow!  Thank you.  And juxtaposed with Alice–darling Alice–wowwow!!  Alice dear, we are indeed blessed.

Salish Sea 1

Salish Sea is an inclusive term like the sixth boro, where on day 1, I’ve walked nearly a dozen miles.  Special thanks to Meryll and Tom, and their newly launched Coot, sporting colors inspired by W. O. Decker.  New Yorkers . . . we have much to learn on waterfront coexistence from Seattle.

Just a listing for now:  Andrew Foss (1982, 4000 hp) over by the stern of Katie Ann and Pier 90.  Thea Foss, founder of this company,   . . .   now there’s a story of a determined mail-order bride, the original Tugboat Annie.

Alaska Titan moors in the Ship Canal in Ballard.

Pacific Star, wearing Foss colors, docks right across the Canal from Titan.

K-Sea’s footprint is just to the west is marked by  Pacific Pride and Sirius.

Out on Lake Washington, it’s Sea Prince pushing a spud barge.

And Lake Union, just in from the Ship Canal, has lots of houseboats and tugboats converted into yachts, like Owl.

Or maybe in the process of being converted, like Pathfinder.

Lake Union is home to Lake Union Drydock Company, where  Cape Flattery waits and Crowley’s Wisconsin-built Coastal Reliance (2003, 9280 hp) is high and dry.

More boats along the Lake include Triton and

Newt.  I’m curious about this name for a tug:  nature or Shakespeare?

Final shots for now . . . air harbor?

Check out these flying boats at Kenmore on the north end of Lake Washington.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, now too eager to see more of the Salish Sea to further research any of these fotos.  Research . . .  that’s for rainy, cold, stormy weather . . . not today.

Special thanks again to Meryll and Tom.

Unrelated . . .  check out GMG Joey’s homie float and Moveable Bridge Brian’s report on the 234th 7/4 in Gloucester!