Retro Sixth Boro 49A

Let’s jump back to May 2012.  Over along the Manhattan side of the East River then, I caught this scene.  Since then, there’s been some movement:   Peking to Germany,  Marion M to the Chesapeake,  Helen McAllister to  . . . rebirth as new steel.

Cheyenne has migrated to the Lake Michigan for now.

Twin Tube is still around but sans the boom.

Ellen McAllister is also still hard at work in the sixth boro, but I don’t see her doing much indirect towing as here.

Mark Moran was just passing through from the shipyard to Charleston.

Swan, built in 1981 and showing as her last movement three and a half years ago in China, has likely gone to rebirth as new steel.

But a decade ago in May 2012, she was here to move some used tugboats over to West Africa. Here she’s already down and BFT No. 38 with a crew boat strapped on has already been loaded, while

McAllister Sisters and McAllister Girls wait with three Crowley tugs, 

Cavalier, Pioneer, and Mars. 

After they are floated aboard, the tide turns the anchored Swan.

Socrates and Heron also float aboard, and

overnight, Swan gets deballasted and raises the hull, so that we can see their five-bladed wheels.   More of the story here.

Also in the boro those days was Picton Castle, showing the flag and more, maybe recruiting some hands

before sailing away.  Does anyone have news about her?  Has she really stayed in Lunenburg since late 2020?

All photos, WVD, exactly 120 months ago.

Unrelated to any of this, read this May 2004 article by the late great Don Sutherland and reflect on how much change has occurred.

Retro Sixth Boro 25 a

On this glum April 1 and  the 25th month in a row, the blog looks back 10 years on day 1 of a new month . . .  and sometimes day 2 as well, with a selection of photos from exactly a decade back, 120 months ago.  What’s particularly interesting for me about this look back is the degree of change in the boro, replacement and realignment otherwise going almost unnoted, like movement only visible in slow motion.

Allied Transportation and their tug Socrates were still around; the company got absorbed into Kirby, and the tug was sold and transported to Nigeria almost eight years ago already.  Here she passed the statue on her way to Florida with the barge Sugar Express.

On this Easter morning, Patapsco hurried eastbound in the KVK.  Patapsco has been sold out of Vane and now carries Steven Wayne nameboards.

I recall that same Easter morning;  Ivory Coast appeared to float in the air as she headed into the Kills. She still carries the same name and livery.

A bit later that morning, the 3800-teu Al-Mutanabbi, launched 1998, headed out with her containers;  since then, the ship has been broken up on the south bank of the Yangtze in Jiangyin, upstream from Shanghai. Since then, UASC has merged with Hapag-Lloyd.  And Al-Mutannabi, he was a poet who lived well but died young because of the power of his poetry.

Al-Sabahia was the same class/size container ship;  she too has been broken up in Jiangyin, just two years ago.  Count the number of containers across to understand the dramatic difference in size of some container ships;  also, note the top of the wheelhouse is nearly at the deck level of the ship, compared with here or here. If you count carefully, that’s 20 across, rather than 13.  Laura K Moran, escorting her in, has been reassigned to another port.

A unique flat-fronted tug,  locally-built tug called Houma, 1970, was still around. She’s been scrapped.  Beyond her is an interesting and eclectic cluster of lower Manhattan architecture, with one of my favorites, the former Standard Oil Building, just to the right of the black pyramid.

We’ll pick up on more April 2010 photos tomorrow.  With increasing restrictions on movement around the boro, I might be digging into my archives a lot for a while.  If you want to help by dipping into your own archives for photos and stories, I would greatly appreciate that.  Maybe it’s time for new permutations of truckster, teamster, bikester, autoster, planester, hutster, hikester, storyster,  . . .  let’s help each other out.

All photos taken by and stories researched by . .  . WVD, who wishes you all health.  Hat tip to you performing essential services out there.

 

 

Retro Sixth Boro 23

Coastline Girls and many other names including Gage Paul Thornton and  ST-497, the 1944-build now sleeps deep in Davy Jones locker,  and was not an intentional reefing.

It’s been a while since I last saw Mcallister Sisters, shown here passing the Esopus Meadows light.  If I’m not mistaken, she’s currently based in Baltimore.

Ten years ago, this boat had already been painted blue over orange, but she still carried the June K name board.

Socrates, classic lines and a classic name, has since gone off to Nigeria, riding over in mid-2012 on a heavy lift ship called Swan.

Urger on blocks in Lyons . . . one would have thought then that she’d run forever.  These days she’s back on blocks at the eastern end of the Canal.

And February 2010 was the time of prime iceboating, and that’s Bonnie of frogma.

James Turecamo, with its wheelhouse down as I rarely saw it, works these days upriver as far north as Albany.  Photo by Allen Baker.

Brandywine and Odin these days spend most of their time on Gulf of Mexico waters.

Gramma Lee T Moran straining here as she pulled the tanker off the dock.  She now works in Baltimore.

