Retro Sixth Boro 45 A

Why does time pass so quickly?!  As if it were just a few years ago, I recall this Wilmington NC stop on the road trip return from family in Georgia.   I was surprised by the amount of traffic in this Cape Fear River port, like Margaret McAllister here passing Corpus Christi with Petrochem Supplier. Margaret McAllister is one of McAllister’s ex-USN Natick-class tugs, in Margaret‘s case previously known as Tonkawa (YTB-786)

Kathryne E. McAllister (the 1980 one) followed the Margaret to sail a tanker. 

Kathryne E. is currently laid up, but Moran’s Cape Henry (That’s a popular name for tugboats;  I know of at least two others, one Kirby and one Vane.) below is still working, although currently in the Caribbean.

The first few days of January 2012 were as mild as those in 2022.  Here Ellen S. Bouchard heads west in the KVK pushing B. No. 282.  Ellen S. now wears Centerline’s lion logo.

Iron Mike might still wear Wittich Brothers black, blue and white, although I’ve not seen her out in the boro in a while. 

Atlantic Salvor passes in front of a quite changed Manhattan skyline, as seen from St. George.

Gramma Lee T. Moran has departed the sixth boro for Baltimore.  Southern Spirit is an active crude tanker  but she goes by Celsius Esbjerg, currently departing the Bohai Sea for the Yellow Sea.

A light Mckinley Sea heads west in the Kills.  She’s currently painted in Kirby colors, but laid up in Louisiana. Beyond her, Laura K Moran–now based in Savannah–assists tanker Mount Hope.

Marion Moran is out of the Moran fleet, and is likely wearing Dann Ocean livery, although I can’t confirm that.

The 1983 Sand Master was always a favorite of mine;  she was sold into the southern Caribbean, but she may be scrapped by now. 

Capt. Fred Bouchard was sold to a southern California construction company.

And we hold it up here, midmonth, with a vessel type I’ve not seen in a while . . . a livestock ship, Shorthorn Express, which had come into the Upper Bay for services, not to transfer cargo. The 1998 Luxembourg-flagged  Shorthorn Express is active, currently traveling between Israel and Portugal.  I used to see these regularly coming into the Kuwaiti port of Shuwaikh.  I also recall a horrendous sinking of a livestock ship heading for China back in 2020.

All photos, WVD, in January 2012.

Aframax 2

I introduced the term aframax here four and a half years ago.  Relative to the sixth boro and the Kills, it means BIG, although by no means big by global standards.  At 113,043 DWT, Southern Spirit is a minor vessel in relation to the now scrapped Knock Nevis (564,763 DWT) or also-scrapped Batillus (553,662 DWT).

No matter, in the frigid 21-degree morning today, finger almost too cold to trigger the shutter, I felt warmed to see her glide in, with Gramma Lee T. Moran assisting.  Doubleclick enlarges.

In my observation, not many vessels navigate with KVK with a 5100-hp vector like Gramma Lee at the ready like this.  Here’s a 2002 article about the background and training of the first captain of Gramma Lee.

Spotting the assist was Catherine Turecamo, astern of Gramma Lee.

On a cold winter day, this is what the promise of heat looks like.  Can anyone help me figure out where this cargo–if it be crude–exited the earth?

As to promise of heat, if I were crew on watch, I’d be hoping for hot soup for lunch.

All fotos today by Will Van Dorp.

Here’s a post I did five years ago with info on suezmax and capesize vessels and a foto of a very young tugster.

Unrelated:  For a mariner’s reaction to the Costa Concordia collision with Isola del Giglio, read Hawsepiper Paul here. Another mariner, Peter Boucher of Nautical Log, weighs in here.  I had the pleasure of meeting Peter last summer in Florida.