Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 15

Here’s the newest, following directly from 12 for Sandy Ground and 10 for SSG Michael H. Ollis.  Or how about a redux for both. 

Now unless ferry and tug travel on a maglev frictionless cushion of air when offshore and distant, this is just the fata morgana effect when the vessels are seen a ways off, in this case, about six miles.   In the photo below, there’s a hint that Sarah Dann is riding on a foil board, 

and that the ferry has a dreadnought shaped hull.

Well . . . I’m just messin’.  These were photos of yesterday’s arrival of the third of three new ferries.  Note New York Media Boat out to snap their first welcome photos. Photos of the christening down in Florida happened months ago here.

Here the tow enters the Narrows, and the ocean called the Upper Bay, where Dorothy Day will transport hundreds of thousands and even millions of passengers in the next decades.

Ellen McAllister moves in close, not to provide the assist but rather to convey photographers needing to confirm that the vessel is in fact a ferry for the City of New York.  confirmation provided andn documented.

 

All photos, WVD, who’s ridden aboard MHO but not yet Sandy Ground. 

For reportage on all three newest ferries, check out this report from New York Media Boat here.

 

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 10 and 12 Redux

Less than a year ago, MHO came into town . .   MHO?  It appears to be the accepted abridged nomenclature for the ferry SSG Michael H. Ollis. I had wondered how that long name would evolve in common parlance.

MHO looks like this . . . key in on the rescue boats and the double doors midships.  But since I was riding MHO, I wondered what I’d missed in my time away, so somewhart belatedly, i snapped this photo.

Later I caught that “other” new ferry at St George . . . .  See the name?

There we have it . . . it’s taken about half a year for Sandy Ground [aka SG?]  to get from first arrival to being in service.

All photos yesterday, WVD.

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 12

How about a new day, a new month, a new year, and a new hull in the sixth boro!  Can you recognize the profiles sans color?

As it passes Norton Point inbound, you begin to make out the color.

Once well inside Gravesend Bay–that’s the west end of Coney Island in the background–the colors increase in their vividness.

Here is the moment when the new ferry,

Sandy Ground, actually enters the Upper Bay portion of the boro, where she will work, if ferry JFK is her model, until the year 2078!!  That’s 56 years from now, and I’ve no clue what the sixth boro will look like–or what vessels will traffic it– 56 years from now.  Here‘s more context on Sandy Ground, Staten Island.

Once she was inside the VZ Bridge, I ran from South Beach, where I got the photos above, to Fort Wadsworth, and caught Margaret Moran sidling up to Sarah Dann.

I first thought the final portion of the tow would be Margaret‘s, but I was wrong; 

while Susan Miller provided a close-up platform, Margaret then delivered

crew to the new ferry, and

lines came across from Doris Moran, the tailboat for the last several miles to Caddell‘s , where the protective gear will be removed and the ferry prepped for service. 

 

By this hour, the fog had cleared just enough that the iconic skyline of Brooklyn and Manhattan was blotted out, giving the illusion that the tow is still at sea. 

All photos December 31 morning by WVD, who likes illusions and unreality sometimes.

Healthy, harmonious, hard-working, hearty 2022 from all of us at tugster tower.

And if you’re not going on a First Hike today, check out Trevor’s Seapixonline from New Zealand and beyond.  Tell him tugster suggested it.

For some other high profile tows done by Sarah Dann recently, click here.

 

Newest Hull in the Sixth Boro 10

Here are previous iterations, newest hulls that have become less new hulls. 

Look closely just forward of the ferry and you’ll see a ready-made caption that this ferry is NEW.

I’m also pretty sure this is the first post featuring Dann Ocean’s Colonel.

The ferry departed the shipyard in panhandle Florida only eight days before.  For outatowners, the Staten Island ferry is free, over 200 years old, and was partly owned at one point by Cornelius Vanderbilt.  This new ferry cost just over $100 million;  two more of the class will follow.

Here are more facts about the SI Ferry.

The ferry’s namesake is a Staten Island native who died in Afghanistan almost exactly eight years ago;  for the story of SSG. Michael H. Ollis, click here.