In the foreground, East Coast departs the Kills;  I can’t say I recall seeing her recently,but AIS says she’s currently northbound north of the GW.    In the distance and approaching, June K, now Sarah Ann, and she regularly works in the sixth boro.

All photos, except Allen’s, WVD, from February 2010.

I have to share back story about getting that top photo.  I was on foot on Richmond Terrace walking east toward Jersey Street when I saw the Coastline tug and Hughes barge.  I didn’t recognize the profile and realized I could get the photo ONLY if I ran.  At the same time, I noticed an NYPD car had pulled over another car, and you know, it’s never a good idea to run for no apparent reason when the police are nearby.  But . . . you understand my dilemma:  walk and miss the shot, or run and maybe attract the curiosity of the police officer.  I ran, got the shot, and sure enough, the police called me over and wanted to know what I was doing.  Since I knew I’d done nothing wrong except appear suspicious, I gave him my business card and launched full tilt into my “new yorkers are so lucky because they are witness to so much marine business traffic, and why didn’t he too have a camera and join me watching and taking photos of the variety of vessels . . . .”  You can imagine the stare I got.  My enthusiasm failed to move him.  No handcuffs, no taser, not even a ticket, but an impassive gaze from a weary officer of the law possibly wondering  if I’d escaped from an institution or a time warp.  He wrote up a report and left me with this advice:  don’t run when you see a police officer nearby.  “Yessir,” I said, thinking . . . well sure, but I’d likely do it again if I again noticed something unusual transiting the waterway.  Since then, though, I’ve not had any further encounters with the LEOs, at least not on the banks of the sixth boro.

Random Tugs and Signs

Tugs take myriad shapes.  Jay catches a hint of tugs to come on Cape Ann Images:  the new tug Independence. Yet another reason to return to Gloucester, soon!!  More at BTT tugs at Shooting My Universe.  Then, 3000 miles away, catch a variety of recent Puget Sound tugs at Fremonttugboat her, the first of which is K-Sea’s Sargasso Sea, no doubt named for the steamy Rhys’ novel.

Back along the Hudson, try this one-seater tug with hand-painted name sign on portside of the bow.

Ike‘s specs:  Gladding-Hearn built in 1957 with dimensions of 34′ x 13′ x 6.’

Socrates has a traditional rugged look of a model bow tug.  Specs:  113′ x 29′ x 11′ and built in 1966.

But Socrates sports some unusual calligraphy, which wouldn’t be unattractive tattooed on someone’s hip.

Taking this foto got me my first-ever “talking-to” by law enforcement, but all went well:  I gave the officer my “business” card, and he might now just be a happy reader of the tugster blog . ..  I hope.

Coastline Girls (ex-Ruby, Ruby M, and Beverly)  at 69′ x 20′ x 8′ dates from 1943.  And this one’s for you, Officer.

Molly Johannsen (ex-Carol) is a real cutie dating from

from 1972 and all of 30′ x 10′ x 4.’

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Decks and the City 1

(Note:  See Bonnie’s iceboat video here.  Woohoo!).

New subject:  I went out looking the fotos the day before the snow storm, and here’s what I got in response to a request from my cousin.  It sounded like she asked for fotos of decks in the city . . .  with storied locations as back story . . . many stories, plenty decks.  Caveat:  She mumbles a bit, my cousin.  Well . . . cuz . . .

… for tugboat decks,  here’s Morgan light.  And in the background, a spread of city from Goldman Sachs (Jersey City) on the left to World Trade on the right, with the Empire State Building and the tip of Chrysler in between.

About-to-pirouette product tanker decks, here’s Affinity.

More light tugboat decks, try on Socrates.

You want throaty power?  Consider the decks of Adriatic Sea and DBL76.

For some variety, you might check for a fit with ice-class tanker decks, the festive color and musical name  that is Stena Concert . . . and just in time for Valentine’s Day. Yes?  Well, more decks then.

For doubleskin barge and tug decks, I give you Pocomoke.    I can tell you’re not satisfied yet, cara.  More to come.

Newish tugboat decks with a feline flair . . .  here’s the ex-Jaguar now Kimberly Poling.

All fotos taken on February 9 ( less than 24 hours before onset of the so-called snowcopalypse) by Will Van Dorp.  More decks and then even more, but for now,  it’s lpm.  I’m all tuckered out.

To be continued . . .

Working Harbor

Although not all vessels on the harbor work there, all these fotos come compliments of Bernie Ente from the Working Harbor Committee. See the schedule for their fabulous summer 08 tours here. Well, the harbor doesn’t serve only for work. However, for

Coral Sea,

Buchanan 10,

the automated lighthouse “Kate” at Robbins Reef,

Doris Moran, with a ghostly Saint Michael’s Monastery Church on Union City ridge in the background,

and Socrates,

the sixth boro is the job site. Socrates, where did he come from? Uh, a Norfolker migrating up.

Now that clock in the background . . . well, the one that stood there until 1924 ended up in Jeffersonville, Indiana, facing across the Ohio River toward Louisville.