 

The ferry was eased into the docks at Caddell Dry Dock yesterday by Colonel, James E. Brown, and Ruby M.  At Caddell’s, the plywood will be removed from lower windows and the SSG Michael H. Ollis will be prepared for service.

All photos, WVD, who hopes to hop a ride some day soon.

 

Illuminations 2

Happy 4th of July!  Here’s the first post by this title with a story of what John Adams wrote Abigail around this time 241 years ago.

So why do we celebrate this day?  Uh . . . the British surrendered?  It marks the first battle for independence?

DDG-55 Stout  (photo taken May 20, 2015)

We got freedom to say what we want, pray to whomever we choose, buy as many guns as we want, refuse to be unreasonably searched, charged too much bail, have access to lawyers in court, and things like that?

The founders of the US signed the Declaration of Independence?

Nope!  Nope, nope.  None of those is correct.  The British didn’t surrender for another 6 years and didn’t vacate their occupation force from the sixth boro–the only boro then–until 1783.  The Constitution wasn’t written for another decade and some!!

Here’s a good quick “not fake” read for today called “9 Things You May Not Know About the  Declaration of Independence.”

I’ll get back to that . .  but what is that military gray ship over there trying to camouflage itself against Staten Island ferry orange?  I took the rest of these photos about 24 hours ago . . .   The flag at the stern is NOT US…

It’s French.  So maybe they’re here to help us  celebrate the contributions of Rochambeau, DeGrasse. and Lafayette?

Nope, they helped after 1776 . . ..  In fact the Alliance had not even existed yet for a few years .  . .

Well, maybe the crew of the French L 9032 is here to ride the NYWheel?

Nope.  That’s in some turmoil.

See the billboard there?  Maybe they’re here for “the lowest cost health plan?”

Maybe they’re here for Macy’s !!?  Rowland Hussey Macy WAS a sailor, after all;  the red Macy’s logo star was the tattoo he wore on his hand . . .

 

Actually  I have NO idea why FS Dumont D’Urville docked over at the old homeport yesterday . . .  maybe someone can illuminate us . . .?

But to get back to 4th July . . . here was the response of George III–the accused– to the Declaration:  I’d never read it until now and it’s short and precious and defensive!!

Here’s another 4 July tugster post from the archives . . .  And if you still have time to read, here are “Six things you (probably) didn’t know about the 4th July. . . .”  And the flag of that year?  Maybe here.  And the drink of choice to fete the day back then . . .?  Well, it was not beer or rum.  Rick Spilman has it here.

All photos here by Will Van Dorp, who offers another link to the big document of the day here, and wishes you a happy independence day.

 

Errant Ferry 2

Here was the first in this series.  I’d also thought of this as prodigal ferry.  Strangely enough, the Staten Island ferries travel all the way to Colonna Shipyard in Norfolk for maintenance.

Molinari returns!

 

Towed by Eileen McAllister, Molinari returned this morning.  Note the twin lights near Sandy Hook in the background.

Standing by here, it’s Charles D. McAllister.

I’d heard once that a wooden “dam” was built on the bow of the ferry to keep water from coursing through during these open-sea transits, but that’s not the case here.  Notice the missing lifeboat?

Once inside the Narrows, Charles D gets a line on the stern.

I’m told Newhouse will be next to visit Colonna.  Does anyone know if there’s a “riding crew” on the ferry for these transits?

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

People Movers 2

Here was the first in this series, from quite a while back.   The next two photos below were taken late last week by Brian DeForest.

Miss New York, Blount built in 1993 leaves the Statue quite dramatically.

Ferry Lt. Samuel S. Coursen, Mathis built 1956, was named for this West Point grad.

That’s Explorer of the Seas in the background.

Water Taxi and NYC Audubon operate this winter cruise to watch the water mammal between the boat and my lens.

Seals in the harbor are the real people movers.

And finally, let’s move from those mammals to one painted on the ferry Major General  William H. Hart, Staten-Island built 1926 . . . now rebranded as SS Meow Man.

On pages 450-1 of Peter& Norma Stanford’s A Dream of Tall Ships–which I reviewed here— there’s a description of this vessel’s hand-over from the USCG to South Street Seaport, where for a period of time it served as a marine trades training school, partly funded by Brooke Astor.  Here was a post where I used a slightly different version of this Hart photos.

Thanks to Brian for use of the first two photos.  All others by Will Van Dorp.

50 Half Masts

I was 11 and waiting for the school bus to take me home from school.

Will Van Dorp took this foto this afternoon.

Other People’s Fotos 23

You may once have ridden this vessel.  Thirty months ago you could have made a bid on it.  Eighteen months ago it was topheavy and listing.  Two weeks ago Paul Strubeck caught this foto.  Might you call it a major haircut.

Around the same time, Paul caught this vessel in Verplanck. That looks like Cornell to the left also.   I don’t know what Cormorant‘s future will be.

I caught Planetsolar on my way outatown, but bowsprite studied the first solar-powered circumnavigator up close and impersonal and shares these fotos.

Inside these caps are props.  Click here and here to see the props.

Enjoy these views starting with this view looking forward along the portside and moving counterclockwise around the boat.

Click here for a compilation of clips taken over two years on Turanor PlanetSolar.  And if you have 40 minutes to watch this video from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean, you could like it.  I especially liked the  Singapore dry dock section beginning around 31 minutes in.   And from yesterday’s NYTimes, here’s a story about the boat’s current research mission.

Many thanks to Paul and bowsprite for these fotos.

Speaking of bowsprite . . .  if you’re local and free on Saturday, come  down to Pier 25 where she has organized the craft market called Radio Lilac, named for the 1933 lighthouse tender there.

T-ATF 172 USNS Apache 1

Click on the image below and you’ll see how I posted it just over five years ago.  So what do the big blue tug Powhatan below, Ellen McAllister, USCG Katherine Walker, ATB Brandywine, ATB Dublin Sea. and the Staten Island Ferry Spirit of America (as well as ferries Molinari and Marchi) all have in common?

For starters, the Menominee River in Wisconsin.   And from that, given corporate acquisitions, an “in-law” relationship exists with Fincantieri vessels including Costa Concordia as well as the caissons that’ll try to re-float her.

But closer to home, the list above was built at the same Wisconsin shipyard as seven fleet ocean tugs, four of which are active in Military Sealift Command today.  Click here for the 2012 MSC vessels poster, one fifth of which is reproduced below.  MSC operates over 100 vessels today using 5500 civilian mariners.  Civil servant mariners!!

The DonJon Marine Powhatan above has since 2008 become Inebolu A-590 of the Turkish Navy.

The Powhatan-class T-ATFs hare huge, by New York tugboat stands:   226′ loa x 42′ x 15.’

And they do long, large tows.  Here about a year ago, Apache begins to tow a decommissioned USS Nassau to join the reserve fleet  in Texas.  Click here for more context on the foto, taken from USNS Grapple, another MSC vessel that may appear on this blog soon.

Thanks to Birk Thomas, I have a few more fotos of Apache in New London.  Note the towline . . . attached to a sub in this 2010 foto, and  . . .

light in 2011.   Here’s a question I do NOT know the answer to:  Apache visited NYC before 2001, but I don’t know when.  Does anyone recall this?  Have a foto of this?

In the next post, we look inside Apache.  Next question . . . does this marlinespike seamanship have a name?  Would this have been original to this 1981 vessel?  By the way, Apache’s 31st b’day (technically d’day . . . D for delivery)   is late July.

Only the first and last fotos are by Will Van Dorp. The second and third from last are thanks to Birk Thomas.  All the others come from Military Sealift Command.   Many thanks to Susan Melow, MSC Public Affairs Officer,  for setting up a visit and to Apache Second Officer Michael R. Rankin for guiding the tour.

Click here to see Apache towing USS Forrestal.  Here she is in St. Petersburg.  Finally, here she deals with Atlantic Ocean pirates.

Finally, once again, does anyone remember when Apache visited NYC?  Is there an archive online for vessels visiting during Fleet Weeks going back to 1982?